The sleeping tune THIS WILL SEND A SHIVER DOWN YOUR SPINE !!!!

[highlander_Daz]

Ive posted these before

heres a chance to watch Gordon play the "just for Seumus" set live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEj3ejyxjNU

Gordon often performed seated, its amazing to see him playing the third tune "Break Yer Bass drone"

This is my favourite clip of Gordon, the camera zooms in on his fingers to see the incredible speed he was renown for. "Andy Renwicks ferret" is in there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6apsC8o3f6k

[Warhoover]

I love going back and looking at those clips Daz. His speed was amazing. It is so hard to try and tell if what he is playing and G strike or a birl at times. Oh how I wish my pinkie were that fast!!! Let alone the rest of my fingers, and he made it look so easy!!!

[highlander_Daz]

Ive coveted Gordons Birl for ages, its hard to tell if he taps and draws back or pushes forward and draws back, its definaly not a double tap, as he does draw back a long way, his multiple birls in the ferret look so easy yet he must have spent hours and hours getting a birl that clean and quick, not to mention the rest of his techniques, I think one of the things to see is how relaxed he looks when playing, his hands are very loose and his pipes are obviously well set up to play them sitting down, If you notice on the first clip he plays with his eyes closed nearly all the way through the set -another Gordon Duncan trademark. and his bass drone is sticking upwards and not resting on his shoulder, and check out those Hose !!!

[ccga3359]

Because of this link I purchased Gordon's cd Just for Seamus. Yes the man was talented but for me some of the tunes just seemed experimental whilst other are just amazing. Were I a piper myself I'm sure I'd be most impressed with all tracks. Wolfstone's The half tail on the other hand has just blown my mind, that is if I take the repeat off of track number 3 - Gillies. i'm sure when I finally do allow myself to listen to rest of the cd i'll be serching out more Wolfstone titles.

[jordanjm]

That was one of the best bagpipe pieces I have ever heard.

[highlander_Daz]

Its true yes that a lot of Gordons stuff really pushes the envelope in as far as what you can do with the pipes, I do understand that some stuff does sound a bit experimental, The tunes on the "thunderstruck" album are more mainstream, "just for Seumas" was recorded 13 years ago so its easy to forget the impact it had at the time on the pipeing world, the title track especially, with its fusion of dance beat and pibroch, at the time it had a massive impact on the pipeing world and made a lot of people relise that, to a degree pipeing had been "hijacked" by the British army and that notes like C Natural and F natural had a place in pipeing, and were not "false" notes at all.

One of the biggest effects was that young people realised that pipeing could be "cool" Gordon would often wear jeans/ baseball caps, play tunes like the mexican hat dance at breakneck speed, tunes by ACDC etc.
all things that the RHCP and "johnny bagpies" "get away" with doing today, mainly because Gordon Duncan took the flack from the traditionalists at the time. but because he wasnt a "novelty" piper (He played with and was a pipe major in grade one bands, and won countless comps including 2 Macallan trophies) he had the skill to be able to bridge the gap.