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	Been around a bit/shakuhachi nightmare 16/06/09 - Tony Maxtedoutagain. Recent trips have included gigs on Lakes Maggiore and Garda in northern Italy (you can keep the Italian lakes in my opinion - too many human beings), Friedrichshafen (you can keep the Bodensee etc.... see above) and a rock'n'roll gig in Barcelona. It was in Poblenou, which is my favourite part of the city. Groovy, but I couldn't find a postcard to send to my mum. Why not? Is there something wrong with Poblenou? I don't think so. Directly from Barcelona to the Outer Hebrides, and the Isle of Harris in particular Harris is one of the most extraordinary places on Earth (and I've been to a few). Unlike the Mittel-European destinations referred to above, Harris (and Lewis) is distinguished by having very few human beings around (and those who are there are delightful people) and by having the most astonishing landscapes, with empty white-sand beaches, turquoise sea and mountains made of some of the oldest rocks in the world. We stayed in the house of some dear friends, and had little to to do other than wonder! We paid a visit to Lewis, the birthplace of my grandmother, and met artists David Greenall and Ruth Odell. They live at South Dell at the north end of Lewis and, on the way back to Glasgow, we stopped at the Peinmore Gallery on the Isle of Skye and bought a fabulous painting by David. Check them all out!!! Now, back in London, it's garden-battling and next-gigs-preparation. If anyone has a 7-hole shakuhachi in D phrygian that they could bike over to me sometime tomorrow, I'd be your slave for the rest of my life. (Shouldn't be too long). London resident buys 5 cello strings.... 24/04/09 - Gawd Elpus. "....'Ah much, guvnah??!" "Two 'undred an' firty of yer English pahnds" "Strewth, gorblimey, an' strike a light......." I am frequently asked why I have so many whistles. 22/04/09 - Steptoe and Son. I spent the weekend in Abbey Road Studios recording stuff for a movie which I can't say anything about for fear of litigation etc. (Boring, but the movie isn't released until December in the USA and there will be plenty more to do on it before then). I turned up with the usual vehicle-load of flightcases and, at the last minute, lobbed in a few sets of plastic panpipes, tuneable with corks, which I hardly ever play. Guess what the first item on the agenda required? The plastic panpipes. I then spent two days screaming around on a Chris Abell high G whistle. I bought this from Chris a couple of years ago thinking it might come in handy at some point. The whistle did the job admirably and I'm still trying to get my hearing back. High G whistles are wonderful but, in your cans for two days....? .....Ouch! I went through the roof with instruments in an intense period of recording and, if anyone is interested in the other stuff used, e-mail me and I'll tell you! Today I did a library music session in Cheam, Surrey, and guess what instruments I played....?.... The plastic panpipes. Also another unexpected flute. A very wide-bore Chieftain low C whistle which I couldn't imagine ever playing on anything. (In fact, I whinged to Phil, about how wide the bore was, a couple of months ago and he suggested I pull myself together). It was perfect on the track today. (Good thing I brought it/them!). It ain't the meat it's the motion.... 13/04/09 - Southside Tony and the Barbican Jukes. ....that makes your daddy wanna rock. My wife and I did a gig, last Wednesday, in the Barbican Hall in London, with the Michael Nyman Band and the Motion Trio. This is an accordion trio from Krakow, Poland, who are virtuosic players and fine musicians. They had arranged a number of Michael's pieces for themselves, and Michael then "double-arranged" the stuff for Trio and Band. We also did Michael's MGV and a new piece to a cinematic montage of Polish films, both for Trio and Band. As one who knows the accordion from the excellent Jimmy Shand and his band and Astor Piazzola, the Motion Trio are a brilliant addition to the accordion Pantheon. Check 'em out at motiontrio.com. Reasons not to check musical instruments into aeroplane holds, Nos. 94 and 106. 06/04/09 - Tony I'veboughtaseatforitagain. 94. Don't even think about it. 106. The Michael Nyman Band had a gig in Southern Italy two days ago. We all flew to Rome on AirOne the following morning. My wife and I hung around for three and a half hours in Fiumicino airport waiting for a BA flight to London (because Alitalia refuse to deal with cello tickets) whilst the rest of the the band departed (on Alitalia) straight away. At this point, well over twenty four hours later, not one member of the band has anything that was checked in, including instruments, baggage (including concert suits and music) and PA equipment. We have rehearsals all day tomorrow and a major concert in London's Barbican Hall the next day. Looks like we'll be doing an acoustic "fave tunes from the sixties" set, dressed in stylish casual wear. Tulips from Monastireon. 01/04/09 - Dirk Souvlaki. It's been a whirlwind month with a tour of Holland and a dance-theatre stay in Athens, both with the MNB. The Dutch tour began in Enschede, on the border with Germany, a town which had emerged, scathed, from the 2nd World War. Its proximity to the border meant that it was bombed, often by accident, by the Allies. The tour ended in Utrecht, a town unscathed and very pretty, with a canal system, like a miniature Amsterdam. In Athens we played for a Greek dance company in a performance piece about Electra, daughter of Agamemnon. If you don't know the story of Electra, I would urge you to look it up. It's wild. I hung around in the area, just below the Acropolis, which I knew as Monastireon back in the 70's. It is now called Monastiraki. I asked our, young, tour-bus driver about this and he said "Oh yes, Monastireon is old Greek and Monastiraki is new Greek. I don't get it." Hence, presumably, the expression "it's all Greek to me" (?!?). Off to southern Italy on the weekend. When I become a ruthless dictator..... 18/03/09 - Sir Charles Chaplinnigan. Just returned from a short tour of Spain witn the MNB. Highlights of the trip included lunch in Gijon (Asturias) in a restaurant on the harbour front, where most of us had local shellfish, straight out of the Bay of Biscay, and dorada (sea bream) baked encased in salt - a Spanish speciality, and the ecstatic reactions of the audiences (particularly on the last gig, in Barcelona) which have ever been a feature of Spanish tours. It's so rewarding when, as a band, you've been busting a gut for two hours, to be met with a wall of noise from an appreciative audience. It's obviously a cultural thing but in, say, the far east, making that kind of racket is not the done thing and polite applause is the order of the day. I'm not saying that Japanese/Chinese/Korean audiences are less appreciative of one's endeavours. It's a cultural thing. Off to Holland the day after tomorrow. Let's see what the Dutch come up with! Back to the point in question. It has come to my attention, as I peruse the internet, that musicians are deterred from buying musical instruments by the vicissitudes of the international exchange-rate lark. A quick calculation has revealed that, in the past five years at least, I have largely "gained". Other musicians are (understandably) fearful that they may "lose". When I become a ruthless dictator, my first act will be to exempt all musical instrument transactions from exchange-rate mechanisms. It's alright, you won't have to vote for me. I'll be taking over the world in a bloodless coup. Wheeler Street. 27/02/09 - Tony Hinnigan I've been blown away by the debut album by Kentish band Wheeler Street, which I've listened to several times this evening. Check 'em out on Myspace. Instrument makers and repairers - these people are geniuses. 24/02/09 - Tony Hinnigan I would refer readers back to news 31/01/09. I have finally had the chance, this evening, to fully explore the bombo re-skinning done by John Sullivan. He re-skinned the drums Djembe-style, with double self-tensioning hoops, and he has turned them from drums which had four or five sounds in them to drums which, at the minute, seem to have unlimited sounds. At my request, John left one end with the hair on and shaved the skin on the other end. My mind is still boggling. I'd also like to mention Bob Grummitt, who is a stringed instrument expert in Caterham, Surrey. Bob is a fantastic bow rehairer, and a number of professional colleagues have tried my bows and wondered at the sound. It's partly down to the maker, obviously, but partly down to Bob. He is also a Saz player and repaired my Saz brilliantly. I'm happy to pass on details of excellent people like these at all times. "Concerts are a good idea" shock! 22/02/09 - Raymond Gubbigan. I spent most of yesterday preparing for, conducting, and recovering from a day of workshops on Andean music for the flute faculty at Trinity College of Music, London. I was invited to do the workshops by my dear friend, Anna Noakes, who is a flute professor at the College. I spent the morning teaching the flute players how to do "hocket" on Andean sikus (panpipes). This involves splitting a tune between two players, each of whom have only half the notes of the scale. (I sometimes liken this to one player having only the black notes on the piano and the other having only the white - not quite the same thing , but close). The last part of the morning session involved giving the students tips on playing the quena (see "quena tutorials" on this site). The afternoon was spent, largely, rehearsing stuff, as we had to do a concert from 6-7pm to round off the day. I was grumpy about the concert concept, as I would have prefered to spend the whole day exploring more aspects of the music etc. Much to my surprise, when it came to "showtime" everyone stood up to the plate and delivered the workshop material as a fully performed and presented concert, and the head-scratching we had during the morning and afternoon suddenly turned into actual pieces of music. Well done to all! I was particularly gratified that my own recent pupil, Holly Cook, stood up to play the Peruvian tune "Llaulillay" accompanied by myself on charango, and brought the house down. She's only been playing for a matter of weeks and to pull off a performance of that tune (pretty tricky, and the trademark tune of Peruvian quena legend, Raymond Thevenot) in front of a room full of her peers, not only demonstrated what "cojones" (sorry, it's the only word that will do) Holly has, but also showed the rest of them that, with a bit of application, you can turn yourself from a musician who does this, into a musician who does this oh, and that, and that as well, and a bit of that if required. Viva el Concierto. Small instruments win the day (in certain circumstances). 16/02/09 - Jonathan Swiftigan. I have, lately, been playing lots of quenas, and have concluded that the new ones (all wide-bore) don't hold a candle to my faves (Zapata and Camac - narrow-bore) in terms of sheer control. My thoughts then extended to the sizes of other instruments that I can (at least, nominally) play. Let's start with whistles. I find that narrow-bore whistles, like the quenas, are easiest to control and, if they have more back-pressure, like Harper, LeMeur, Oz, Abell or KerryPro, they are more usefull in the kinds of playing environments in which I find myself. I also extended this thinking to stringed instruments and found that my good old John Lott cello was preferable to my modern, much bigger, cello, in the sense that more tone colours are available with less physical effort. I also explored the concept with guitars and concluded that an ancient Italian guitar that I have (tiny!) can be just the ticket in tone quality where a bigger modern version seems over-the-top. The conclusion for me, at least for now, is that small is good, certainly in the recording studio. On the other hand, big instruments are - big! And they sound big! Should I find myself playing on the street (I've done it before and it could be around the next corner), I'd be playing one of them. Mr. and Mrs. Wanganui opt to spend their way out of recession. 14/02/09 - Alistair Darlingui. My wife has followed my panpipe and quena purchases with a purchase of her own, namely, a Danelectro short-scale bass guitar. We will be playing all of these purchases together within the week, at Trinity College of Music. Danelectro guitars are exceedingly groovy, and I have to confess to playing her bass along with whatever song came on the radio, whilst she was out doing "The Sound of Music". I should have been practising the cello. Stuff in Pembrokeshire and stuff from Bolivia. 10/02/09 - Professor Dai Garcia. I spent most of Friday battling through snowy roads and motorways to get to the Pembrokeshire coast (South-West Wales) to teach cello workshops on Saturday with my dear friend and colleague, Nichola Thomas. The workshops were a joy, with cellists aged from 10 to 60 all in a room together playing in ensembles, and listening to each other play and receive helpful hints from Nikki and myself. Much more of this kind of thing has to go on. We don't need nuclear missiles, we need music workshops. It makes sense to me. I battled back through the snow to find that my consignment had arrived from Bolivia, being multiple panpipes and quenas that I intend to use, mainly, for teaching purposes. I got the instruments from Bolivianstuff.com and I have to say that they are of very high quality. I would use them myself in professional situations. I would also recommend Tiendaslatinas.com for Andean musical instruments. The first outing for these will be a workshop day for flute students at Trinity College of Music, London, next week. I shall report back. It's amazing that a cardboard box full of fragile cane flutes should make it from La Paz, Bolivia to South Norwood, London without any damage when, every week, the baggage handlers at London's Heathrow Airport manage to crack/dent/smash musical instruments in strong flightcases. End of rant. Pittsburgh Steelers get "Manchester United" award. 03/02/09 - Tony Bleary-eyed-again. Last night, I found myself watching the Superbowl live on TV. I hadn't intended this to happen but it was "on" whilst I did other things and I got "sucked in". Terrific game! The last time I remember being so enthused by a Superbowl was the first one I ever saw, at a "Superbowl party" at my mate's cousins's house in Orange County, California in January 1989. The game finished with a drive down the field, orchestrated by Joe Montana, culminating in a winning touchdown with 35 seconds on the clock. Just like last night. The Arizona lads must be feeling as sick as the Cincinnati Bengals, 20 years ago, and the Bayern Munich lads in the European Cup final, 10 years ago, when Manchester United, having trailed 0-1, scored twice in injury time to win 2-1. Sport, eh? It's enough to make you as sick as a parrot. By the way, I've managed to avoid the classic tabloid headline, "Steelers steal it!". Drat! I've failed to avoid it. Drum-doctor triumphs. 31/01/09 - Tony Overthemoonagain. For readers in the UK who dally with drums (yes, I know, I try not to admit to it either) I should like to "big up" John Sullivan (see news 17/01/09). I repaired to Suffolk today to pick up the drums that John had been re-skinning. Being a djembe maker, he had never re-skinned a bombo before, but relished the challenge. He has not only re-skinned the bombos, he has lavished care and affection on them, such that I could almost see them smile. And they sound FANTASTIC! If anyone in the UK who dallies with drums (you don't have to publish your name or personal information or anything like that - no one need know about your percussive penchants!) would like to get in touch with John, his phone no. is on this site http://www.african-drumbeat.co.uk/drum-makers/bodi.htm or contact me for details. Visit to Scotland. 29/01/09 - Tony Lucky-to be-alive-igan. My wife and I did a MNB gig in Glasgow recently, as part of the "Celtic Connections" festival. I took the opportunity to spend some time with my family, and my mum and I zoomed around the highlands and lowlands of Scotland in my sister's car. We went to Crinan, at the western end of the Crinan Canal. Before the railways had been invented, the quickest way to get from Glasgow to Inverness was by ship (!) via the Crinan and Caledonian Canals. Not much happens at Crinan nowadays but the canal is in very good order. We then attempted to go to Lochs Tummel and Rannoch via Glen Lyon, but were defeated by black ice in the Dukes Pass north of Aberfoyle. The road down from the pass to the Stirlingshire side was like a skating rink and a number of vehicles had wrapped themselves around trees by the roadside. Eight or so motorists, including myself, hand-scattered grit from the roadside onto the ice and we made it down, in 1st gear at 5 mph, and ended up in Crieff, Perthshire, where mum did some therapeutic shopping. We went south, on the 25th, Burns Night, to Kirkcudbright, on the north shore of the Solway Firth - a very quiet fishing port. We returned to Glasgow via Alloway, the town where Rabbie Burns was born, having spent the day in Galloway, the region where William Wallace commenced his rebellion against English rule. The road across the southern uplands was covered in snow and slush. The English and Scots tended to avoid having any of their battles there. Very sensible. R.I.P. John Martyn. 29/01/09 - Tony Hinnigan I've just heard, on the radio, that John Martyn died this morning. He may have been working at it for most of his life, but I still find it a shock. R.I.P. South American Classical Music? Yes, please. 21/01/09 - Tony Hinnigan This evening, my wife and I attended a concert by the London Symphony Orchestra in the Barbican Hall, London. The programme was an all-South-American one with pieces by Ginastera, Piazzola and Revueltas. The Ginastera piece, "Dances from Estancia", has become the stuff of legend, owing to the Simon Bolivar Orchestra's concert at last year's Proms. The Piazzola bandoneon concerto suffered from poor balance in the hall. Conductor to blame, in my opinion. The piece by Silvestre Revueltas, "La Noche de los Mayas", arranged from his score to the film of the same, was stunning. It may be that this music is better live, as I heard it this evening, but it is available on CD and I think I shall buy it. And the Ginastera. South American "classical" music is every bit as fab as all the other music from that (very large) part of the world. Beware of insects - they eat your musical instruments! 17/01/09 - Prof. David Bellamigan. Yes, I'm afraid it's true. I've just returned from Eastbridge, Suffolk, where I left my two bombos (no jokes, please, they are Bolivian bass drums) with drum-maker-doctor John Sullivan for immediate surgery followed by a period of recuperation. The reason for the medical emergency was that moths had eaten the drumskins. We're not talking petrochemical vellum skins here, we're talking yummy sheep and llama skins. The drums had survived more than two decades in London unscathed, but the moths have obviously mutated to the point where they can smell, and appreciate, a fine Bolivian vintage. The b*****s ate all the hair, and chewed holes in the skin itself! John is going to re-skin with goat, and has given me secret formulas for anti-moth agents. This insect thing is, unfortunately, not confined to percussion instruments. Some time ago I had an infestation of Bolivian termites in my panpipe and quena cases. Some of the softer-material pipes had been eaten to bits. Having removed the casualties of war, and unable to detect the termites responsible, I retreated to a safe distance and kept the situation under surveillance. We think we're so smart, don't we? Bolivian termites are far smarter than us, let me assure you. Many more instruments bit the dust before I felt I could declare a unilateral ceasefire. I use the word "unilateral" advisedly. I fear the termites have "gone to ground" (that is, after all, what they do!). YIKES!!!!!!!! A Happy New Year to all my friends at the Inland Revenue! 05/01/09 - Al Caponeigan. And a very happy new year to all loyal readers of this news blog! Thank you very much, also, for all your e-mails containing support, queries, information and news about what you are doing, or are about to do. As you know, I answer every e-mail (hopefully to your satisfaction) so keep them coming. The reason for the (slight) tardiness of this greeting is that, after being snowed under with family-related festive-season stuff, my wife and I spent Hogmanay in Suffolk doing a gig in a restaurant with some dear friends and got back to London to do battle with the wonderful-January-back-to-reality-end of-year-tax-returns-scramble/nightmare. I am writing this submerged beneath a mountain of paper, breathing through a tube, in the proud tradition of commandos crossing a river clandestinely etc., etc. Once the paperwork is in the can, I shall proceed to learning the Sibelius 5 method of musical notation. I have always been a "pencil and manuscript paper" organic-style type of composer/arranger but THIS HAS TO STOP. If anyone out there is familiar with Sibelius 5, please let me know. I may have to pick your brains! "Good whistles" rave. 20/12/08 - Professor Tootligan I've just spent the afternoon selecting instruments (whistles, on this occasion) to play some solos on an album for a well-known Irish pop singer, in a couple of days. I've narrowed it down, according to the keys of the tracks, to three. They have to be 100% reliable, as I'm recording live with the studio orchestra. And the winners are:-............ Kerry Pro F tuneable. Lovely whistle. Plays itself. Chris Abell A. Sexy tone and easy to control intonation, owing to generous backpressure. Ozwhistle Vambrace. A total dream. It sings. That's enough whistle raving. I'm off to the pub now to watch Crystal Palace FC destroy Sheffield United FC at Bramall Lane. Art/mixing/whistle/beer/kebab news. 19/12/08 - Tony Chillisauce?Yespleaseagain Ok. Art. I went back to the Rothko exhibition at the Tate in the company of my daughter, Martha and my son, Sam. I hadn't, particularly, expected Sam to dig Rothko's paintings but he certainly dug the chance to see them. Interesting, to me, was that, when I asked them both, independently, which was the painting they took to most in the exhibition, they plumped for the same one -"Red on Maroon" (1959). They hadn't realised, but this was the painting the Tate had used on their posters for the exhibition. At the Tate Britain is a Francis Bacon exhibition. I wasn't all that enamoured of three quarters of the paintings - I suppose I'm not really a huge Bacon fan but I was enthralled by some of the others, including the ones based on his obsession with Velazquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X, painted around 1649, and regarded to be, arguably, the greatest portrait ever painted. The Bacon paintings are fantastic! I also went to the Dulwich Picture Gallery, virtually on my doorstep, to look at their permanent collection, which I have seen many times before. In addition to the paintings I would naturally gravitate towards, by the likes of Rembrandt and Van Dyck, I was surprised to be drawn towards portraits by Thomas Gainsborough. He, and a number of other artists, had done portraits of members of the Linley family. One portrait, in particular, stood out for me - a portrait of Samuel Linley who, in contrast to the musical bent of the rest of the family, went off to join the Royal Navy. Gainsborough is reputed to have executed the painting in under an hour. Linley died of a fever a few months later, whilst serving on HMS Thunderer. Today, I repaired to the house of my "producer" to make some progress on mixing a track which had languished on his machine for over a year. The track will form part of an album of Medieval tunes, if I can ever get the wretched thing finished. Another thing we did was drink beer. And not just any beer. Fullers "Golden Pride". Note to the wary - DO NOT DRINK THIS BEER. IT IS UNBELIEVABLY STRONG. IT TURNS YOUR BRAIN TO MUSH. Later, we repaired to the (newly re-opened) "Ogleing Arms" in Bushey, near Watford, Herts., where we consumed more Fullers beer - this time, "London Pride" - a far more sensible option. If you are silly enough to have ignored my entreaties re. Fullers "Golden Pride", you qualify to move on to "kebab news". It's, actually, quite simple. Board a train heading in, generally, some sort of South-Easterly direction. Get off at Selhurst station and ask a passer-by for directions to Whitehorse Lane (everyone knows it - it's the home of football legends Crystal Palace FC) and enter the "Emek Kebab House". Order a doner kebab with chilli sauce. Eat it. Let tomorrow take care of itself. Oh yes, whistles! My "producer" had a C whistle by Michael Burke. I had a tootle on it and it seemed really good. I shall do a video review of it when I get a round tuit. (Anyone have one of these tuits going spare?). I actually have a whistle by Michael Burke (see news passim) which I traded for a bass A Chieftain with my old mate Eric Rigler when we were doing some film sessions together (I think it was "Troy"). The whistle is in G flat and it blends very well with 1st violin sections. Yes, it is a miracle. I'm recommending Michael Burke to His Holiness for immediate canonisation. Ornithology news/World's most fearless bird. 08/12/08 - Bill Oddiegan. Now that the rain has, temporarily, relented, I'm back to the back-breaking task of digging up a previous weed jungle to turn it into a vegetable garden. Our garden is regularly visited by sparrows, starlings, blue tits, blackbirds, crows, magpies, jays, wood pidgeons, robins and the occasional dunnock and wren. Whilst digging, I am scolded from afar, mainly by blackbirds and tits, for having the effrontery to be there at all. There is one bird, however, who is evidently the "shop steward" for the feathered fraternity. I am allowed 10 minutes of digging before Mr. Robin Redbreast arrives and sits on a fencepost, just a few feet from me, and "eyeballs" me until I take a Union Teabreak while he sees what tasty morsels I've turned up. I doubt if even a condor (and I've seen a few in my time) would hassle a bloke thrashing around with a spade. I should, therefore, like to nominate the robin as the most fearless bird in the world. P.S. Horticulture news. I am currently engaged in a merciless war of attrition with Japanese bindweed. No quarter is being sought or given. Difficult to tell who's winning. Any advice? Looks like the best team won! 05/11/08 - Tony Mottiegan. Apparently, around these parts, the US President-Elect is already known as "Obama the 'Ammer" (Hammer), owing to some previously expressed allegiance to West Ham United Football Club. Good thing he didn't pick Arsenal ("Obama the Gooner"?) or Manchester United ("Obama the Red Devil"!?!). I should like to cordially invite the President-Elect to consider switching his allegiance to my team, Crystal Palace FC, which would make him "Obama the Eagle". Sounds pretty good to me (although, if he'd been around 35 years ago, in the pre-Malcolm-Allison era, he'd have been "Obama the Glazier" - maybe not quite so good). If, once he has been to a few West Ham games and realised the error of his ways, he would like to try another club, let me suggest a few options. Maybe:- Millwall FC "Obama the Lion". Reading FC "Obama the Royal". Southampton FC "Obama the Saint". Scunthorpe United FC "Obama the Iron". (See "Maybe not", below). Huddersfield Town FC "Obama the Terrier". Port Vale FC "Obama the Valiant". Peterborough United FC "Obama the Posh". Plymouth Argyle FC "Obama the Pilgrim". Hull City FC "Obama the Tiger" Mansfield Town FC "Obama the Stag". Ipswich Town FC "Obama the Tractor Boy" (could go down well in the Midwest?). St. Mirren FC "Obama the Buddy". Airdrie United FC "Obama the Diamond". Ayr United FC "Obama the Honest Man". Motherwell FC "Obama the Steelman". Maybe not:- West Bromwich Albion FC "Obama the Baggie". Norwich City FC "Obama the Canary". Fulham FC "Obama the Cottager". Watford FC "Obama the Hornet". Scunthorpe United FC "Obama the Iron" (cockney rhyming slang). Newcastle United FC "Obama the Magpie". Brighton and Hove Albion FC "Obama the Seagull". Dundee United FC "Obama the Arab". Forfar Athletic FC "Obama the Loon". Newport County FC "Obama the Exile". Whichever football ground he ends up frequenting, I'd like to wish "Obama the 'Ammer" all the best in his new gig. Flutes, whistles and thumbholes. 29/10/08 - All fungers and thimbs One of the drawbacks of my "job" is that, as a result of a phone call, I have to "dig and delve" in the musical instrument attic and excavate some instruments which I may not have played recently. I am, currently, trying to recover from a flurry of such phone calls. The first one directed me towards chinese flutes such as the dizi, xiao and bahu. Bahu - no real problem. Dizi - no problem as long as the ricepaper membranes work and they always do, the night before the session. The following morning, you get them out of the case and some of them are, plainly, "in a huff". Xiao - Unlike the bahu and dizi, which have 6 holes on the front, the xiao has 5, the 6th being a thumbhole. Whilst the xiao is quite easy to blow, site-reading a tune, which would normally be a doddle on any 6-hole flute, is suddenly an alien landscape. Help! A further phone call call directed me to the chromatic whistle. I, fortunately, have a chromatic whistle made by Chris Abell. The good thing about Chris's whistle is that, if you keep the (2) thumb holes and the bottom (4th finger) hole covered, it plays (beautifully) like a regular whistle. The chromatic notes take a bit of "getting used to", but make perfect sense if you want to sling in the odd chromatic note. I wouldn't, however, fancy suddenly playing an entire tune on one in A flat or D flat, if you know what I mean. To sum up, thumbholes are great, but they do different things on different instruments. Of course! That's why Boehm invented his system! Duh! Think I'll stick to the cello, where the thumb stays resolutely behind the fingerboard (except when you play difficult stuff in "thumb-position" and you suddenly have to.... AAAAAaaargh!.....) Back to the drawing-board. Mushroom Sandwich. 19/10/08 - Chilled. I've just returned from a ten day chill-out in Deal, Kent (see news 10/07/06). My wife and I chilled, walked, ate, drank (top tips! - Shepherd Neames "Late Red" and Gadds "Seasider" if you like English ale) and generally soaked up the beautiful Indian Summer which lasted the whole time. Of the ten days, during nine of them you could see Calais so clearly you felt you could reach out and touch it. Deal is close to the town of Sandwich, one of the "Cinque Ports" in English history and the title of this news refers to my two-day return in the middle of the the trip to do some sessions for "Mushroom" from "Massive Attack". The stuff he is doing is exceedingly groovy. I asked him what the title of the album would be. He said it's work in progress and there's no title yet but, watch this space. The string section played with immense intensity, which is what Mushroom was after and which MD Mark Thomas and leader Perry Montague-Mason wrung from the players. I'm used to intensity, playing in the Michael Nyman Band, but I've rarely heard that kind of intense playing in a regular "pop" session. I'm certainly going to buy it. Off to Budapest on Tuesday with the afore-mentioned MNB and Russia at the end of the month. (The Hermitage Museum - fabulous! - more art news, undoubtedly, to follow). Today's rant topics - whistles/other instruments/gardening. 05/10/08 - If-I-ever-have-to-bag-up-another-bramble-again. GRRRRR! I had a visit from a new student yesterday and, amongst other things, we went through a list of "stuff she had to get". On the list was a new whistle. She had brought along a shiny new Generation D and it was, to be frank, a musician's enemy. It sounded absolutely awful and 90% of her (and my) effort was put into just getting the thing to play at all. After five minutes of this madness I raided my locker and we embarked on a "comparison" session. We tried various factory instruments like her Generation D and then "tweaked" versions of the same thing. The look on her face when she tried a tweaked one was a picture. "This one sounds really nice and it's easy to play and it's in tune and....". This from a player who plays Boehm flute to a high standard but is a whistle novice. The "tweaked" whistles don't cost that much more than the production-line versions but they are a universe away in terms of actually being a "musical" instrument. I sent her off with instructions to get a Jerry Freeman tweaked Mellow Dog. Watch this space. We also tried some more expensive whistles, which I didn't advise her to invest in at this stage but her views, on just picking up something and having a "tootle" on it, were interesting. She liked Jean-Pierre LeMeur and Steve Harper. Right on! We also tried quenas and, having played my Zapata and Camac, I gave her a quena to take away and practise on. This probably cost about $5 but the (unknown) Bolivian maker lavished enough attention on it that it plays beautifully. Not all cheap quenas are this good but, if you try them out, you can quickly detect whether the maker was knocking something out for tourists' mantlepieces, or actually making "musical instruments". Cheap needn't, necessarily, mean bad. I've made a pact with my next-door neighbour (who has no access to his garden - don't ask!) that if he cleared away the jungle I would keep the land cultivated. He readily agreed and he and his mate set to work with large petrol-driven power tools. I agreed to "bag up" the stuff and take it to the Council recycling depot. 30 bags later I am still not finished and completely lacerated from forcing unwilling brambles into heavy-duty bags. (The non-heavy-duty bags simply disintegrate at the mere sight of the brambles - reminds me of the Medieval technique of "showing the prisoner the instruments of torture"). What is it with brambles? They adhere to you, to the bag, to themselves, it takes four or five goes to get them in the bag as, when you thrust them in and withdraw your arm, they come back out again attached to your sleeve. Aaaaaarrrrgh!!!!! Time for a nice sleep and more delightful bramble-bagging tomorrow morning. Top tip! Don't get gastric flu! 02/10/08 - Tony Death'sdoorigan. I've just emerged from a bout of gastric flu. Nasty business. Difficult to see a way forward when even a glass of water is agonising to swallow! However, that's all behind me and I've just finished making (musical) arrangements for an Amnesty International gig in West Wales this coming weekend and am now suffering from writer's cramp. Things can only get better. In addition to the usual recording session malarkey, I now find that I'm aquiring pupils to teach. This is a thoroughly refreshing development which I hope to expand upon. There's nothing more joyful than the look on someone's face when it dawns on them that, as a result of teacher input, they can see a way forward to the next stage of their musical journey. Countries to be visited in the foreseeable future include Hungary, Russia, France, Spain, Scotland, England (where's that?), Holland, Greece, Italy, Germany, Poland, Australia and New Zealand. If you would like a ticket to experience the Michael Nyman Band effect, that can probably be arranged or, if you fancy a pint, drop me a line and I'll give you dates. On the flute/whistle/quena front, I'm currently enjoying playing whistles by Hudson Winds and Jean-Pierre LeMeur and quenas by Milton Zapata. I've had a lot of e-mails requesting Milton's contact details and I'm happy to give those out to anyone who wants to own a seriously good quena. Over and out. Some splendid news the CIA already know about! 05/09/08 - Fidel Hinnstro. I'm sure the CIA and MI5 have a bulging file on me already, but let me add to it by plugging an organisation of which I have been a member for many years. Musicians Against Nuclear Arms (www.mana.org.uk) has many members and eminent patrons within the UK musical community and, probably, further afield. I would urge readers to check their website and, if you are unfortunate enough to live anywhere near London, get to one of their concerts. The next one is on the 18th September in St. Cyprian's Church near Baker Street, where the Wihan String Quartet will perform a programme of Janacek, Smetana and Dvorak, including Smetana's 2nd quartet - one of the most extraordinary pieces of music ever composed. Early musical influences. 05/09/08 - Wee Tony. I found myself wandering around Croydon (South London) earlier today, as one does, and went into a record shop to look for a CD of Paco de Lucia's "Entre Dos Aguas". They were out of stock on that one but I came out with some stuff by the Chris Barber Band. This is the first music I'm aware of hearing (my dad was a big fan) and I have become re-aquainted with tracks such as 'Careless Love" sung by Ottilie Patterson and the clarinet playing of Monty Sunshine (splendid name!). Monty had a hit in 1959 with the Sidney Bechet tune "Petite Fleur" on both sides of the Atlantic and I recall hearing that on the radio as well as on my dad's "gramophone". One thing about the sound of the band, which has stuck with me ever since, is the space between the high-fretted banjo of Lonnie Donegan and the bass of Jim Bray, allowing the vocals and solo instruments to have the freedom to give full rein to their sound. The tasteful drums of Ron Bowden were an essential part in the mix. I need hardly add that Lonnie Donegan went on to become the "King of Skiffle" and, in his turn, influenced the Quarrymen, who, in a moment of madness, changed their name to "The Beatles". Scordatura and Piobaireachd in cultural harmony shock! 31/08/08 - Antonio MacLeod. I've just returned from a few days recording, in the village of Templecombe in Somerset, with Robert White and Sharon Lindo of the New Scorpion Band. In addition to the delights of communing with the calves in the adjacent field and Bob's mum's Siamese cats, we played some enjoyable 18th century music including the Sonata based on the tune "Bonnie Jean of Aberdeen" written by Alexander Munro in 1732. This is described as Munro's "masterpiece" and, never mind Corelli, it's an engaging piece which Sharon and I imbued with all the 18th century feel we could muster. Watch this space! Additionally and, hence, the title of this news, Sharon recorded her first version of the Pibroch tune "MacIntosh's Lament", using the "scordatura" version (different tuning) on the fiddle of the 8-minute piece, resulting in a musical experience which I found very moving, as it's from the Isle of Lewis, part of my ancestry, and the tuning of the fiddle gives it an ancient and Norse (hardanger fiddle) kind of sound. I'm sure the piece will appear, soon, on a New Scorpion Band recording. Despite the noble musical aspects of the trip, the real purpose was to play "carpet cricket" and my batting can only be described as woeful. I hope to get some "carpet cricket" footage on the site in the near future and commence a revolution in world leisure activities. NYO plays music written in "former colony" shock! 24/08/08 - Sir Bufton Tufton. Yes indeed. This evening I watched/listened to the Prom concert given by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, in which the programme consisted of works written in the USA by composers born, visiting or exiled there. 1. The orchestra. I was never a member of the NYO as, by the time I was good enough to audition, I was already applying for music college with a view to becoming a professional musician so was deemed "ineligible". A quick perusal of the NYO website earlier appears to show that this antediluvian concept is no longer in place. (Terribly British - "What? You want do do it for money? How appalling!...etc). The NYO has supplied many a concert platform and recording studio around the world with already experienced musicians for many decades and, on the evidence of tonights gig, will continue to do so. Politicians, or anyone else, who begrudge money to the nurture of music in young people need only look at the astonishing story of the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela as a result of "El Sistema". The NYO this evening, as with the SBSO, could have seemed like any professional outfit to a casual switcher-on of the radio. 2. The music. It was a game of three halves (to coin a phrase) in that the first piece - "Ameriques" by Edgard Varese, written in 1921, sounded futuristic whereas the second, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 4, written in 1926, sounded backward-looking, although the early influence of jazz could be heard and the piano soloist, Boris Berezovsky (a formidable jazz pianist) gave it swing. The final piece was Copland's Symphony No. 3 and here was the authentic voice of American music. If the other pieces were by "visitors", here was something by an American-born composer who had studied in Paris under Nadia Boulanger but changed his style to find a voice which is unmistakeably American. Don't take my word for it. Check out these orchestras and composers. The concert will, undoubtedly, appear on the BBC's iPlayer facility within the next day or two. Check it! Was this a rant? (Oh no, not another one....please....I swear I'll give them up....honest....etc....etc....). World's hottest curry reminisced. 23/08/08 - The Human Torch. I've just returned from a lunchtime curry (in "The Great Nepalese", Eversholt Street beside Euston Station - top curry venue) with my old mate, American violinist Geoff Wharton and his young lady. He was in London for last night's BBC Prom concert, in his capacity as concertmaster of the Gürzenich Orchestra of Köln. Amongst many other reminiscences, we recalled a Saturday night in late November 1975 when, after a week of performances at the Darlington (Co. Durham) Civic Theatre with Ballet Rambert, we had three hours to kill before catching the sleeper train to London. We decided to fill in the time by making an attempt at the "World's Hottest Curry" record. Can't remember the name of the restaurant (I could take you there!) but in we went and asked "What's the hottest curry on the menu?" "Chicken Phal, sir." "OK, two of those, and could you make them extra hot?" "Are you sure, sir, they are already extremely h...." "That'll be fine. Two of those." Two hours later, pouring with sweat, stripped down to our vests and in front of a highly amused audience of waiters, chefs and other customers, we got the last mouthful down, followed by copious gulps of lager and to generous applause. Let's not talk about the following morning. Next week - eating the entire McDonalds menu on a rainy Thursday in Manchester with Australian viola player Alan Bond. (I'm afraid so) By George, they've got it! 18/08/08 - Professor Henry Higgins. I've just returned from a week teaching at the West Coast School of Chamber Music in Pembrokeshire, Southwest Wales, and bored the students rigid by banging on, relentlessly, about the need to play (classical) music completely in time before they had the right to start "messing with it". In addition to my duties coaching various pieces of classical chamber music, I led workshops on rhythm, in which we didn't touch classical music at all - instead concentrating on Transylvanian Gypsy tunes, Flamenco clapping, Bolivian panpipe "hocket" and Jamaican reggae. The upshot was that, by the end of the course, students of all ages came up to me and thanked me for the revelation that "playing in time" is a completely liberating experience! By George, they got it. Another thing which grabbed my attention was that I had a number of sessions coaching Beethoven's Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 1. A composer's opus 1 is the first thing they publish and is, as such, the way in which the composer introduces him/herself to the world. Beethoven's Op. 1 consists of three piano trios which are all miniature masterpieces and the Op. 1 thing reminded me of an Op. 1 which I recently heard on the radio and which completely blew my mind. Luigi Nono's "Canonic Variations Opus 1" on a tone-row by Arnold Schoenberg is one of the greatest pieces of music I've ever heard. Panpipe workshops a blast (!) 07/08/08 - Dr. Hyperventilated. Last weekend I led a panpipe workshop on the Summer flute course of my longterm friend and colleague, Anna Noakes, based in the village of Yoxford in Suffolk, England. The idea was to get the flute students to improve their rhythm by learning "hocket" on the pipes. Hocket is the technique of sharing around the notes of a melody so that different players have different notes, and when they all play them in the right order, the tune should emerge unscathed. I must say that the students picked the concept up immediately and ran with it, to the extent that, after playing some excercises, we learned a tune and performed it in public in a restaurant in the village a few hours later! I'm going to be inflicting the same fate on some string students on a similar course next week. Let's see how they do (?!). I think the concept of "panpipe workshops" is a good thing for all musicians of any standard, as it's relatively easy to get a note out of a pipe and fitting in with other players in a close rhythmic relationship is the order of the day. It's also fun! If anyone reading this knows of an educational establishment which would be interested in this kind of thing, I'd be most happy to provide it. "Rant" P.S. 25/07/08 - Dr. Thoughtful Upon re-reading yesterdays rant, it occurred to me that "professional instruments" need not, necessarily, be expensive. A few examples. In 1981 I bought an Eko fretless acoustic bass guitar for 90 quid from a bloke in Romford, East London, in response to his ad in "Exchange & Mart". I have used that thing on more recordings (film, album etc....) and live gigs than you can shake a stick at. I've tried many far more expensive basses since, but none have the "tonky" (technical term) quality of that battered old Eko. Around the same time, I was on tour with Ballet Rambert playing, amongst other things, "Ghost Dances". At the end of one performance, in the Birmingham Rep Theatre, a lady leaned over the pit rail and said "I've just come back from Bolivia and have a load of instruments. Do you want to buy them?" They turned out to be assorted sikus (panpipes), toyos (very big panpipes) pinkillos (flutes) and mohoceños (very big flutes). I think she wanted 40 quid for the lot and those instruments went on to be used on many an Incantation album, all kinds of TV stuff and movies, such as "The Mission". The toyos, in particular, became the basis of the "Panpipe Olympics" technique, as developed for such James Horner scores as "The Patriot Games", "Braveheart" etc. The Bombo (large Bolivian bass drum) which was used in "The Mission" and countless other movies and albums (and is sitting about ten feet away from me as I write) cost $5 from a bloke in La Paz. The bloke who sold us the bombo threw in some "chajchas" (bunches of llama hooves) for free, and they continue to appear on recordings to this day. Let's not even start with improvised (and excellent) sounds like walloping the backs of chairs with a pair of cheap drumsticks. Once, we even stuck a mike out of the back door of a studio in West London and recorded a thunderstorm. That was free (and it's on an album). "Professional instruments" rant. 24/07/08 - Huffen und Puffen. My attention was recently drawn to an internet discussion forum, the subject being what constitutes a "professional" instrument (in this case, whistles but, in the interests of science, let's extend it to all musical instruments). The contributors appeared divided into:- A. Those who take the view that the cheapest factory-churned-out instruments are perfectly adequate and, in the hands of a competent player, will do any job. B. Those who advocate acquiring instruments of the highest quality available, even if this means paying "top-dollar". C. Those who have no idea. Ask any professional musician what kind of instrument they play and they will, largely, say the best they can get/afford. Professional musicians are always agonising over whether their instrument is good enough and looking around for a better one. In many cases, if a player plays an instrument not "deemed to be up to scratch", employment possibilities can be lost. Having said that, many musicians will have an instrument they are fond of, and bring out occasionally in appropriate circumstances. Also, many players (myself included) will have a "touring" or "pit work" instrument which, whilst it's not your best one, is perfectly professionally acceptable. The first cello I ever played was a free school one, held together by sellotape. I moved on to a Czech factory instrument then talked my dad into parting with 80 quid of his hard-earned cash (laughable amount nowadays) to buy a handmade Bavarian cello, which took me through college and into work. As soon as I was able, I upgraded to a handmade French instrument and, eventually, was fortunate enough to find, and have the funds to buy, the fine old English cello I now play. My "touring" one is by a contemporary German maker and is of the highest quality. My first guitar was an Eko Ranger VI. Would I play one now? You're joking - I have a Taylor! My first whistle was a Generation. Would I play one now? Don't be ridiculous - I have any amount of far better whistles. My first charango was warped and out of tune but all there was at the time. Would I play it now? I've sought out charangos with almost religious fervour and even had an excellent one made for me. The only reason to play a duff instrument is when playing some "source music" on a film or for TV and the director asks "could you sound duff?" Imagine being a concert pianist (who don't, generally, take their instruments around with them). The concert hall manager rings you and says "we have an old Broadwood baby grand with a slightly warped frame and a cracked soundboard and it could do with re-padding or, if you prefer, we could hire in a 15-foot Steinway". Would you reply "I'm a professional - the Broadwood will be fine"? Musicians depend on advances in equipment manufacture just like anyone else, in order to sound better and, generally, make their very difficult task easier. In our case, however, new is not necessarily better. If I were to answer the phone this afternoon to some philanthropist offering to donate me a Strad, would I take it? ......(left blank to avoid stating the bleedin' obvious). Don't be a Luddite. Upgrade. (And acquire a taste for the pain of "agonising"!). Official end of rant. Wroclaw 22/07/08 - Tony Hinnigan I've just returned from two gigs in the city of Wroclaw in Lower Silesia, Poland. It's amazing that there's anything left of it, as it was at the centre of the last, and one of the bloodiest, sieges of the Second World War. Breslau (as it was called then) was declared by Hitler to be a "festung" (fortress) and was to be defended at all costs. The German garrison did not surrender until the 6th May, 1945, the day before the general surrender of all German forces. Three months of pounding by Red Army artillery and aerial bombardment and "scorched earth" retreat by the German defenders left 50% of the Old Town and up to 90% of the outlying districts completely flattened. A number of the old buildings survived to be restored, including churches, the cathedral and the very splendid medieval town hall. Our gigs were in the beautifully restored (and absolutely packed) Opera House. I'm just now making final preparations to teach string-playing students to play panpipes (to improve their concept of rhythm). Wish me luck. Tram and train news. 10/07/08 - Tony Nerdigan I recently took some time off and messed about in Derbyshire and Leicestershire. For those unfamiliar with the geography of England, they are counties right in the middle of the country, or, more precisely, the "East Midlands". In Derbyshire my wife and I stayed in Belper, or "Belle-Repaire", as the Normans named it. The Normans were right. It's a beautifull place to repair to, with rolling hills and green fields, most of which we covered on foot. Belper is also close to Crich, home of the National Tram Museum. This sounds like some kind of government-run affair but is, in fact, run by tram nerds like myself and is one of the best museums on the planet in the sense that, you don't just wander around looking at dusty old trams in a shed - you ride around on them! We rode on a Glasgow tram built in 1900 and I'm sure that I rode on that very tram as a child before the system was ripped up in 1962. (Let's see - that makes me about 106. Yep, that would be right). I sent my mum a postcard of the Glasgow trams in the museum and she has confirmed that those trams served our area of the city. COSMIC!!!!! In Leicestershire we rode on (what's left of) the Great Central Railway. The line runs from Loughborough to Leicester 365 days a year. Without enthusiasts like this, the film industry would be unable to recreate certain scenes in period films unless the budget was considerably increased. Let's hope old railway lines, as manned by enthusiasts, will be able to survive as going concerns. I hope to end my days as a bloke who polishes bits on the locomotives! P.S. Although I am a complete expert at golf(!?), I have recently taken to hitting every shot too short, too long, into the rough, into the rough on the other side of the fairway, etc., etc. Is there any cure? Desperate, South Norwood. Loud Whistles P.S. 23/06/08 - Deaf as a post. I've received a message from Phil Hardy telling me that wide-bore Chieftain high D whistles are still in production in both tuneable and non-tuneable versions from www.kerrywhistles.com. Banjo players, beware! LOUD WHISTLES!!!!! 21/06/08 - Sorry, I couldn't quite catch that. Could you speak up a bit? The geezer next door is making an infe I saw a question the other day on "The Session" website regarding which whistle is the loudest for playing in noisy pub sessions with banjos, accordions, bodhrans etc. Whilst most musical instruments have variable dynamics available to the player, others, such as bagpipes, organs and, er, whistles, are basically on or off, so the idea of getting a "loud" or "quiet" one is not as stupid as it may seem. I don't usually have much use for loud whistles, as the kind of sessions I tend to play in involve a microphone and a sound-proofed studio. However, I was intrigued enough to trawl through my own collection to see which whistle was the loudest. Susato plastic whistles came out pretty loud in the "survey", as did the Tamlin wooden whistle, but the loudest, by a very long way, was a wide-bore Chieftain which was languishing at the bottom of the flightcase (like I said, I don't often have much use for loud whistles). That is a LOUD whistle, and very well in tune etc. I don't think Phil Hardy makes them any more so if you fancy upping the decibels, you'll have to keep an eye on the usual places. Interestingly enough, the next loudest were wooden whistles - Bleazey and Rose, in that order. Whilst they don't have the raw volume of the Chieftain, they make up for it with cutting-edge tone quality. Transposition? What's that? I play the violin, whistle, flute etc., etc.... 19/06/08 - Torquemada I have been immersed in making arrangements of various pieces of music for summer courses where I am to teach, basically classical, players how to play in different styles, including how to loosen/tighten their concept of rhythm and, hopefully, introduce the idea that you can read a piece of music and play it in a different key. This is run-of-the-mill stuff for players of instruments like clarinet, sax, trumpet etc., but for others, they just "don't do transposition". Rubbish. I learned to play the cello first of all, whereby you are, already, required to read three clefs. Transposition is but a short step beyond that. In my life as a player of ethnic instruments I am expected to transpose all the time and, as "time is money", the mind is wonderfully concentrated, and playing the tune in another key is something which is expected and no more difficult than saying "Zwei bieren bitte, was kostet das?" etc., etc. Incidentally, tranposing a tune into another key is not, solely, a problem for the reading musician. I have heard many cries for help from musicians who play by ear alone and the answer is the same. If you have to use a completely different fingering to play the tune, you may fall off the horse initially, but just get straight back on it and run with the "new" horse. It won't take long. By the way, I can't speak a word of German. Brass Band news. 09/06/08 - Tony Hinnigan I've just finished participating in the Michael Nyman Live festival over three days in the Cadogan Hall in London. The man himself opined to me that he thought the best gig in the mini-festival was the one yesterday afternoon by the Wingates Band from Bolton, Lancashire. He's not wrong. My wife and I were at the gig, together with most of the rest of the Michael Nyman Band (oh, and members of the public also!) and we were blown away by the sound, the expertise, and the sensitive musicianship of the band. They played most of the stuff on their "Nyman Brass" CD and a few choice extras. I would heartily recommend this CD, not just for the music itself but for the superb playing of the band and for their willingness to attack some new and unfamiliar music with such commitment. Chatting to some of the band after the gig revealed that they plan to record a second CD of Nyman's music. I wish them every success and hope they will explore other avenues outside the traditional band repertoire. If anyone can do it, they can. More Quena news! 06/06/08 - Tony Gobsmackedagain. I am astonished by the recent feedback I've had on quenas. Many readers have contacted me requesting information on how to get hold of decent-quality quenas. I can only assume that some sort of quena revival is taking place - something which I wholeheartedly support. Playing the quena is a unique experience, unlike any other instrumental tradition, and it is not difficult to learn. In fact, if you want to, you can teach yourself, as I did, although a few hints along the way are most useful. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone who has expressed an interest to persevere and, if I can help, to get in touch and pick my brains. A helpful side-effect to quena playing is to have a head-start on playing such flutes as the shakuhachi and xiao. Most satisfactory! Whistle and Quena news. 04/06/08 - Thatweirdofluteyblokewhat's'isnameagain? Some time ago I acquired a high G whistle made by Chris Abell. I had only ever owned a Generation high G and fought shy of ever using it as it seemed so infernally squeaky! The Abell instrument was a vast improvement but it still languished in the case waiting for a suitable emergency to come along. A few months ago I decided to put it on a recording to get some "high-end" on the track and it went down kicking and screaming, as my producer will probably testify. Lately, however, I've been playing it more as I'm making arrangements for live performance this summer and the high G fits the bill. I think this is a very fine instrument and, frightening though it may be at first, it rewards perseverance with a unique and unmistakeable tone. I've also been playing a Camac quena which had languished in the case in its role as a "spare". My late friend Francis Calavia played a Camac but I aways stuck to my trusty Zapata (who wouldn't?!). The Camac quena, like the Abell whistle, is an instrument of the highest quality and I have been enjoying playing it very much, as I make these arrangements. On the subject of Zapata, I spoke to Milton on the phone the other day. He is making instruments again after a couple of decades of, solely, teaching. I believe I have found him a new source of material as his old one, reeds from Lake Biwa near Kyoto, is no longer available as the reeds are now protected by the Kyoto Prefecture. I have recently had some e-mails from people on my mailing list enquiring about quenas and I would be happy to pass on Milton Zapata's details to anyone interested in his, quite fabulous, instruments. A lucky escape, and a dire warning! 26/05/08 - Evel Knieveligan. Just returned from a MNB tour in Spain and Italy. The first gig was in Santiago de Compostela and, for the first time in my life, I went backwards off the stage. Let me clarify. We were playing in a kind of sports/multi-purpose venue and sitting on folding chairs. The band is configured with the front row on the deck, second row (including myself) on a riser behind them and the brass section as the third row on an even higher riser. The "rider" for the gigs stipulates that the risers should have lips nailed on to the back of them and we often make a fuss about this but, having got up at 3am and taken two flights etc., we failed to notice. When we went onstage, I checked that the back legs of my chair were a good distance from the back of the riser. What I didn't realise was that each time we got up to take a bow between numbers and sat down again, my chair was inching backwards. On about the 5th bow, I sat back down and the back feet of the the chair finally left the back of the riser. Fortunately, the steps up to the brass riser prevented me from going all the way back to the deck. I ended up horizontal, still in the chair, with the cello, which I had protected with typical musician's instinct, on top of me. The cello didn't receive so much as a scratch. I sustained some minor damage. The moral of the story is - if you're playing on a riser, even if you're standing up, make sure there's a lip nailed to the back of it! (Surprise) Old Grey Whistle Test. 09/05/08 - Old Git. Tomorrow I have to do a pop session which I'm probably not at liberty to discuss, divulge etc. for fear of litigation etc., etc., blah...blah...zzzzzzzz. It involves whistles in D flat, D and E (see Truck Drivers' Gear Change Hall of Shame) and, whilst the high and low whistles in D flat and E are, pretty much, spoken for, I have tons of whistles in D (now there's a surprise!). I was playing through the tune this evening on whistle after whistle to see which one I might, at least, start with. The list included Abell, Rose, Hudson, Oz, Harper, Vargas-tweaked Waltons and Le Meur. These are all great whistles but to my surprise I kept picking up the Jean-Pierre Le Meur. This whistle plays itself. With all the others you're aware of having to play the whistle to some extent. With Jean-Pierre's, you just play the tune. In terms of wooden whistles, the Oz came out tops. Art and football news. 07/05/08 - Tony Hinnigan My wife and I went back to the Tate gallery on Bank Holiday Monday to see the exhibition of paintings by Peter Doig (born in Edinburgh, raised in Canada, two decades in London, now resident in Trinidad). She was intrigued by the posters on the tube and so off we went, though neither of us had heard of the artist. His (very large) paintings are visual feasts and the exhibition included many smaller studies made prior to embarking on the big pictures, all of those being equally interesting viewing. This time I can recommend the book, published by the Tate. The ISBN no. is 978-1-85437-782-1. Last Sunday Crystal Palace FC beat Burnley FC 5-0 to secure their place in the Championship play-offs. The first leg of the semi-final will be against Bristol City at Selhurst Park next Saturday. COME ON YOU PALACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gig in historical place. 04/05/08 - Tony Hinnigan Well, all places have their history but I have just returned from a Michael Nyman Band gig in Drogheda, Co. Louth, Ireland, scene of the infamous siege by Oliver Cromwell in 1649 and the Battle of the Boyne between the Catholic King James II and the protestant forces of King William III in 1690. Whilst we were there, my wife and I went to Saint Peters Catholic Church in the town to see the preserved head of Saint Oliver Plunkett, the last Catholic Martyr in England, who was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, London, in 1681. The gig was in Saint Peters, Church of Ireland, which was absolutely packed with one of the warmest and most appreciative audiences the band has ever played to. We spoke to many of them over pints of Guinness in Clarke's Bar afterwards. My wife had an early flight the next day for recording sessions in London, so headed straight back to the hotel via a fish and chip shop to get a bag of chips. One of the the audience members was in there doing the same thing and, after congratulating her on the performance, said "Would you mind if I buy your chips?" She graciously accepted! More art news. 30/04/08 - Tony Hinnigan Living in London can have its frustrations, but one of the huge benefits (for someone who likes looking at paintings as much as I do) is the large number of top-quality Art Galleries with fabulous permanent collections and imaginative temporary exhibitions. Yesterday, my wife and I paid a visit to the Tate Britain to see their exhibition of paintings by the "Camden Town Group". This was a group of painters formed in North London in 1911 whose art "embraced the life of ordinary people - its beauty and magic as well as its boredom and anxiety - and it represented life sympathetically as it was led, rather than how it ought to be". The large exhibition included paintings by Walter Sickert (the only painter I had heard of before), Spencer Gore, Harold Gilman, Charles Ginner, Robert Bevan and Malcolm Drummond. I was quite staggered by the quality of these artists' work. They took their inspiration from the likes of Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Seurat but adapted their techniques to capture a London in the midst of enormous change and upheaval in the lead-up to the outbreak of World War One. Normally, I would include the ISBN no. of the exhibition book, but I feel that the reproductions therein don't really do justice to the actual paintings. Next stop, the Peter Doig exhibition!!! And the score is.... 28/04/08 - Tony Hinnigan Well, two sorts, really. I've had my head down scoring arrangements for a Summer School where I shall be teaching, whilst listening to endless football commentaries on the radio. The West Coast School of Chamber Music will take place in Pembrokeshire, Wales, in August and I shall be coaching and playing in a number of classes but chiefly focussing on classes on rhythm. I am arranging a number of folk and jazz tunes to try to get the classical students to rethink their approach to rhythm. Sadly, classical musicians and string players in particular have a less solid grasp of the concepts of rhythm than musicians from other disciplines. It seems perfectly acceptable to pull music around all over the place but, when faced with playing a load of offbeats in time, well, it's impossible(!). This nonsense has to stop and it will, in Pembrokeshire, this August. By the way, yesterday's commentary was from Parkhead, Glasgow, where the final score was Celtic 3 Rangers 2. Technically speaking, this scoreline would make me "over the moon" and Jim, my brother-in-law "sick as a parrot". I phoned Jim after the game and I can confirm that he is, by his own admission, as sick as a parrot Time to move on and excellent whistle news. 04/04/08 - Tony Hinnigan Yes, Ollie is neither under the ground nor ashes in an urn yet - funeral is on Fri 11th - but he would thoroughly approve of moving on. I was recently sent some "tweaked" whistles by Erik Torp-Olsen at vargaswhistles.com. Erik takes cheap factory whistles and dismantles then rebuilds the mouthpiece according to his own cunning plan. He sent me his versions of a Generation, a Feadog and a Waltons Mellow D. The first two are very good indeed and a vast improvement on the factory versions but the Waltons is absolutely out of sight. I've been playing it for days and spent this morning comparing it with other, much more expensive, metal whistles that I own. I have to say that Erik's Walton's Mellow D has shot to the top of the list. I recently raved about Mitch Smith's ozwhistle as a great wooden whistle and I feel the same way about this one. Apparently, Erik charges US$45 for them. That has to be one of the greatest bargains of all time. And it's tuneable. A very sad day. 31/03/08 - Tony Hinnigan I learned, last night, that one of my dearest friends, Oliver Nicholls, was killed in a hit-and-run road accident. I had known Ollie for more than 25 years, initially in his capacity as recording engineer at Backtrack Studios and, later, at his own Dove Studio at the "Log Cabin" in his family home, Daneby Hall in the village of Fordcombe, Kent. I have driven to Fordcombe so many times (and was planning to do so again in the near future) that it's difficult to take in that I shall never do it again. Ollie recorded many Incantation tracks over the years and played keyboards in the band for a number of years. I recorded my album "Camera" with Ollie engineering and co-producing and I should now like to dedicate that album to his memory. I spent some of my happiest and most stimulating times in Ollie's company and, though I don't have an actual brother, he was like a brother to me. His genial personality and positive nature, along with his superlative professionalism and inexhaustable patience will be sorely missed. If you look at Picture#7 in the Gallery section of this site, Ollie is in the middle, at the back. The picture seems to sum up just how he was. R.I.P. A funeral and a concert. 23/03/08 - Tony Hinnigan In the past week, my wife and I attended the funeral of our old friend (and her former Beau) Noel Abel. Noel was a talented trombone player and was a member of some of London's finest orchestras in his 20s. He found that the pressures of the profession did not agree with him and moved on to other jobs, although his love for music burned strongly for the rest of his life, and he maintained regular social contact with many professional musicians, a large number of whom were at the funeral. It was referred to in the service, and I shall repeat it here, that Noel spent the last half of his life determinedly drinking himself to death. In a way, he should be congratulated for finally getting there. I feel his pain and remember with fondness the many enjoyable times we spent together. R.I.P. Three days later we went to see a performance of Bach's Mass in B minor in St. Johns, Smith Square, London. This is supposed to be Bach's crowning masterpiece. Personally, I don't get it. I'm not an automatic worshipper at the Bach-Mozart-Beethoven shrine and, whilst these composers wrote some wonderful music, they also wrote some real tosh. I realise that a large degree of subjectivity accompanies any appreciation of music and I completely dig many other works by Bach, but the majority of the B minor Mass leaves me unmoved and, quite frankly, puzzled. The performance, however, by the Academy of Ancient Music and the Holst Singers conducted by Stephen Layton, was very fine indeed and made the concert a most rewarding experience. Don't take my word for it. Listen to the B minor Mass yourself. Make up your own mind. Enjoy! A must-have for all musicians. 14/03/08 - Tony Hinnigan I received a mailshot the other day from my colleague Sebastian Comberti who has a website called www.celloclassics .com. I may have raved before about the wonderful book "Cello" written by my late teacher, William Pleeth, in the "Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides" series (ISBN 1-871082-38-2) which is an essential read and re-read for all musicians, regardless of the instrument they play. Sebastian's website has just released an 8-DVD set entitled "William Pleeth - a life in music" which is a series of hour-long masterclasses given by William Pleeth at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies in Snape, England. The films were shot in 1996 to celebrate his 80th birthday. I watched the first one last night and was moved to tears, not just by the memory of my teacher (I had four years of weekly lessons just like that), but by the quite extraordinary intensity of his teaching. I learned most of what I know about music from Bill and I would urge all musicians, again, regardless of what instrument they play, to go to www.celloclassics.com and buy the whole set. This is the only footage available of an absolute legend of instrumental teaching at work and is an experience not to be missed. It's all Greek to me. 10/03/08 - Tony Hinniganipedes. Just got back from a very sunny and spring-like Athens to a very grim and still-wintery-like London. My wife had not been to Greece before, so we did the Acropolis shuffle and, I have to say, even though I have been there a number of times before, the concept of the civilisation which was Ancient Greece is a wondrous thing when you consider how much of what they invented is now taken for granted, including medicine, philosophy, politics, literature, mathematics, science and, undoubtedly, music. Sitting at the edge of the Acropolis, with the Parthenon at your back, and surveying the city and surrounding country is a mind-concentrating exercise in what a society with noble aspirations can bequeath to the world. I, more humbly, hope this week to bequeath a new webcast to my long-suffering readership. Pppphhhhhh!!! Classic Hinnigan 4 09/02/08 - The Producer The new Classic Hinnigan webcast is now up people. TP General gets the first crack! 08/02/08 - Tony Hinnigan A while ago I raved about a new whistle I tried, made by Mitch Smith of Ozwhistles.com. I acquired one of these shortly afterwards and was looking forward to my first opportunity to play it "in anger" as we demented musicians say. Lately I've been recording some library music with my old mate Mike Taylor (aka "The General"). Mike and I co-founded "Incantation" many years ago and he has been a soloist on a large number of movies, such as "Lord of the Rings" and others we have both worked on, including "Braveheart", "The Mission" etc., etc. The other day, on one of these library sessions, we ended up doing a tune Mike had written, on whistle and guitar. Mike hadn't expected to do be doing it so hadn't brought any whistles to the studio. I offered him the pick of mine including Abell, Rose, Hudson, Harper, LeMeur etc. Guess which one he went for? Yes, the ozwhistle won the day, and the General got the first crack!! Yesterday, My producer and I recorded the fourth classical music webcast, which will be uploaded onto the site shortly. The next one will probably be, specifically, Baroque music. If anyone has any suggestions for other genres to home in on for webcasts, e-mail me! The Taxman Cometh! 30/01/08 - The Producer. I'd like to apologise for the lack of webcasts in this last period as Chief Wanganui has been otherwise disposed with the inevitable end of year paperwork. I am assured that he will be back on form in the very near future. Please see NEWS section for pic of The Chief before he submits his final return. The snow in Spain falls mainly on the plain. 08/01/08 - Sancho Panzigan I've just returned from San Lorenzo del Escorial, near Madrid, where it was..... snowing!! Don't quite know why that should be such a surprise but, out of the great many visits I've paid to Spain, it's the first time it has actually snowed whilst I've been there. I returned to ongoing "works" in my house so, quickly scarpered to the abode of my producer where I recorded another classical music webcast which is now up on the site (under "Webcasts"....duh). My producer had a pleasant surprise for me upon my arrival - a whistle I had ordered from Mitch at ozwhistles.com after trying the truly amazing one he had sent my producer. The latter was in gidgee wood and the new one is blackwood with sterling silver mountings. It plays like a dream. I've had little time to spend on it since its arrival but will find all the time I can in the coming days and say something about it on the site. Today, I went into London's West End for the post-Christmas errand run. No-one gives me presents any more, so I had the ironic task of buying my own socks and handkerchiefs. I also looked in at Air-Edel Studios where composer Richard Wells was mixing his score (on which I had recorded in December) for a forthcoming film called "The Mutant Chronicles". Suitably gory sounds from oneself seemed to complement the action! There was some splendid Theorbo playing on the score too so, to match, here are a couple of bass guitars. Onwards and Upwards!!!!! 01/01/08 - Tony Light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnelagain I'll like to take this opportunity to wish everyone on my mailing list (and anyone else who drops by) a very happy and peacefull New Year. I appreciate all the comeback from readers and will continue to try to get back to you all as soon as I can. Happy New Year! P.S. To slightly misquote Mike Oldfield, here are some "slightly distorted guitars". So, that's the Festive Season over and done with, is it?....Please!? 31/12/07 - Ebenezer Scroogeigan My wife and daughter and I spent the Christmas period with my extended family in Scotland. In addition to all the usual malarkey, we managed to get out and about a bit and, one day, headed west, on the advice of the BBC weather-forecasting supremos. We drove up the west side of Loch Lomond in dense fog and a thick hoarfrost which covered the ground and trees, so that the land seemed to be under the spell of some wicked witch. We turned left at Tarbet and, as we approached Inveraray, the BBC chaps were proven right as we emerged from the fog blanket to hills glowing pink in the low-lying winter sun. A magical moment which could, probably, happen only in Scotland. Off to Madrid in a couple of days with the MNB. Here's the next instalment in the "So, how many etc., etc....... series. Guitars! Out of the frying pan into the fridge, Take 2 - Oh, and an astonishing new whistle!! 16/12/07 - Tony Hinnigan Yes, almost directly from Mexico, where the sun beat down from a cloudless sky, to Lithuania and Estonia, where the snow carpeted frozen streets. In Mexico, the Michael Nyman Band played in Puebla, a very pretty town about 60 miles south-east of Mexico City. The light is one of the most striking things about that region of Mexico, owning to the thin high-altitude air. The colours of the buildings are so vibrant and made me think of Venice, where the light reflecting off the lagoon has inspired so many artists over the centuries, and Ireland, where the brightly-painted houses nestle in lush, rain-fed greenery, a green like no other I have ever encountered. Contrast that with the low-lying winter sun glinting on the snow in Tallinn. These are some of the the things which make the travel grind bearable. In Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, we played in the National Philharmonic Hall on the very stage where an 8-year-old Jascha Heifetz played the Mendelssohn violin concerto (which he had debuted the previous year in Kaunas!) to an audience including violinist and teacher Leopold Auer, who immediately whisked the young lad off to St. Petersburg to study with him. The rest, as they say, is history. I've played on many a European concert platform where momentous musical events have taken place and it continues to be a fascination, to stand on that stage and try to imagine how that evening was in 1908, 1762, etc., etc. Since then the band has done gigs in Rome (which we made by the skin of our teeth - high winds at the airport), the Barbican concert hall in London, and the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-On-Sea, Sussex, which is a delightful (recently restored) Modernist style building which I would invite you to google for an architectural visual feast. The MNB has also been in the studio recording Michael's song cycle "I Sonetti Lussuriosi", a series of settings of erotic poems by the 16th-century Italian poet Pietro Aretino. The piece was premiered in the Barbican concert and caused amusement in the British press, not least because it occasioned the first ever "under the counter for consenting adults only" programme in the history of the Barbican Centre, owing to the severely explicit nature of the lyrics! Additionally, a BBC producer was thrown into a state of panic at the English translation of the the words when Michael was doing a Radio 3 promo for the the gig and required the soprano, Marie Angel, to hum, rather than sing, the song they were performing live on air. Lots of Italian speakers in the UK. Hilarious! The other day I repaired to the house of my producer, foggy of head and irkish of humour, to be presented with a new high D whistle made by Mitch Smith at Oz Whistles. I immediately cheered up upon playing the instrument. I've played many a musical instrument in my time and, when you get a good one in your hands, it's an absolute joy and when you get something really special, you don't want to do anything else but keep playing it. Mitch's whistle is one of the latter. I understand that he has only been making whistles for a couple of years and I, therefore, have to accord him the instrument-making equivalent of an Oscar-Board-Sweeping-Best-Everything award. Best Newcomber? You bet! There will be some garbled footage on this site shortly under "Old Grey Whistle Test" on the subject of the whistle and, as soon as I can collect 250 of yer Australian dollars to send to Oz Whistles, I will have one of my own. I can't wait! By the way, it not only sounds brilliant, it looks FANTASTIC!! Great work. I'll be playing the whistle some more on the site when I've got one and lived with it for a bit, and will publish details of recordings on which I will (undoubtedly) use it. On the subject of whistles, here's the latest in the "So, how many o' these....zzzzz....zzzzzzzzzz...... series and it's - whistles! See site NEWS for pics. P.S. My producer tells me that the Oz whistle will be in with five other whistles under "Wanganui's Whistle Wish List". Most seasonal. So, how many o' these 13/11/07 - Tony Yes, that's right. The postman turned up today with a cylindrical parcel. Ominous. It contained an F whistle in boxwood made by (the previously mentioned) Jon Swayne. The gentleman who recently sold me his Low D Swayne told me he was going to concentrate exclusively on bagpipes, so would I like to take his place on the Swayne waiting list? Seemed like a good plan and, in fact, a couple of days later, Jon contacted me to say that he'd already made the chap's whistle so, if I was still interested, he'd send it to me straight away. I've gone from a lifetime of not owning one of these flutes to having two delivered in the space of a week. I'll give the F a spin on this site when I've found a nice tune to play on it. I have never met Jon, but he tells me in his letter that, years ago (I was in the Balanescu Quartet and Jon ran a bagpipe trio called Moebius), jazz pianist Keith Tippett was trying to book both groups for a gig in his Rare Music Club. Actually, I think I'd already left the BQ by that and Jon was out of town so Keith couldn't get hold of him. Nice to think how small the musical world can be, though. Incidentally, please find, above, another photo from "half the contents of my attic" (minus today's new arrival). My producer will post the picture as soon as he has put the finishing touches to the 95% scale model of the "Graf Spee" he is currently constructing in his shed. "Cheeky B*****d" TP. "I think we should adopt the "Classical" approach, don't you, Carruthers?" "Absolutely, m'lud." 08/11/07 - Viscount Wanganui the 94th. There is, currently, a new webcast on the site devoted to classical music. Hold your horses! My producer is, as I speak, re-formatting the show to make it consistent with 21st century technology. Once he has done that, and after we have taken tea (Earl Grey, of course) on the lawn with toast and bramble jam, he will upload a second classical music show, all of which goes to prove that, if you are patient and tolerant enough, you CAN get the staff. Incidentally, as you can see from the previous news item, I have commenced to place on the site images from my extensive collection of Hellenic pottery (shurely, a load of junk on your front room floor?....Ed.). So, how many o' these " musical instruments " dae ye actually have, laddie? Dunno guv, do I? 07/11/07 - Curator of the Adam Carse collection, Horniman Museum, South London. Part the first - flutes. I have, miraculously, survived another visit from my "Producer". 06/11/07 - Cat-who-is-rapidly-running-out-of-lives. Hang on, I'll just open the front door and check up and down the street. Yes, he really HAS gone. Phew! The "gentleman" turned up with a number of items, including a flute and a B-flat whistle by Tony Dixon, for my perusal. This perusing can be found in the "Old Grey Whistle Test" section of "Downloads". Also in this section are comparisons between two Jon Swayne low D whistles, one which my producer has owned for many years and one which I recently purchased from a chap in the United States. There is also a short clip of a Bahu that I recently bought in Shanghai (more detailed Bahu stuff to follow later) and, under "Walkabout", the actual Bahu purchase and some transport footage which my producer has temp-scored with some music by Ralph Vaughan-Williams to interesting effect. The trams in the footage are the same ones which I travelled on as a child in Glasgow and which, 45 years ago, the good burghers of that city decided to scrap. They are still running fine in Hong Kong. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Over the last few days I have been compiling a photographic inventory of the musical instruments I possess, as I'm fed up with people asking me how many instruments I actually play and having no idea of the answer. The photos should start to appear on the site later today. By the way, my street address is:- Vault 106, Fort Knox, KY, U.S.A. Rule 1 - If you want something done right, do it yourself. 27/10/07 - To Ni-Hin. Yesterday afternoon my wife and I returned from a trip to Shanghai with the Michael Nyman String Quartet and the Maestro himself. We thought we'd go early to China and have five days getting over the jetlag and, generally, exploring a city we hadn't been to before. How wrong can one be?! When we got to Heathrow airport, the Virgin Atlantic security guard looked through our passports and said "Where are your visas?" "Our promoter assured us we wouldn't need one," we confidently replied. "Not only do you need one to enter China" said the chap, "You need one to get on the plane in the first place." He then outlined the long list of options open to us. 1. Go home, get a visa from the Chinese Embassy in London, and try again another day. 2. Purchase some onward tickets from Shanghai to Hong Kong and, upon arriving in Shanghai airport, take the first available flight to Hong Kong and remain there for as long as it takes to get a visa to fly back to Shanghai. 3. Er... that's it. (Apparently, the Chinese Authorities had recently moved the goalposts on visas and had started sending visaless passengers back, fining the airline 7500 quid and requiring them to repatriate the hapless travellers at the airline's expense). Option 1 went straight down the pan as all flights were full for the next week. So it was that, two hours later, we found ourselves racing through the terminal building, clutching our onward tickets, to board a rapidly closing flight by the skin of our teeth. Promoters, eh? Don'tcha just love 'em! It wasn't so bad in Hong Kong, although we'd been there several times before. Shanghai, when we finally got there, proved to be an exhiliarating city. Shame not to have had more time to enjoy it. Ggggrrrrrrr!!!.... Would you be so kind as to pass me the bottle with the orange pills in it, please.... and maybe I'd better have a few of the pink ones too, and the red ones and....... An auspicious occasion! 14/10/07 - Tony Hinnigan Yesterday, my wife and I attended the celebrations, at my "producer's" abode, for his 18th birthday. Fortunately, recent demonstrations on this site resulted in him being able to prepare gin-and-tonics of acceptable quality. An enjoyable time was had by all, although I did find it necessary to remind the "gentleman" that, as I am shortly to turn 21, a modicum of respect for his elders continues to be appropriate. That being said, happy birthday Mr. Hardy! Name and shame - it's your public duty! 26/09/07 - Professor Hans Kellerigan. Yesterday I had the enormous pleasure of listening to Neil Diamond singing "Cracklin' Rosie" on the radio only to discover, to my horror, that the song contains a classic "Truck Driver's Gear Change". Let me explain to the uninitiated that a "TDGC" is a truly appalling musical device whereby a popular songwriter hikes his/her song up a key (or even several keys) in a desperate attempt to persuade the embattled listener to stick with the wretched "composition" until it ends. I went straight to the appropriate website, www.gearchange.org, to check that "Cracklin' Rosie" was on on the list and discovered that it wasn't! Needless to say, I have done my duty and nominated the "song" for inclusion. I would urge all readers to be vigilant and, upon hearing a "TDGC", check the Hall of Shame at www.gearchange.org and, if the offending opus is not listed, nominate it! When I become a ruthless dictator, my first act will be to compel all writers of popular songs to take a ten-year course in the theories of Arnold Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School. Travels with my cello, No.94 - Jobsworths. 21/09/07 - Aristotle Wittgenstein. Travelling with a cello is, indeed, an exercise to tax the patience of the most eminent philosophers. Jobsworths abound on aeroplanes (...Yes, I have a ticket for it, at the insistence of your airline and it, therefore, has a seat. Which part of that is difficult for you to comprehend?...etc...etc), trains (...It's not a cello, it's a viola da gamba. Would you like to look that up in your book? It's not there? So I can bring it on, then...) and coaches (...The cello is damaging your coach? Could you point out the damage to me? No, I can't seem to see any either. Oh and, by the way, the instrument is not only extremely old and fragile, but is also worth several of your coaches...). This morning, however, I was astonished to be confronted by the best one yet. I was attempting to take a cab from my hotel in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to the railway station. As I was about to enter the vehicle, the driver said "you can't take that in there." "Why not?" I asked. "Too dusty" he replied and, by way of providing me with a visual aid to reinforce his point, he ran his index finger over the surface of the cello case and held it up for my inspection. "Look at that" he said, "Dust! - That thing is not going inside my taxi". You couldn't make it up. Note to self - must get proper job. 14/09/07 - Orson Wellesigan I regret to say that there is new "footage" in several sections of the DOWNLOADS part of the site. if there really is nothing on the telly and the rain is too heavy to allow a wander to the pub, you could be stuck with this. Sorry. Tony Reviews Thornton High D 13/09/07 - The Producer Tony has now reviewed Tommy Martin's high D Thornton whistle. You can view the review in DOWNLOADS under Old Grey Whistle Test - Thornton Whistles. Pics from Apocalypto 12/09/07 - The Producer After sifting through some old pics, I came across this nice little number. All the soloists from the score of Mel's film Apocalypto doing the Abbey Road quickstep last October. Doesn't time fly? The Producer. One has finally managed to re-locate one's home. 11/09/07 - I live here, officer - honestly. Look, this is my key. Er, maybe the lock's rusted up ?? Yes indeed. A chilled-out holiday in the village of Staithes on the North Yorkshire coast. It occurs to me that Captain James Cook, in 1745, aged 16, became an apprentice grocer/haberdasher in Staithes. After 18 months he got the sack. Perhaps if he'd stuck at the haberdashery with a bit more application he wouldn't have become a Commander in the Royal Navy, thereby leaving the field clear for someone else (the Dutch, Spanish....etc...?) to discover the Antipodes, in which case Scotland might have more chance of winning a game in the current Rugby World Cup. Yet another example of incompetent trainees altering the course of history. A family funeral followed, in Dalmuir, Dunbartonshire, for my mum's younger sister, Hetty. R.I.P. Several days ensued recording library music in Somerset. What's library music? A graphic guide to the genre will appear here in the near future. Film footage was taken at the sessions and will be posted on this site soon. Do hold your breath. From Templecombe, Somerset directly to Riga, Latvia, and it's time for a rant. Riga is a pretty city and, on Saturday morning, my wife and I paid a visit to the Central Market. This is, quite simply, the biggest market I have ever been to. You can buy almost anything there, whether to wear, eat or use and the "produce" was either in the ground, walking around on top of it, or swimming off the coast of it, an hour or two earlier. We could do that in the U.K. We've been doing it for thousands of years. Now, however, the "moneymen" have decreed that we must buy all our days-old, chemical-ridden foodstuffs from large buildings at stupid prices so as to adequately line the pockets of faceless shareholders. Likewise, our hopelessly overpriced clothing is made on the other side of the world by people on less-than-subsistence wages. I'm no Luddite but I'd like to have a few less large buildings in my life, if you catch my drift. The Latvians are managing to cling on to reality (or, at least, the ordinary everday Latvians are). Why can't we? Official end of rant. Next stop Gateshead. Wayay man! Onwards and Downwards. 22/07/07 - El Turisto Wanganisto. I write this whilst ploughing through central Spain in a coach on the last leg of a MNB tour. If I had a 5 pound note for every occasion when I've ploughed through central Spain in a coach, I wouldn't have to be doing it now, if you catch my drift. It always seems to be the same. Hundreds of miles of flat, dry land, covered in olive groves and vineyards, with mountains in the distance that you never seem to get to (If there are so many olive groves in Spain, how come all the olive oil in British shops is from Italy or Cyprus?). The day started at 4.30 am in Grado (scene of last night's gig), a small, sleepy Italian fishing town in an archipelago near the Croatian border. 2 flights and a cancelled flight later, we boarded this bus at Madrid's Barajas airport for the long grind south to Malaga (scene of tonight's gig). With luck and a following wind (there doesn't appear to be any wind), we'll get there just in time to play. Fortunately, gigs in Spain rarely start before 10pm. Our Italian promoter is putting himself through this hellish journey with us, as he wants to see tonight's show, where we play with the Orqesta Andaluzi de Tetuoan, a splendid traditional orchestra from Morocco, with whom we have shared many a concert platform. That's what I call dedication, but he is a thoroughly decent fellow, unlike our Spanish promoter, who.... no....,let's not go there. If I get out of this alive there will be forthcoming news of forthcoming excitements - coming forth. P.S., Does anyone know the latest score in the England v. India Test Match??? P.P.S., Does anyone know how Crystal Palace got on in their pre-season friendly against Barnet FC?????? P.P.P.S. I've just learned that Palace beat Barnet 3-2 at their place. COME ON YOU PALAAAAAAACCCCCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations and all that jazz. 29/06/07 - Tony Hinnigan Yes, indeed. I'd like to offer my warmest good wishes to my "producer", Phil Hardy, and especially to his wife, Bruny, on the birth of their first child, Aysha. I had the good fortune to hold the wee smout in my arms yesterday and a great delight it was. Looking into the eyes of a newborn baby as they ponder the environment, into which they have been deposited by the explosion of birth, never fails to amaze. A recent flurry of gigs has included playing cello solos on Richard Harvey's score to the forthcoming movie "Eichmann", playing a bit of whistle on a track (Ashokan Farewell) on an album by a new group, "Blake", to be released on one of the Universal labels, and a couple of days in Abbey Road, as a temporary member of the Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra, (honestly!), recording an album with sax player Nigel Hitchcock, to be released on Sony/BMG. I'd like to take this opportunity to "big up" the Khazakhstan Phil, who are some of the most diligent and dedicated musicians I have ever had the pleasure to work with. I've just (yesterday) done some more "Old Grey Whistle" testing and this will appear on the site shortly. P.S. It occurs to me that "Ashokan Farewell" was, in fact, written by American fiddle player Jay Ungar, with whom I worked on the score to the movie "Legends of the Fall" some years ago. What goes around, comes around. New and exciting stuff! (generally happens to someone else). 05/06/07 - Tony Half-empty/Half-full/Half-empty/Half-full/Half...etc...again. There is an entanglement with some Overton whistles (the original "Low" whistles) in the Downloads section of the site. Also, expect a new webcast to hit the airwaves any second now. It's in the can, at least. New webcasts are being slowly fermented, for maximum flavour, as we speak. I would urge readers, once again, to submit their poetry ideas for the forthcoming poetry webcasts. Recordings have commenced and I have already read a poem submitted, by e-mail, by a reader. You can submit poems you like, or have written yourself, for me to record (or, if you can, record the poetry yourself and e-mail it to me as an MP3 file or similar format). I'm heading for Europe on the weekend for MNB gigs in Metz in the Lorraine district of France followed by two gigs in Torino, which is the first place in Italy I ever went to (also the setting for the original "Italian Job" movie). Let's hope the band bus doesn't end up teetering over a mountain road precipice. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. 24/05/07 - Professor Anthony Wanganui AGSM LTCL As warned, there is some more stuff about quena playing (how not to do it) in the "Downloads" section under "Tricks of the Trade". There is also new rambling about whistles in "Old Grey Whistle Test". In a future issue, my wife will explain how to play Sudoku. Splendid new stuff!!! (Shurely pointless fillers - you're fired - Ed.). 21/05/07 - Tony Gisajob. As a result of recent e-mail enquiries re. quena playing on the subject of "how do you play it?", I have recorded some more quena-related video and, also, some whistle reviews. I am happy, at all times, to answer any questions (as best I can) via e-mail on how to play instruments. I consider passing on any tips on the subject of instrumental expertise to be a public service so, feel free to ask. Your humble servant, TH. Letter from the N IV. 18/05/07 - Tony Hinnigan I am writing this on the MNB tour bus on the main highway from Madrid to Sevilla. We'll leave the road before Cordoba to go to Ubeda, which is where the gig is (!). I thought I'd been everywhere in Spain, after all these years, but here's somewhere I've never been before. We've travelled from Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife this morning. In the past we've played in a theatre on Tenerife but now there is an astonishing new auditorium which I would urge readers to search on the net for a look. Unfortunately, photographs are only in two dimensions and cannot do it full justice. There's always Plan B. Go to Tenerife! I plan to go back there on holiday ASAP. Before coming on this tour I was playing in the Loch Shiel Spring Festival in the Scottish Highlands. The main concert was in the church at Glenfinnan, home of the Glenfinnan Monument to Bonnie Prince Charlie. Body-swerving those excellent topics, politics and religion, I can report that, the previous week, I went to Paris to record the Promoreel for a Jean-Jacques Annaud film "Sa Majeste Minor" with composer Javier Navarrete. More on that directly. When all this touring has died down, i.e., soon, expect the poetry webcasts to commence. Also the first webcast featuring "novelty records". If you can get on the next flight to the Betelgeuse System, I'd do it. New Webcast concept. 16/04/07 - Tony Hinnigan I recently decided to try a new idea on the webcast front which is to have poetry readings, as opposed to music, as the basis for webcasts. The music webcasts will, of course, continue but the poetry idea appears to be something which is striking a chord (!). I have asked a number of friends, relatives and colleagues to consider reading some of their favourite poems and the response has been 100%! In fact, in the first minute of conversation, most people have said "I can already think of half a dozen". I am, therefore, embarking on a programme of recording these poems and the results will start to appear on the site within the next month or so. I would cordially invite readers to also consider recording their favourite poems and send them to me as an MP3 file for inclusion in the poetry webcasts. Ideally, a short introduction to each one would be good saying why you like the poem/anything you know about the poet/why it's special to you etc. The poems can be anything you like, including childrens poetry/nursery rhymes, song lyrics, hymns, poems you have written yourself, with the proviso that, at least initially, they should be sonnet length or slightly longer. Sections of Epic poems are possible. In the future I may try entire Epics. (I can think of a couple I'd like to do!). Poems in languages other than English are also most welcome! So, watch this space. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water... 11/04/07 - e.e.wanganui some more poetry came along! This is a very famous poem and I'm sure many readers will already know it but, hell, I like it! John Keats wrote this poem in October 1816, having stayed up all night reading Homer with his friend, Charles Cowden Clarke, and was, unbelievably, criticised for reading a translation (by Elizabethan playwright George Chapman), as opposed to having the education to read Homer in the original Greek! Well, I studied classical Latin at school but not, sadly, classical Greek, so I'm definitely with Keats on this one! ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S HOMER M