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2012:
Troy plays pipes on the new band Kracked Earth, see below for more info.
2011:
NEW:
THE NEW ALBUM "MESSAGES" NOW RELEASED:
I am delighted to announce the arrival of this new compilation of my work. Read more here.
A NEW PROJECT WITH JOHANNA KURKELA (Dec 2011):
I have been invited to produce a new album for the Finnish singer Johanna - She is a very dear and close friend and has a sublime voice and spirit and I have been, for quite a while now, wanting to have a chance to place her in the kind of musical landscape befitting such an ethereal and pure personality. I am really excited by this and have already started writing and collecting music for it. Off to Finland again next week to get started. Wondrous times ahoy.
Summer 2011:
Troy can be heard on the new album of Last Knight, together with David Rohl, Jose Manuel Medina, David Rohl, Ashley Mulford, Troy Donockley, Geoffrey Richardson, Theo Travis, Marc Atkinson, Lisa Fury, Pablo Lato, Nelson Pombal, Martin Gudd, Emilio Gutierrez, Sergio Garcia, Viriu Fernandez, Jose Ramon Gutierrez, Pedro Victor Martinez, Borja Baragaño, Mario Herrero & Cindy L. Spear.
More info soon. Release date end of 2011.
NIGHTWISH NEW ALBUM AND TOUR
I have just returned from an inspiring week in Finland working on the new Nightwish album
“IMAGINARIUM”. I contributed Uilleann Pipes, Low Whistles, Bouzouki, Bodhrans and Backing Vocals
to what I can only describe as a unique and Colossal work. A movie based on the concept and
music will be going into production soon and I will have a cameo in it; the director hasn’t yet
told me what form this will take, but hopefully I shall keep my dignity!
I will be joining the band on the 2012 World Tour starting at the end of January, and running through the whole year. Tour dates will appear here soon…
A NEW COLLABORATION WITH GORDON GILTRAP Yes indeedy, we are making an album together this summer. For those who don’t know Gordon, he is not only a splendid man, but also one of the worlds Grand Masters of the Acoustic Guitar and the pair of us are very excited about what we may come up with. Hopefully we shall have it ready before the end of the Autumn. Watch this space.
BARBARA DICKSON “WORDS UNSPOKEN” ALBUM
The new album, which I arranged and produced for Barbara, is now available through Greentrax Records. I am deeply delighted with this music. We will be performing selections from it at a few festivals this summer with the glorious band - it is fiery and wild so do check out the tour dates.
THE GODS PROJECT
This is another collaboration with my splendid old pal David Rohl who I worked with on his
latest Mandalaband albums. David is also a respected Egyptologist and writer and we are both very interested in the subject of the Gods and their origins, so this is going to be an Orchestral concept album ( there, I said it ) and I shall be composing the music and David the words…more news on this further down the road….
THE BAD SHEPHERDS “BY HOOK OR BY CROOK” The Bad Shepherds ( our Massive Big Fun Band ) have a new album recently released. It is called “By Hook or by Crook” and is available through Proper Records and the usual outlets. We will shortly be doing some shows in Ireland, but we are also gallivanting around the festivals again this summer, so do check out the tour dates… And Finally….
“MESSAGES” A COLLECTION
A compilation of my music will be released this coming autumn. It will consist of tracks from my three solo albums and other unreleased music from over the years.
Well, thats it for now and here’s hoping you dive into a glorious summer. Off we go
News June 2010:
Ironclad
Back to the 13th Century we go... 'Ironclad' is a major new film scheduled for release sometime this summer and is about the Knights Templar and the seige of Rochester Castle. It has a stellar cast and looks grungy and, er, very bloody. I played a load of Pipes and Low whistles on this score so watch out for it.
Chris While & Julie Matthews.
I was recently invited to play pipes on the forthcoming album by this most wondrous pair of splendid old friends...Its a concept album and Julie described it as 'The Ben Hur of Folk Music'!!! The track I played on sure enough sounded deeply splendid....
[ Chris and Julie are (ex-) members of Albion and as duo they were nominated as best duo, songwriter and more splendid ideas ]
Surrounding Bose
Just returned from the US where 10 days were spent working on music I have written for my friends at
the Hi-Fi company BOSE. This is to be used to promote the 5.1 surround quality of their gear.
One piece in particular turned out wild and wonderful and I intend to put it on a "sampler" CD of my past
work at the end of this year... if I get a chance (see below!).
Robin Hood
I have just finished a day in the splendid Abbey Road studios working on the new Ridley Scott epic movie 'ROBIN HOOD' starring
Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. A great time was had and I can tell you that Ridley is a sound bloke - which is always a relief
when you meet one of your heroes!
Mor info down below in the "solo" section.
The 'Big-Fun' band!
The Bad Shepherds have been nominated for a BBC Folk Award 2010 for 'Best Live Act'! The ceremony is on the
1st of Feb so watch this space. Also, watch the Bad Shepherds website for live dates this year as, up to now,
we have 66 shows up to October!!
Classic Rock Society Award.
I am delighted to report that I was voted 'Best Roots Musician' at this years 'CLASSIC ROCK SOCIETY' awards evening. Unfortunately I couldnt be at the ceremony, but thanks to everyone who voted.
New Barbara Dickson Album
I will be arranging and producing a third album for Barbara Dickson (this year sometime..er..). We have put
together a setlist of mailnly traditional songs and it will be cut from the same luxurious cloth as
the previous two albums. And as usual at this time of year, I will be out on tour through February/March
with Barbara and the Band.
Recent Sessions.
I Recently played pipes on the new album by Karnataka
which I believe is now out, (a review is at this site).
I havent heard it all yet but it was excellent. Also, played on the new Christina Booth
(vocalist from band Magenta) solo album
which is to be released later this year. Again, great stuff...
Mandalaband
The new album is out now! Please check the Mandalaband, for mre info, clips and rehearsal video's, with a fantastic guitar solo of Troy.
Children in Need.
Troy is involved with Nick Mason, Peter Gabriel and a few
other Bad Shepherds in this charity event. Please read more a Nick's Page.
But watch the clip first:
After being a member for 14 years, Troy has left the band Iona. Sad but true.
They had different points of view how to run a proffesional band. And apperently the believe or non-believe issue played a role in the departure too.
Nevertheless "...they are a great bunch of Muscians, maybe the best there are...".
"I have had a wonderful time with my friends in Iona and am very, very proud of the albums we made together. But, as in all of life, things change. After extended periods of no activity we have found ourselves with a very different musical and philosophical direction. We have parted as great friends should, with a sad-happiness and I wish the band all the very best wishes for the future".
Troy.
The Madness of Crowds.
Album is in the sores now and get's great reviews. More info below.
Nightwish.
Troy will perform with Nightwish during a few Europian dates and they added him to their US tour aswell.
He will attend the last gig in Helsinki, so be there.
Bad Sheppers:
A new live band that hits the road in October, November and December in the U.K..
With support of an acoustic Mostly Autumn... read more
down below.
Read more here about their tour in the UK and one date in the Netherlands (Folkwoodfestival)!
Troy is a "Freethinker" and he play some instruments: Low Whistles, Uilleann Pipes, Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Tin Whistle, E-Bow, Slide Guitar, Keyboards, Cittern & Vocals.
"Born in Cumbria into a musical family, his musical journey has taken many diverse
cultural turns, all within a focused plan to compose music of uncompromised integrity
and passion. All join to create something very individual and very real..."The Pursuit of Illusion ('03) is his latest album. He got some help of the members of Iona:
The new album from Troy and Dave Bainbridge is out.
From Silence was recorded live in Lincoln Cathedral at the end of October '06.
Details and soundbytes are in the Discography section of his website.
Troy and a lot of friends including a choir and orchestra finished on his new album called The Madness of Crowds.
Release date April 2009.
The new album "The Madness of Crowds" was mixed at the Chapel Studios
in November. The album features 7 pieces and lots of guests including Joanne Hogg,
Barbara Dickson, Frank Van Essen, Nick Holland, the Cellist Rosie Biss and double bassist Brad Lang. It also
features brilliant artwork from Alastair Dickson the sculptor and Tim Martindale, designer of Troys website.
The first few thousand are strictly collectors items - hand constructed and a package of rare beauty. When these are gone, the album will be available as a standard digi-pack. The album is available only from this website for the first month and then, on the 11th of May, it will be released to the usual outlets through 'Voiceprint'. Downloads will be available from 'Jhana Music' at the same time.
Cast: in order of appearance:
My dream? See this performed life in the Royal Albert Hall, this is a new classical album, the new Renaissance in Music.
Resume: a very powerful album that will allow you to dream and see imaginary landscapes and pictures. Ambient rockin' with Celtic tunes and an almost
classical approach, rich instrumentations with a fantastic bite and vibe. It brings you to
worlds you never witnessed and back to this madness we live in. Troy is master on his pipes but he plays more; his guitar playing is excellent and
how he easily he plays keyboards too! He's a great illusionist and with this piece of perfection he sails you to another dimension.
Moody, dark and shining. Most of the tunes are instrumental, but certainly the 3 ladies, Joanna Hogg, Barbara Dickson & Heather Findlay
are singing on their best and they give the cd an extra
heavenly boost.
It's hard to compare this, songs and or musicians that came in my mind were the song Castellorizon from David Gilmour, some older instrumentals from
Alan Parsons, even some Peter Gabrielesque percussion patterns, the psychedlic Kate Bush
and Emma Shapplin, Iona (of course), Excalibur II and the romantic sphere's of the Mandala Band. But is it fair
to compare? Think Troy made an unique sounding album.
The Artwork really is Art with a capital "A", never saw something like that! Amazing and perfectly in keeping with the music. A real gem.
10+ out of 10.
Nick from the lovely South of... .
Thx to Nick from Takrann Fantasy for editing.
Another Review by Simon Jones.
Troy Donockley delights in throwing people curve balls, so far he’s done it on two albums, the first “ The Unseen Stream,” was a glorious rush of pastoral influence and high, folk art, his second “ The Pursuit Of Illusion” more individual but way beyond any meaningless attempt to hang a label on.
Now we’ve his third opus – opus isn’t a word I permit to be banded about loosely either- “The Madness of Crowds,” which in my humble opinion is the most distinctive yet. It opens with the title track which, within minutes reminds you of either a soundtrack for a lost cut of “Lord of the Rings,” music for a high brow BBC 2 documentary or the finest concert hall symphony. All this and another six items to boggle your critical facilities! To try and describe everything would be futile, this man loves to play with sense and sensibilities, yet not in any ad hoc way more in a way that says ‘look I know this shouldn’t work, but let’s live dangerously shall we?’ Thankfully Troy taking risks is one of the pleasures that “The Madness of Crowds,” displays with pride, it wears non conformity like a medal of honour, there is nothing else like it in the racks and probably won’t be until Mr. Donockley releases his fourth offering. Each track shifts and morphs into new shapes and sounds like a kaleidoscope; for instance “Orkhaugr,” opens like a Bulgarian, dance before ushering on industrial sound effects and huge guitar sustain, melting into Arabian textures, then comes a gorgeous melee of Vaughan Williams pastoral influence and soaring moments of Gustav Holst, all pushing out to a free form coda of high octane rock’n’reeling. Truly this man knows no boundaries. Troy Donockley is idiosyncratic, a true one off, somebody who doesn’t follow the rules, a benign musical rebel who enriches whatever he touches with a certain class and unmistakeable individuality. “The Madness of Crowds,” is pretty well unique. It will endure.
Simon Jones fRoots.
I am delighted to announce the arrival of this new compilation of my work. This is a collection of tracks from previous albums plus two new and unreleased pieces, and it is now available to purchase here at the site. It will be on general release early in the new year through the usual outlets. But not record shops. Because there arent any...sigh...
You can get an insight into each piece by clicking here.
Bad Shepperds:
Latest news; Also due for release at any moment is the new Bad Shepherds album "Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera!" ( this means one, two, three,
four in old Celtic Cumbrian language ). This is the first release from the new "Big Fun folk band" project formed by Ade Edmondson,
Troy and Troys mate Maart. The band is playing at a multitude of festivals this year. For more details on this check out the concert page
and for more info in general on the shepherds, go to -
On tour in the U.K. in October, November and December. Don't miss them. On the first 19 locations there will be support from a few members of Mostly Autumn.
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CREATING folk arrangements for punk classics was the inspired idea of comedy star Adrian Edmondson, who found fame playing Vyvyan, the punk rocker, in the cult 1980s TV sitcom The Young Ones.
Maarten Allcock (Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention) - acoustic Guitars, bass, backing vocals,
Troy Donockley (Barbara Dickson, Maddy Prior, Midge Ure, Iona) - Uillian Pipes, whistles, acoustic guitars, vocals,
Andy Dinan - violin, backing vocals.
This from Ade: "It's a weird situation. We've only been a band for a few months. We discovered, perhaps too late, that our fiddle player wasn't really the
right fiddle player for us. We tried to encourage her to play the way we wanted her to, but she took umbrage and quit the band. It appears our
manager/promoter was rather enamoured of her and he threw up his hands and quit the band too - cancelling the tour with only three days to go.
We have rescued a couple of the gigs so far, and it looks like we may rescue a handful of other dates, but it was not possible to take over all his
contracts as they stood (not least because he had the money!). But fear not, we shall rise like a Phoenix from the ashes. The two rescued gigs
in Pocklington went brilliantly. We had a lot of fun. The audience had a lot of fun. This is just an annoying hiccup.
There is some sneaky phone footage from Pocklington on YouTube. The emergency fiddler was Carol Dawson (Brigg Fiddle Festival, Workshy Profits) who did
brilliantly, learning the whole set in a day and a half. Emergency percussionist Keith Angel also helped us out.
So keep an eye on my website tourdates page at www.thebadshepherds.com as I'll be announcing as the dates come in. Now where are those sheep?
Review: The Bad Shepherds, Pocklington Arts Centre
1:33pm Monday 27th October 2008
By Richard Foster »
He formed the Bad Shepherds with two multi-instrumentalists – Maartin Allcock, formerly of Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull, and Troy Donockley, who has worked with Iona, Maddy Prior and Midge Ure.
Their UK premiere at Pocklington on Saturday night was a fun-filled evening of quality music-making spiced with a couple of satirical swipes at the sheep parables of Jesus Christ.
Edmondson proved an able front man. He has a fine singing voice and he’s no slouch on the mandolin. He described his style as “thrash mandolin”, playing with such exuberance that he broke two strings during one number. Ever the professional, he had packed a spare instrument.
The Bad Shepherds, who also featured last-minute recruits on fiddle and percussion, gave fresh vibrancy to seminal sounds of the 1970s and 1980s. Their version of Teenage Kicks morphed into the Irish folk standard Whiskey In The Jar during the instrumental breaks.
Kraftwerk’s electronic epic The Model featured Donockley on the uilleann pipes, while their treatment of The Jam’s Down At The Tube Station At Midnight verged on the poetic.
The five musicians also gave the folk treatment to songs by The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Tom Robinson, Talking Heads and The Stranglers. Their well-deserved encore was a hilarious version of Hurry Up Harry by Sham 69.
Here’s two weird little videos:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yKWNitW01x0
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_Aulos-NGsk
(Though Eimear Bradley has since left the band to pursue a solo career)
To contact The Bad Shepherds about performing at your venue, please email:
The Bad Shepherds live @ Folkwoodfesitval.
On Saturday the 15th of August the legendary Shepherds played the slot act on the main stage.
The Folkwoodfestival is a weird cozy festival, colourful, peaceful with a lot of outdoor activities for children. Great food, Belgium beers and a amazing step back
in the hippie time. And above all very peacefull.
The Shepherds did a magical show, playing the new wave and punk classicals in a fabulous acoustic set up. The arragements where really beautiful and different.
The most tracks were reckognized by the words not by the tunes... the crowded sung a long with the Talking Heads, The Clash, The Sexpistols and old those goodies from our youth.
Dave is able to lay contact with the audience on a very easy going way, althrough i think everybody could make contact with the sweet crowded... they all
wanted a fun a time and peace.
If you want a great evening with flashback from the roaring times, go and see them, sing-a-long and get punk again.
Great fun gig and a great day to remember the 40 anniversary of Woodstock and other important matters.
Nick and his family from the lovely South.
Smile on mum.
Patrick Spruytenburg
www.folkwoods.nl/.
SESSION:
- Breath Of Life 1996, 1997 & 1998,
- “Celtic Classics” an major new classical compilation album, release date; somewhere in 2004,
- Playing live with Lesley Garrett in May 2004 and,
- Performing at the Mostly Autumn V-shows & Mostly Floyd 2004 (and more often @ various occasions),
- Together with Snowy White and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band he had a gig on 18the
September (and Bryan wasn't there).
- ProgAid ('05).
- Magenta (Home new studio album '06)
- Nightwish ('07 - '09 (live).- Mandalaband.
- Eureka.
- Karnataka ('09).
- Christina Booth (Magenta) ('10).
- Robin Hood the movie with Russle Crowe and Cate Blanchett.
Marc Streitenfeld (componist), Thomas Bowes (Violin), Caroline Dale (Cello), William Lyons (Flute), Eliza Marshall (Flute), Paul Clarvis (Ethno-Percussion),
Frank Ricotti, Gary Kettel und Glyn Matthews (Percussion), Tristan Fry (Percussion), Giles Lewin (Fiddle),
Jacob Heringman und James Akers (Lauten), Robert White und Troy Donockley (Uilleann Pipes) sowie Nigel Eaton (Hurdy Gurdy).
Choir: Metro Voices and the Bach Choir. Solo-Vocalist Kathleen MacInnes.
- Nightwish ('12 and live on the road the whole year.
- Kracked Earth ('12)
- Rob Reed (Kompendium '12 (Rob is from
Magenta)).
- Frank van Essen ('12)(drums a violins in
Iona).
Ayreon (The Theory of Everything '13)
Saw him 23 September 2004 in The Spirit of 66 with Iona. For a review see: Iona Live!. And in anthines, Leeds and Verviers again (all in 2006)!!!
Old NEWS
NEW: Interview May '09.
Some crazy interview with an uptade after the live gig in The Spirit of 66 in 2006.
Home again.
Please be so free and sign my guestbook.