Reels Of Laughter

Paddy Moloney must have been the class giggler at school, the little kid down the back who was always getting into trouble. He never stops laughing.
We were looking at that Begrudger s Guide you ran in HOT PRESS recently, he chortles, and we were all cracking up over the piece about Derek playing Slane. The very idea of it
To most people Derek Bell is something of an enigma, to the rest he s an oddity. The archetypal mild-mannered gentleman, his librarian image is clearly deceptive. After all, here is a ma who once released a solo album entitled Derek Bell Plays With Himself .
Derek is very much the crazy one among us, Paddy confirms with a grin. The picture you used of him was actually taken at Lisdoonvarna; boy, he was really flying that day. I was sure we were going to lose him!
Lose HIM?!? The mind boggles.

The Chieftains are a busy band. A very busy band. Over the coming months they are (deep, deep breath) putting the finishing touches to a new album for Christmas release featuring a host of special guest stars; providing musical accompaniment for the Cincinnati Ballet; performing at London s Fleadh festival; touring Italy, Greece, and for the first time, Japan; preparing for a major 32-date UK headlining autumn tour plus a Canadian/American west coast tour; editing a networked television special featuring the band at Belfast s Grand Opera House and a video of the making of the Xmas album; doing a concert with the RTE Orchestra; climbing Mount Everest; finishing off the new Wicklow to Dublin motorway; continuing structural work to the north face of the Dame St. entrance of Trinity College
Don t these guys ever sleep?
It s funny you should mention that, says Paddy, I HAVEN T been sleeping lately. I woke up at five past three this morning, mind spinning. I had to write down all the ideas buzzing through my head. then on comes the World Service and that puts me back to sleep again (laughs).
The group have just returned from America where they were performing with one of Paddy s idols, John Williams, along with the Boston Pops Orchestra.
John was just amazing, beams Paddy, so down to earth, calm, always smiling and laughing, on for every bit of crack., And the film music he s done; Jaws, Star Wars, ET they re all fantastic! He picked a load of our film music to play with us which, of course, I was delighted about. He was so impressed by it he s asked me to become involved with a new Spielberg movie he s working on in October. I don t know exactly what he wants me to do, compose or perform, but I m over the moon about it.
This month also sees the release of Reel Music ( Jeez, I ve been so busy I nearly forgot about that! ), a collection of The Chieftains film scores, featuring specially re-recorded highlights from their extensive back catalogue of soundtracks for the unforgettable and the not-so-unforgettable.
Some of the films we ve worked on never actually had a soundtrack release, explains Paddy. One of them, Tristan And Isolde, flopped at the cinema, but our record label insisted we include it because they thought it was too good to leave out. That was from 77, and I think it was probably the first time uileann pipes were used alongside an orchestra. I m not saying it was the best mind, it was just the first (laughs)!
As well as the more obvious pieces, like the hugely successful mini-series The Year Of The French and the Oscar-winning Barry Lyndon, the album features more obscure material like Three Wishes For Jamie , the recent Treasure Island and one of Paddy s personal favourites, The Grey Fox . I really loved that one, he offers, it was such a beautiful film. It has a bit of a cult following at this stage too
As if all this wasn t enough to be getting along with, another pot that The Chieftains have on the boil at the moment is the upcoming Chieftains Music Festival, a five-day London event that will have the band performing full shows in various venues with different guest artists each night. It s an enormous undertaking.
It was suggested to us to do a special London showcase festival after we got such a terrific response on our UK tour with James Galway, explains Paddy, so we started ringing up some people and everyone we asked is coming along. There ll be a big Irish traditional night, I haven t got te names there yet, I d better hurry (laughs); a night with Mike Oldfield and a bunch of guests; another with Feargal Sharkey, Marianne Faithfull and a bunch of others; there ll be the Wren Orchestra; and one that should be great crack, the Town & Country Club with The Pogues!
A lesser man would quake in his boots at the daunting task of arranging, rehearsing and organising such an event with only six weeks to do so, but what does Paddy Moloney do? He laughs it off of course.
A lot of it just falls into place simply by talking with these people over the phone, Paddy enthuses. It s great, you can feel a real buzz about it. Terry Woods and myself worked out the set for their night in on hour. With Feargal and Marianne it was the same: Oh, let s do that one, oh, and that one too! it was that simple. As for actually rehearsing, well we re too busy for that just now, so we send tapes to each other. As the old saying goes, it ll be alright on the night. I hope (laughs)!

Over the years The Chieftains have played with the best of them. Paddy in particular has bee lured into studios around the world and asked to do his thing. As early as 72 Paul McCartney had him in the studio adding his inimitable pipes to the mix. Since then there s been such diverse names as Mark Knopfler, Ultravox, Jerry Garcia, The Rolling Stones, James Galway, Eric Clapton and, of course, Van Morrison. The Morrison/Chieftains album, Irish Heartbeat, received a rapturous welcome from music critics everywhere, some hailing it as a classic but Paddy doesn t feel that it really made that much of an impact.
The press certainly seemed to love that album, he explains but I don t think it really had much effect on people. We certainly didn t notice any great difference in our audiences. I was very doubtful about that album originally to be honest, but it worked out alright basically.
This year saw another Morrison/Chieftains collaboration, the single Can t Stop Loving You . Some people (myself included) were surprised to see The Chieftains recording with Van the Man again after reports that the last tour the artists did together ended in tears, and rumour has it, even fisticuffs!
Sure everybody says things about Van Morrison, Paddy observes. I m sure some people have a few Paddy Moloney stories too (laughs). Of course there were some hiccups, there always is on a tour. But The Chieftains get on grand with Van Morrison.
So we can all expect Irish Heartbeat 2 any day now?
Well, maybe not quite that soon, laughs Paddy.

Paddy Moloney is a busy man. Producer Brian Masterson is buzzing around the room, waiting patiently for Paddy to finish so that they can get on with mixing their Christmas album.
Paddy s a good talker, and I ve already got more than enough. At one point he attempted to give me a potted history of The Chieftains, but neither of us could quite follow it. Along the ways there was a host of stories about everyone from Sean O Riada to The Band, from dancing on a river in China to having soup and sandwiches on stage with The Pope at Phoenix Park, Stanley Kubrick, Linda Ronstadt and Governor Brown, prising Derek away from the BBC Orchestra, the connection between The Piper s Chair and Mozart s Horn Concerto, their six Grammy nominations, Claddagh Records, Burgess Meredith and that s only half of it.
Who would have thought that 30 years on from the time they first got together as accompanists for a play in the Abbey Theatre that Ireland s unlikeliest looking bunch of musicians would still be going, stronger than ever. Even Paddy Moloney finds it hard to fathom sometimes.
None of us could have guessed we d still be getting away with this, especially after 30 years. You have to laugh!
Which, of course, Paddy Moloney duly does.

PADDY MOLONEY S TOP 10 HUMOROUS MOMENTS WITH VAN MORRISON

Most people regard Van Morrison as a cantankerous old sod. But then most people haven t gone on the road with Van the Man and therefore miss out on his ready wit and good-natured japes. Paddy Moloney has observed that man at close quarters and so we ve asked him to give us his Top 10 Humorous Moments with Van Morrison.

1. Well, I ll have to put me thinking cap on I don t want this to be libellous (laughs) every day something funny went on em
2. Oh yeah no, that was somebody else
3. I remember one night staying up til 4am with hi and talking about people s achievements in life that was very funny em
4. em
5. Hold on, I know a good one. For our recent single with him we were shooting the video on a small stage with a small metal barrier around it and Van took one look at it and said This is like being in a bloody cage! (laughs). Van s just so quick!
6. so many, many moments
7. so many
8. Oh yeah, the time Paul Durcan got his cue to go on stage at The Point and the trumpet player went on by mistake. We all cracked up at that and Van saw the funny side of it afterwards.
9.
10. the main thing about Van is that he s a very creative person, you have to ignore all the things peole tend to talk about. Life s too short for looking at people s bad side Now, any other funny moments?