Sub-series DBE-239678/4/2 - The Chieftains

The Chieftains were formed in 1962 when Garech Browne, owner of Claddagh Records, invited uilleann piper Paddy Moloney to form a group to record a once off album. The original members of the group were Paddy Moloney (uilleann pipes and tin whistle), Martin Fay (fiddle), Seán Potts (tin whistle), Michael Tubridy (flute) and David Fallon (bodhrán). The Chieftains the group’s first album was published by Claddagh Records in 1963. Seán Keane (fiddle) joined the band shortly after the release of their first album and in 1966 Peadar Mercier replaced David Fallon on bodhrán. The group went on to release two albums The Chieftains 2 (1969) and The Chieftains 3 (1971) with this line-up of musicians. Derek Bell met The Chieftains in 1972 and began his performance and recording career with the group in that year. The group continued to tour and record and three more albums followed The Chieftains 4 (1973), the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick’s film Barry Lyndon (1975) and The Chieftains 5 (1975). In 1975 the group turned professional after a very successful concert in the Royal Albert Hall in London. In the early years of their professional career, from 1975 to 1977, The Chieftains were managed by impresario Jo Lustig who organised a number of international tours to the United Kingdom, North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Peadar Mercier retired from the group in 1976 and was replaced by Kevin Conneff who sang and played the bodhrán. The Chieftains’ sixth album, Bonaparte’s retreat (1976) was released in the same year and was the first to feature Conneff’s bodhrán playing. It was also the first time singing featured on a Chieftains album with a guest appearance by a then seventeen year old Dolores Keane. Two more albums followed in 1977 and 1978, The Chieftains 7 (1977) and The Chieftains 8 (1978). In 1979 both Michael Tubridy and Seán Potts decided to leave the band due to the strains of international travel. Tubridy went back to his job as an engineer and Potts to his job in the post office. Tubridy was replaced by flute player Matt Molloy in 1979 and this addition to the band was to be the final change in line-up until the death of Derek Bell in 2002. The first Chieftains album to feature this new line up was Boil the breakfast early: Chieftains 9 which was released in 1979.

The Chieftains continued to record extensively throughout the 1980s, 1990s and into the new millennium with nine albums released in the 1980s, fourteen in the 1990s and between the years 2000 and 2012 another seven albums were released.

The Chieftains have performed all over the world and for many famous individuals including American presidents, royalty and Pope John Paul II. They have also collaborated with numerous musical personalities including Van Morrison, Sinéad O’Connor, The Rolling Stones, Luciano Pavarotti and many more. In 1983 The Chieftains famously toured China and were one of the first Western groups to perform on the Great Wall. This tour also saw them collaborate with Chinese musicians and resulted in their 1984 recording The Chieftains in China.

The Chieftains have received major recording and entertainment awards over the years. Their first award was a Canadian Genie in 1983 for film music for The grey fox . They were nominated for thirteen Grammy awards in total and won six during their most prolific recording period - two in 1993 for An Irish evening and Another country , one in 1994 for The Celtic harp , one in 1996 for Have I told you lately , one in 1997 for Santiago and one in 1998 for Long journey home .

Derek Bell was born in Belfast on 21 October 1935. His father William Bell, was a banker, a traditional fiddle player and also played in an amateur orchestra. His mother died when Bell was very young. When Derek was two years old his parents received a misdiagnosis from a doctor that their son was going blind. In an effort to develop his sense of hearing Derek’s parents surrounded their young son with musical toys. This resulted in an early aptitude for music. Derek started piano lessons at the age of nine and within two years had composed his first piano concerto.

He was educated at Downey House Preparatory School, Cabin Hill and Campbell College in Belfast. At the age of sixteen he won a scholarship to study composition at London’s Royal College of Music where his teachers included Herbert Howells, Norman Greenwood and Lamar Crowson. During his time there he was awarded the Manns Prize for woodwind. He graduated from the Royal College of Music in 1957. He went on to study music at Trinity College Dublin where he graduated with a MusB in 1959. By now Bell played a number of instruments including piano, oboe, oboe d’amore, cor anglais and cimbalom or dulcimer. He continued to study in Europe and the United States with, among others, British oboist Léon Jean Goossens and Russian pianist Madame Rosina Lhévinne. He appeared as a soloist with many symphony orchestras in Berlin, Moscow, Budapest, Liverpool, Dublin and London and was oboist for four seasons with the American Symphony Orchestra in Pittsburgh.

In August 1957, Derek Bell became the manager of the Belfast Symphony Orchestra. It was only at this stage, in his late twenties, that he began to learn the harp. He made his living as chorus répéiteur and deputy chorus master of the Northern Ireland Radio and TV Orchestra, which he joined in 1965. His harp teachers included Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert in Dublin and Gwendolen Mason in London. Bell also travelled regularly throughout this career to Sea 5 Island, Georgia, United States of America to take lessons from harpist, Artiss de Volt. In 1965 he took up the position of principal harpist and second oboist at the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra. In 1970 he was appointed professor of concert and Irish harp at the Belfast Academy of Music.

Bell met the Irish music group, The Chieftains, in Belfast in 1972. The group were recording a television performance with the BBC orchestra. Bell made some guest appearances with the group after this initial meeting and in 1973 he recorded with them for the first time on their album Chieftains 4 . He officially joined the band in 1974, temporarily retaining his BBC post. By the late 1970s, The Chieftains had become an international attraction, helped by Stanley Kubrick's use of their music on the soundtrack of his film Barry Lyndon (1975). They toured extensively over the next thirty years in Europe, North America and the Far East. Bell's harp added extra colour to the mix of flute, uilleann pipes, fiddle, bodhrán and tin whistles. Bell contributed to more than thirty Chieftains’ albums and won six Grammy Awards with the group.

He maintained his career as a classical composer, writing two symphonies, three piano sonatas and numerous other compositions. He also continued to perform on piano, oboe, pedal harp and a variety of other instruments. He recorded eight solo albums including Carolan's receipt (1975); Carolan's favourite (1980); Derek Bell plays with himself (1981); Musical Ireland (1982); Ancient music for the Irish harp (1989); Mystic harp (1996); A Celtic evening with Derek Bell (1997) and Mystic harp II (1999). In 1999, Bell and Liam Ó Conchubhair published a book of Irish songs entitled Songs from the North of Ireland . Two documentaries called Derek Bell: one man band (1977) and Derek Bell’s concert party (1988) were made by producer/director Alan Tongue. Tongue used visual effects to have Bell playing together on Irish harp, concert harp, piano, tiompán, oboe, whistle, bodhrán and double bass.

Bell married his American born wife Stefanie Rees, who was also a harpist, in [1980?], she was originally from San Francisco. He was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000 for his contribution to traditional Irish and classical music. Bell died suddenly on 17 October 2002 in Phoenix, Arizona, after appearing in Nashville as part of The Chieftains’ fortieth anniversary celebrations.