Weirdest gig ever?

[jdevereux]

You decide:
The manager of the Lowe's Motor Speedway and all around NASCAR good ol' boy Humpy Wheeler is retiring (I learned all this yesterday), and, as part of the ceremony to honor him, they wanted someone to play everybody's favorite tune (you guessed it) Danny Boy. Now, despite the fact that I grew up in North Carolina, I really don't know anything about stock car racing, but apparently this guy is the granddaddy of NASCAR, so they're expecting something like 200,000 people to show up at the race/ceremony this Sunday.


So, basically, tomorrow I am going to be playing Danny Boy, on the uilleann pipes, in front of 200,000 NASCAR fans.

I gotta go learn Danny Boy now...


Edited to say: I just found out this whole thing is going to be carried live on Fox news. Cultural experience, no?

[SEAGULL]

Man, thats scary. Our band has played some really strange gigs. We played a a graduation party with a total of seven people watching. One of them was an old lady who was asleep right in front. We also played at a high school for toubled inner city teens. That was actually pretty fun.

[PJ]

Well done.

So, the most important thing while you're playing is not to think about the 200,000 pairs of eyes watching you or the countless millions of NASCAR fans watching on TV . Also, if you make a mistake, just stop and explain to everyone that your chanter reed is acting up today ...

[Ed Harrison]

Hello Jack


That is great! Sounds like a good gig. You'll enjoy it.


..... Ed

[patsky]

Jack,
I think that this is a $ 1000.00 gig. They are rolling in money.

Just pretend that you are playing the Londonderry Air ( the original tune to
Danny Boy) That way you will stay true to tradition.

By the way.. I was once in a bar with Liam O'Flynn and he played Danny Boy for a customer for the tidy sum of $20.00. You are in the big league


All the best,
Pat Sky

[Doc Jones]

And remember, if the 200,000 NASCAR fans turn ugly and start chasing you, all you have to do to escape is turn right!

Doc

[CHasR]

Edited to say: I just found out this whole thing is going to be carried live on Fox news. Cultural experience, no?

in all likelyhood;

You will be seen for exactly 5 frames, and your pipes will be heard for about 8 1/2 seconds.

Then some network sprayhead will chunter on (on top of your fine piping) about heritage, tradition, what a historic moment, yadayadayada, etc, & cut to commercial.

If you dont want to pay Fox $120 for a DVD copy of the segment, set your timer accordingly

"break a leg"


.

[Patrick D'Arcy]

Make sure to copyright your arrangement with ASCAP so you can claim residuals from every airing.... or change a note and claim it to be a new tune... MORE MOOLA! YAY!

Sounds like a fun gig though. Probably not as weird as the naked piper performance that happened last year.... who ended up doing that again?

Pat.

PS - I hope you wore the traditional costume and hung skulls from a hair rope around your waiste and painted yourself blue?

[Paul Reid]

Jack,
I think that this is a $ 1000.00 gig. They are rolling in money.

Just pretend that you are playing the Londonderry Air ( the original tune to
Danny Boy) That way you will stay true to tradition.

By the way.. I was once in a bar with Liam O'Flynn and he played Danny Boy for a customer for the tidy sum of $20.00. You are in the big league


All the best,
Pat Sky

I was at McSorley's in NYC a few years back with Cillian Vallely - someone asked if "you could play Danny Boy on those things" - if I remember right the answer was... um... lemme think... "no."

[Wormdiet]

So how'd it go?


I would have watched but I was. . . . at a session!

[Trey73]

Just play the riff from Sweet Home Alabama............you'll be famous

[domilsean]

I think we can hear the end of Danny Boy here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncj_Bp2CJd4

[Piobairi Uilleann Inis Fa]

Thats a great gig. I have met Humpy several times in my working capacity covering sports and media companies. He is a fine southern gentleman and a long time NASCAR godfather together with his boss Brutin Smith and the France Family who own International Speedway and NASCAR itself. That is probably the biggest gig that you could hope for in the south, but it is a shame that his favorite tune wasn't the Bucks of Oranmore.

Neil

[Cathy Wilde]

By gum, ya did it; the UTube link has a bit! Congratulations, sounded grand even in spite of Humpy's early entrance. And I hope the pay was indeed good ... 'cos that does have to be up there in the Weird Gigs category.

We played a pastoral counselors' conference where a lady fell out of her chair in what turned out to be a seizure. The part that made it weird and sort of awful was we thought she was a charismatic in rapture because it seemed like she was grooving along to the music -- and it was an ecumenical conference, after all.

<straight to h-e-doublehockeysticks for that one!>

[Patrick D'Arcy]

The part that made it weird and sort of awful was we thought she was a charismatic in rapture because it seemed like she was grooving along to the music -- and it was an ecumenical conference, after all.

"That would be an ecumenical matter"

Fr. Pat's