On "Slan Le Loch Eirne" by Seamus Quinn and Gary Hastings, Gary plays a set (The Bugle Hornpipe/Number 5) which he learnt as fifing tunes. Transposed to the feadog mor, they're one of the highlights of an excellent album.
Elswhere I came across a tune on John Kennedy's "The Girls Along The Road" album (with the classic comic song "The Missus, Her Mother, The Bulldog And Me" ... but I digress ...) called "The Boys Of The Sandy Row".
All of this leads me to wonder if anyone has tracked down a source of tunes from the loyalist tradition. I'm not talking about the notes to the usual "kick-the-pope" songs. Rather tunes that have been part of the musical tradition in the loyalist community and which may not have had much of an airing outside that particular camp.
If the quality of Number 5 and The Boys Of The Sandy Row is anything to judge by, there may well be a few gems waiting to be unearthed.
Harry Bradley has recorded a few tunes on what he describes as "the marching flute". Good tunes they are too. I've also heard Desi Wilkinson and Fintan Vallely play tunes from that tradition as well, many of them originally Scottish. Gary Hastings has ( recently ? ) produced a book about this very subject, which has quite a large number of tunes in it. I saw it for the first time at the Willie Clancy Week, but didn't buy it. Someone else might be able to provide you with details . Sorry I can't be of more help.
Having learned most of what I know about the flute from the Reverend Gary during those years of his "misspent youth", I also learned a few tunes from the Orange tradition. I learned those tunes Harry B has recorded as "The Belfast March" and "The Bad Turn" from Gary sometime in the early 80s when he was beginning to research the fifing and Lambeg drumming tradition and was uncovering some great stuff. Glad to hear he has finally gotten around to publishing. In addition to John Kennedy, there is Willis Patton a fifer and brilliant whistle player. Maybe Gary's next step will be to get a bunch of them into a studio. I used to rather nervously attend the Orange celebrations hoping to hear some good flute or piping bands amidst the proliferation of lager-sodden kick-the-pope outfits. There are still a few good bands. You can always pick up some decent recordings from the hawkers who flock to these events. The Twelfth is over but you could always head for Derry for the Apprentice Boys in August!
I think this must be Rev.Gary's book, unless he's done more than one!
"Fife and Drum "
" In search of the stories, facts and myths of Northern Ireland's 200-year-old fife and drum tradition, Gary Hastings interviews instrument makers, drummers and fifers. He learns how the mighty drums were made and the customs surrounding the drumming marches and processions.
I bet one of the best sources of that kind of stuff, which I personally feel mildly embarrassed by, would be somewhere like the Ibrox and South Govan Chapter of the Orange Order. These people nowadays are capable of reading and writing AND enumerating their IQ's, which, fortunately for them still remains in just double figures... and I believe they have websites trumpetting their cause. On the Scottish side of the North Channel, I have felt only revulsion and (what would be the noun declension of "Despise"?)...despisitation of these people as they have time and again divided the working class and the Labour movement and kept themselves and everyone else down.
Viva John Maclean!!! Viva Willie Gallagher!!
To turn it around, the best craic I EVER had at a session was at the Ballina Fleadh Cheoil. I was in a session with Enda McDermott and Sean Mone. Sean Mone sung, among some of his many compositions, The David Trimble Song. I honestly don't think I laughed so much in my life. The next morning I woke up with such sore ribs from the laughter...or was it the acute alcohol-induced hypertrophy of the liver parenchymal cells occluding my intercostal muscles?
I recorded the session and I believe there are a few copies out there with a few The Session members...the guy who sounds like he is drowning is yours truly!
Ah me name is David Trimble
I am nifty neat and nimble
On me backside there's a pimple
That festers in July
I can scratch it, I can squeeze it
With ointment I can grease it
But the only way to ease it
Is to go marching with the Boys.
It's just a little Orange pimple,
So soft and cute and simple,
Harmless as a dimple till the marching season comes,
Then it'll swell with inflamation,
Causin' irritation,
How can I sit in negotiations
With the pimple on me bum?
Tunes from the loyalist tradition
Tunes from the loyalist tradition
On "Slan Le Loch Eirne" by Seamus Quinn and Gary Hastings, Gary plays a set (The Bugle Hornpipe/Number 5) which he learnt as fifing tunes. Transposed to the feadog mor, they're one of the highlights of an excellent album.
Elswhere I came across a tune on John Kennedy's "The Girls Along The Road" album (with the classic comic song "The Missus, Her Mother, The Bulldog And Me" ... but I digress ...) called "The Boys Of The Sandy Row".
All of this leads me to wonder if anyone has tracked down a source of tunes from the loyalist tradition. I'm not talking about the notes to the usual "kick-the-pope" songs. Rather tunes that have been part of the musical tradition in the loyalist community and which may not have had much of an airing outside that particular camp.
If the quality of Number 5 and The Boys Of The Sandy Row is anything to judge by, there may well be a few gems waiting to be unearthed.
# Posted on July 22nd 2003 by Aidan Crossey
Re: Tunes from the loyalist tradition
Harry Bradley has recorded a few tunes on what he describes as "the marching flute". Good tunes they are too. I've also heard Desi Wilkinson and Fintan Vallely play tunes from that tradition as well, many of them originally Scottish. Gary Hastings has ( recently ? ) produced a book about this very subject, which has quite a large number of tunes in it. I saw it for the first time at the Willie Clancy Week, but didn't buy it. Someone else might be able to provide you with details . Sorry I can't be of more help.
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by Kenny
Re: Tunes from the loyalist tradition
Having learned most of what I know about the flute from the Reverend Gary during those years of his "misspent youth", I also learned a few tunes from the Orange tradition. I learned those tunes Harry B has recorded as "The Belfast March" and "The Bad Turn" from Gary sometime in the early 80s when he was beginning to research the fifing and Lambeg drumming tradition and was uncovering some great stuff. Glad to hear he has finally gotten around to publishing. In addition to John Kennedy, there is Willis Patton a fifer and brilliant whistle player. Maybe Gary's next step will be to get a bunch of them into a studio. I used to rather nervously attend the Orange celebrations hoping to hear some good flute or piping bands amidst the proliferation of lager-sodden kick-the-pope outfits. There are still a few good bands. You can always pick up some decent recordings from the hawkers who flock to these events. The Twelfth is over but you could always head for Derry for the Apprentice Boys in August!
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by LongNote
Gary's book
I wasn't aware that Gary had put a book together!
I'll look it out, then.
Thanks.
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by Aidan Crossey
Re: Tunes from the loyalist tradition
I think this must be Rev.Gary's book, unless he's done more than one!
"Fife and Drum "
" In search of the stories, facts and myths of Northern Ireland's 200-year-old fife and drum tradition, Gary Hastings interviews instrument makers, drummers and fifers. He learns how the mighty drums were made and the customs surrounding the drumming marches and processions.
ISBN:
0856407097
Format:
paperback;CD-ROM
Price:
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by Kenny
Re: Tunes from the loyalist tradition
I bet one of the best sources of that kind of stuff, which I personally feel mildly embarrassed by, would be somewhere like the Ibrox and South Govan Chapter of the Orange Order. These people nowadays are capable of reading and writing AND enumerating their IQ's, which, fortunately for them still remains in just double figures... and I believe they have websites trumpetting their cause. On the Scottish side of the North Channel, I have felt only revulsion and (what would be the noun declension of "Despise"?)...despisitation of these people as they have time and again divided the working class and the Labour movement and kept themselves and everyone else down.
Viva John Maclean!!! Viva Willie Gallagher!!
To turn it around, the best craic I EVER had at a session was at the Ballina Fleadh Cheoil. I was in a session with Enda McDermott and Sean Mone. Sean Mone sung, among some of his many compositions, The David Trimble Song. I honestly don't think I laughed so much in my life. The next morning I woke up with such sore ribs from the laughter...or was it the acute alcohol-induced hypertrophy of the liver parenchymal cells occluding my intercostal muscles?
I recorded the session and I believe there are a few copies out there with a few The Session members...the guy who sounds like he is drowning is yours truly!
Danny.
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by Rudall the time
David
Ah me name is David Trimble
I am nifty neat and nimble
On me backside there's a pimple
That festers in July
I can scratch it, I can squeeze it
With ointment I can grease it
But the only way to ease it
Is to go marching with the Boys.
It's just a little Orange pimple,
So soft and cute and simple,
Harmless as a dimple till the marching season comes,
Then it'll swell with inflamation,
Causin' irritation,
How can I sit in negotiations
With the pimple on me bum?
and there's much more...
danny.
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Tunes from the loyalist tradition
i love your wee rhyme!! its cool. lets hear the rest of it then
# Posted on July 24th 2003 by ros