St. Patricks' Day Gigs?

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: GUEST,ossanscookie
Date: 14 Mar 06 - 01:54 PM

Joking aside Greg, Lance (the boss man) is great and he will look after you.

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: GUEST,tom bliss
Date: 14 Mar 06 - 01:59 PM

Agreed. Three years running in the union bar at Middlesboro Uni, five times through the "Wild Athon Foggy Velvet Shawl" and the rest. Now no money's enough! Just a chance to mix up the normal session cliques of West Yorks and enjoy a grand night of great tunes and even better company. The Castle (is that Sean Ryan's no 2 btw :-) sounds interesting.

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: GUEST,Disgruntled irish piper
Date: 14 Mar 06 - 04:34 PM

[RANT mode on]

F*** Saint Patrick's Day, it's just an excuse for idiots to get roaring drunk and for no-talent hacks to bellow out rebel songs...*real* irish music, ie the instrumental dance music of the country and sean nos singing are just ignored, as usual. F*** Saint Patrick's Day, F*** the drunken crowds, and a great big F*** You to all you hoors who play other genres 364 days a year, but turn "Irish" on Saint Pats, I hope some great fat bugger pukes a bucket's worth of green vomit on your shoes!!!

And a triple F*** You to all those irish and irish american people who treat irish traditional musicians like a f***ing free juke box...We're f***ing sick and tired of doing stuff gratis, OK? We're practicing an art form and keeping it alive for the benefit of the community and the least you could do is show some appreciation by PAYING US ONCE IN A WHILE, YOU MISERLY F***ERS.

[RANT mode off]

(panting)

There now, I feel much better...

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Maryrrf
Date: 14 Mar 06 - 05:12 PM

Um...it's okay to rant but surely if you play the pipes you could, if you wanted to, get a paying gig on St. Patrick's day or if you chose not to play for free you could just stay home. You don't have to allow yourself to be treated like a free juke box - either insist on a fair fee or don't play. I sometimes do stuff gratis when it's for a good cause or it's educational, but when I start getting sick and tired of it I just say no.

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Mar 06 - 05:25 PM

GUEST,Disgruntled irish piper didn't get a booking this year then. I'm sure the general public is missing a treasure.


*real* irish music??

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: holmfirther
Date: 14 Mar 06 - 06:58 PM

Dissgruntled Irish Piper..I hope you dont refer to all in this case..We have Mr.Sean Cannon playing at our place for a fee..One could not enter into a deal on a free gratis basis where the venue makes all the money and the artist gets nothing..And ..Mr.Cannon does his thing all the time not once a year..My mum is from Cavan and celebrating St.Pats as well as getting pissed is also an expression of our liberties which we are proud of...If anyones to blame its the breweries for saturating the media like there is no tomorrow..Good Luck and keep piping.

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 15 Mar 06 - 10:42 AM

Erm... perhaps it's the wrong time to mention it but we're having a session in the Chevy Chase, LeytonStone High Road, Stratford, London, E15 opps Maryland Station from about 3.30pm on Friday, March 17th. There almost certainly won't be green beer but there will be Irish Stew and, no doubt, silly hats.

And before anyone rants any more about non-Irish musicians taking advantage of the day I can only say that if we're good enough for the landlord who is a semi-professional musician from Donegal who has recently toured Europe accompanying a Young Traditional Musician of the Year and All-Ireland Champion fiddler and who books the music for several pubs and runs an agency then we're good enough for anyone in East London.

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 15 Mar 06 - 11:40 AM

Back to 'Disgruntled'! Aah think he meant *reel* Irish Music

Aah used te play in a seven-piece irish band (Uillean Pipes, Bodhran, guitars, madolin, banjo etc, etc and there wez only ever one Irishman in the band - It wezn't any less *real*

Anyroad! Aah'm happy te take on any form to play music - On St Pat's aah can play 'diddley-diddley', on St Andrews Aah can dig oot my Kenneth McKellar's & Billy Connolly, aah divvent gig on St David's Day as aah divvent knaah any Welsh songs (apart from 'Aall Through The Neet' and as for St George's Day .... our Nation's Culture secretary (one Tessa Jowell) says we English don't have a culture!

I have to admit that my experience of playing in places that want 'Irish Music' are after good old Daniel O'Donnell - That includes Irish Clubs!!

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Daithi
Date: 16 Mar 06 - 04:26 AM

Yes Geordie - when I was a small boy growing up in the west of Ireland in the fifties/early sixties, traditional Irish music (and still the most popular, I'd bet)was Country and Western ...varied only by the odd (sic) "showband". One of the reasons I left ;¬)

Dáithí

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 16 Mar 06 - 01:08 PM

GIG CANCELLED

News just in, our gig in the Ringside in Hull9 has been cancelled, cos Lance the landlord has been carted off to hospital, and they are only having a low-key night of 'background music'.

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 16 Mar 06 - 01:24 PM

Got another gig on top of the pile...

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 16 Mar 06 - 01:30 PM

Aah thowt aa'd pass on this pearl of wisdom as it's close on te 17th

Aussie, Yank, Kraut & Paddy in a pub and the Auusie sez, "G'Day! I think I'll have a pint of Orstalia's best - A Pint of Fosters"

The Yank then sez, "I'll have a boddle of Bud Light -US of A's best"

The German sez, "Ach so! I vill haf a half litre of Becks - Zer finest Cherman Lager in zer vorld"

Paddy sez, "Oi'll have a doiet Coke please! Oi wez goin' te hev a Guinness but if you feckin' pansies are having soft drinks oi'll stick wid youse"

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: LadyThorn
Date: 16 Mar 06 - 04:41 PM

My group, Captain's Dotter, is performing here:

www.mrpickwickspub.com/

It's a British Pub in Concord, Ca. They are having an all day festival, with Avalon Rising as the headliners.

We do traditional, renaissance, and ren-ish original music, with some Irish. I've been beefing up our Irish repertoire all week, and I have WAY too many words in my head right now! I'm soloing on Rocky Road to Dublin, Stick to the Craythur, and Changing Your Demeanor. I just hope I don't get them mixed up!

Cheers,
~Kathleen

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 18 Mar 06 - 04:45 PM

So... everybody survive?

Tangled Up In Green
Clinton Hammond

Early one morning the sun was shining
I was lying in bed
But it was March 17th, St. Patrick's day
I had a song going through my head
It went "Too-ra-loo-ra-laddie. Mush-a-ring-rumma-do-rumma-da"
"Her eyes they shone like the diamonds"
Someone shouted "And she was"
The crowd was line up around the block
But this wasn't unforeseen
We'd done the same thing the year before
So up the stairs I did careen
Stopping once to preen
Tangled up in green

There are plastic hats and temp tattoos
There's food colouring in the beer
Every shade of green you've seen
Has apparently gathered here
There's young girls winking at me
But I wish they wouldn't call me "sir"
They laugh and sing and clap their hands
But make me feel like a voyeur
Cause she pouts her lips and slys-her eyes
Like I didn't have grey in my beard
She locks my stare while she's kissing him
and it feels more than a little weird
and pleasantly obscene
Tangled up in green

It'd be a fine day for a wedding or wake
Or even conceiving a child
But like Brian Boru at Clontarf field
We let our Inner Celt run wild
It doesn't matter where you're from
Or what your birth certificates say
You might even come from Mars
But the whole world's Irish today
I've humped gear in and I've humped it out
and I've humped it back in again
Upstairs, downstairs, forth and back
Till I thought I might go insane
at least that's how it seems
But I'm tangled up in green

So now I've got back home again
Sorta rode hard and put up wet
Seems I've survived one more year
The lies, the cajoles and the threats
My voice feels like broken glass
I smell like a Wookies left nut
I say every year's gonna be the last
But I'm such a folk-music slut
I'll do it all again next year
Hept up on smokes and caffeine
So I can get back to my Guinness keg
and a big mug of poteen
Here in my shebeen
Counting out my greeeeeeen!
It used to be YOUR Greeen....
Now it's all MY Greeeen!

I started yesterday with that.... and it happened all over again.... It's great having opportunity to say "I'm very flattered sweetheart, but I'm a happily married man... and I'd like to stay that way. I'm too well known in here to keep something like what you're proposing a secret."

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: paddymac
Date: 18 Mar 06 - 08:58 PM

For the last ten years, we've closed theshaw at the joint where we got started. Back then, it was the ONLY place in town to be on Paddy's Day. It got so successful, the there are now 5 other places cutting into the pie. PLus, this year the house decided to close the evening with a locally popular soft rock style group. So we opened, and then did something new and different. We staged a dinner show at an avant gard cafe that doesn't sell booze. We "headlined" the menue with a leek/oarmel soup that allegedly goes back to Colum Cilie, then had five entrees folks could choose from, with rum-soaked Barm Brak & home made real whipped cream for dessert. $25/couple, and BYOB. A grand time was had by all, but the volunteer kitchen crew lost sight of the "authenticty goal" and converted the menu to "fern-bar de jour." We made a number of mistakes, expected, I suppose, for a first time event, not the least of which was failing to have a volunteers' school, and over-buying a number of items. All that aside, it was a huge success, and we served about 50 people. Any bigger and it would have to be a professional job. And, we under-charged. My marketing strategy was authenticity, and no bar tab to pay. The local paper dubbed it a "Saintly Feast." The latter "hook" was an amazingly popular device. And, Oh the variety of whiskeys and such that people brought, and were so happy to share. I treated myself to a sleep-in this morning. We'll do it again next year, hopefully having benefited from this year's learning experiences. I confess, I'm still pooped. Think I'll sleep in again tomorrow.

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Maryrrf
Date: 18 Mar 06 - 09:08 PM

Paddymac that sounds like an excellent idea. Personally I don't like the pub scene on St. Patrick's day anymore and I would imagine there would be a lot of people who would like to celebrate but in a nice environment. So you made a few mistakes - as you said, you'll know better next year. Good on you for doing something different.

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: michaelr
Date: 19 Mar 06 - 02:33 AM

Phew. I survived. The scene at Murphy's was insane. They had the alley blocked off and a few tents put up, so folks didn't get too wet(the rain let up at about 6 pm). The punters danced and cheered and threw money like never before. Made us feel like rock stars.

We got away without singing Danny Boy, which I absolutely refuse to do. Our fiddler, Dan Kahane, did an instrumental verse of it and led into a tune.

A girl who looked to be 19 clung to the fiddler's leg for a while, then she discovered our percussionist and proceeded to bang on his djembe for the rest of the evening, licking her lips suggestively at him. Alas, we're in the same boat as Clinton: married and hoping to stay that way...

Tonight we played the local parish's CB&C dinner. What a difference. No one was interested in our music, only in the dancers with the curly wigs (where did that originate, anyway?). Oh well, pearls before swine. I'll be glad to get back to our regular gigs, and playing the material we like.

Slainte,
Michael

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Pauline L
Date: 19 Mar 06 - 02:57 AM

This was unusual and lots of fun. I play with a community orchestra, and we did an outreach concert at an elementary school in a community that's not wealthy. Included in the audience were students, their families, the school principal, and one or two janitors. Our conductor is also a very good teacher and he spoke briefly to the audience about the music. Most of the music was classical, but six of us also played some Celtic music. We did very well, especially in view of the fact that we had done very little rehearsing. The audience clapped and stomped in time to our closing number, John Ryan's Polka. Our conductor said that he couldn't explain an Irish polka, although we also played some Spanish music written by a Frenchman (Bizet's Carmen). The predominant languages among the audience were English and Spanish. After the Celtic music, our conductor said, "I don't conduct the National Symphony, but I bet I play rhythm guitar better than Leonard Sladkin." It was so much fun.

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Willie-O
Date: 19 Mar 06 - 11:38 AM

All went pretty well. For playing two different pubs of a local chain, we got paid directly from...LABATTS Breweries! What a great racket for the pubs. No complaint from me, we did better than alright. And only played Unicorn once--it was never requested (last year that was the most-repeated request, and I couldn't do it).

Best of all, I have a working combo now. Playing...umm, Reel Drinking Music...is OK by me. I find that watching the insanity makes me sip my pints a lot slower.

And Clinton, that lyric is priceless! Yours?

W-O

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 19 Mar 06 - 01:55 PM

"Clinton, that lyric is priceless! Yours?"

yup

:-)

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: UB Ed
Date: 19 Mar 06 - 10:27 PM

Exhausted.

Played Thursday and then broke the band into three squads for individual lunches and happy hours on Friday. One was on local public radio during the day. We gathered at the Home Pub and played from 9:30 to a little past 12 when the owner noticed that all there really didn't need to be drinking anymore.

Good day; lost a peddle to liquid immersion. Thought a 6-2 lassie was going to drag one of our lads of the stage.

Maryrrf, it was a freakin mess, but we had a ball.

Ended up a duo on Saturday...

Next Saturday, St Patrick's Church Festival. See you there?

Ed

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: SosYourMom
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 12:13 AM

We got together for the first time in six months and did seven hours at a brewery in Wilmington.... they sprung some of those little girls with the brillo hair on top (I thought they were dishwashers at first!)and the funny dresses with the starchy fronts all bouncing up and down like a bunch of Leprechauns on a griddleplate. Good thing they brought a tape recorder and some music.... gave us a chance at the jakes and another pint in peace. (relative peace, anyway.) Me feckin' fingers are fallin' off!

Now, for those of youse who do this sort of thing regularly, HERE"S a bit of help in surviving next year's extravaganza, wherever you may be. Feel free to print it out, put it on your webpage or distribute it (we do) to the punters at the venue. They love it.

O'Neill's Music Of Ireland (The 1850) free download

Start drinkin' now to get in shape for next March... practice peggin' the empties at a target so you can nail the next bugger to ask for "The Unicorn" before he gets too close to the stage.

The Band

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 02:11 AM

Your St Pats Guide is proof that it really is well and truly amateur day....

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: GUEST,ChiTownJoe
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 08:14 AM

I had the most lucrative Paddy's Day ever but every year I realize that has become something I just do not want to be a a part of anymore. The drunks, the smoke, it's all been taken over by the beer company's...ah the good old days. we would meet in a pub, have a few pints and have a sing-song at the bar....

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Big Mick
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 10:19 AM

Just back from a very long week. Lots of money, great fans, and I am beat.

Our GUEST Irish Piper needs to take a breath and learn a bit more than just his pipes. The ballads, drinking songs, rebel songs, etc, of Ireland are every bit as important to the history and heritage of the Irish people as the "trad" music he proclaims as superior. One tradition that he ought give a little thought to. The pipers, singers, and musicians that are an honored part of the Irish culture were all entertainers. They had a product to market and their ability to eat and have shelter depended on the quality of that entertainment. So they played what an audience was willing to listen to and pay for. You might consider, in addition to playing what YOU find valuable, to giving some consideration to what the audience wants and will pay for. And I must say that it appears to me that you aren't trying to get paid very hard, or you are not very good. There are more paying gigs around for pipers than the supply can handle.

Mick

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 11:11 AM

"*real* irish music, ie the instrumental dance music of the country and sean nos singing are just ignored"

REAL Irish Music?!?! REAL???!!!?? Fawk you you arrogant deedeely playing asshole... Know why people ignore stuff like that? Because ignorant jerks like you who play that stuff suck ALL the life out of it first... Music has to live to be enjoyable...

You don't like St Pats Day? Good... Makes me wish it was every day then!

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 06:10 PM

We had a great time playing for the Delta Friends on Folk Music on St. Patrick's Day. Listening, sober audience, then we went for a few beers after the gig.

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Pauline L
Date: 15 Aug 06 - 04:14 AM

I have to refresh this thread at midyear because the issue of "real" Irish music (and good music of any genre) continues all year long. I'm a violin/fiddle teacher, and I try to be flexible about the musical tastes of my students, but I just can't stand this. Kids and their parents are telling me that they don't want to work hard, practice much, or play boring music. They strive for the pinnacle of fun violinistic achievement. They say, "Can you teach me (or my kid) how to play The Irish Washerwoman"? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 15 Aug 06 - 12:37 PM

I'll say it again....

Real??? REAL!?!?!?!?!

All music is real.....

Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
From: Pauline L
Date: 15 Aug 06 - 04:51 PM

All music is real. As Prof Schickele, aka PDQ Bach, says, "If it sounds good, it is good."

If I get one more student whose goal is playing the Irish Washerwoman, I'll apply for a job at Target instead.