The Blythe Hill Tavern is a jolly hostelry situated on the
South Circular between Brockley and Catford. The governor,
Con, is an Irishman as are most of the bar staff and clientele.
While the entertainment usually is dominated by sport on
the widescreen telly, or watching Chris, the barman, ejecting
one of the more unruly guests with a “thousand welcomes,
hurry back soon” nod and wink, Con sometimes invites
local musicians to an informal “session” where
the players sit around a couple of Guinness laden tables
and play through loads of tunes.
It was
on one of these evenings, in the summer of the year 2000,
that fiddler Steve Mulhern and guitarist Ian Laws, by some
uncanny quirk of synchronicity, both had the same brilliant
idea at the same time, that is to get there early and have
a couple of pints before the start. The two had never met
before but, noticing each others instrument cases, struck
up an acquaintance and, indeed, had a couple of pints before
any other musicians arrived.
When
they did start playing, Mr. Laws could not help noticing
that Mr. Mulhern was playing to a standard a considerable
cut above the other assembled fiddlers, fluters and whistlers,
(no offence, boys!) and when he learned that some of the
tunes he was playing were his own original compositions,
he suggested that they get together at a later, possibly
more sober, occasion and perhaps record some of them in
Ians’ state of the art kitchen.
The
result of this chance meeting is, as you see before you,
“The Mirthical Reel” an album of self-composed
and traditional Celtic music exactly as planned – apart
from the sober bit!
