2022 Festival Performances

Meet the players

Oscar West : Artistic Director, mandolin, fiddle, whistle, Scottish smallpipes

Geoff Jones: Scottish smallpipes, border pipes, bodhran 

Sarah Wade: Scottish smallpipes, sackpipa, concertina 

Merran Moir: Scottish smallpipes, whistle

Matthew Horsley: uilleann pipes, whistle, accordion, snare drum

Sam Davies: uilleann pipes, whistle

Connor Hoy: uilleann pipes, flute

Jess Foot: fiddle, oboe

Flora Carbo: saxophone

Rhys Crimmon: guitar

Set List

Opening Set

Opening phrases

Drummond Castle jig (trad Scottish)

Dark Island air (trad Scottish)

Brenda Stubbert’s reel by Jerry Holland

European Set

Pruvan Polska (trad Swedish)

Bonnie Miller 3/2 hornpipe (trad English)

Hanter dro (trad Breton)

Song

Bonny Portmore song (trad Irish)

Australian Slow Reels Set

Henry Blood’s reel by Corey Henderson

Megumi’s Gift slow reel by Jack Brennan

Far from Home Set

Top Deck in Perth air by Murray Blair

Bells of Barbados march from William Ross Collection 1885

Karin & Rory’s Welcome strathspey by Merran Moir

The Toender Jukebox reel by Mairearad Green

Flat Pipes Set

An Paistin Fionn (trad. Air)

Sergeant Early’s jig from O’Neill’s 1001: The Dance Music of Ireland

Finale Set

Miss Fiona McClure Walker by Alexander “Sandy” Taylor Cameron

High Drive by Gordon Duncan

Audience Member Reflection

Our musical hibernation of the past few years is over, and we are now poking our heads out to see what our new environment has to offer.

LOOK NO FURTHER than the Celtic Piping Club! I have seen this collective of extraordinary talent at the National Folk Festival in Canberra and the National Celtic Festival in Port Arlington (2022) and they are an absolute delight!

The Celtic Piping Club is posse of multi-instrumentalists, each with their own distinct presence and credentials across our diverse music scene, that have come together through their common passion for reed-based instruments – with an emphasis on all things piping. I thought that I would need to be tied and anchored to my chair to attend a full performance of various piping and reed instruments. Instead, I was absolutely carried away by their carefully crafted and arranged music that spanned medieval times, dark tunes of the fairies and recently composed and highly evocative tunes by local musicians.

The group fluctuates around a core of 9 musicians and is led by our favourite Kiwi, the charming and whimsical Oscar West. Like all of the members of this group, the music of the Celtic Piping Club is wildly understated but completely uplifting.

As they close out their set, these pied pipers lure other musicians from the audience to stand with them on stage and play a rousing finale. You can feel the love for the music of the musicians and the appreciation of their performance by the audience – they simply fill your heart with vitality and joy!

If you are a promoter, book this band! If you are a punter, go and see The Celtic Piping Club - crawl over broken glass if you have to…just get there, immerse yourself and enjoy.

Chris Fitzgerald

Publican, The Corkman Irish Pub & The Last Jar

June 2022