Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th

Subject: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 16 Sep 07 - 08:04 PM

The title says it all except where......Near Lampeter in West Wales.
Yes I know it's short notice! But it's for my nephew, go on, there must be someone out there

Andy

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: sian, west wales
Date: 17 Sep 07 - 03:55 AM

There are a few possibilities on the trac website (www.trac-cymru.org). You might try Helen Adams (listed there) as I hear that she and George Whitfield do a good twmpath. The Carreg Las morris guys have a band which might be a possibility. There are probably a few options in that area... Availability might be your biggest problem.

sian

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: fiddler
Date: 17 Sep 07 - 05:53 AM

Still looking Andy?

I can check my diary!

Andy

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 17 Sep 07 - 11:21 AM

Just curious, but when we were recently on holiday in North Wales, twmpathiau appeared to be road speed humps. I was wondering what connection there could be between sleeping policemen and folk dancing in Wales?
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: sian, west wales
Date: 17 Sep 07 - 12:02 PM

OK ... 'sleeping' policemen = undercover cops = agents provocateurs

... which would need to infiltrate Welsh institutions

... and a folk dance team would be a cultural institution fairly easily infiltrated, particularly if the cop is male 'cuz we know how difficult getting new blokes for a team is

... and folk dance teams dance at twmpathau (twmpath = mound)thus name because country dances used to take place outdoors on designated spaces (there's a proper twmpath once so used in north Cardiff/Rhiwbeina) so if

sleeping policeman = twmpath = folk dance

Yeh. See, we can prove that mathematically.

sian

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 17 Sep 07 - 03:28 PM

Thanks Sian,
what a host of goodies on the Trac site.
Thanks Andy, bit of a long haul for you though I would have thought.

Andy

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: sian, west wales
Date: 18 Sep 07 - 04:49 AM

As it happens, I've just been reading a new book on Welsh folk song (Welsh languag) and it says (in translation):

Twmpath is another word connected with sports and dance and all kinds of merriment. There is a description from eastern Montgomeryshire where the playing mound ("twmpath chwarae") was opened with considerable ceremony and gaity on May Day eve. The twmpath was located on a hill or raised area near the village. A flat strip was prepared there and a mound of earth created for the harper or crythor/fiddler. (see thread on Crwth) It doesn't take a lot of imagination therefore to see from whence comes the term "twmpath dawns". (from "Cerddoriaeth y Cymry" by Arfon Gwilym)

Just thought that was more grist to the mill. I didn't know the bit about a twmpath-upon-twmpath so you learn something every day!

sian

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 18 Sep 07 - 04:57 AM

It's obviously related to the syncopated rhythm from your car suspension when you go over them a bit nippy-like!

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: PMB
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 04:29 AM

There are quite a few tumps, including a place called Bagpiper's Tump, in the Hereford (UK) area.

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: sian, west wales
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 05:38 AM

Well, if that Welsh Bishop of Hereford whose name I can't remember hadn't popped his clogs unexpectedly circa 1400 Hereford would be in Wales so ... tu tump, mi tump.

Where's Ambridge? It's Border Country, isn't it? Tump-ti-tump-ti-tump-ti-tump, tump-ti-tump-ti-tump-ta ...

sian

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: Splott Man
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 11:22 AM

Inkberrow in Worcestershire is the closest thing to Ambridge I've found. There's a pub called the Bull, but no Feathers.

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: Mick Tems
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 12:09 PM

Dr Price's Fire Band (me, Olly and Mike Greenwood) could rescue your twmpath/ceilidh - distance no object, and practically on our doorstep (he estimated wildly.) Incidentally, there's a hill in Hereford called Hetty Pegler's Tump. Sian's perfectly correct; in the Old Days before the Religious Revival and before the unspeakable Kim Howells had ever been thought of, villagers used to dance on the the green to a harper and fiddler, who were seated on a mound, or twmpath. This word gradually changed, until a "twmpath" meant a dance.

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 12:22 PM

Tump is a good midlands terms. In the Black Country it usually referred to something the size of a slag heap, or a house.

And there is a ceilidh band based in Gloucestershire called Hetty Peglars Tump. I have danced to them.

I have been in the actual tump, though it was a long walk from Hereford to get to Uley/Nympsfield in Gloucestershire to do the crawling. Hetty Peglar was a farmer or a witch - take yer pick.

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: Mick Tems
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 12:30 PM

...and Ambridge is a real place, just like Eddie Grundy, David and Ruth, Sid 'n' Jolene are all real characters. How dare you suggest that it it's just a figment of some scriptwriter's imagination?

(signed) A gullible Archers addict

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 03:41 AM

Round here (Pontefract) things the size of a slag heap used to be called a slag heap. Mind you, most of them have been flattened and now are called either an Entertainment/Shopping Experience, or Desirable Housing.
Thanks for the etymology of twmpathau and sleeping policemen. It will save me having to invent an explanation based around a Welsh version of the Wicker Man, where the inhabitants of a remote village had to lure a man of the law and drug him before they could carry out their wild dances in the middle of the road...
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: sian, west wales
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 05:03 AM

We're always open to suggestions, Geoff. Particularly if you want to expand that to include Traffic Wardens.

sian

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 05:21 AM

Okay, Sian. Who would we cast as actors for the film version? Obviously we would want either Edward Woodward or Christopher Lee in some cameo role as an important but minor character, but who for the leads?
Even more important, who would be the minor character actors with all the good lines?
Should we limit ourselves to living current possibilities, or can we include good but dead actors?
If it is going to be a Hollywood production, obviously we would not be allowed to have a Welsh actor or actress in the lead Welsh roles, but they might let someone Welsh play an English policeman.
Quack!
Geoff.

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 05:28 AM

Surely a Welsh actor who is also a Hollywood start would be perfect? Anthony Hopkins, say?

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 05:42 AM

Before anybody gets the Twmp, I've sorted a band ok (Carreg Las). Thanks for the help everyone.
Now back to lumpy discussions.
Andy

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 05:56 AM

No! That's not how Hollywood works. Welsh (or Irish / Scots /English) actors are allowed to play Americans as lead roles in US backed films. Hopkins (and Brian Cox) as Lecter, Bob Hoskins in Roger Rabbit, Colin Farrel in Miami Vice. But if they want an actor for an English or Irish character it's Gwyneth Paltrow or Brad Pitt.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: sian, west wales
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 07:42 AM

Yep, and put the Welsh in the bit parts. They do it to Canadians in Canada-located films too. (ref: Shipping News)

But - back to the casting couch ...

I actually don't know the Wicker Man all that well but we'd have to give roles to the Welsh catters of course (as long as there aren't any dancing-naked-around-the-maypole bits; there are some scenes one shouldn't witness, even for the sake of Art).

I think Hugh Grant could certainly do a train-wreck of a Welsh accent WITH the added bonus of torching him at the end.

sian

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: Mr Happy
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 12:00 PM

Since 'tump' seems to mean 'burial mound', could the word be related to 'tomb'?

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: sian, west wales
Date: 21 Sep 07 - 04:33 AM

I don't have any mega-dictionary to hand, but will 'ask a friend'. In the meantime I looked in my only grown-up English dictionary, which happens to be the Canadian Oxford English D and there's no 'tump' in it.

There is, however, 'tumpline' which apparently is the strap slung across the forehead or the chest to support a load carried on the back. 'Tump' being an alteration of mattump, which is supposed to be of Southern New England Algonquian origin.

Now, see! Madoc discovered America, everyone knows that, and the Mandan native americans were his descendants so obviously they referred to the pack/hump on Madoc's back, when trekking, as 'Madoc's tump which became 'Mattump'.

I think I could now create a mathematical equation proving that a backpack = Traffic Warden ...

sian

Subject: RE: Tympath/Ceilidh band needed Oct 27th
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 21 Sep 07 - 05:17 AM

Now there's some inspired casting. Both Philip and Ruth Madoc.
I think Philip Madoc would be ideal for the jolly jovial landlord of the pub.
Ruth would have to be the reclusive sinister woman who the policeman tries to question about the mysterious goings on. She would be very tight lipped and shy, so he would not find it easy to extract information.
Quack!
Geoff.