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Well, a man of such diverse interests and achievements, where do I start to talk about myself? (try relaxing your ass cheeks and just let it flow, ED) Manx music came to me in the shape of a rough King Chiaullee, pretty much the same day as I first picked a Bodhran (up, not fresh from a bodhran farm). Which was pretty much hours before our first concert. I have since thrived for such preparation before a gig, yet never met it. Those were the day when the then un-named King Chiaullee resembled a 'gurned' group, comprising of an additional viola, cello, flute and Bassoon. Ugly..er. I really shouldn't be dealt credit for any musical advancement in Chiaullee (thats OK, you weren't, ED) until we started jamming outside school for Lorient in 1998. Long tired of direction, we were used to employing our own ideas in arrangements with some original compositions. We fancied incorporating some drums and electricity in the set and my colander like knowledge of drumming was to be employed. |
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Since the decision to record Baase Cooil Stroo in 2000,
I've enjoyed trying to bring the Bass into our sound, and it's added
a new diversity to the group, which I'm fairly sure we've all enjoyed.
During the rehearsals, Charles Guard asked us to do a stint on his 'Lighthouse' tape, for which we were royally Aware of the abundance of local musical conservatives, we really wanted to find a balance of doing the Manx and their tunes proud in Lorient with a sufficiently big size 9 up the arse. Together with playing the drums, I felt like I was contributing equally to the arranging of sets. The music felt good, and we were all a bit healthier for many hours practice per week. Along came Lorient and we left after several gigs, and some totally unexpected media interest. We've done a lot of gigs over the years, and featured in the paper loads, but none of it really stands out in my memory. It's usually the nights between performances at a festival where we let our hair down (seriously, three of u could) and got monster mashed. I suppose I'll never forget the night at Yn Chruinnaght where I discovered double whisky and coke. I wish I could but I'm still to scared to say thanks to Trina, Tim and Pegs for looking after me that night, not to mention Gilno for scraping the random carrot chunks from Adam's Bodhran case.
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