Pipes

I began playing the pipes in 1984, when pipemaking and to some degree piping itself, seemed to be a dark art. With a second hand practise set and a copy of the Armagh Pipers Club book I worked at trying to emulate what I heard on records. A year later I found myself travelling to London, to Camden Town Irish Centre, where Billy Browne was to set me on the true path.

Amongst other things, Billy advised me to order a chanter from a maker called Dave Williams, buy a copy of “The Piper’s Rock” and to attend the Willie Clancy Summer School. I ordered a half set (regulators were added over the years) and made summer pilgrimages to Miltown through the late 80s and early 90s. I have lived for the last 20 years in Manchester, regularly playing in sessions and continually trying to improve my piping. I am involved in organising the North West Uilleann Pipers. We meet every month, run Tionols, teach piping, lend out practise sets and generally support local pipers.

Pipe Making

About a year after the untimely death of Dave Williams in 2004, I made the decision to have a serious attempt at pipe making and subsequently bought a lathe. I had previously been shown the basics of long boring, reaming, tool making and general pipe making by Peter Hunter. Whilst living in Leeds I had been surprised to find there was an internationally acclaimed pipe maker 20 minutes away. Peter, as well as being an outstanding craftsman was very generous with his skills, knowledge and time.

I combined previous knowledge and skills with the large amount of material that had become available on the web. I also studied (Benade, Nederveen, Sean Reid Soc, David Quinn CD-ROM) and spoke/emailed with pipe makers. Any interesting sets of pipes that came my way were studied and measured. My own Williams full set was of course the first instrument I measured and continues to be a strong influence on my work.