Gigs and news
Massive thanks to all of the bookers and followers of my music for making my Irish tour in June son much fun and so successful. Many of you travelled great distances and it was marvellous to see so many people whom I hadn't seen in many years. It was a truly rewarding and uplifting experience.
See you at my forthcoming open gigs across the country soon!
The last few months have ludicrously busy. I gigged flat out across the country throughout March and of course the St Patrick’s celebrations were a big part of that. I am not complaining though, it’s been so good to get back out there after the lockdown and the work shutdown from the pandemic. I’ve been playing at a lot of funerals, wakes and private parties since the beginning of the year and also squeezed in a fabulous set of gigs in Lapland, Sweden in February with Caroline Regan and James Queally. I spent part of April doing gigs in sunny Alicante out in Spain. It was great and I really enjoyed the experience. Thanks to all of you, wherever you are for coming to the gigs and for listening to my music! I’ve added some dates in Birmingham for later this year and I’m busy working on some UK dates having just returned from my amazingly successful Irish tour.
There was a large turnout of hundreds of people from the Irish community in London for the recent unveiling of the plaque to commemorate Michael Collins and his connection with London, at the Barnsbury Hall and afterwards at Islington Town Hall.
The Mayor of County Cork, TheMayor of Islington, The Irish Ambassador and several other notable figures attended, including relatives of the ‘Big Fellow’ himself.
It was a great honour to have been asked to perform at the unveiling and the response to ‘Only Our Rivers Run Free’ from the crowd was fantastic.
Well done to Frank and all of the organisers for making it such a resounding success.
The Irish in London did themselves proud. There are many more pictures from the event on my Facebook page.
Pub gigs and the Irish tour
Since I got back from the USA last September I decided to take on a few pub gigs and to take more gigs in general nationwide.
I’ve really enjoyed the challenge and the thrill of getting back to them full on and I’m looking forward to doing a good few more between here and the end of the year.
The return began at the Gateway in Reading, Angie’s in Willesden and the Orchard in Croydon, were all great craic and a wonderful opportunity to catch up with old faces, many whom I hadn’t seen for several years.
The Swedish gigs went fantastically and I’m currently chatting with other overseas venues about heading abroad later this year, if dates are available.
I finally got around to organising and doing the Irish tour, it was a fantastic adventure and I’m hoping to put a more extensive tour together for the spring of ’24. I’ll keep you posted
My latest CD from Dolphin is out now
The latest album and single
My De Valera song was released last autumn on a Dolphin records compilation album entitled ‘Birth of our Nation’. It’s available now.
I’m also working on a brand new album and it’s progressing nicely.
I’m determined to make it one of my best yet, and I’m hard at it, amongst all else that’s going on.
My target is to have it finished by the end of 2023.
Due to my increasingly hectic gig schedule that time frame is looking a tad ambitious but I’ll keep you posted.
Meanwhile, my very latest single ‘Magdalene Refugee’ is now available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube, Apple music, etc.
The song tells the tragic and horrific story of what probably happened to many innocent young Irish women during some of the darkest days of modern Irish history.
Available via all usual streaming platforms
Bookings for 2023
I’m taking bookings now for the rest of 2023.
I’ve just added some dates for London, Birmingham and Nottingham, for September and October.
I’m open for bookings in pubs, clubs, weddings, wakes, funerals, cruises, festivals and venues internationally.
If you’d like to enquire about booking my solo show, my duo or band, get in touch via my contact page, or simply click on the WhatsApp gizmo at the bottom of the screen and let me have the details, I’ll reply promptly.
What's popular on Spotify?
My most played track for the past few months, has been ‘Galway Girl’ with over 100,000 spins on Spotify, closely chased by ‘The Thatcher Song’.
It’s closely followed by my 90’s Irish world cup song. ‘Jackie’s Army’.
The other 3 most played tracks are ‘The Bojo Song’, ‘Rev Ian Paisley’ and ‘De Valera’
My new album will feature some brand new songs and a couple of re recordings of old covers, plus new versions of ‘Michael’ and ‘The Drumshanbo Exile’.