Tír na nÓg play the Bellbridge Hotel , Spanish Point on Friday May 21st at 8pm, the Wyatt Hotel, Westport on Saturday May 21st and Monroe's Tavern, Galway on Sunday night, May 22nd.
Support included each night - 8pm - 12pm - admission is €20 or €15 for unwaged at the door or tickets in advance from the venues and from comet at indigo.ie with free postage.
Tír
na nÓg
are an Irish folk band formed in Dublin, Ireland, in 1969 by Leo
O'Kelly and Sonny Condell. They are often considered as one of the
first progressive folk bands with other artists like Nick Drake or
group like Pentangle. Their music mainly consists of their own
compositions, based on strong Celtic roots and typically featuring
intricate acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. In their
early years, they toured the folk clubs of the United Kingdom or
internationally as a support act for several rock bands. Today, they
regularly give concerts, especially in Ireland.
From
1971 to 1973, Tír na nÓg made three studio albums which were highly
acclaimed by critics but didn't receive big commercial success. No
recording of live performances had been officially released until
2000, with the publication of
Hibernian
.
A compilation of some of their live tracks recorded between 1972 and
1973 for the John Peel's radio show, was also published one year
later.
Formation
of the band
Sonny
Condell came from Newtownmountkennedy, a remote place in the Wicklow
Hills. His early musical influences were mainly classical music.
Before Tír na nÓg were formed, he played with cousin John Roberts
as Tramcarr 88. They recorded one single before the break up of the
band.
Leo
O'Kelly came from Carlow. He was influenced by heavy rock, including
Jimi Hendrix, The Velvet Underground and The Doors. Before the
formation of Tír na nÓg he played in several bands starting with
local Carlow beat group The Word before joining The Tropical Showband
and Emmet Spiceland, with whom he toured.
O'Kelly
and Condell met in Dublin in 1969 and discovered a shared ambition to
be singer/songwriters. They started playing together, taking the name
Tír na nÓg from Celtic mythology, and writing a song of the same
name, which recounts the legend of Tír na nÓg. They travelled to
London and began touring the folk clubs, and rapidly secured a
recording deal with Chrysalis Records.
1971–1974:
performing and recording
Tír
na nÓg made three studio albums between 1971 and 1973. The first was
called
Tír
na nÓg
and was produced by Bill Leader. It achieved Melody Maker Album of
The Month on its release on May 1971. It featured mainly their own
songs, strongly rooted in the Celtic tradition, but also influenced
by eastern music. Condell and O'Kelly played acoustic guitars and
occasional bongos and other percussion instruments. Their guitar work
was intricate and complex, leading to their being compared to bands
such as The Incredible String Band and Pentangle. However, their
style was quite distinctive. Often, they would use different open
tunings for their two guitars.
Their
second album
A
Tear and a Smile
was released in 1972 and produced by Tony Cox. This featured similar
material to the first album. However, with their third album
Strong
in the Sun
(released in 1973), produced by Procol Harum organist Matthew Fisher
who also played keyboards on the album, they introduced more electric
instruments and drums. From Alan Robinson's 2004 liner notes to BGO's
reissue of this and the previous album on one CD: "..Certainly,
of the three original Tír na nÓg albums,
Strong
in the Sun
is by far the most conventional, most mainstream, although that's not
to say that Fisher had ironed out all of the band's entertainingly
whimsical rough edges. Fisher gave a bit of a more clearly-defined
shape and a greater depth to their sound, neatly framing the duo's
contrasting vocal styles." Robinson also remarked that this high
quality album didn't "reverse the duo's sales fortunes" and
that it opened with "that rarest of things", a Nick Drake
cover, "Free Ride".
As
well as the folk club circuit, Tír na nÓg also toured
internationally, as a support act for various rock bands, including
Jethro Tull, Procol Harum, The Who and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. In
July 1974, the British music magazine,
NME
,
reported that the band was to play their final concert, in Dublin on
27 July that year.[1]
The
radio presenter, John Peel, promoted their music and they performed a
number of live sessions for the BBC.
Later
years
After
the break up of Tír na nÓg in 1974, they both returned to Ireland
to pursue solo careers. Condell recorded a solo album called
Camouflage
in 1977 and went on to form the band Scullion with Philip King, Greg
Boland and Jimmy O'Brien Moran. O'Kelly pursued a career as a
producer and has also released solo albums.
Tír
na nÓg reformed in 1985, releasing the single "Love Is Like a
Violin", and have toured sporadically since then. Three more
albums have been produced:
Hibernian
in 2000, a 1995 live performance in Birmingham, and
Spotlight
in 2001, from the original John Peel BBC radio sessions in 1972/1973.
In
2010, they launched a new live album,
Live
at Sirius
,
recorded at the Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, Co. Cork.
Discography
Tír na nÓg (1971)
A Tear and a Smile (1972)
Strong in the Sun (1973)
In the Morning (1999)
Hibernian (2000)
Spotlight (2001)
Live at Sirius (2010)
External links
* **http://www.myspace.com/tirnanogduo ***
*** http://www.leookelly.ie/ ***
*** http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=662129049 ***
*** Sonny Condell's website ***
Leo O'Kelly Video on YouTube
Leo / The Word 30th Anniversary Video
Tír na nÓg in concert on February 17, 2007 at the Cherry Tree, Dublin
[hide]v · d · eTír na nÓg
Sonny Condell · Leo O'Kelly
Studio albums
Tír na nÓg (1971) · A Tear and a Smile (1972) · Strong in the Sun (1973)
Demos
In the Morning (1999)
Live albums
Hibernian (2000) · Spotlight (2001) · Live at Sirius (2010)
Compilations
A Tear and a Smile / Strong in the Sun (2004)
Videos
Doing Their Thing · The Camera & the Song
Appearances (various artists)
El Pea (1971) · The Camera & the Song (1975)
Singles
"I'm Happy To Be (On This Mountain)" / "Let My Love Grow" · "The Lady I Love" / "Heidi" · "Bluebottle Stew" / "Come and See the Show" · "Strong in the Sun" / "The Mountain and I" · "Love Is Like a Violin" / "Daisy Lady"
External links