Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
"It'll have to wait until you can buy a Fairlight in the supermarket before I can completely throw away the tape system."
Henry Dagg is well known to Belfast shoppers as the busker who entertains city centre crowds with his musical saw. Full of surprises, this film looks at aspects of Henry's life that are normally hidden from the public eye. He explains how he creates music using the sound of express trains, wine glasses, fire engine horns and a host of other objects.
Henry demonstrates how he created his piece "Kitchen Symphony" using nothing but sounds created from kitchen utensils and appliances, recorded and painstakingly arranged on tape. Kitchen Symphony grabbed the attention of the producer of the BBC Food and Drink programme, who asked Henry to make a version of "Food, Glorious Food" in the same style.
Henry's latest project involves engineering of a different kind - he's turned a tricycle into a mobile busking stage, complete with a canopy and loudspeakers for tape accompaniment. Just the thing for playing the saw to the bemused onlookers at Cornmarket.
Clip taken from Ulster In Focus, originally broadcast on BBC One Northern Ireland, 18 December, 1989.
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"It'll have to wait until you can buy a Fairlight in the supermarket before I can completely throw away the tape system."
Henry Dagg is well known to Belfast shoppers as the busker who entertains city centre crowds with his musical saw. Full of surprises, this film looks at aspects of Henry's life that are normally hidden from the public eye. He explains how he creates music using the sound of express trains, wine glasses, fire engine horns and a host of other objects.
Henry demonstrates how he created his piece "Kitchen Symphony" using nothing but sounds created from kitchen utensils and appliances, recorded and painstakingly arranged on tape. Kitchen Symphony grabbed the attention of the producer of the BBC Food and Drink programme, who asked Henry to make a version of "Food, Glorious Food" in the same style.
Henry's latest project involves engineering of a different kind - he's turned a tricycle into a mobile busking stage, complete with a canopy and loudspeakers for tape accompaniment. Just the thing for playing the saw to the bemused onlookers at Cornmarket.
Clip taken from Ulster In Focus, originally broadcast on BBC One Northern Ireland, 18 December, 1989.
You have now entered the BBC Archive, a time machine that will transport you back to the golden age of TV to educate, entertain and enlighten you with classic clips from the BBC vaults.
Make sure you subscribe so that you never miss a single stop on our amazing journey through the BBC Archive - youtube.com/c/BBCArchive?sub_confirmation=1
You can also dive into plenty more BBC Archive on our website - bbc.co.uk/archive
