John Doonan, Billy Pigg, and Charlton Foster from the Farne Archive

    (Edit search Doonan once on Farne website)

     Here are some clips of John Doonan in great company from a folk club appearance South Shields in the 1960s. Doonan's nice crisp style involves both tongue and glottal techniques and it compliments the Northumbrian pipes of Pigg well. The tunes are fairly well known Irish tunes for the most part.

     John Doonan's name is the largest in the field of Irish style piccolo playing. (Maybe its more a patch of grass than a field.)  John was from Newcastle and played flute in dancebands  beginning in the 1940s. At some point he moved to the piccolo presumably to be heard over the din of the dancehall. Presumably he also found an affinity with the instrument and played it until his passing in 20002. I hope to add more on Doonan as this page expands.