Derek Furlong

This is part one of a two part interview I did with Derek Furlong of "The Red Earth". Derek's been playing didj for a long time and as you are about to discover, his style and power come from a rich set of experiences both in Australia and his native UK.

[Ed] Can you recall when you first heard the didjeridu?

Derek: A lot of people ask me that! I remember as a young kid of eight years old watching television when suddenly Rolf Harris came on playing the Didgeridoo. I would describe myself as a 'down to earth person' and this might seem strange coming from me, but it really sparked something inside me. From that day onwards I was always blowing and rasping my lips down tubes. That is basically how I started to play!

[Ed] So Rolf got the ball rolling by sparking your interest. What was the next step toward becoming an accomplished player? How did you find your first didjeridu which wasn't the odd piece of pipe or tubing?

Derek: These early days were very important and I will spend a little time revealing more about what gave me a 'thirst' for learning. I guess this may not be at first very relevant to most people, but to me it was very relevant. My parents split when I was eight (just after I blew my first sound down the vacuum tube), and from that day onwards I led a very unhappy home life my stepmother was very cruel to me and I suddenly found myself surrounded by stepsisters and brothers. We were very poor, a low income working class family in the industrial UK town of Barrow-in-Furness. I always believed that some day I would do better, and my dream was to go to Australia . In them days I still practiced 'blowing the tube' as I called it then, but for fear of ridicule kept it mostly a secret. Not many people in Barrow knew what a didgeridoo was in those days and good old Rolf had made a little joke out of the whole thing, which still sticks today among the 'less informed' in the UK.

You see these early days gave me a 'thirst' for learning, a thirst to make something of my life. Well life continued and I left school at 16 and went into the shipyard. There I saved money like hell. I left home at an early stage never to return and I set off on my journey. life became kind to me and I made many friends and developed as a person in many ways. I ended up at a place called Rydal Hall. There I planned my next steps and was able for the first time to really share my passion for wanting to go to Australia and learn about the didgeridoo.

From Rydal I did indeed set out for Australia at the age of 24. This time was a real magical time for me. I had never been able to play a real didgeridoo, I had only played pipes, but I was very familiar with how to play and could circular breathe and create rhythms. I was off to Australia, quite something for a working class backstreet boy! It really was very exciting, my dream would at last be fulfilled. With me came many tapes of didgeridoo playing and also great hopes, and that almighty 'thirst' to learn the didgeridoo and play it as good as and better than all those people on the tapes. Boy did I have some hard work ahead!

On arriving in Australia I was completely overwhelmed, I really felt 'in at the deep end'. How would I meet Aboriginal people, would they teach me, where would I go, how would I make the money last?

Now to the first time I played a real didgeridoo!

I was staying with an Australian family I had just met and I decided to venture to Sydney. They knew of my quest and suggested I visit a shop in the Rocks area of the city and later on go to circular Key. I found a shop and went inside. There in front of me were loads of didgeridoo's. I asked if I could play one and the lady in the shop said of course. that was it, I finally played my first didgeridoo in a shop!

[Ed] And how were the didjeridus? Please continue your story about your experiences in Australia.

[Derek]

I tried a few didges in the shop, and to my surprise most were not very good, well errrr not as good as the plastic tubes I had been playing all those years. However there were a few that played well and had the diameter of mouthpiece I was used to. The lady in the shop was quite amazed at how I could play and even more amazed when I said that was the first time I had played a didgeridoo! Well not strictly true!

I knew that was the place not to buy a didge from and desperately tried to get out of the shop after constant requests to play from people around and the proprietor. That was a turning point in my life, from that day onward I knew I had found 'my instrument' and the direction my life should take. I also knew from then onward that I wanted to be performer.

The past few days saw me return to Sydney talking with the didge players on the Circular Quay, playing their instruments and watching and learning. I even performed myself on my plastic pipe! The years of practice had paid off and I could hold my own as a medium kind of player making good simple rhythms and percussive barks.

I particularly remember a couple of Aboriginal didge players busking at the time, one called 'Henry' who did brilliant animal sounds on what was essentially a crap didge! The other guy well I simply cannot remember his name, the only thing I can remember was that he was from the N.T, originally and had come to Sydney a few years back. We got on well but lost touch, I never saw him again. In that year I thought I saw Alan Dargan (before his album release) but was not sure. I had quite a lot of contact with Alan later on another trip, but that's another story!

From Sydney I planned my travel around Australia. I became very good friends with a family living just outside Richmond and they gave me some fantastic advice and good contacts, and from there I set out.

I basically hitchhiked up the east coast stopping off to sleep on beaches talking to fellow travelers and would stay in the odd Youth Hostel for a 'clean up'. I saw a lot and did a lot. I met up with many didge players along the way (particularly in Byron Bay) and ate talked and slept didgeridoo! My original advice was to get a didge in Alice Springs and I passed many opportunities and did indeed hold out until I reached there.

This is sounding more like an epic than an interview so I won't recount all the experiences I had otherwise I wont finish this until the early hours!

I eventually made it across to Alice Springs and that is where I got hold of my first didgeridoo. I basically went into a few shops and played the instruments. Again I attracted a lot of attention, most people bought them for decoration even in 1990!

I met up with a few didge players in Alice, it seemed to be a hiding place for a lot of players Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal. I was very fortunate to meet up with local Aboriginal people and they were very warm towards me. This was all quite something for me and I had trouble taking it all in at the time, I knew then that this was the golden moment of my life as a young didge player eager for knowledge and understanding of why I was here, why I chose the didge, and why it seemed so 'right'. One of the Aboriginal guys I met actually painted up instruments at one of the shops and he took me along to get one. It is the very didge that I appear playing on the front page of my website (www.the-red-earth.com) This was really magical and after I got this didge my playing began to develop and I suddenly experienced the joys of playing the real thing!

Well after visiting Uluru and Katachua and heading south for Coober and taking the long way home via the Barossa valley (I love red wine, I didn't then) Broken Hill etc I ended up back in Sydney.

Money was very short on my return and I made my living as a busker and even did some teaching.

This is basically how it all began for me as a performer and teacher of the didgeridoo. It all started at Circular Quay, Sydney in 1990. Life was never the same for me again.

In part two of my interview with Derek, we'll learn about his return to the UK from Australia and his second visit down under. Visit Derek's band at http://www.the-red-earth.com. There you will be able to listen to samples from their new CD!

Derek Furlong (Part I)