The (electric) pipes are calling

January 31, 2008 1:25 AM

Please help me identify this musician. A while ago - two years? - I saw, on my local TV news, a female piper from the north-east of England. Her instrument was an amplified pipe set, almost certainly Northumbrian small-pipes, played through a guitar effects unit.

Her musical style was, as may be expected, traditional folk-influenced heavyish rock (to the extent that it's possible to categorise musical styles). She fronted a typical rock band rhythm section (bass, drums, possibly guitar). She was, as also may be expected, almost universally despised by the traditional piping mafia. I recall that her personal style was rocker/metal (lots of black, tattoos and studs - and I apologise in advance for superficial characterisation) but not overly so.

My Gooogle-fu has failed spectacularly (though I have discovered other interesting musicians), so I turn to the mighty hive-mind.

Please note that she was definitely British (Geordie, I think) and female - so not Candice Night, Jean-Pierre Rasle or Jose Angel Hevia - and that these were amplified real pipes, not a synthesized version.

posted by No Mutant Enemy to media & arts (11 comments total)

Kathryn Tickell - almost certainly.....
posted by sdevans at 1:44 AM on January 31, 2008

Although she doesn't have studs and tattoos - hmmm....
posted by sdevans at 1:53 AM on January 31, 2008

Definitely not Kathryn Tickell. (But thanks anyway.)
posted by No Mutant Enemy at 2:08 AM on January 31, 2008

Perhaps look for people who've graduated from the Folk Music degree at Newcastle Uni...?Kathryn Tickell teaches there.

Or look for people who've been connected to the Oyster Band's Big Session project (tour, CD and now available in festival format!) It seems like someone of their ilk.

(Band, studs and tattoos sounds like Eliza Cathy, but she doesn't play the pipes according to Wikipedia)
posted by Helga-woo at 2:17 AM on January 31, 2008

Not Eliza Carthy either, but thanks. (Probably no-one with any great association with the folk scene.)

As a further descriptor (and the risk of seeming ungentlemanly), the player in question was not, shall we say, in the first blush of youth - maybe mid-thirties-ish.
posted by No Mutant Enemy at 3:47 AM on January 31, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Becky Taylor does some experimental stuff and is the only other woman Northumbrian piper I can think of (well, there's Pauline Cato of course, but it won't be her), but she's no tats or what-not as far as I know. Age would be about right.
posted by Abiezer at 4:49 AM on January 31, 2008

Nah, not Becky Taylor. Thanks though.
posted by No Mutant Enemy at 4:59 AM on January 31, 2008

Hmm. You might want to look for bands that have toured with In Extremo, Corvus Corvax, Subway to Sally, Saltatio Mortis, Wolfenmond, Hedningarna, etc. If any of those bands have been in England in the past few years, her band might have opened for them... They're generally also on the, ah, alternative side in appearance, and all use the bagpipes for music that's some combination of traditional and rock. (Some are more traditional in sound than others.) And if you liked the piper you saw, you should check out these bands as well.
posted by ubersturm at 5:34 AM on January 31, 2008

Also, which local news? Was it north-east, or somewhere else? That might help narrow it down.
posted by Helga-woo at 6:06 AM on January 31, 2008

I've discovered from alternate sources (the TV show in question - who initially also suggested Kathryn Tickell) that it was Jacqui Powell-Swinburne, aka Ryofu. (See here for a local press interview.

Thanks anyway, MeFites; if nothing else, I've learned of more bands I should listen to.
posted by No Mutant Enemy at 6:14 AM on January 31, 2008

Hadn't heard of her -- thanks for asking the question!
posted by omnidrew at 8:04 AM on January 31, 2008