Some girls came over to us after those songs and asked if they could dance along with us, as we “looked like a lot of craic”, and we’re never ones to refuse to dance. So we all started dancing together calling out simples moves to each other. Over the course of the next few songs, more and more people behind and beside us started to follow along too, and people came up from the crowd ahead of us to dance behind us too. People took photos, smiled, and watched. Some people we dragged up to join us too and at some point we looked around to see a crowd of people all following our moves behind us.

When the set finished, we held Tom (who was doing most of the leading dance-wise) up on our shoulders as the dancers behind us applauded us and the Gospel choir both. So many people came over to say thank you, and saying it was the best moment of the festival for them, but we were just happy to dance along to the fantastic music and thrilled when other people saw fit to follow what we were doing and dance along with us.

It was a beautiful afternoon. I’ve only discovered two youtube videos of it so far, but you’d never know, more might surface.

Firstly, a short one, where you can see myself, Chris and Tom in front, and Stephen in the red vest behind us.

Secondly, a video shot from the side, showing more of the people who were dancing along behind us.

edit: here’s a 3rd video, this time from the front, and you can clearly see myself and the other three guys who started it all:

edit again: here’s a 4th video, also from the front and a bit short too.

The Dublin Gospel Choir mentioned it on their facebook page:

Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us at Electric Picnic yesterday. Great day and LOVED the flash mob! If you have any pix or videos send them on, we’d love to see them!!!

Flash Mob…. it’s not often that you get to watch a show from the stage but this made our day!! Think poor Kerry-Anne nearly forgot the words when she saw them!! It’s what the Picnic is all about!!! Thanks guys!

The whole weekend was fantastic, and the rain on Sunday/Monday didn’t marr it at all, just made things a little more challenging. I had another random beautiful moment where I was having some chips between catching UNKLE and Fever Ray, and sat down at one of the upright pianos in the wood sculpture areas near the electric arena. Of course it was delightfully out of tune and honky tonk, so I started playing some Ray Charles and Tom Waits covers on it, and ended up playing in the rain to a few people who were crossing the area to catch The National or Foals. But it was wet, and when my chips were gone, I headed off to catch Fever Ray instead, but it was rather lovely too. I’m sure those pianos suffered through a lot of “Chopsticks” and the like, so a bit of jazzier stuff was a nice respite I imagine.

I started playing piano quite young, and went through the RIAM classical piano grades. I started to lose interest somewhat at about the age of 15, when I was coming to the end of my grades, and wasn’t really interested in doing a Diploma. But something that reignited my love for playing was the movie “The Piano”, and particularly the beautiful score by Michael Nyman. I saw it on VHS when I was about 13, if I recall correctly, and I remember my parents making a special exception to allow me to watch a movie that was rated 15.

But I was really taken by the soundtrack, and I love the fact that Holly Hunter played the piano parts seen in the movie. Initially, it was the piece “Big My Secret” that I loved and played a lot, but I was won over to all the pieces over time, and they became some of my favourite pieces of music for piano. I spent the rest of my teenage years without going to piano lessons, and discovering pieces of music that I wanted to play, as opposed to just having to learn them for an exam. It’s something that I think was very important in continuing my love for the instrument. That, and discovering artists like Tori Amos and Kate Bush, who used piano in their music in ways that I hadn’t heard before.

The main theme from the piano, “The Heart Asks Pleasure First”, also called “The Sacrifice”, has become one of those standard pieces that piano students all love and learn:

It is a beautiful piece of music, but my favourite is still “Big My Secret”. Some people feel that it’s played too fast in the movie, as the recording by Nyman is much gentler and slower, but I like the flexibility of the piece, and it’s appropriate in the scene, I think:

Holly Hunter in the movie:

(Nyman’s version and some other bits after the cut)

Nyman’s version:

I loved the visuals of the piano on the beach used in the promo shots, and also scenes of the movie itself. Pianos are such beautiful instruments, and they really command your attention in a room. Having one standing proudly on a beach as the waves were coming in was an image that really called to me. You might psychoanalyse it and wonder whether it was about my own waning interest in the instrument at the time, being reignited by a desire to save the piano from the beach and the rising water. Or you might just think that it’s a striking image ;)

When we first started performing together, it was along with two other singers, Sarah Elaine and Meadhbh Sullivan, doing jazz/60′s girl-group numbers as the opening act for the Cuckoo’s Nest weekly cabaret night, as well as solo jazz standards from Alex.

This developed into a weekend residency playing jazz standards, and our own jazz-influenced takes on pop and rock songs such as Gossip’s Standing In The Way Of Control, Jason Mraz’s You And I Both and Mr. Zebra by Tori Amos.

For special occasions we drafted in some local brass players, and a drummer, to give a big-band jazz sound to classics like Big Spender and Feelin’ Good.

It was a big departure for me, going from adding piano to Anna Lee’s original songs to interpreting jazz standards and other covers with Alex, but it really expanded my range musically and taught me to use the piano in different ways.

Alex has since moved back to Australia, but is still making beautiful music. Check out her sublime vocals at her myspace:
MYSPACE: Alex Hahn

Check out his new album on his website, which is hitting shops in October.

And you can listen to more of his music at his MySpace page, including his amazing cover of Two Of Hearts as well as his original songs.

Why is he an inspiration? He’s done it all himself with style and determination.

Oh, and he’s dating Christian Siriano, and together they are officially the best gay couple ever. He writes the music for Christian’s runway shows too. You can hear a clip of that music in this video (skip forward about 30seconds)

I spent about two years in total playing with her, gigging around Ireland and a little bit around the UK too, before she headed off to Spain. I’ve known her since university, and we both used to play the singer-songwriter night in uni. She’s got a fantastic voice, and has released one EP so far, but I’m hoping she’ll release a full album. Here’s one of the tracks from that EP:

The video was shot and edited really badly by myself, and I helped her put together the EP for release, including working on the cover design and getting it available for sale. It was definitely a learning experience for me.

We had some great gigs playing together as “Husband | Wife” and just with me accompanying her as a session pianist. We shared a house together for about a year, and would practice and mess around with music at home. Here’s a cover of Portishead’s “Glory Box” that was recorded in our living room one afternoon back in 2006. Just ignore us messing around at the start ;)

We never really recorded anything together, other than some random live videos that are floating around, or little demos from our living room, or little videos like that one on youtube. DIY music most definitely.

Niejasności

London Calling

Kucs Kulka : “Got A Song”