Airborne
Group: Members
Posts: 192
Joined: Sep. 2006 |
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Posted: Jan. 21 2007, 09:49 |
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Here it is then, especially for moonchildhippy.
There was this nice interview Mike did for BBC Radio in 1982.
The programme was called Strictly Instrumental, where Mike chose instrumental tracks that meant a lot to him. After they played "The Morpeth Rant" by, renouned Northumbrian Bagpipe player, Billy Pigg the interviewer exclaimed that Mike could actually play the pipes himself. He went on to explain:
"I thought I would learn how to play them, you can't buy them, I had to have a set made. When it came to me it seemed to me impossible to do, it's like trying to play an octopus. You've got a bag under your left arm, bellows under your right arm, drones that stick out one shoulder and you play this little bit of rosewood, a tiny, slender little thing. But you have to nurse the reeds, you have to drop bits of sealing wax on them, stick hairs in the reeds, heat them up and cool them down and rub them in your hands, blow on them. It took me months before I could make a tune out of them."
So it looks like Mike was intending to play Northumbrian pipes himself on Ommadawn, but, due to the trials of getting a tune from them, turned to Herbie the Hermit and then Paddy Moloney. My powers of recall forgot he had a set of Northumbrian bagpipes made for him, but he still had difficulties putting them on the album.
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!!! I would imagine getting the bagpipes to sound in anyway musical would be most difficult, especially for a beginner.
