Dear Reader –
Lots of Christmas songs and stories this week, so why not start with the Christmas No. 1 from 1983 (!) - brought to you by the Theme Nights crew from a cozy corner in McLynn’s pub…
The Big Thing
Meanwhile further down the road the festive season was truly up and running in Lillies last weekend. The usual Sunday night crew - Tabby Callaghan, Duane Gallagher, Luke Devaney and Eddie Delaney - were rocking as always, and somehow managed to stay professional as the Christmas cheer got the better of some audience members!
We’re back in the upstairs room this Wednesday and Thursday of course for two Theme Night unplugged gigs. Aileen Concannon, Eddie Lee, Gerry Grennan, Ken McDonald, Leah Davidson, Luke Devaney, Sam Purcell and Seamie O’Dowd are joining me there over the course of the two nights and we have two great sets lined up.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing lots of you there, and a small number of tickets have become available for Wednesday night’s gig for the first person/people to express an interest.
Where else but Sligo?
Last week for the first time, I got to bring one of my children to the panto. The other is already too old (!) to want to go. It was the first year since 2005 that I wasn’t playing piano for the run, and so I was excited…
And what a show it was. I had helped to prepare and rehearse it, so I could anticipate a few things, but to sit there and watch it from start to finish was just so enjoyable. MD Bryan Mullen and the band sounded great and had added lots of clever underscoring from which the cast were getting a great buzz.
The stage looked fantastic, and the old favourites played a blinder once more. I loved when out of habit the audience booed Bobby Jones’ character, even though for once this year he wasn’t the bad guy. Brian Devaney had to playfully scold the audience - ‘you know he’s the nicest character in the panto this year’?!
Young actors Katelyn Rafter, Joseph Harrison and Trevor Horan more than held their own among a largely older cast and were especially good musically I thought.
Indeed we had the pleasure of Katelyn (pictured below) joining us back on the Hawk’s Well stage the following day for Christmas Toons, so the festive season is truly up and running!
What’s New?
SLIGO ACADEMY OF MUSIC CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR: Really looking forward to this show tonight. More here.
ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU: Overplayed? Maybe. Sick of it? Perhaps. Incredibly clever and well-written song? Certainly. This article is for the music theory nerds out there…
STING ON SODAJERKER: The research phase for Theme Night #33 is firmly up and running! This is a great insight into how Sting thinks about songwriting.
Finally…
I know I know…BUT…we had great fun at our piano workshops last week looking at the various features of this song. It is so well put-together. And you may need it as a reference for What’s New (2).
Till next time - Kieran.
