Dear Reader - one Sligo man making the British news (again) today!
The Big Thing
But first - we’re just over a month out from the start of the brand new Theme Nights monthly residency - a new and exciting venture which will see regular entertaining Theme Night shows for us all!
We are so happy (and a little nervous!) to be collaborating with both the Hawk's Well and the Art Deco Theatre over the next few months on this.
There is lots of thought being put in at the moment to get the feeling and spirit of this season just right - and so today I wanted to let you guys in on the themes for the year ahead…
September: Poets of Popular Music (including Springsteen, Joni, Cohen and more)
October: The Beatles
November: Fleetwood Mac
January: Sounds of Ireland
February: It Don't Mean a Thing!
It’s just like a Theme Night - but every month!
Loads of special guests to be announced too - so stay tuned…
Where else but Sligo?
I have written in these pages previously about North Sligo’s Ollie White - most recently he sang with us on the 80s Theme Night last February and we featured a BBC news snippet detailing his marathon cycle from Madrid to Glastonbury.
He’s now in Newcastle - working as a content creator for Newcastle United FC.
The team are in La Manga in Spain on a training camp for the upcoming Premier League season - and as is tradition in many sports teams, newcomers to the group must take part in an initiation ceremony where they sing a song in front of the entire staff.
The first I heard of it was over the weekend where I saw star Premier League footballers such as Anthony Elanga and Joe Willock posting footage of Ollie’s performance and also the huge reaction in the room to his version of Ain’t No Sunshine. Big media outlets have since picked up on the story - this man just can’t seem to stay out of the news!
Head over to the Theme Night Academy Instagram page for the full story…
What’s New?
Not so new - 33 years old actually (!) - but new to me and hopefully to you - here’s Billy Joel’s commencement speech to the graduating class of Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1993.
My favourite part is when he talks about the importance and then the impact of making music - “Do it because it's what you have to do. And if you make this music for the human needs you have within yourself, then you do it for all humans who need the same things. Ultimately, you enrich humanity with the profound expression of these feelings”.
PS best of luck to former student and another Theme Night Academy graduate - Sligo’s own Rory Conneally who starts in this prestigious college next month!
Finally…
Three thank yous in relation to this song today:
- Firstly to Martin ‘Scruffy’ Duffy for bringing it to my attention.
- To Sinéad Conway for learning it and giving me the opportunity to play it.
- And to Sean ‘Cabbage’ Callaghan and Jamie Cawley for creating a great Sunday session in Lillies where we got to jam it last week!
Till next time - Kieran.
