Main stage running order and performers
- 11.30 Hot Press Award Winner
- 12.10 Foy Vance
- 12.50 Coronas
- 13.20 Speeches
- 13.35 John Spillane
- 14.20 Comahaltas
- 15.05 Mundy
- 15.50 Four Men and a Dog
- 16.35 Camille O’Sullivan
- 17.20 Kila
About the performers
Hot Press Award Winner
This year’s stage line-up will open with a bang! Over the last few months, Irish music magazine Hot Press has been looking for a show-stopping band to perform on the main stage at the St Patrick’s Festival on March 14. Irish groups and performers have been lining up for a chance to play in the city that spawned rock legends like The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Clash, Pet Shop Boys and Basement Jaxx.
The competition, in association with Visit London, will see the winners play in front of thousands of people in the historic Trafalgar Square on what is one of the city’s biggest annual celebrations. A shortlist of 20 entries were chosen and the public have been voting on hotpress.com to help choose the band to represent the new wave of Irish rock in London. Voting runs until March 7 and the winner will be announced on March 10.
Foy Vance
Co. Down musician Foy Vance is one of the latest talents to make waves in the British music market and he is proud to be going back to his roots by performing at this year’s St. Patrick’s celebrations. Vance has been described by The Who’s Pete Townshend as a giant in the music industry and Bonnie Raitt says he is one of the most soulful and powerful singers she has heard in a long time. Vance spent his early childhood in Oklahoma, New Orleans and Alabama and it was there that he was exposed to spiritual Southern music that helped create the soul, blues, gospel and jazz sounds in his music. Being associated with idols such as Otis Reading and Van Morrison is a comparison that the artist is happy not to take too seriously. He says: “I’m not into the industry or the celebrity that goes with it. I’m out on my own, like a hobo — a bag on my back and away I go.”
He has supported such diverse artists as the aforementioned Raitt, Guillemotts and Joss Stone. And he says: “Although it was a great experience to support Joss Stone in front of 8,000 fans in Glastonbury Abbey, some of my favourite gigs are low-key ones with no huge superstar taking to the stage.” Fans of Vance may not be aware that two of his songs — Gabriel and the Vagabond and Homebird — were selected and featured on television drama series Grey’s Anatomy. As well as that, another track, Indiscriminate Act of Kindness, was chosen as the sound bed to the Great Ormond Street Hospital TV commercial during Christmas 2006. Vance says: “That ad meant so much to me. It was a blessing that came out of nowhere. I always said that advertising had to be fruitful and mean something and with this one I landed on my feet. It was such a worthwhile campaign that I certainly didn’t mind putting my name to it.”
The Coronas
The Coronas are fast becoming an international pop sensation with appearances on RTÉ’s Late Late Show, The Café and The Podge and Rodge Show already under their belts. The Coronas’ debut LP — 2007’s Heroes or Ghosts — achieved platinum sales in Ireland, and spawned massive singles such as Grace, Don’t Wait!, Heroes or Ghosts and especially San Diego Song, which became an anthem in clubs and radio stations all across the country. The Dublin quartet quickly followed its release with sell-out shows nationwide, two Meteor Award nominations and a spellbinding set on the main stage at Oxegen. All this along with tours in the US, Britain and Asia, has enabled the Coronas to establish themselves as one of Ireland’s biggest new bands.
“We’ve worked really hard for the last two years but taking a break never really occurred to us,” says lead singer Danny O’Reilly. “We were quite young when we recorded Heroes or Ghosts,” adds guitarist Dave McPhillips, “and, although we were so proud of it, we really didn’t expect it to do as well as it did. The last couple of years on the road, constantly gigging and developing our sound, left us with a better idea of the album we wanted to make.” For their new album The Coronas have teamed up with esteemed producer John Cornfield, who has also worked with
Oasis, Razorlight and Muse. “Working with John in the mill (Sawmills) was an amazing experience,” says bassist Knoxy. “We thought that, with his résumé, he’d be telling us exactly what to do but he was really cool and just let us do our thing. It was a really chilled-out, productive atmosphere.”
John Spillane
John Spillane is so much more than just a singer — he is a musician, a songwriter, performer, recording artist, storyteller and poet. A two-time Meteor Award winner, Spillane is one of the most accomplished songwriters in Ireland today. Among those who have covered his songs are Christy Moore, Karan Casey, Pauline Scanlon, Cathy Ryan, Sharon Shannon, Sean Keane and George Murphy, to name a few. Vocally, he is quite unique in his sound and his voice has been described as being “full of honesty, commitment and sensitivity”. Spillane is an unstoppable force in the music world. From his heart-warming visit to Senegal to film a musical visit for an Irish television series (where he met and played music with, among others, the legendary Baaba Maal) he keeps on going from strength to strength. In his 2008 Australian tour he sang the Irish National Anthem before 45,000 people attending the Australia v Ireland International Rules football game and he was also invited to sing for the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. Spillane’s performances shimmer with the magical realism that permeates many of his songs as he effortlessly flits between poetry tinged with melancholy to roguish, irreverent Cork humour.
Comhaltas
It wouldn’t be a St. Patrick’s festival without some traditional Irish music and dance. And this year the All-Ireland champion dancers from Wexford will perform a special 10-minute set, followed by a unique collaboration between Comhaltas London and The Trad Gathering. Comhaltas has many branches across London, with its competitions and festivals always generating a great buzz and sense of local pride.
The Trad Gathering — featuring young traditional musicians from different music schools across London, St. Alban’s, Luton, Cambridge, Milton Keynes and further afield in Britain — will also add to what is sure to be a lively atmosphere on the day.
Mundy
Born Edmund Enright in the rural town of Birr, Co. Offaly, Mundy has become a hugely successful star in Ireland and Britain.
At age 18, Mundy moved to Dublin and began performing on the infamous busker haven Grafton Street and at open-mike nights at the nearby International Bar. Less than two years later he signed with Sony subsidiary Epic Records, and released his debut single, To You I Bestow, on New Year’s Day 1996. The song featured on the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s Shakespeare adaptation Romeo and Juliet, alongside tracks by Radiohead and Garbage. The soundtrack went on to sell 11 million copies, bringing Mundy to a worldwide audience.
In 2002, Mundy released his second album, 24 Star Hotel, on his own record label, Camcor Records. The album contained the song July, an ode to the joys of the Irish summer, and is, for Irish audiences at least, Mundy’s signature tune. A live version of the song was the first single from his 2006 album, Live & Confusion, and entered the Irish charts on digital downloads alone at No. 16, the first ever song to do so. Steve Earle’s Galway Girl, which was included as an encore on the album became the biggest download in Ireland of 2007 before being released as a studio version, going to No.1 and becoming the biggest single in Ireland of 2008. Mundy’s latest album, Strawberry Blood, was released worldwide in 2009 and features contributions from Shane McGowan and Gemma Hayes.
Four Men And A Dog
Four Men And A Dog is a gathering of stellar traditional Irish musicians who fuse boogie and blues music with a pure drop of the traditional instrumental. It is rare to see them perform as they all have busy and successful solo careers.
Gino Lupari has been hailed as the king of the bodhrán. He has recorded and performed with Sinead O’Connor and Shane McGowan.
Gerry O’Connor was described by the Wall Street Journal as the greatest banjo player in the history of Irish music. His 2005 solo album received the Irish Times Folk Album of the Year award and he has recorded and played with The Band, Chris Rea, The Dubliners, Clannad, The Waterboys and others. Fiddle player Cathal Hayden is the traditional heart of the band. Gaining enough accolades over three decades to be asked to accompany an Irish presidential visit to South America last year, Hayden has been a guest of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in the USA and has toured China as a guest with the Dónal Lunny Band. He currently collaborates in a trio with the world-renowned accordion virtuoso Máirtín O Connor and multi-instrumentalist Seamie O’Dowd. Kevin Doherty is the songwriter of the bunch and has released two acclaimed solo albums. Finally, accordian player Donal Murphy is an All- Ireland winner and tours the world with Comhaltas as an ambassador of Irish culture. He has also performed with the world famous dancer Michael Flatley in his global production, Feet of Flames.
Camille O’Sullivan
Born in London to a French mother and Irish father, O’Sullivan moved to Co. Cork as a child. Following a car accident after which she had to take a year out to recuperate, she taught herself to sing and left her career in architecture. As much a storyteller as a singer, O’Sullivan has a respected international reputation for her interpretations of the songs of Jacques Brel, Nick Cave, Tom Waits and Kurt Weill. Chameleon-like on stage, each song has a different character with its own story to tell and emotion to inhabit. Fierce, amusing and mesmerising, O’Sullivan transforms each song she performs into a grippingly theatrical experience. As an actress she has appeared in the films Over the Edge, November Afternoon and the Oscar-nominated Mrs Henderson Presents.
Camille has recently toured with Shane McGowan and Sharon Shannon, performed at the Barbican tribute to Jacques Brel with Marc Almond, Diamanda Galas and Momus O'Sullivan, has had two sell-out shows at London’s legendary Roundhouse Theatre and also performed at both the Glastonbury and Latitude festivals.
Kíla
Playing together for nearly 20 years, Kíla are one of Ireland’s most innovative and exciting bands. Kíla’s seven members come from different musical backgrounds and share a passion to create great music with an ability to absorb influences from across the globe, creating their own distinctive style of world music in the process. Made up of two sets of brothers, Kíla consists of: Rónán Ó Snodaigh on bodhrán, djembe, congas, bongos, guitar and vocals; Rossa Ó Snodaigh on tin whistle, low whistle, clarinet, bazouki, mandolin, bones and vocals; Colm Ó Snodaigh on flute, tin whistle, guitar, saxophone, percussion and vocals; Lance Hogan on guitar, drums and vocals; Brian Hogan on bass, double bass and vocals; Dee Armstrong on fiddle, viola, hammered dulcimer, accordion and bodhrán; and Eoin Dillon on uilleann pipes, tin whistle, low whistle, shakers and vocals.
Kíla are widely-renowned for their stunning sets and surprise guest performers at their shows, including trapeze artists, fire jugglers and belly dancers; their energetic live performances have seen them continue to wow and attract new audiences over the years. With praise from Bono (who calls them extraordinary) and Sinead O’Connor (who says they are brilliant) the day is bound to finish with a bang!
