Scottish & Irish folk songs combined with Lord of the Rings music and Celtic music fun at Renaissance Faires

Brobdingnagian Bards Tales

The latest music news, stories, and events of The Original Celtic Renaissance music group, the Brobdingnagian Bards. CELTIC GEEK at its Best! Find out more from the Nagians page.

I'm pretty excited about the new Link Directory. I've worked hard to make sure all the links are updated and there's some great content. If you have link suggestions, please head over there and add yourself to the site directory.

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Friday, May 31, 2002
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Do you like comics?
Well, starting August you will be able to read the comical adventures of the Brobdingnagian Bards thanks to Nikki O'Shea of Dragonpress Graphics. More bardic fun than you can possibly imagine. Can you handle it?

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Thursday, May 30, 2002
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I found a fun journal today run by my friend. It's got some great links and my personal favorite is the Office Space quotes. Read Michelle's journal now. Incidentally, Michelle also helps us to get a lot of our scripts online running. She is the genius backbone of this website! So if you need any web work, talk to her.

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Tuesday, May 28, 2002
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We're always boggled when someone can say our bands name properly and they've never heard of us. Here is the beginning of a new list we started at I-Con 21.

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Sunday, May 19, 2002
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SCIENTISTS WARN AGAINST END OF EARTH

Seattle(AP) -- University of Washington scientists today warned that theEarth would cease to exist if a well-known bard were to don a pair of tights.

Ivan Freixhley, a professor in the Dept. of Geology, warned the media sternly at a press conference today: "It is absolutely vital that Andrew McKee never wear tights.  The resulting forces would rend the earth's crust open from that point, causing the tectonic plates of the planet to shift, for lava to spew forth -- we're talking the apocalpyse, here."

Mr. McKee could not be reached for comment.  However, June Boggs, an associate professor at UW, remarked, "His eyes are so dreamy!"

The UW Geology dept. later released a statement indicating that Freixhley and Boggs were subject to an investigation relating to possible drug use, and had been put on administrative leave indefinitely.

press release exerpt from Rimbo--Nagian

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Thursday, May 16, 2002
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Whoa! Lots of discussion flying around on the new Nagians discussion group. There's talk of Andrew in tights and poll for your favorite CD, and now several people are posting photos. We're hoping they'll stay away from the blackmail type. We'll see.

Last night, we had another wonderful evening at Cafe Mundi. There were a good thirty people in the audience as we played outdoors in the cool evening air. Happy hour with The Bards.

You know, it really amazes me though to see all the new people coming out. And most amazing of all, is that many of these folks first heard us on MP3.com. I see the four thousand daily downloads, but I never really expect people to come out to our show. But then, many people say our live performance is better than our CDs. But I guess you'll have to be the judge of that. We're just happy you enjoy our unique mix of Celtic music.

Sadly, there is some bad news... We're no longer #1 on the Celtic charts of MP3.com. But I ain't cryin' because the #1 slot is now owned by our friends, The Rogues. With the recent demise of Clandestine (they're breaking up at the end of the year), The Rogues are now the biggest named touring act of Texas with an fiery blend of bagpipes and drums. They well-deserve the #1 slot, so drop by and give us both a listen today.

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Thursday, May 16, 2002
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Want to chat with Andrew and Me? Well, I just setup a new discussion group for that purpose. Sign up today!

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Monday, May 06, 2002
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Do you enjoy Internet Radio? You may not for much longer!

If you haven't heard the news, a new royalty rate has been proposed by the Copyright Office. On May 21st, they will either approve or reject the new royalty rate. While the new rate could greatly benefit musicians like us financially, more than likely it'll mean that the Major labels will once again dominate online radio. Why?

With the new rate, Internet Radio stations will be required to pay for past broadcasting as well as future. Sites like Ren Radio and Highlander Radio will be required to pay upwards of $5000! No indie broadcaster can afford to pay the proposed fees, thus many of the great sites you've come to listen to will end transmission!!!!

Personally, I believe that musicians Should be paid for their creative endeavors. But if the only musicians who will benefit from this new royalty are those on Major Labels, then the result is a decrease in the quality of online programming and once again, independent musicians will be shafted.

Hope is not yet lost though. If you want to take action and help save programming based on quality, rather than advertising, then visit the following link: http://www.saveinternetradio.org

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Monday, May 06, 2002
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Yesterday, Andrew and I were back in the studio working on our Lord of the Rings CD, and it's coming along beautifully. We've about ten songs thusfar, including the much requested "Fellowship of the Ring". The initial recording is exquisite. I hope to release a copy of that within the next month and were aiming for early August for release of the CD.

Meantime, I'd like to introduce something new. I setup a discussion list for Nagians. If you'd like to chat with us easily through email or talk to other fans, then visit the new yahoogroups page to signup.

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Monday, May 06, 2002
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After three years and two months of playing at the University of Texas South Mall, we decided to finally call it quits. No more lunch time music with the Brobdingnagian Bards. But I want to thank everyone who came out to see us every week. We had some really wonderful and dedicated people that really made our weekly performances a joy and a pleasure.

It really is hard to believe that it's been three years. I remember our first year, when Andrew was literally terrified of standing up in front of people. But they either loved or hated us. We had a funny comic strip written in the Daily Texan during our first season out there that featured us fighting a bunch of Ninjas (it took three of them to take out just two bards...who'd have thought?). I can’t even begin to imagine how many people took photographs of us on an almost daily basis. Video too. Our photo appeared in the Daily Texan a couple times too, but you know, none of the media ever mentioned a about those strange people, playing stranger instruments in an odd styling of Celtic music at UT nearly daily.

But our gigs did get us on TV. There's that horrible performance we did on The Ben Stroud Power Hour. They stopped airing it fortunately, were not big on paying blackmail. If you were unlucky enough to see it, you would've seen Andrew as a bleach blonde, and us really pushing the limits of what is defined as "risque'".

Then that summer...oof. We played daily through 110-degree weather. I snapped a lot of strings back then, but the Fall was incredible. School started back, and we had a good hundred people gathered at our feet singing along in the shade of the trees. It brought back stories of Janis Joplin in the 60s. It was in that first year when we made some of our best, long-lasting friendships, and that’s when we made some of our most dedicated fans...and to think they still enjoy our music!

But you know, it wasn't until May 2000, that we stopped performing daily. Yeah, we were playing out there for five days a week! And it wore us down. We thought about stopping entirely after that. Instead we took the summer off. Then we went back refreshed and started playing just on Fridays. That worked out great too, because in April, Peanut Butter Friday started, soon followed by the dreaded Peanut Butter Friday Song. Peanut Butter Friday was an event put on by the University Methodist Church. They gave out free PBJs and lemonade. So students had twice the reasons to come out and hear us play.

This past year, we moved up off the lawn up by the infamous statue of George Washington. I'm sure the U.T. staff was happy. At the end of every semester, the grass where we played was worn down to dirt.

But right now, we still get emails from people who saw us perform on the grass saying, "Hey do you still play on the South Mall? I saw you there a few years back." That'll soon be people talking about G.W. no doubt, but I guess the response will at long last be, "No. It is finished."

Today was a great ending to our three-year journey and virtual U.T. tradition. Many of our long-time friends and Nagians came out to see us play. But oddly, we attracted greater attention than usual. A huge crowd gathered with each song. A photographer was out there requesting Freebird and taking a lot of pictures. We had a woman with a video camera briefly shooting the performance. And get this...there was even an ape out there! We played Do Virgins Taste Better Medley while some guy dressed up in an ape outfit danced a jig in front of us and the growing audience.

Oh! And lets not forget that today is No Pants Day! So we had several fans, including pantless organizer and member of the Knighthood of Buh, Cha Che, wearing their boxers and briefs.

Then oddly, a pantless DJ from KVRX Student Radio asked us to be on his comedy show. I tried emailing KVRX to get our music on the staiton, but never heard a word. But during our last performance on the South Mall, someone shows up???

But the highlight for me was to have our friend and Nagian, Linda, giving away free cookies to our large audience in lieu of the Peanut Butter Friday people who didn't make it out this week.

Whew! So is that it? I don't think so.

It may be the end of our weekly excusions to the South Mall at the University of Texas, but this is just the end of the first phase of our musical career. We have many more gigs coming up around Austin, including one on May 15th at Café Mundi, and we're starting to plan our first official tour to Atlanta, Georgia when we will perform at Dragon*Con, America's largest Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention.

This is just the end of a wonderful period of our life, when we were able to bring smiles to a few thousand faces over the course of three years. Now, we hope to bring smiles to a few hundred thousand faces over the course of our lives.

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Friday, May 03, 2002
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Hehe! I just got finished watching Stone Trek, a Star Trek-Flintstones cartoon parody. Very amusing!

And hey that works perfectly for my other bit of news. We are booked for Dragon*Con! So if you're in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend, come see us at America's Largest Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention.

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Wednesday, May 01, 2002
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