in the 18th century and is mentioned by James Joyce as an instrument he heard being played in the street. Bell introduced a small cimbalom (a hammered dulcimer from central and eastern Europe), which he called tiompan after the medieval Irish instrument. Bell was an admirer of the music of Nikolai Karlovich Medtner and was the co-founder, with the bass-baritone Hugh Sheehan, of the first British Medtner Society which gave a series of successful concerts of Medtner's music in the 1970s long before Medtner's music was recognised as it is today. The Chieftains On St Patrick's Day in 1972 Bell performed on the radio of the music of Turlough O'Carolan, an 18th-century blind Irish harpist. At that time O'Carolan's music was virtually unknown, though today almost every album of harp music contains one of his compositions. Working with Bell on the project were several members of The Chieftains. Bell became friends with the leader of the Chieftains, Paddy Moloney. For two precarious years, he recorded both with the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra and with The Chieftains, until finally becoming a full-time member of the Chieftains in 1975. Eccentricity Bell was the only member of the band to wear a tie at every public performance. He favoured socks with novelty designs, such as images of Looney Tunes characters. He wore scruffy suits, often with trousers that were too short. He was eccentric and told obscene jokes. The title of his 1981 solo album Derek Bell Plays With Himself has a conscious double-entendre. While touring in Moscow he grabbed his alarm clock and put it in his pocket while rushing to catch a plane. He was then stopped by the Soviet police on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon. Paddy Moloney affectionately called him "Ding Dong" Bell. He relished the eclectic collaborations, such as those with Van Morrison, Sting and the Chinese orchestra. In 1991 he recorded with his old friend James Galway. He was awarded an MBE in the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to traditional music. Eastern religions From the early 1960s, Bell was a friend of Swami Kriyananda, also known as J. Donald Walters (also an avid composer of music for the Irish harp). Bell and some associates visited Kriyananda at his spiritual centre in Ananda village in Nevada City, California. Bell wrote a preface to an edition of Kriyananda's book Art As a Hidden Message. He writes,