Who is Herbie, credited on Ommadawn for Northumbrian Bagpipes?
Les Penning once recalled seeing Herbie sobbing into his beer at a Kington pub after having his work removed from Ommadawn. This would indicate that Paddy Moloney’s part replaced something that Herbie did. I think Herbie was a local musician, like Les, but I’m not sure. Herbie was a member of Yellow Dog, a Virgin signing in 1977. It was a duo formed by Irish musician Herbie Armstrong and Brill Building tunesmith Kenny Young – the latter being the writer of some The Drifters themes. The twosome were previously linked with singer Noosha Fox to form Fox, and provided the UK charts with three top 20 hits during 1975-76. As Yellow Dog they didn’t do badly. Herbie has since appeared on numerous Van Morrison projects, but Young has disappeared from sight. Credit: David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com, Nacho Marin, nachomarin@wanadoo.es, Vox Magazine, September 1993.
