Peter Lennon’s Rocky Road to Dublin - again

This is a good film which has been discussed here before. There is a short scene in a pub with a fiddler who, to me, looks like a young Seán Keane. In another discussion it was proposed this may be Tommy Peoples. Is there a definitive answer? I was thrown by his style which doesn’t sound a bit like the Keane that I am familiar with (whose fiddle playing sounds very much like a set of pipes). I think Keane joined the Chieftains in 1968, the film was shot in 1967.

http://icarusfilms.com/new2005/dub.html

The DVD release has a ‘making of’ mini doc that includes interviews with Lennon and Raoul Coutard, even some footage of Lennon arguing with Jean-Luc Goddard at the closing of Cannes (!). Highly recommended.

I’d love to watch this film. I thought of ordering the DVD but they are asking $300 for it. 😀 Do you know of a cheaper way of getting to see it?

BTW I have some cuts of the young Sean Keane from about that time, from the LP Seoda Ceoil II. It’s really great stuff. You can hear the germ of his later style - all the building blocks are already in place, but the pace is very measured. It seems quite plausible, listening to these clips, that he and Tommy P were influenced by each other.

Found this on a quick Google search:
http://thanhhoangvp.softarchive.net/rocky_road_to_dublin_dvdrip_xvid_sprinter.532226.html

I was able to watch it because the library where I work has a copy in the collection (we’ve got a pretty nice film collection).

I’ll see if I can make a capture and post a photo of the fiddler in question. I’d like to hear Keane’s tracks on Seoda Ceoil 2. I can’t find it on the Gael Linn website yet. I really enjoy his solo playing, the way he uses ornaments and legato phrasing of the pipes is exciting to listen to.

Seoda Ceoil 1 and 2 are available from the Comhaltas Archive website.

http://comhaltasarchive.ie/search?tab=tracks&q=seoda+ceoil

There’s a copy of one of the Seoda Cheoils on ebay US at the moment.

OK, there is a picture of the fiddler at:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2007-2/1242588/fiddler1.jpg

He doesn’t really look like either Sean Keane or Tommy Peoples to me. He doesn’t really sound like either of them to me.

This is a recording of him behind the man playing the spoons:

http://www.box.net/shared/crpl0jo9f1

SK & TP were very young men at the time the film was made. And your fiddler plays honest, enjoyable, straightforward music but has none of the complexity or depth of those two.