Instruments carried up a mountain?

Subject: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 06:21 AM

OK - Maybe not Everest or K2 but has anyone ever had a music session up a mountain. Or somewhere just as remote? If so - What instruments did you take? Or what would you take if you arranged such an event?

I was thinking about it over the weekend when a group of us combined three pleasures - Walking, drinkling and folking:-) We dodn't take instruments out but had a session in the pub after. I have however played mouth organ up a mountain.

We walked up Ben Nevis some years ago. At the top I got out a gob iron and played a couple of tunes. My mate tossed over a 10p piece and said, "There you are. You are now the highest paid harmonica player in Great Britain." It was true - Quite clever I thought:-)

OK - Back to the original question. Apart from such things as harmonica and tin whistle - What else would be easy enough to get there and survive both the journey and potential weather conditions? Ben Nevis, for instance, was covered in snow on top and having a heatwave at the base.

Over to you...

DeG

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: squeezeboxhp
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 06:23 AM

played a gob iron in an underground cavern to test the acustics if that counts for owt

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Newport Boy
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 06:29 AM

I seem to remember a photograph of a formal dinner party at the summit of a Munro (Scottish mountain over 3000ft) to celebrate completing the round. Table, tablecloth, prpoer place settings, formal dress, full meal - and a string quartet!

I'll try to find it.

Phil

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: GUEST,buspassed
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 06:44 AM

If you look at the cover of Eliza Carthy & the Ratcatchers CD 'Rough Music' a piano features in what looks like some bleak Scottish settings and I've always wondered who landed the job of 'piano wrangler' for that photoshoot.

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 07:20 AM

Wasn't there a news item sometime in the last year or so about a quartet of cello players on top of some UK mountain?
I took a penny whistle on the Peninne way - it seemed more portable!

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 07:47 AM

Lord Lovat, writing to Edinburgh from Beaufort Castle near Beauly (something like 200 miles away?) in 1744:

I have fallen upon an excellent method for bringing north the spinet. I have a strong fellow, a servant in my labourings that speaks the language and I resolve to send him south to carry the spinet north on his back. He will buckle it across his shoulders and tye it on with ropes like a pedlars pack.

- Marjorie Plant, The Domestic Life of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century, 1952

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 07:53 AM

The actor George Segal took his banjo on an Everest expedition some years ago.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 08:01 AM

I've played a kazoo whilst top of a number of hills and fells.

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 08:18 AM

I would take a set of wooden mallets, two for each person in the group, and climb a mountain with a scree of lithophonic schist, as used for this:

The Till Family Rockband

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 11:10 AM

Some years ago a photo shoot was done in Juneau, Alaska, featuring a grand piano on a glacier. Does that carry any weight?

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: michaelr
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 11:19 AM

I seem to remember past issues of Acoustic Guitar which had an ad showing someone taking a backpacker guitar up a Himalayan peak.

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Emma B
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 11:38 AM

Ben Nevis piano riddle solved

15 volunteers from the John Muir Trust, the conservation charity which owns part of Ben Nevis clearing stones from the 4,4118ft peak in 2006 were surprised to discover a musical instrument on Ben Nevis

Kenny Campbell, a woodcutter from Bonar Bridge in the Highlands, claimed the piano is actually an organ, which he carried up the mountain for a cancer charity in 1971.

Mr Campbell said: "It took me four days to get the organ to the top and when I did I played Scotland the Brave

"I am quite sure that what they found is the organ. It had no keys on it because I stripped them off and gave them to friends - I had quite a lot of fans in those days."

from a news report in 2006

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Mark Ross
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 12:26 PM

A fellow(from Canada believe),Klondike Mike once carried a piano on his back to the top of Chillikoot Pass during the gold rush. He was bringing it in for a troupe of dancehall girls. Unfortunately, the Mounties would not let the ladies into Canada, so he had to carry it back down again.


Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: GUEST,BanjoRay
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 01:10 PM

My late friend Chris Barley, a Cairngorm mountain rescue leader once told me that he got to the summit of Ben Nevis one New Year's Day to find a naked man standing on the trig point playing the fiddle. Apparently he'd done it on Scafell Pike the previous NYD and on Snowdon the year before. It was the result of a bet for half a bottle of Pernod....
So who was it? Any Mudcatter prepared to own up?
Any suggestions for what the tune would have been?
Cheers
Ray

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Emma B
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 01:22 PM

'Night on the Bare Mountain ?

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: open mike
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 02:00 PM

lAST night Deb Cowan played in
chico and i was surprised to see
her with this folding guitar..
it sounded great!

http://www.voyageairguitar.com/

with either one of those or one of these
(or similar) gig bags, the possibilities
are much greater

http://www.blueheroncases.com/

go for it!

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 02:19 PM

Only HALF a bottle?!   And PERNOD?

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 02:24 PM

The cover of Supertramp's Even In The Quietest Moments shows a grand piano covered in snow on a mountain-top, which apparently was a completely genuine photo.

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 02:36 PM

A long time ago, when I was a teenager, I sometimes used ti cycle around with a harmonica in a zimmer frame - dor of aeolian French harp.

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 02:37 PM

dor = sort

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Howard Jones
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 03:40 PM

I'm just reading Andy Kirkpatrick's book "Psychovertical" in which he describes a solo ascent of a very hard rock climb on El Capitan in Yosemite. He describes how, as he bivvys on his portaledge, he hears a Russian team higher up the face singing songs to the accompaniment of a balalaika.

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Rowan
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 08:22 PM

NZers reckon we don't have mountains, only paddocks with their backs up. Despite this, when we were building the MUMC hut on Feathertop there were occasional sessions with someone I can't recall on guitar, Bob Vincent on mouth organ, someonel else with a couple of spoons and a lot of singing. Much later I've fondled the leather ferret there.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 09:53 PM

"leather ferret"? "fondled"?

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: John J
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 04:14 AM

Every year a local band used to play on Rivington Pike on a fundraising event - Whit Mondays I think. They would take full electronic kit with them, powered by a petrol generator. I don't think they do it now though.

I carry a whistle on my annual TGO Challenge backpacking trip, a Scottish coast-to-coast walk taking in a number of Munroes.

On the same event, a mate carries a couple of harmonicas, whilst one hardy soul carried Scottish bagpipes. On the 25th anniversary of the TGO Challenge (2004) a number of us carried musical instruments (including a melodeon) to Melgarve Bothy for a mighty ceilidh. We could make as much noise as we liked without worrying about annoying the neighbours!

JJ

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 07:59 AM

The Rivington Pike do would need amplifying to compete with the bikers at the the barn, John!

D.

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Bert
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 08:22 AM

If it is elevation that you are interested in then, here in Colorado Springs we have all sorts of instruments and musical events.

We have a Symphony Orchestra, Songwriting clubs, bars and theaters, buskers and karaoke.

If you brought Ben Nevis here, you would have to dig down two thousand feet to get to the top of it.

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 08:32 AM

Hehehe - I know, Bert but remember that to get up Ben Nevis you need to start from sea level! It is more the remoteness and inclement conditions so I guess it could be a desert or a tundra just as much as a mountain.

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Bert
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 08:52 AM

...to get up Ben Nevis you need to start from sea level!...

Same applies for Colorado Springs:-)

It is more the remoteness and inclement conditions so I guess it could be a desert or a tundra just as much as a mountain.

I know, I was just having fun.

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 09:11 AM

The top of Ben Nevis is one of the bleakest places I've ever been - not improved by a number of other people I found there who couldn't understand why I was there if I wasn't being 'sponsored' in aid of some 'good cause'.

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 10:36 AM

Same applies for Colorado Springs:-)

Yea - but you don't have to start walking from sea level:-P Well, I presume not. I would be pretty damned impressed if you did walk from the sea:-)

I wouldn't saw Ben Nevis was bleak, topsie - Remote yes, but quite friendle I thought. Try some of the Pennine tops like Kinder or Black Hill for bleakness. Only half the height of Ben N. but a bugger to cross! Would even take a whistle up there:-)

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 11:18 AM

The day I went it was bleak. I set off in sunshine among green surroundings, but near the top I rounded a corner and was hit by an icy wind. No more sunshine. No more green. Just grey, grey stones and a sliver of left over snow, and the view had disappeared into a grey mist. I'm still glad I went though.

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Rowan
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 11:07 PM

"leather ferret"? "fondled"?

Ebbie, one of the colloquialisms, in Oz, for a concertina is "leather ferret".

Just so you on't get the wrong idea.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Mar 10 - 03:31 AM

Ah - Sounds pretty bleak, topsie. It was thick snow but bright sunshine when I was up there last. Very pretty:-)

This is Brown Knoll on Kinder - Unless it is frozen it is pretty much always like this and is the picture always conjured when the work bleak is mentioned:-)

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 03 Mar 10 - 05:58 AM

Yes DeG, that looks pretty bleak - and at least the top of Ben Nevis wasn't muddy.

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: sheila
Date: 03 Mar 10 - 08:47 AM

Somewhere, I have photos of my cousin Fergus playing his bagpipes atop Ben Hope.

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: open mike
Date: 03 Mar 10 - 12:45 PM

glad to have the translation : a concertina is "leather ferret"

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Mar 10 - 03:41 AM

That's no mud, topsie. It's a peat bog! Absolutely amazing environment though.

Bit unfair to call it bleak ALL the time. In the centre of Kinder Plateau on a fine day you could be on a different planet. The plateau is slightly concave so all you can see are the edges in the distance. Millstone Grit rocks have been sculptored into weird and wonderful shapes and the peat groughs cross scar the landscape in ways that is both bleak and beautiful.

I cut my teeth, walking wise, 'bogtrotting' in the peak district so I have a very close affinity for it. But I can well understand why, of people who give up on the Pennine Way, most will do it after the fist 20 miles!

Cheers

DeG

PS - I have played whistle up there:-)

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Splott Man
Date: 04 Mar 10 - 03:48 AM

To celebrate its 30th anniversary, members of Llantrisant Folk Club are ascending Snowdon this coming June to have a session at the top. There'll definitely be at least one leather ferret, several tin sandwiches, and maybe even a brass frying pan.

If any one wants to join us, PM me and I'll send details.

Splott Man

Subject: RE: Instruments carried up a mountain?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Mar 10 - 04:07 AM

You can cheat on that one though, Mr Splott! I guess the train is still running? Well done to you and the organisers anyway - However you get to the top it will take some doing!

:D (eG)