Chiff and Fipple Forums

Ben, you were lucky Dave woke up - his snoring could shake the tiles off the roof.

Steampacket, I'll send you a PM

Ken

[Thread revival]

I can't believe that it is nearly 10 years since the passing of Dave Williams. 10 years next month.

Aye, the 19th of October 2004. I think about Dave just about every time I get the pipes out for a tune, or sometimes it's enough to just look at the pipes and chanters in the pipe case to feel very lucky to have them and to have known him. The reeds Dave made are still working and have seldom needed any adjusting these past few years.

http://www.mustrad.org.uk/enth44.htm

I still remember the day I got the news, sitting at a hotel internet terminal in Bucharest. I remember sitting in silent shock staring at the screen.

I had last seen Dave a few months earlier at the 2004 Doran Weekend, back when it was still held in Glendalough. He had a lovely brass fiddle with him that he had just built, and was proudly passing it around to any fiddlers who wanted to try it.

I had ordered a full set from him a few years earlier. A couple of weeks after the Doran Festival I received a lovely note in the post, on his distinctive letterhead and in his neat handwriting, saying that it was great to see me again and that my set was on schedule to be ready the following year in 2005. But of course Dave didn't live to see 2005. I still have the letter tucked away.