Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Nick Collis Bird]

I didn't realise you could get 7 pints into a Trombone, you can get a Litre into a Bugle however.
 And the river Sid into a Melodeon.

[pikey]

I was once with Aly Bain in a bar at York Uni after a long day folk festivalling and supping.

He had drunk so much that he couldn't stand or speak. But the B*gger could still play fiddle like a man possessed, in obscure keys like F, in tune, and in time!  (as long as we held him up on the stool that he was sitting on.....)   

When my old mate Steve Thompson was the young lad in our band he could pretty much do the same on his melodeon, except he used a chair, and kept falling off it sideways.

I reckon that once you have a very solid technique you can play well even when the rest of your body has started to slur   

[Nick Collis Bird]

Ha! Drunkards ( without prejudice  Nick Collis Bird, Paul Havell, Steve Davies, Vin Garbutt, Tony Capstick , Mike Harding  etc. all could play or sing whilst under the " Influence"
Anyone remember the Rum and Beetroot workshop 1976 at Sidmouth ?
 Can't remember the name of the pub now, but the landlords were Ted and Mary. A whole gang of us played underneath a table all "under the influence" and not a wrong note played.
I must suppose, that it all depends on your alcohol tolerance and how well you know your instrument/s
  I'm sure it's possible to go into automatic.
Apologies to all those of that amazing gang whose names I have left out ( again without prejudice )
 Oh! Graham Mathews, Martin Smith etc.
  For the Rum and Beetroot workshop rules you can always PM me!! But the last one was held over 30 years ago.

[Anahata]

There was an Irish box player who was the mainstay of many sessions in Cambridge in the '70s - drank a bit (1), and I distinctly remember once seeing him slowly keel over sideways while in the middle of playing a reel, and the person sitting next to him gently pushed him back upright on his seat... he didn't miss a note 

[Nick Collis Bird]

There was an Irish box player who was the mainstay of many sessions in Cambridge in the '70s - drank a bit (1), and I distinctly remember once seeing him slowly keel over sideways while in the middle of playing a reel, and the person sitting next to him gently pushed him back upright on his seat... he didn't miss a note 

I rest my case

[Bob Ellis]

I'm told (though I can't remember it myself) of a Smiffs musician who once imbibed so much Belgian beer that he was still playing -- allegedly musically -- in the bar while being kept from falling over only because he was wedged diagonally by his top hat against the curved icehouse roof...

(Slightly off topic because it doesn't involve a melodeon): Ian's anecdote reminds me of an occasion at Bromyard late one night when a combined Hammersmith* and Bath City side were dancing to the strains of a very drunk Tubby Reynolds leaning against the back of a van whilst playing Queen's Delight. He began to slide slowly down the back of that van and didn't play a wrong note until his backside hit the floor, at which point he fell asleep!

* It was so long ago that he term 'Smiffs' hadn't been coined then!

[AirTime]

This thread has got legs ... 

[Nick Collis Bird]

Wow Bob,  dear Tubby Reynolds. What a folk statesman! He was a genuine Icon. Well appreciated and greatly missed.

[Steve C.]

Way, way back, 1970's, Aly Bain in Boston, drunk as a skunk, but, geez could he play!

[Chris Ryall]

I have exactly the same memory of Ali playing in Darlington with Mike Wheelan, approx Feb 1971.  I next met him at a mid 70's Cambridge May Ball in "Boys of the Lough", little different,  I suspect he'd drunk more fizz than me. At the time I didn't frankly expect him to see out the 80s, let alone the Millennium, but fortunately for Folk Music there seems to have been no problem in that respect

[baz parkes]

Anyone remember the Rum and Beetroot workshop 1976 at Sidmouth ?

Me...I've still got my medal....

Baz

[pikey]

There was an Irish box player who was the mainstay of many sessions in Cambridge in the '70s - drank a bit (1), and I distinctly remember once seeing him slowly keel over sideways while in the middle of playing a reel, and the person sitting next to him gently pushed him back upright on his seat... he didn't miss a note 

I rest my case

A resting case is very useful to prop you up when you're drunk.... 

[pikey]

1 pint= The audience can hear some really nice tunes and the dancers can dance at the tempo I am playing.

2 pints=  The audience can hear some really nice tunes but the dancers get a bit puffed.

3 pints=  The audience can hear some better tunes and the dancers under 25 can still dance.

4 pints= The tunes are fantastic. Only a few dancers getting up to dance

5 pints= I have played tunes I did not think I could play, the dancers have all sat down

6 pints= I have never played so well in my life

7 pints= I have just realised I can also play the drums

8 pints= 1 gallon and I can hear the rest of the band but I cannot find my way back from the toilet.

8-12 pints= I can't understand why my fingers no longer do what I want them to do, so I decide to play the Devil Amongst the Tailors, really fast , in A major, to see if I can make them work again.

12 pints= Out of the corner of my eyes I notice that the dancers are dancing again, carefully stepping over me and the box. There seem to be twice as many dancers as when we started

 

[EastAnglianTed]

...and the floor has become alot harder to hold on to...

[Anahata]

Those lists remind me of a famous jazz musician's (sorry, don't remember who it was) description of what happened if he didn't practice.
Miss a day: I notice
Miss two days: my band notices
Miss three days: my audience notices

Of course the difference with beer is the discrepancy between your own perception and everyone else's...

[pikey]

13 pints=I start to sing a folk song that I dont know all the words to.   

[Andrew Wigglesworth]

I do remember one hard drinking session at Warwick folk festival (at the Woodman), where a wide eyed lass at the bar said, you lot can hardly walk straight to the bar, but you can still play that well.

Practice me dear ... hic 

[pikey]

I do remember one hard drinking session at Warwick folk festival (at the Woodman), where a wide eyed lass at the bar said, you lot can hardly walk straight to the bar, but you can still play that well.

Practice me dear ... hic 

 

The real issue, of course, is that if you play and drink at the same time there is a high risk of spilling the drink......

Which is why I once toyed with the idea of attaching a cycle bottle holder to the Pokerwork, with a long straw, so that I could refresh myself whilst playing for the full version of Longborough Old Trunkles.

 

[deltasalmon]

I think I first found this video clip on this forum somewhere but you should practice this one, Pikey.

[pikey]

I think I first found this video clip on this forum somewhere but you should practice this one, Pikey.

I LOVE it!!