Instruments

Portnawak & The Woo play on a wide variety of instruments, the only thing they have in common is that they don't need to be plugged in! Some of these instruments have strange and wonderous stories and here they are:

The Harmonium

  Our beautiful harmie was lent to the Woodcote Mains household by our friend Jessie, because she didn't have anywhere to keep it........and she never asked for it back. It was recruited for various sing alongs, became a christmas carol favourite and eventually found its' place as the wheezy, creaky, throbbing bedrock of the Portnawak sound. 

If you don't know how to play,
you can still sit and play the flute

It works by pumping the pedals with your feet, which pumps air through reeds like a harmonica. It might be from India but we don't really know as we've never seen another like it. 

After we had been using it in the band for about a year Benedict bumped into Jessie at the Meadows Fayre (post gig) and officially bought the harmonium for 20 quid and a pile of chocolate. It was then promptly left out in the torrential rain by a nameless foolish hippie. Jessie bought harmie at a carboot sale, it has been pink, yellow and now is (a bit of a scruffy) green (maybe one day we'll get round to tarting it up with a psychedelic paintjob), it has been all the way to Mali in a van, It has also been to the top of Arthur's seat, Jessie carried it up, alone, on her back.....hardcore.

Recently the harmie was given a full renovation by Mel the Magnificent. He took it completely apart, cleaned and buffed every piece, tuned the reeds, fitted a whole new bellows made of sailcloth and generally gave her big love. Now she sounds twice as  powerful and pieces have ceased to drop off at every gig. We paid him by playing at his wedding, and it will go down in history as one of the primo crazy nights in Portnawak history!





The Owl Frame Drum

Plumes made this drum, based on a design of a Scandanavian Shamanic Drum, under the instruction of a wonderful man, with very kind eyes, named Running Horse (who also makes a mean pakora).  Running Horse's partner Noa showed Plumes how to felt the beater (with alpaca wool), and the whole process was watched over by wee Velvet, Little Bear in a field in Glastonbury.  The frame is made of Ash wood, which has great resonance, and the skin is of a Red Deer.  It was made in the traditional way, and all the materials are natural...even the paint job, which is henna. 

The Owl came to the drum, inspired by a meeting Plumes had with a Barn Owl in the glen behind Woodcote a few weeks before the drum was born.  Their eyes met, and a gaze was held for quite a while, leaving Plumes in complete awe.  Wowzer.  Whilst making the drum, Plumes was also reading the brilliant novel  ' I heard The Owl Call My Name' by Margaret Craven and so it all seemed just right that the Owl be the totem animal for this instrument. 

 The drum skin is tightened by heat, and so when a fire side is not available, a wee heater, 'The Whooo', must be taken to gigs to ensure the drum has it's full on bass BOOM rather than, as Edith Custard describes, sounding like a tomato box.



The Tangent Bell

This is a sacred artefact and has great cultural and religious significance. Mohammed G Rosental was entrusted this resonant object by none other than Grant of Muscletusk several years ago in a dark cave. 
It was manufactured by Gent of Leicester in the 1970's. 
It is played with the due respect and composure during the song "Branle d'Ecosse" and only then.





The War-proof fiddle

Nicolas De La Courtoise had a great grandfather, who was playing the fiddle, just like him. When the great grandfather died he left his fiddle to the 12 year old Nicolas, who was more than happy because at that time he had no money to buy one (now he has got a chateau, so money is not a problem anymore), and the one he was renting was too small and sounded like an old rusty door hinge.


With the fiddle, the great grandfather left the story, and this story gave a real sentimental value to the instrument...


During World War II, the great grandfather was in the french "resistance" but got arrested by the Germans at some point. they came to his house and told him and his wife to take one piece of luggage and follow them, SCHNELL! Nicolas's great grandfather and great grandmother chose to take their instruments, a fiddle and a viola, and were deported to a German camp. The story then says that they were actually kept alive because the Germans wanted them to play music for the prisoners. Eventually, the Americans came to rescue them... and their instruments. 

Nicolas realised he had a great piece of history in his hands, and you can actually read "1886" on the label inside the fiddle, and also see loads of bumps and scratches.


On top of that, Nicolas asked Marmaduke Foliage Spoth to make a nice leather overcoat for his original wooden case, and Marmaduke did extremely well, making the most beautiful leather case an instrument could ever imagine. Nicolas is now taking great care of this fiddle, carefully jumping and bouncing around the other members of the band and snapping less than 20 hairs per gig from his bow. He hopes to get his fiddle certified War-proof and Punk-proof very soon.




 The Drum in a skirt

This drum was found in a skip by a Pirate.