Well known Glasgow fiddler Mike Berry passed away this week.
Mike will be best remembered in Glasgow as a stalwart of the Babbity's session and a member of the band Setanta with whom he recorded two albums for Fellside records.
Mike began playing in his late teens in a ballad group before moving onto playing Glasgow Comhaltas sessions where he met the late Jimmy McHugh. In the 80's he visited Cork and Connemara regularly with friend, Gearoid o' Laoghaire and met the late Jimmy Mullen in Clifden.
His interest in Shetland and Norwegian fiddling also took him to Norway several times and closer to home he also made several pilgrimages to Dunkeld home of Niel Gow whose tunes he loved to play.
In recent years Mike took over the fiddle class at Saint Andrew's in the Square in Glasgow and the group flourished under his good-natured and unpretentious leadership.
I'm afraid that I didn't know Mike that well although our paths crossed at The Saturday afternoon session over the years. He seemed a very decent guy as they all are in Babbity's.
This is really tragic. I played music with Mike on many occasions thorugh the 1980s, at folk festivals the length and breadth of Scotland ,and had an all-day session with him and the usual suspects in "Babbity Bowster's" as recently as January. A fine musician and a total gentleman. My condolences to his family and many friends.
I'm very saddened to hear about this. I only played in a few sessions over the years where Mike was playing - but he always had a great lift to his playing, and consequently gave this to any session he was playing in.
I'm just back from Milltown and Mike's name was mentioned many times over the week. Two of us who had played with and learnt from Mike in recent years took ourselves off down to Quilty and played a few tunes for him at one point as well. I hope he was listening!
Mike Berry R.I.P.
Mike Berry R.I.P.
Well known Glasgow fiddler Mike Berry passed away this week.
Mike will be best remembered in Glasgow as a stalwart of the Babbity's session and a member of the band Setanta with whom he recorded two albums for Fellside records.
Mike began playing in his late teens in a ballad group before moving onto playing Glasgow Comhaltas sessions where he met the late Jimmy McHugh. In the 80's he visited Cork and Connemara regularly with friend, Gearoid o' Laoghaire and met the late Jimmy Mullen in Clifden.
His interest in Shetland and Norwegian fiddling also took him to Norway several times and closer to home he also made several pilgrimages to Dunkeld home of Niel Gow whose tunes he loved to play.
In recent years Mike took over the fiddle class at Saint Andrew's in the Square in Glasgow and the group flourished under his good-natured and unpretentious leadership.
He'll be sadly missed by all who knew him.
# Posted on July 3rd 2008 by theboymcdermott
Re: Mike Berry R.I.P.
I'm afraid that I didn't know Mike that well although our paths crossed at The Saturday afternoon session over the years. He seemed a very decent guy as they all are in Babbity's.
Condolences to his friends and family.
# Posted on July 3rd 2008 by Johannes J
Re: Mike Berry R.I.P.
This is really tragic. I played music with Mike on many occasions thorugh the 1980s, at folk festivals the length and breadth of Scotland ,and had an all-day session with him and the usual suspects in "Babbity Bowster's" as recently as January. A fine musician and a total gentleman. My condolences to his family and many friends.
# Posted on July 3rd 2008 by Kenny
Re: Mike Berry R.I.P.
> had an all-day session with him and the usual suspects in
> "Babbity Bowster's" as recently as January
I was playing with him on Monday night, it's crazy to think he had less than 24 hours left at that point.
Somebody (Johannes?) has copied this over at foot stompin where a number of others have pitched in:-
http://www.footstompin.com/public/forum?threadid=224479
# Posted on July 4th 2008 by theboymcdermott
Re: Mike Berry R.I.P.
I'm very saddened to hear about this. I only played in a few sessions over the years where Mike was playing - but he always had a great lift to his playing, and consequently gave this to any session he was playing in.
# Posted on July 9th 2008 by Ron P
Re: Mike Berry R.I.P.
I'm just back from Milltown and Mike's name was mentioned many times over the week. Two of us who had played with and learnt from Mike in recent years took ourselves off down to Quilty and played a few tunes for him at one point as well. I hope he was listening!
Found another mirror posting here: http://www.firstfoot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14046
# Posted on July 14th 2008 by theboymcdermott