Monday, June 15, 2009
Tickets Now on Sale
We are pleased to announce that this years main acts have been confirmed and you will be happy to know that they are…....
Tickets can be purchased from http://www.ticketmaster.ie or from http://www.tickets.ie.Any remaining tickets can be purchased from the gate on the night of the festival.
THE WATERBOYS
My name is Mike Scott. I formed The Waterboys in London in 1983 to realise my vision of an ever-changing band, playing an ever-changing music and following that music wherever its inner sources and inspirations lead. This means regardless of whether it’s fashionable, commercial, or whether it conforms to critical or public expectations. And yes, we have taken some strange twists and turns through the years!
Our first 3 albums, The Waterboys, A Pagan Place and This Is The Sea, were released between 1983 and 1985, and contain the widescreen rock music that had fermented in my heart and head since I was a teenager and which was influenced by my favourite artists at the time - Van Morrison, The Patti Smith Group, Velvet Underground, Television, Steve Reich and Bob Dylan. The first two were in effect solo albums, made before the first Waterboys band played a concert, though by the time of A Pagan Place the ensemble of players included Anthony Thistlethwaite (sax/mandolin), Kevin Wilkinson (drums), Karl Wallinger (keyboards) and Roddy Lorimer (trumpet) - and all then contributed mightily to This is The Sea, the record on which I achieved all my youthful musical ambitions. We toured through 1984 and 85, getting known, honing our sound and, then as now, improvising onstage - something I’ve always loved.
Then I met Steve Wickham, a fiddler from Dublin. I’d heard him on a tape and knew straight away this was the new sound I’d been looking for - fiery, elemental, passionate. He guested with us on tour and quickly joined full time. When the tour ended I went to visit him in Ireland for a couple of weeks and stayed six years.
In Ireland our music changed and became more acoustic. Anthony’s mandolin and Steve’s fiddle opened the sound up as we explored folk, gospel, blues, cajun and country music. We started recording our fourth album in early ‘86 and completed it 100 songs and 2 years later. It was called Fisherman’s Blues and its twelve tracks represent a merging of rock and traditional folk music. We toured it with an expanded eight-piece band - fiddles, pipes, bouzoukis, guitars, drums, mandolins, whistles, songs, tunes, recitations, jigs, reels and waltzes. The brilliant young Irish accordion player Sharon Shannon joined the band. We lived the life of traditional musicians and appropriately made our next album in the west of Ireland. Room To Roam, recorded in the seaside village of Spiddal in Connemara, is remembered as our “folly”, yet yields its secrets to the patient enquirer.
In mid 1990 Anthony and I wanted to take the sound back to rock. Steve didn’t and split - quite right too. The band imploded and we toured as a rump 4 piece plus brass section, our backs against the wall.
In early 1991 our old single The Whole Of The Moon was re-issued and was a big hit in the UK. That summer I moved to New York and set about starting over. I made an album, Dream Harder, which came from my electric rock’n'roll roots, but couldn’t find the right combination of players for a new live band. Around that time I visited the Findhorn Foundation spiritual community in Scotland and in 1994 moved there and made a one-man solo album Bring ‘Em All In, written about my Findhorn experiences. I toured the world for 2 years with a one-man show – just me and an acoustic guitar and piano - and got to know the audience, and myself, a whole lot better.
After that I was hungry and ready to play with a band again and in ‘96 I went back to London and made Still Burning - which expanded the spiritual theme of Bring ‘Em All In, but in full pop/rock colour - and the following year went back on the road with my “Mike Scott” band. I loved it, but playing without the Waterboys title was like punching beneath my weight. So I reclaimed the name and in 1999 made a Waterboys comeback album A Rock In The Weary Land - that’s the one with the fuzzed vocals and the “sonic rock” with which I sought to represent how grotesque and crazy late 20th century London appeared to a guy moving back there from a spiritual community. In 2000 I assembled a new Waterboys from the players on the album - just like I did in 1984 - and hit the road. Steve Wickham guested with us at the Dublin shows and it felt so good he re-joined the band.
In 2001 I compiled an album of the best of the still unreleased Fisherman’s Blues songs, called Too Close To Heaven. It was highly satisfying to complete such long unfinished business. We toured the world all that year and much of 2002.
In early 2003 I brought Steve and our keyboard player Richard Naiff to Findhorn to make Universal Hall, a record containing one Irish reel and eleven spiritual songs that articulate – to the best of my ability - the vision that drives, challenges, sustains and transforms me.
In 2005 a live album was released: Karma To Burn and now in 2007 comes the new album:
BOOK OF LIGHTNING:
THE WATERBOYS
BOOK OF LIGHTNING
For over twenty years The Waterboys have been a testament to Mike Scott’s extraordinary vision and his fearless love of musical exploration. With songs ranking as some of the most imaginative and distinctive of the past quarter century, The Waterboys have scored the dreams and aspirations for generations of music listeners. Now with Book of Lightning they have created a natural successor to their classics This Is The Sea and Fisherman’s Blues and 2000’s acclaimed comeback, A Rock In The Weary Land.
Book Of Lightning was recorded in London in Autumn 2006 and was produced by Mike Scott and Philip Tennant, who previously worked with The Waterboys on Fisherman’s Blues. The album features electric fiddler Steve Wickham, whose involvement with the band dates back to 1985. Mike Scott is also joined by regular Waterboys’ keyboardist Richard Naiff, Louisiana-born drummer Brady Blade, top London drummer Jeremy Stacey, bassman Mark Smith, guitar stylist Leo Abrahams and long-time Waterboys alumni Roddy Lorimer (trumpet), Thighpaulsandra (keyboards) and Chris Bruce (guitar). An additional track (“Crash of Angel Wings”) was recorded in Vancouver with members of Canadian art-rockers Great Aunt Ida.
As the opening bars of “The Crash of Angel Wings” thunder out, it is evident that Book of Lightning is going to be a new, unpredictable and delicious installment in the Waterboys’ story. Other stand-out tracks include the thoughtful and deep “Sustain,” the Dylan-esque “You In The Sky” and the hauntingly beautiful, “Strange Arrangement.” “She Tried To Hold Me” and “Nobody’s Baby Anymore” were each pieces of older songs that were never quite finished but have now evolved into finished songs. Mike Scott holds all of his albums near and dear to his heart but he is especially proud of Book of Lightning. “I think it’s one of my strongest ever collections of songs, I’m very proud of it.”
Discography:
The Waterboys: The Waterboys
The Waterboys: A Pagan Place
The Waterboys: This Is The Sea
The Waterboys: Fisherman’s Blues
The Waterboys: Room To Roam
The Waterboys: Dream Harder
Mike Scott: Bring ‘Em All In
Mike Scott: Still Burning
The Whole Of The Moon – the music of Mike Scott and The Waterboys
The Waterboys: A Rock In The Weary Land
The Waterboys: Too Close To Heaven – The Unreleased Fisherman’s Blues Sessions
The Waterboys: Universal Hall
The Waterboys: Karma To Burn (Live)
The Waterboys: BOOK OF LIGHTNING
Mundy
Mundy (born Edmund Enright in Birr, County Offaly on February 12 1976) is an Irish singer-songwriter. “Mundy” is a nickname given to Enright, as it not only refers to his name Edmund, but it is how he pronounces the word “Mundy”. He released his debut album Jellylegs in 1996 on the Epic Records label. The album included the song “To You I Bestow”, which was featured on the bestselling soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s film adaptation Romeo + Juliet.
In 2000, Mundy was dropped by Epic while working on his second album, The Moon is a Bullethole, which was about to be recorded. Although a four-track EP of that title was released, much of the material for the cancelled album was eventually incorporated into 24 Star Hotel, Mundy’s 2002 album.
24 Star Hotel was released on Camcor Records - a label Mundy himself set up, primarily funded by his royalties from the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack. Camcor Records is named for the Camcor River, a popular fishing spot, which runs through the town of Birr. The album contained the song “July”, an ode to the joys of the Irish summer, which gained heavy airplay throughout the summer months, and is, for Irish audiences at least, Mundy’s signature tune.
Valentine Black
BIOGRAPHY
Valentine Black is the alter ego of Kildare musician Peco Mc Loughlin. Having fronted a number of bands, most recently indie-rockers Bright Light Fiasco who enjoyed success with the two top 40 singles, Peco decided to go solo in late 2008. He’s been writing and recording since and is currently putting the finishing touches to his debut album which is due for release in Autumn 09.
Songs on the album are about everything from life in modern Ireland to the old chestnuts of love, loss, life and even murder! The music is influenced by artists like Ryan Adams, Nick Cave, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Springsteen and bands like James, Wilco, The Band, and The Clash to name a few. Like many artists, the list is pretty long and varied!
Valentine Black has already created quite a bit of interest making the heats of national competition, The JD Set, earlier in the year and with gigs all over the country. And although no singles have been released yet, his demos have received airplay on a number of Dublin and regional radio stations.
The Waterboys and Mundy aren’t the first major artist he’s shared a stage with. Over the years he has supported acts including Bell X-1, Damien Dempsey, The Blizzards, The Coronas, Dirty Epics, Aslan and Something Happens to name a few. With the release of his debut album in Autumn he hopes to take the next step up on the bill!
What people have said about Valentine Black…
Jackie Hayden; Hot Press journalist, music industry expert and the man who discovered U2 once described Valentine Black in his ‘Peco’ incarnation as, ‘incomparable…a wizard and a true star’.
‘One doesn’t like to compartmentalise does one? But this young man and his band’s last performance made me think of late sixties west coast U.S. sounds injected with original new millenium grooves. Great Live Act!’
ontheverge.ie
“…Bob Dylan with a new set of lungs…”
wheresthecraic.com
‘His work is admirably home produced with the man himself playing all the instruments yet still managing to sound like a proper band…he can dip in and out of various musical genres…rockabilly/early Beatles mode…moody atmospheric rock…tasty acoustic singer/songwriter terrain with a little of the vocal style of Harry Chapin…’
Hot Press
‘Valentine Black (Peco Mc Loughlin) has stepped outside the boundaries of song-writing with his new project after branching off from Bright Light Fiasco, OK maybe there are too many folk singers, buskers and rock star wannabes out there but Valentine Black’s demo EP has a real 70’s feel with Joni Mitchell styled lyrics…I feel there is room for this style of music on today’s scene…interesting stuff. 4 out of 6 Stars
Musicreviewunsigned.com
‘Reminiscent of the Frames …Peco has a great voice – it’s that glamorous, heartrending folk sound born of years busking nowhere pubs. Think David Gray. Think the kind of voice Paddy Casey would trade his record deal for…this sounds fresh and vital…”
College Examiner
Musicunsigned, the influential UK website compared the songs to, “David Gray or Counting Crows with its rootsy pop undertones… intelligent pop music lyrically drawing on the timeless songs of Van Morrison and Dylan…”
Posted by John Wiltshire on 06/15 at 07:04 PM
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