Remember our post about last week’s attempt to set the Guinness World Record for fastest accordion player? Thanks to the Irish Post we’ve discovered that the accordionist was Irish button box virtuoso Liam O’Connor. Liam rose to fame as a featured musician with Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance, and has also recorded three albums with vocalist Lisa Aherne.
According to his site, Liam set the record for “Fastest Fingers in the World” by playing an amazing 11.64 notes per second under the watchful eyes of Guinness judges. The record-breaking tune was the venerable classic, “Tico Tico”.
Unfortunately, Liam’s site doesn’t have any sound clips, so we can only wonder what his fast fingers sound like. Leave a comment if you know where we can find clips of Liam’s music online.
7 Comments:
He’s credited on these two Flatley albums, but I got bored after a few tries trying to find any accordion sound among the clips:
http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?z=y&EAN=731455956221
http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?z=y&EAN=731453375727
by Ian on November 17th, 2006
Interesting. I listened to a few clips, too, and couldn’t find much accordion.
I did find a short piece on Liam that aired on RTE News on November 9th. It includes some playing and — yeah — he’s pretty damn fast:
http://dynamic.rte.ie/av/230-2190510.smil
(viewable with RealPlayer)
by Chris on November 17th, 2006
i actually saw him play when i was traveling in ireland this summer.
he is really really fast.
really fast.
..except he does this strange spin accordion thing that i’m sure he thinks looks really cool, but really just looks like a little kid spinning in circles trying to make himself dizzy.
but in any case, i lved watching him play. i even got a photo with hi after the show, i just wished i bought a c.d.
by ttm on September 17th, 2008
i just realized that liam might actually read this… in which case, either erase my previous comment, or let me say, liam, i really liked your show, and your wife is a fantastic singer, i just was distracted by the spinning thing, but that’s probably only because i have a.d.d, and do quite a lot of drugs, so my mind tends to wander durring repetitive acts. keep up the good work.
by ttm on September 17th, 2008
Just returned from Ireland and saw a wonderful show in Killarney with Liam,Liz Ahern, 3 wonderful musicians and 3 world champion dancers. Each one to be applauded in their own way.
A most enjoyable evening.
by teresa wall on September 18th, 2010
I saw Liam O’Conner in Killarney about a week ago and he was outstanding! Me and my Aunt traveled to Ireland with a wonderful group on tour of the Emerald Isle and was so impressed by this man’s talent, we had to take a picture with him. He was very gracious with a bit of humor about him. He included his children into his concert with two of his boys playing the traditional irish drums, they were fantastic! You could tell his boys admired their father as they played. The oldest was fixed on appeasing his father and continued to look up at him through out the show. Liam’s daughter was singing and did a irish dance, very talented family! It was a must see show worthy of the ticket cost! Bravo Liam!
by Lisa Dean on May 14th, 2011
I also must add that the concert had several very talented musicians and a wonderful singer by the name of Lisa A. They accompanied Liam and mixed the background music of drums, flute, sax, and piano well into the the accordian melody along with the very talents of Lisa, who had such a beautiful voice! The River Dancers kept up with the beautiful sounds and combination of instruments, were equally talented in their discipline of dance. Liam O’Conner really knows how to work a crowd and should consider visiting Wisconsin, USA, someday if he hasn’t already! Thank you, Liam!
by LIsa Dean on May 15th, 2011