It’s CeolVids and #Quarantunes for trad musicians in lockdown
ALAN FINN OF THE SHANDRUM CÉILÍ BAND TELLS HOW, IN A WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN, MUSIC HAS A WAY OF MAKING ITS VOICE HEARD – IN FACT, MANY WAYS
WORDS are barely adequate to describe the havoc that the pandemic has wreaked across the world, and our hearts go out to readers who have lost dear family members to the virus.
Many other facets of life have also been affected, and as restrictions tightened, countless events and plans began to fall like dominoes.
Alan Finn, music teacher and leader of the multi-award-winning Shandrum Céilí Band, told The Corkman how one of the band’s greatest opportunities was snatched from their grasp due to the crisis. He also tells how the pandemic has led to musicians raising funds for the emergency services via their online performances, and how the musical programme of events for the year has been wiped off the calendar.
“It was announced in early March that the RTÉ flagship show, The Late Late, would be going on the road and doing a live broadcast from the University of Limerick on Friday, March 13. Fáilte Ireland had inspired the show to hit the road in anticipation of the St Patrick’s celebrations during that weekend, and the day itself on March 17,” Alan said. “Two weeks prior to Friday the 13th, I received a phone call many artists and bands would often wait for years, or even their whole careers to receive: an invitation for the Shandrum Céilí Band to perform on the show.
“Preparations were well underway by us and also the RTÉ organisers in expectation of this great event, as it was only the second time the show was going on the road and going out live outside of the studios in Dublin,” Alan explained.
Unfortunately, another news story was simultaneously breaking across the world, and this was not bringing good news. COVID-19 began causing devastation to entire countries across the world. By early March, as the virus gained a foothold in Ireland, RTÉ decided to postpone the Show from Limerick and instead host it from the Donnybrook Studio.
However, due to the crisis deepening, all performances were postponed to a later date.
While deeply disappointing for the Shandrum musicians and their many fans, Alan is hopeful that their spot will be rescheduled when the curtains come down on the pandemic.
Alan talked about the COVID fall-out, which is being felt by performers everywhere.
“This is a most unusual time; our country has basically come to a standstill, with only vital services running and people not being able to travel beyond their local areas.
“As with many people required to work from home, musicians also have begun hosting performances through various social media outlets such as Facebook, the CeolVid series of Traditional Music or #Quarantunes, and they have taken Facebook by storm,” he said.
“I don’t know who originally started this trend, but every day I looked at my Facebook newsfeed, more and more people had videos posted of themselves performing traditional music, song and dance,” Alan said, as he went on to explain how the trend has generated donations for the emergency services.
“Basically, your Facebook friends nominate you to play a tune (or sing or dance), post the video on your personal page, and then you in turn nominate friends to do the same. Included in the nomination is a link directing you and the people who see the post to leave a donation in aid of emergency services who are dealing with the Coronavirus outbreak,” Alan said.
“Massive support has been generated by this campaign, with people leaving comments underneath the videos posted and Facebook friends ‘ liking’ other peoples videos.
“I myself did a #Quarantunes video after being nominated by two friends, one from County Waterford and one from West Clare. Within 24 hours of posting, it had 3,000 views” he said.
Alan said this initiative has a two-fold advantage: it’s a great form of entertainment which simultaneously supports a brilliant cause aimed at helping alleviate the ongoing emergency.
In addition, it’s a great way for musicians to hear their peers, whom they would normally only meet at fleadhanna and festivals throughout the country.
“Obviously, with all these events cancelled, live performances in front of a crowd are currently a distant memory. These social media events have given musicians a chance to perform again, albeit in a very different atmosphere, which some musicians wouldn’t be accustomed to. Many are playing solo, clicking on the video button on their phones, recording a video of themselves playing an instrument or singing and then posting up the videos with no round of applause or encouragement from the audience that would normally follow a performance in this genre of music. The reward and encouragement now comes from the ‘ like’ and comments left below each video” Alan said.
Musicians are using technology and apps such as Acapella or iMovie to make their videos, and with these one can record a video and send it to a friend, who can also record a video and audio to the original, thus giving musicians a chance to post videos of them playing music together even though they are in different houses and maybe
‘If Winter comes, Can Spring be far behind?’
many miles apart – the wonders of modern technology!
Alan teaches music, and he has coached his students, grúpaí cheoil and céilí bands to All-Ireland success. Needless to say, when he’s not teaching, he is on stage with the Shandrum.
Every year since 1953, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann has hosted an annual celebration of music, song and dance, otherwise known as the Fleadh Cheoil. These Fleadhanna are the mainstay festival event of the year, with musicians travelling from all over the world to attend the All Ireland Fleadh. Mullingar, County Westmeath was chosen as the host town for the 2020 event, which was set to take place in August.
The Shandrum played a fund-raising concert in Mullingar in late February, and many more performers and bands had been lined up to play concerts as a fundraiser for the event in
August.
“Such was the speed of this crisis that overcame the country, for the first time in the 67 years of Comhaltas, the Fleadh Cheoil will not take place this year. Organisers are instead looking to 2021 as the stage for the next event, a very difficult decision to make but the very right decision in light of recent events.
“Festivals, concerts and live gigs are currently a thing of the past, which many musicians are obviously missing and are hoping to get back to again as soon as it is safe to do so” Alan said.
He noted that musicians are expressing their talents online as a form of encouragement for people to get through this hard time: “With the success of the #MOKfestival and #Quarantunes series, many other festivals that had to make the very hard but right decision to cancel events until this crisis is over might follow suit, and that will give many more musicians a chance to perform in a virtual setting until we can all get together to play a few tunes again in person” he added.
Alan, who has won numerous awards, has toured Europe and America, and even played for President Barack Obama at the White House.
He finished our chat with a quote from the poem ‘Ode to the West Wind’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley: ‘If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?’.