|
We arrived back in Bushmills and checked into the Ed. Centre at about
5:15PM. After changing clothes, and tuning, we went to the Mill Rest
Hostel for the Festival Launch with the Bushmills Finn McCool Festival
Committee who were one of the sponsors of the festival. Their sponsorship provided
us with the ability to have the open-air street concert in Bushmills that
evening. They arranged to block off Main Street and let us use their
concert trailer for our stage. It was good to have that trailer as it
had turned cloudy, windy and cold since we were in Glenarm, and the trailer provided shelter from the
wind for the performers. But back to the festival launch. Food
was provided (this was supper for most of us), and we met with the festival
committee, to thank them for their sponsorship, and for them to welcome us to
Bushmills.
The weather for the Concert, as I said, was cold, but we had a reasonable
crowd on the street. Brian Boyle did a miraculous job of running sound
for us (I understand he always does, and I saw and heard that throughout the festival.),
especially seeing the line-up for the night - the local "Bannside Fife
& Drum Corp", "JCB", "Scad the Beggars" and myself.
The fife and drum corp, though it may sound like what you may have seen
before, was not like what you've probably seen before. When I think
of fifes and drums, I picture that traditional picture of the Revolutionary
War Fifer and Drummer, and the drum is a field drum, similar in size to a
large marching snare drum. that's not even close to what these
drums were. These were
Lambeg Drums, and
Lambeg drums are larger and louder than what one would expect from thinking
of the Fife and Drum corp idea in the States. These were about the
diameter of a bass drum, but much wider. The heads are tuned quite
high, and they are struck with bare wood beaters. I was on the verge
of looking for ear plugs, and we were in the street - outdoors! They
are loud! And to add to it, the fifes, to be heard over the drums, play
in their highest register where they are very shrill, so the combination is
loud drums with high, shrill fifes - not something you'd want to spend a
quiet evening at home relaxing to I dare say. To hear a sample of Fife
& Drum music, you can hear an
mp3
of the tune "The Boys of Belfast".
Here is a picture of them performing.
I don't have photos of the other performers, but I got them on video, so
you won't see them here for this concert, though I may have pictures of them
elsewhere in these pages, and I may be able to get some out of the videos
when I get an opportunity to do that.
However, JCB was good, and the dulcimer was well-received it seems. In
fact, one young woman heard the dulcimer, either me playing in the
street concert or someone playing in the following session at the Distiller's Arms,
and changed her plans for Saturday to come to the New Beginners' workshop the next
day! I decided to not play in the session that night, but had a nice
opportunity to visit with Jan Maes from Belgium whom we had first met in Cork last
year.
On, to the Next Page!
Back to the Trip Pix Index.
|
