BS: Bodhran players only.......

Subject: RE: BS: Bodhran players only.......
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 10:41 AM

my god! a career opportunity at last!

Subject: RE: BS: Bodhran players only.......
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 06:49 AM

Wait up Guys! I'll get me Piano Accordion...

Subject: RE: BS: Bodhran players only.......
From: Leadfingers
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 06:40 AM

What about more work for BANJO players as well ?? We can be as loud and obnoxious as Bodhran players ourselves !!!

Subject: RE: BS: Bodhran players only.......
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 06:13 AM

I guess we all get a bit excited when the tunes go well. Is that why big bands have conductors?

OK who's up for conducting the next pub tune session?

Subject: RE: BS: Bodhran players only.......
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 05:56 AM

Yes Les, with you there, but Mr. Red is right too.

Try telling that to the "musicians". (How did I get out here in the street, and why have I got this drum round my neck).

Apropos of this, I wonder why we don't get the same responses when a squeezer, or fiddler is marginally off the beat, and they sometimes are, you know.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Bodhran players only.......
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 05:47 AM

Maybe I am just a wimp but I find in Bodhran playing you follow. Try leading and you will find-out how it is recieved.

I sometimes play in the same session with the drummer I regard as the best folk drummer around - certainly in ceilidh bands. It does focus the mind somewhat even if he prefers to play his mouth-organ most of the time.

So what we need is a good line in tax collector / difference jokes.

Discuss.......

Subject: RE: BS: Bodhran players only.......
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 03:08 AM

Isn't the purpose of a drummer to set the pace? If this is so isn't it up to other people to keep in time with said drummer and not the other way round?

Just an innocent question.

Subject: RE: BS: Bodhran players only.......
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 02:28 AM

Bodhran players might have scruples, but what about the 90% of those with a bodhran who just hit it slightly out of time with the music and each other....

I know the Beltane winter court drummers. They also come with an escort of people in body paint carrying flaming torches, and blue men with big sticks. Or would that be demanding money with menaces?

Bunnahbhain

Subject: RE: BS: Bodhran players only.......
From: open mike
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 01:28 AM

even bodhran players have scruples!!
work FOR the tax collector?! never!

Subject: RE: BS: Bodhran players only.......
From: Scoville
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 12:56 AM

I know several bagpipers, too. We don't all play in the same key but what the Hell . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Bodhran players only.......
From: Scoville
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 12:55 AM

I don't play the bodhran but I am a beginner with a very loud fiddle, and I'm sure I'm good (uh, bad) enough to hire myself out for a similar purpose. I'm in the market for a career change, anyway. Any takers?

Subject: BS: Bodhran players only.......
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 11 Mar 05 - 10:48 PM

Any other suggestions for suitable instruments for the tax collectors...

Taxing on the ears for late payers
By Peter Foster in New Delhi
(Filed: 12/03/2005)

Tax collectors in southern India have come up with an unusual - but highly effective - scheme to encourage slow payers to settle outstanding bills.

Ten-strong teams of wedding drummers are being paid to set up camp outside the homes of defaulting residents, with orders to continue playing until they pay up.

The scheme is being implemented by city officials in Hyderabad which is owed 50 million rupees (£625,000) in unpaid taxes.

"They make a damned big racket," said T S R Anjaneyulu, a municipal tax commissioner, "and even the neighbours approve because they get to see who hasn't paid up their bills.

"The drummers set up outside defaulters' residences and when the owners come out to complain we tell them how much tax they need to pay to halt the music. It's just the motivation they need."

There are 20 cacophonous groups at work at present as the city rushes to meet tax collection targets by March 31, the end of the financial year.

The bands were introduced after other, more humane attempts to extract the arrears such as waiving any accrued interest or penalty charges failed to produce results.

By contrast, since the drummers started a week ago the money has been pouring in with almost 20 per cent of the backlog now cleared.

It is not yet clear whether the federal revenue service will take a tip from Hyderabad, but Mr Anjaneyulu is convinced the drumming idea will soon catch on. "We've already had inquiries from other city corporations."