My band and I have recently returned from a hectic but fun packed series of corporate gigs across the globe.
It was a fabulous experience at breakneck speed and involved long haul flights galore and many failed attempts to resist the temptations of the incredible buffet meals on offer at 5 star hotels! it was without doubt, an experience of a lifetime and simply wonderful.
We were very fortunate to have shared the gigs throughout with a full cast of Riverdance, many with whom we shared meals, jokes, funny stories, soundchecks and rehearsals with throughout.
These remarkably talented dancers had both the manners and personalities to match their expertise on stage.
It was an honour to share the same billing with them.
I was delighted to see that a cover version of a song I wrote back in the 90's 'Never too old to love', has been released again on a 10 cd box set from Foster and Allen.
As coincidence has it I'm in the middle re-recording a modernised version for my next album.
I'm always flattered when someone covers one of my songs and I'm grateful that so many artists have done so and thankful that they continue to do so.
It's been 35 years since I released my original 'The Thatcher Song' album.
In it's original format it was initially released as an album cassette and vinyl LP.
In 1988, after the rights and catalogue of Crubeen Records were sold to the now defunct Prism Leisure label, an enhanced version of an album (with some tracks omitted and newer ones added) under the same title, was put together that included two of my most successfully covered songs, 'Never too old to Love' and 'De valera'.
The brilliant sleeve design was by the people who worked on 'Spitting Image', this artwork actually cost more to produce than the total budget for the actual recording of the whole original album, which was a very low budget affair to say the least!
It also featured some new tracks including 'Mother Englands Giro' and a freshly recorded version of my 'Drumshanbo Exile'.
To coincide with the 'Thatcher Song' anniversary, I recently wrote, recorded and released a little ditty about our current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
The current version of the track is available via all normal streaming and download platforms.
The 'No Hard Border Song' single has now been deleted from the standard platforms, but it will feature on a forthcoming compilation album that I hope to release in the spring.
It will continue to live on via YouTube for the time being.
Many
thanks to the crowd at last Saturdays gig in Drayton.
It's unusual to come on and do a spot after a disco but it was a great success and my apologies for not being able to do an encore, the hotel has a strict policy on stopping the music sharp at 12.30.
We'll do it again sometime and once again, a million thanks for having me along!
I was gigging recently in Birmingham.
As with London, it's a city that was once a great heartland of Irishness.
Brum's Irish contingent has seen its better days numbers wise, but I'm very pleased to say that the Irish community up in the west midlands, be it less of a collosus thesedays, is very much alive and kicking.
One of my gigs was singing at a farewell service for a prominent and much beloved member of the Irish community up there and the church was packed to the rafters, moving and evocative.
Thanks to all at the recent gig in Addiscombe too, my fidder and I had a great night of songs, tunes and dancing with the party crowd there and it was wonderful to meet up with some old faces from my days at that great old Irish pub in Lewisham (sadly no longer there) the 'John Morden' and a couple of fellows from the old Croydon 'Tug of War' club.
I've still got a couple of dtaes free for St Patrick's week in 2020 but the dates are filling quickly, the good news is that I'll have a couple of open gigs this year where you can all come along.
I will let you know where and when my Patrick's week gigs are in plenty of time.
'Jealous of the Angels' is a beautiful song written by Jenn Bostic about bereavement and I have had plays on it from across the globe and my Itunes sales have surprisingly been mainly in the USA, which of course is a great compliment.
Country songs such as that are predominantly the domain of US artists.
It's now pretty much a standard request for me to sing at funeral services, which is something that I'm doing more and more of thesedays.
The other 9 tracks on the album were all written by me and have all received healthy streaming figures on the main platforms as well as respectable sales of both the album and individual tracks, especially 'Circle of Love'.
You can hear this album in full also on YouTube via the following embedded player.
My football team are Millwall and it was certainly a nerve jangling season in 2018/2019.
I love getting along to see and cheer my team along whenever I can, home and away.
That's the great thing about the championship, it's so
unpredicatable.
The real biggies at the Den so far were with our old friends Leeds United and our near neighbours Charlton Athletic, thankfully we got great results with both.
We're doing great at this point compared to last season.
Fabulous to get our 2nd away win of the season at Bristol City and shortly afterwards, our 3rd at Derby County!
We were brought back down to earth with a bang against Barnsley at the den.
The game at Cardiff on boxing day was a great result, getting something there was quite something.
Clearly Neil Harris was not be aiming to do us any favours and Gary Rowett was very keen to make his mark.
Jed Wallace came up trumps with a scorcher.
The two magnificent victories against Brentford and Luton over the holiday period have rocketed us up the table to the edge of the playoff region.
The recent win over Reading has sustained our efforts and the trip to Leeds was a nail biting humdinger right to the end.
We lost a further bit of ground against West Brom and could have nicked it against our neighbours Fulham last Wednesday.
Preston was a six pointer at this stage of the game and we got a great win to keep our playoff hopes alive and kicking.
As is stands we're now only 4 points off that magical 6th spot.
Can we make the next two games against Wigan and Brum 6 points out of 6?
Come on you lions!
