Your Paddy Keenan story.

[rorybbellows]

With the amount of travelling Paddy Keenan has done and from what I can gather from this forum ,I'm sure alot of you have met Paddy Keenan and have a story to tell ,here's mine.
About two years ago I went to see Paddy play in a pub in Ballyferriter,Co Kerry. Its a good drive from tralee so I left straight from work to get there and only arrived a half hour before the gig was due to start.After a quick meal in the bar I needed to visit the toilet before I went into the gig.
When I went into the mens it only had one cubicle and it was occupied so I had to wait, after a couple of minutes out walked Paddy Keenan who gave me a nod of hello,washed his hands and left. I sat down on the toilet seat it was still warm from the previous user.
Paddy Keenan was my toilet seat warmer,and as I sat there, a feeling of satisfaction and pride came over me and it made the gig even more enjoyable.

RORY

[MTGuru]

washed his hands

Ah, there's the important piece of information!

bepoq and I took Paddy for late night pub grub after his last visit here. Great craic!

[Steve Turner]

Sweet! I'd have nicked the toilet seat and had it framed with a little brass plaque 'Paddy Keenan graced this seat'. The fact that everyone else would have had to sit on the porcelain rim is neither here nor there

[Nanohedron]

I saved Paddy's bacon.

He was tuning up before his time on stage at a day-long music festival when his bellows intake valve shot out. No big deal and good for a laugh, but on inspection he saw that the flapper had detached from its tab. He had no repair materials, and we all thought he was done before he started. A pall of doom set in. Then I remembered that my popping strap would be just about right, and I had razor blades and superglue and probably anything else he might need in my piper's box-o-crap. Anyway, he cut a couple of flaps out of the popping strap, glued the old flap on for good measure, and was up and running.

It was a good opportunity to take the piss and I laughingly told him that I wasn't ever going to cut away the raggedy bits from my popping strap, ever, at all, and would he autograph it for me? He said I really should have had him do it; I could have sold it on eBay.

It was a good show. Unfortunately by that time when the clouds broke the late afternoon sun was on him so he played with his pipes draped over with a light blanket offered by one of the audience. It looked like he was playing his laundry.

[fel bautista]

Sweet! I'd have nicked the toilet seat and had it framed with a little brass plaque 'Paddy Keenan graced this seat'. The fact that everyone else would have had to sit on the porcelain rim is neither here nor there

I really hate to do this, but , would that be a graced A ? ... really sorry

[Key_of_D]

Not sure I'd (being a guy) be so eager to tell folks how proud I am that I got to sit on the toilet seat right after another Man did... but hey, different strokes for different folks I guess.

Well I already told my story in a recent but different thread, however I guess I didn't elaborate on the concert before my lesson the next day.

So I'm pumped up to see the man, I arrive at the small but very cozy venue, and the man himself was tuning up and giving the pipes a test before the gig started 45 minutes later. He was having some tuning troubles due to the dry air, (he said he'd come here all the way from Dublin) even commenting that he "tuned the pipes differently" however the sound of him playing those pipes in that small room was amazing. He and John Walsh did the concert accoustically, and I with 2 other local pipers got to be front row, I gladly being in arm's reach during the concert. As all who have experienced a Paddy Keenan concert know, what a show did he put on.

Not sure if he'll ever come out due to the dry air... but hopefully he will.

The story of my lesson the next day could be found here.

[pipewatcher]

I've met and hung out briefly with Paddy a few times over the last twenty or so years.Good stories go with all these meetings but this is one that he himself might recall: Willie Kennedy Festival 1997. Paddy was giving a recital in a small auditorium. at the end, as he was playing "The Bucks", right in the middle of the tune he broke the G key on his baritone reg. the thing honked away for a second , then paddy jumped up, threw his pipes on the chair, threw his hat on the floor(!), and stormed out of the room swearing. Next night, after cancelling a reed-making workshop, he was in the hotel with a fella named Dave Williams trying out a new set of regs. Later that evening in the bar, he played for nearly an hour with this border piper called Fred Morrison, transposing Irish tunes on the fly, playing Scottish jigs and reels... at the end he slung his pipes over his shoulder and they both marched out to "Scotland the Brave" amidst a riot of laughter and applause! Not a weekend I'll ever forget! Cheers,

[Key_of_D]

hear hear the pipes are calling loudly and proudly...

[pipewatcher]

squalling

[Key_of_D]

hm.

[Cayden]

There are memories from early Willie Clancy weeks where himself and Tommy Peoples nicked a bike off a nun, the two cycling up mainstreet with the nun chasing after them shouting and roaring

[djm]

Himself once related how, when they were much younger, he and Finbar Fury would take peoples' tv antennas and chop them up to make whistles out of them. Such a musically focused lot, they were.

djm

[Hans-Joerg]

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[rorybbellows]

So are you in the photo Hans?


RORY

[Hans-Joerg]

So are you in the photo Hans?

I do look old but I´m not that old . No story, just the pic. Guess again!