Hi Christy,
We (myself, the wife and 2 kids, Fionn 18 and Asha 16)) are just back home (having stopped for a bag of chips on the way) from seeing you at the RFH. You were truly fantastic. We all loved it; especially the kids who were seeing you for the first time though they know your music from us listening to it in the car on our annual pilgrimages home to Ireland via Holyhead. You gave Fionn & Asha a shout-out which I really, really appreciated considering I only just mentioned in a comment on here that they were coming to see you; and that was back in January. I don’t mind saying that your doing so brought a tear to my eye and from the bottom of my heart I thank you.
I’ve looked up your gigs to see when we can all go and see you again and in the meantime I’m looking forward getting the DVD of the RTE documentary when it comes out. Thank you for all the joy your music has brought all of us down through the years. All the best, Seamus (Harney)
Thank you for the beautiful evening at the Festival Hall last night, and for playing The Voyage and The Cliffs of Dooneen – you had me in tears again, but they were good tears, with goosebumps. Life feels good and full in those moments. Thanks for being so patient with us, too, and encouraging everyone to sing (compared to a gig at the Waterfront years ago everyone was SO quiet!). Hope to get a chance to hear you, Declan and Jimmy again soon. Take care.
Christy's reply
The RFH rounded off the tour perfectly…came home yesterday feeling good about a job well done…all 6 gigs went very well…band and crew all happy with the results…
I’ve just taken time to listen online to ‘Oblivious’, good song, great words and I’ve taken time to listen to another one or two of Blake’s videos. Trouble is, if I can avail of that word ‘trouble’ is that such songs were always being sung, maybe they were not listened to enough and the big balladeer from Newbridge was himself was never slow to take them on and sing them. I note someone remarking that it’s reaction this side of the pond was reportedly a bit different.. hhmmmnnn.. but if a song gets a ‘reaction’ then it’s saying something. We have in a sense matured, the fact and we’re able to discuss the Rising, the aftermath and the people involved, it says something about us, in ’66 we almost went home and lit candles under the pictures and the Proclamation. Now we can frankly talk about it.
Those gigs in the RFH appear to be ringing some good chords – big time – gauging by the reaction. Ah the eighties, I note Dearbhla’s note below, and me fein carrying cases of Stag (I’d forgotten about it) up a narrow stairs to a lounge where we sold it by the crateload to the ‘wimmen’ in the lounge, twas the start of the laydees (unaccompanied) coming into bars back then. That and Satsenbrau Pils, they had their own big shelves, glasses of Harp with lime was another staple. I love the tale of the mother taking driving lessons on the empty runaway of Knock Airport – oh one feels a poem or song coming on reminiscing about that decade and they watching the planes taking off behind chickenwire, amusing. Airports to us children of the sixties were portayed as ‘shocking glamorous’ when the fact is one airport is like another, fields where planes fly by in a field behind a fence accompanied by huts and a few large warehouses alongside. I recall looking at Malaga Airport late last autumn and mentally dubbing it as ‘Knock airport in the sun’. I think it was that national anthem played at about half-eleven each nite on Telefis Eireann as it closed down and the last section of it was a plane taking off skywards from Dublin Airport.
Christy's reply
Pilgrims in their thousands,coming down the steps
of the auld De Haviland Turbo Props and Virgin Jumbo Jets
Hi Christy,
already an answer… well, not exactly 😉
I will try the RTE site on the exact time and date, who knows???
But definately will buy the DVD as well!
Can’t wait ;), thanks Martha
Hi Christy, so excited to hear about ‘Journey’ on tv! But since I live in Flanders Ieper (remember the Menin Gate with the name of your great oncle on it) I was wondering if I coud see it on the RTE website? Do you know that? And I am looking to hear about your new cd, so nice to have this wait and looking out for new songs!
A life long listener to your music, thanks, Marta
Christy's reply
I dont possess the answer to your query..however there will be a DVD later this year featuring the Doc “Journey” plus additional footage of live performances
hi Christy finally got to see you live at Cheltenham last week great night it was so good I am coming to see you at Birmingham in October as well my only disappointment was I could not get a copy of paddy on the road is it still available if so will you be selling it at
Christy's reply
Paddy on the Road from 1969 has just been re released on Vinyl…I will share full details on my next “chat”…..there may be a few bootleg cds kickin about too..have you tried the sister site & 4711ers.org
Looking forward to Lily!! Of course , as soon as I heard the title I thought of this from one of my favoite movies Blazing Saddles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNQOgt6st6w
Greatly looking forward to seeing you tonight. A gang of us are coming down from Northampton as part of our celebration of the Town winning League 2 (the bottom division) by a country mile. I know you keep in contact with the old soccer. Our best player is John-Joe O’Toole from Mayo via Harrow. With love from the Northampton Irish. Sean O’Donovan
Thanks for a brilliant show last night, Christy, and great to hear my favourite song along with quite a few I haven’t heard you play live before (Veronica Guerin, Ride On). Georgi and I had a good night. Looking forward to seeing you again next year.
Christy, amazing gig last night in the Festival Hall. What was the name of the song you sang about the centenary that got a mixed response back home but a very positive response last night?
I look forward to seeing you in concert again, but for now I’ll make do with a few CDs in the car as I drive out west this summer. Hopefully I’ll be able to get the sleeping bag open with my toes.
Christy's reply
Eoin….its a great venue, last night the audience was inspiring…the song you mention is “Oblivious”…it was written by Mick Blake from Leitrim…it has been going down very well here in England…the response back home has been muted betimes but we’ll keep singing it….”Oblivious” will be available on an album due for release on May 20th…..titled “Lily” it will be on the Columbia label ( @Sony )
……..there is a new app on the market which will open your sleeping bag
Fantastic evening at the Royal Festival Hall and we are back for more tomorrow. Any chance of you singing Motherland?. Thank you so much for always giving us a magical evening.
Mea culpa Christy…..it has been many moons since I last saw you at the Point in 1994. I was drinking Stag in those days. Having grown up in the west in the 80s, good memories of my brother cracking up everytime at “mind your sandwiches”, my Dad teaching my Mum to drive on the Knock runway before they opened the airport and all us convent of mercy children in our school uniforms “anseo” as Monsignor Horan opened it and waving behind chicken wire as the first flights took off. Think they thought in the excitement we would invade it!
Delighted to be seeing you tomorrow. Wld love to hear Sacco and Venzetti or Beeswing if the mood takes you..
Christy's reply
Spent a few nights on Barr na Cúige myself….usually after a visit to Murray’s in Charlestown or a sojourn with Joe O’Broin,the poet of Hagfield……
Hi Christy, Nathan and I can’t wait to hear you tonight (and we’ve been wondering – will he play The Voyage or not?). It makes us both so happy that you have finally made it back to London again. It’s been a long wait, but it’ll be worth it, I’m sure. Thank you, have a great night at the Festival Hall, and god bless. Christine.
Christy's reply
Makes us happy too Christine..we love to hit the Big Smoke…always lots to check out…guitar shops, curry houses, movies, Craven Cottage, old friends &, most of all, our visit to RFH…always a great welcome there for the songs..looking forward….
Sir Christy,
THANK YOU SO MUCH for the Birthday shoutout for Ryan Mulligan, he was so HAPPY! .. WE all loved it! You sound amazing LIVE!
Take care
Regards Charlottte Hussey
Christy's reply
thats what its all about Charlotte…gotta try and keep these kids happy…they’re gone in a blink..
Dear Christy,
Thanks a lot for a wonderful concert in Brighton. Good luck with the rest of the tour. I wrote a review of Brighton on my blog site. I know you are really busy at the moment but if you have a spare couple of minutes you can find it here- All the best, Pat http://patrickmaginty.blogspot.co.uk/
Christy's reply
Hi Pat…thanks for writing the gig..it was a good night….far as I know The Curraline is adjacent to the home of Johnny Mulhearn who wrote this fine song….I always picture the Curragh Plain when I’m singing this verse…the song still paints very vivid pictures for me ..I’ve been singing it for 30 years now….I also recorded two other songs of Johnny’s…Hard Cases and Continental Ceilí…. he does a regular gig in Dublin every month with his Companero Wally Page….a right pair of old shelmaliers they play a fusion of Urban/Rural Culchie/Dub Trad Folk Blues with a tincture of Acid House and Handbag wrestling with tendencies towards Punk Ceili Grunge….by all accounts the pints do foam real good in The Five Lamps. The doorman very welcoming but sometimes inclined to burst into Elvis impersonations….the audience often laced with Thesbian types fresh from the set of Love/Hate, OCasey and The Taibhearc. St Teresa of The Roses ends the night
Cant wait to see you tonight Christy, have seen yourself and Dec every time ye’ve been over and you never disappoint.
Hopefully you’ll let the Beeswing fly tonight!
Christy's reply
get yourself down to The River and we’ll castoff around 8…Dec and I will be joined by one of Galway’s best….face the puck out Seanie…will be ground hurling tonight
I’m laughing here sham, two Lilly’s wrecking the head off another Lilly, all for a bag of chips and a spice burger, I picture yourself walking down Oxford st, talking away to yourself ” What have I done dear lord to deserve this”,,Your some lolly I tell ye,great laugh all the same.hope the tour is going well for all the clan and crew, the songs are on the air, looking forward to the new songs and the documentary, will it be possible to purchase the RTE documentary?. NO More comments Doyler , Goodnight Christy, your a quare one I tell ye, the dog is giving me that look again
Christy's reply
From Hawkfield and Kilbelin,Chinatown and Rosy’s lane
scattered round the world we dreamt of comin home again
from The Rocks of Sydney Harbour, The Bronx and Birmingham
The Lilies of the ShortGrass are coming home again
Hi Christy,
We (myself, the wife and 2 kids, Fionn 18 and Asha 16)) are just back home (having stopped for a bag of chips on the way) from seeing you at the RFH. You were truly fantastic. We all loved it; especially the kids who were seeing you for the first time though they know your music from us listening to it in the car on our annual pilgrimages home to Ireland via Holyhead. You gave Fionn & Asha a shout-out which I really, really appreciated considering I only just mentioned in a comment on here that they were coming to see you; and that was back in January. I don’t mind saying that your doing so brought a tear to my eye and from the bottom of my heart I thank you.
I’ve looked up your gigs to see when we can all go and see you again and in the meantime I’m looking forward getting the DVD of the RTE documentary when it comes out. Thank you for all the joy your music has brought all of us down through the years. All the best, Seamus (Harney)
glad it went well for you and yours…
Thank you for the beautiful evening at the Festival Hall last night, and for playing The Voyage and The Cliffs of Dooneen – you had me in tears again, but they were good tears, with goosebumps. Life feels good and full in those moments. Thanks for being so patient with us, too, and encouraging everyone to sing (compared to a gig at the Waterfront years ago everyone was SO quiet!). Hope to get a chance to hear you, Declan and Jimmy again soon. Take care.
The RFH rounded off the tour perfectly…came home yesterday feeling good about a job well done…all 6 gigs went very well…band and crew all happy with the results…
I’ve just taken time to listen online to ‘Oblivious’, good song, great words and I’ve taken time to listen to another one or two of Blake’s videos. Trouble is, if I can avail of that word ‘trouble’ is that such songs were always being sung, maybe they were not listened to enough and the big balladeer from Newbridge was himself was never slow to take them on and sing them. I note someone remarking that it’s reaction this side of the pond was reportedly a bit different.. hhmmmnnn.. but if a song gets a ‘reaction’ then it’s saying something. We have in a sense matured, the fact and we’re able to discuss the Rising, the aftermath and the people involved, it says something about us, in ’66 we almost went home and lit candles under the pictures and the Proclamation. Now we can frankly talk about it.
interesting post…says a lot
Those gigs in the RFH appear to be ringing some good chords – big time – gauging by the reaction. Ah the eighties, I note Dearbhla’s note below, and me fein carrying cases of Stag (I’d forgotten about it) up a narrow stairs to a lounge where we sold it by the crateload to the ‘wimmen’ in the lounge, twas the start of the laydees (unaccompanied) coming into bars back then. That and Satsenbrau Pils, they had their own big shelves, glasses of Harp with lime was another staple. I love the tale of the mother taking driving lessons on the empty runaway of Knock Airport – oh one feels a poem or song coming on reminiscing about that decade and they watching the planes taking off behind chickenwire, amusing. Airports to us children of the sixties were portayed as ‘shocking glamorous’ when the fact is one airport is like another, fields where planes fly by in a field behind a fence accompanied by huts and a few large warehouses alongside. I recall looking at Malaga Airport late last autumn and mentally dubbing it as ‘Knock airport in the sun’. I think it was that national anthem played at about half-eleven each nite on Telefis Eireann as it closed down and the last section of it was a plane taking off skywards from Dublin Airport.
Pilgrims in their thousands,coming down the steps
of the auld De Haviland Turbo Props and Virgin Jumbo Jets
Hi Christy,
already an answer… well, not exactly 😉
I will try the RTE site on the exact time and date, who knows???
But definately will buy the DVD as well!
Can’t wait ;), thanks Martha
Hi Christy, so excited to hear about ‘Journey’ on tv! But since I live in Flanders Ieper (remember the Menin Gate with the name of your great oncle on it) I was wondering if I coud see it on the RTE website? Do you know that? And I am looking to hear about your new cd, so nice to have this wait and looking out for new songs!
A life long listener to your music, thanks, Marta
I dont possess the answer to your query..however there will be a DVD later this year featuring the Doc “Journey” plus additional footage of live performances
hi Christy finally got to see you live at Cheltenham last week great night it was so good I am coming to see you at Birmingham in October as well my only disappointment was I could not get a copy of paddy on the road is it still available if so will you be selling it at
Paddy on the Road from 1969 has just been re released on Vinyl…I will share full details on my next “chat”…..there may be a few bootleg cds kickin about too..have you tried the sister site & 4711ers.org
I loved the quiet vibe last night. Delighted at the two contrasting new ones “Oblivous” and”Tuam Beat”.
Any chance of “Matty” tonight?
once we hit the stage anything can happen….you have put Matty into the equation…
Looking forward to Lily!! Of course , as soon as I heard the title I thought of this from one of my favoite movies Blazing Saddles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNQOgt6st6w
love that
Greatly looking forward to seeing you tonight. A gang of us are coming down from Northampton as part of our celebration of the Town winning League 2 (the bottom division) by a country mile. I know you keep in contact with the old soccer. Our best player is John-Joe O’Toole from Mayo via Harrow. With love from the Northampton Irish. Sean O’Donovan
Thanks for a brilliant show last night, Christy, and great to hear my favourite song along with quite a few I haven’t heard you play live before (Veronica Guerin, Ride On). Georgi and I had a good night. Looking forward to seeing you again next year.
Christy, Thanks for a great gig at the RFH last night! First time to hear you live! Atmosphere was amazing!
John
Keep coming back John…we welcome new listeners…..thank you
Christy, amazing gig last night in the Festival Hall. What was the name of the song you sang about the centenary that got a mixed response back home but a very positive response last night?
I look forward to seeing you in concert again, but for now I’ll make do with a few CDs in the car as I drive out west this summer. Hopefully I’ll be able to get the sleeping bag open with my toes.
Eoin….its a great venue, last night the audience was inspiring…the song you mention is “Oblivious”…it was written by Mick Blake from Leitrim…it has been going down very well here in England…the response back home has been muted betimes but we’ll keep singing it….”Oblivious” will be available on an album due for release on May 20th…..titled “Lily” it will be on the Columbia label ( @Sony )
……..there is a new app on the market which will open your sleeping bag
Fantastic evening at the Royal Festival Hall and we are back for more tomorrow. Any chance of you singing Motherland?. Thank you so much for always giving us a magical evening.
lets see what can be done….greetings
Mea culpa Christy…..it has been many moons since I last saw you at the Point in 1994. I was drinking Stag in those days. Having grown up in the west in the 80s, good memories of my brother cracking up everytime at “mind your sandwiches”, my Dad teaching my Mum to drive on the Knock runway before they opened the airport and all us convent of mercy children in our school uniforms “anseo” as Monsignor Horan opened it and waving behind chicken wire as the first flights took off. Think they thought in the excitement we would invade it!
Delighted to be seeing you tomorrow. Wld love to hear Sacco and Venzetti or Beeswing if the mood takes you..
Spent a few nights on Barr na Cúige myself….usually after a visit to Murray’s in Charlestown or a sojourn with Joe O’Broin,the poet of Hagfield……
Hi Christy, Nathan and I can’t wait to hear you tonight (and we’ve been wondering – will he play The Voyage or not?). It makes us both so happy that you have finally made it back to London again. It’s been a long wait, but it’ll be worth it, I’m sure. Thank you, have a great night at the Festival Hall, and god bless. Christine.
Makes us happy too Christine..we love to hit the Big Smoke…always lots to check out…guitar shops, curry houses, movies, Craven Cottage, old friends &, most of all, our visit to RFH…always a great welcome there for the songs..looking forward….
Sir Christy,
THANK YOU SO MUCH for the Birthday shoutout for Ryan Mulligan, he was so HAPPY! .. WE all loved it! You sound amazing LIVE!
Take care
Regards Charlottte Hussey
thats what its all about Charlotte…gotta try and keep these kids happy…they’re gone in a blink..
Dear Christy,
Thanks a lot for a wonderful concert in Brighton. Good luck with the rest of the tour. I wrote a review of Brighton on my blog site. I know you are really busy at the moment but if you have a spare couple of minutes you can find it here- All the best, Pat
http://patrickmaginty.blogspot.co.uk/
Hi Pat…thanks for writing the gig..it was a good night….far as I know The Curraline is adjacent to the home of Johnny Mulhearn who wrote this fine song….I always picture the Curragh Plain when I’m singing this verse…the song still paints very vivid pictures for me ..I’ve been singing it for 30 years now….I also recorded two other songs of Johnny’s…Hard Cases and Continental Ceilí…. he does a regular gig in Dublin every month with his Companero Wally Page….a right pair of old shelmaliers they play a fusion of Urban/Rural Culchie/Dub Trad Folk Blues with a tincture of Acid House and Handbag wrestling with tendencies towards Punk Ceili Grunge….by all accounts the pints do foam real good in The Five Lamps. The doorman very welcoming but sometimes inclined to burst into Elvis impersonations….the audience often laced with Thesbian types fresh from the set of Love/Hate, OCasey and The Taibhearc. St Teresa of The Roses ends the night
Cant wait to see you tonight Christy, have seen yourself and Dec every time ye’ve been over and you never disappoint.
Hopefully you’ll let the Beeswing fly tonight!
get yourself down to The River and we’ll castoff around 8…Dec and I will be joined by one of Galway’s best….face the puck out Seanie…will be ground hurling tonight
I’m laughing here sham, two Lilly’s wrecking the head off another Lilly, all for a bag of chips and a spice burger, I picture yourself walking down Oxford st, talking away to yourself ” What have I done dear lord to deserve this”,,Your some lolly I tell ye,great laugh all the same.hope the tour is going well for all the clan and crew, the songs are on the air, looking forward to the new songs and the documentary, will it be possible to purchase the RTE documentary?. NO More comments Doyler , Goodnight Christy, your a quare one I tell ye, the dog is giving me that look again
From Hawkfield and Kilbelin,Chinatown and Rosy’s lane
scattered round the world we dreamt of comin home again
from The Rocks of Sydney Harbour, The Bronx and Birmingham
The Lilies of the ShortGrass are coming home again