Christy Moore (with Donal Lunny & Frances Black)

Mother Redcaps, 30 Aug 2000

"Now before we start, Donal has reminded me to tell you all to turn off any mobile phones, or vibrators or whatever you may have with you, or someone's going to be very disappointed later on when the batteries run out".

So joked Christy Moore, before his appearance in Dublin last night. Christy had agreed to perform alongside, Donal Lunny and Frances Black at 'The Stolen Guitars Concert', a gig organised to raise money for Declan Sinnott (who'd had some of his most treasured guitars stolen only a few weeks ago).

Mother Redcaps was packed to capacity when Christy and Donal kicked off with 'Nancy Spain'. Several ballads later they were joined by Declan Sinnott and the three took a trip back in time - "We haven't rehearsed anything new" admitted Christy "so it'll mainly be back catalogue stuff tonight".

'Go Move Shift', 'Ride On', 'Sonny' and some John Reilly songs were welcomed by the audience before Christy announced for Frances Black to take to the stage but she wasn't around, so he played another song before taking a well earned break after an hour or so.

"In case anyone was wondering where I was, I was having a Jimmy Riddle" explained Frances, as she eventually took to the stage. How does one follow Christy Moore I thought? Well, she did brilliantly beginning with 'All the lies that you told me', dedicated a song to her son, covered a Dougie McLean song (with some help from the crowd) and sang a song called 'Love Song' which she explained was Declan's favourite.

By now Christy was rearing to go again. A gulp of the glass of orange and away he went with favourites including 'Before The Deluge', and the emotional 'They Never Came Home' (Stardust Song). Spirits were running high - "When we were here earlier doing the soundcheck there was no vibe, but now that you're all here there's a great feckin vibe" Christy joked.

'City of Chicago' and 'Yellow Triangle' were loved by everyone. Spotting a friend of his in the front row who works in HB Christy said "Jesus I'd love an oul Magnum". Little did he realise that five minutes later JohnJoe (who plays the Inspector in Glenroe) would duly oblige with one for him. The crowd was in stitches as Christy opened the wrapper and proceeded to eat it. "I'm off just about everything" he said, "but I just can't seem to stay off the shaggin Magnums" he added. He then held it up and said "Anyone for the last few choc-ices"? It was the perfect introduction for 'Lisdoonvarna' which had everyone singing along to the chorus. As ever Christy was spontaneous "?a cousin of mine goes pot holing and a cousin of hers loves Declan & Donal".

He dedicated a song to "a man I haven't seen in a while and whom I met at the interval when I was walking around, my good friend from Galway Mick Lally". He continued with 'Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Russian Roulette'.

By now he had played for over two hours and I was sure he'd had enough, but he came back and did an encore. "We didn't rehearse anything for this because we didn't think we'd get an encore" he said but played one more song before calling it a night. After thanking all who made it possible he wished the crowd a "Happy Christmas" - you can take your own meaning from that. He took time to talk to his fans afterwards, posed for photographs and looked really relaxed.

It was a privilege to have been part of such an intimate concert and thanks to Pete, Kieran and especially Christy for making it a night to remember.

Mick Lynch

Check out a review of Christy Moore Live with Declan Synott, Donal Lunny & Luka Bloom at this hometown venue in 2004.