Ah , sad news , Pete St John will forever be remembered….. The Fields of Athenry should surely have at least been included in the programme. Could the extra few lines that get sang in Parkhead have been anything to do with the omission ??? We will never know.
Hope the parachuting went well or at least better than the fella whose chute failed to open at 5000 feet when he met a man heading towards the sky…. “do you know anything about parachutes ? ” asks our man….. “not a thing ” says the fella on the way up….. “do you know anything about gas ovens ?? “
Christy's reply
last night in The Barbican Theatre,Drogheda, the audience saluted Pete….and we sang the chorus of his song…..
later, I got home to watch a recording of yesterdays match from Twickenham….there He was again,
Hello Christy,
That gig page of yours is starting to look very healthy. Wishing you good luck and joy for tonight.
Loads of rugby today. I’m looking forward to the match at teatime. It’s better singing from the Aviva, I’ll remember Athenry rising through the hacker forever.
Rebecca
Christy's reply
Despite an RTE series some years ago, Pete St John’s “Fields of Athenry” surely must be Ireland’s most popular Folk Song..for some reason ,the adjudicators omitted it from the list upon which we were invited to vote..I still wonder betimes about this omission…might we ever be enlightened..
I send best wishes to Pete….I love singing his “Inchicore Wake” here in the workroom…
“There was chase-the-hearse Whelan and auld Joe Sartini
His twin saddled bike a Black Market on wheels .
Into Stick-Foots in Church St, the auld Hen & Chicken
came the Inchicore News Molly Sonex was dead”.
..from “The Inchicore Wake ” by Pete St John
each of these characters, and others too, have the most colourful and varied histories
I still recall my first hearing of Pete’s beautiful song..
twas “The Pudding NIght” in the Góilín Singers Club back in Christmas 2012… Anna Buckley sang it and ( almost) silenced the night….
PS…10 hours later…I’ve just recieved the sad news of Pete St John’s passing….one of the rare auld stock…
Hey Christy, the ever ‘popular’ eddie jones is fairly pumping his gums about the game so here’s to ‘irish ways and irish laws’.
I donned the boots last saturday and played 80 minutes ‘in extremis’ and survived the ordeal for our 2nds so if cian or johnny fail the late fitness test i can make the 3pm flight from edinburgh down to londinium….’scots wha hae’.
My eldest is in Rome, photos abounding from the coloseum yesterday, hopefully he and Finn can orchestrate the ‘just one cornetto’ anthem today.
Meanwhile last night it was a tight one between the ‘bread of heaven’ and a chorus of ‘ croissants’ , but maybe the better baker just won.
Love the rugby, see you at ‘the aviva’ next saturday.
Rory
Christy's reply
I will travel by Private Jet from Twickers to Drogheda this evening..I plan to parachute down onto the car park of the Barbican Theatre..hopefully the wind will not drop me into The River Boyne… I’ve recieved some coaching from Prince Charles’ Parachute Regiment…
Will you be sitting with Princess Anne today ?
gotta hand it to Eddie..he sure can put the cat among the pigeons
I’ve just read a Guardian review of a project by Arun Sood – a Scots/ Indian multi talent… what an escape from this cruel world, to check out http://www.arunsood.com ‘Searching Erskine’ was my starting point from The Guardian review , but I think any exploring will be fulfilling. Arun’s family history is a fascination in itself…
Loving what can be done with a truck and a road name.
Since the Mick Blake link appeared here a few times I’ve plastered it onto Facebook and twitter. I’ve somehow wound up with around 2800 friends on Facebook, all musicians and other like minded souls, I can’t see the point of an Internet that makes people unhappy.
Anyway, I’m usually completely non-political on there, and it looks like my friends are too. Not a single response.
Strange old journey. Maybe we’ll meet at the end of it.
You’re reply to my last question was very interesting some of those singers I have never heard of so I be looking them up thank you I have learned quite a bit about singers since I have come on here thanks again
Hi Christy,
Distracted from the grind by Poor Old Earth from the box set.
Did you just make it up on the spot? Has it ever been ‘performed’?
It is somewhat entrancing.
Regards
Rory
Christy's reply
twas a neighbour called Samuel Beckett wrote it…never performed it myself apart form that winters night in a studio near Kilkenny with Messrs Lunny and Sinnott playing the melody of “Love is a Pleasure”
Hello Christy,
Just musing this morning on how lucky we all are to have the music.
It’s not been many years for me, many people here have years and years of knowing it. I’ve been a musician all my life, I remember the first tune I learnt on the piano when I was little more than a small dot.
But folk songs are something that have become all consuming in the last few years. I listen and I listen and I listen, and I sing.
It’s a journey in great company and often alone.
I was thinking the other day of your depth and breadth of knowledge of songs. Do you know you’ve been at it 20 times longer than me.
I’m chasing as fast as I can.
Hi Christy,
I was listening to ‘on the road’ and just love the way the audiences are part of the recordings.
Favourite currently would be Lisdoonvarna, the crowd are fairly wound up into it.
Though you don’t know us all personally, everyone at a gig feels we know you and ‘gies it laldie’.
Fair play
Rory
Christy's reply
audience reaction and participation creates what it takes for us to play
Fair play to you Christy with the Redcross concert, we all need to make a stand no matter how small. Listening to the words of Yellow Triangle got me thinking Maybe if the rest of the world had stood more with the people of Syria when the likes of Aleppo was being razed to the ground by Putin then the invasion of Ukraine may never have happened. Then again Syrian people aren’t white European Christians living on our doorstep, so western goverments thought making speeches and tutting would be sufficient.
Thanks for quoting the headline, Christy – gave me a much needed chortle…
Terrific news about your aid gig…I’d already bunged a few quid to Red Cross and just used the local self service Tesco. Coincidentally, they’ve set up an optional checkout donation to The Red Cross Ukraine fund – rounds up the change to the next pound etc…not exactly gig scale, but a few thousand 70 pences will mount up.
Enjoy the pre Drogheda prep – a favourite town of mine, having enjoyed much family time there and on nearby beaches etc… there’ll be a mega welcome waiting for you – hopefully, some of your family too.
As ever, thanks
Dave
Christy's reply
it is gig scale Dave…its our collective activity that ,hopefully, will make some slight difference….. its hard to figure out how best to deal with a tyrant….
Thankyou for the poem, it made me smile and laugh. And the guy in the Russian embassy truck.
Hope the red Cross gig goes well. You’re right, need to do something.
Hello Christy,
Just lost my last comment. Spent an hour looking for a song. Nothing. It would be called Stop it Now.
Thankyou for posting the video by Mick Blake.
Maybe this is somewhere near https://youtu.be/CodfLPnzrbc
Rebecca
Christy's reply
transports me back to 1976 and that recording time
Ah , sad news , Pete St John will forever be remembered….. The Fields of Athenry should surely have at least been included in the programme. Could the extra few lines that get sang in Parkhead have been anything to do with the omission ??? We will never know.
Hope the parachuting went well or at least better than the fella whose chute failed to open at 5000 feet when he met a man heading towards the sky…. “do you know anything about parachutes ? ” asks our man….. “not a thing ” says the fella on the way up….. “do you know anything about gas ovens ?? “
last night in The Barbican Theatre,Drogheda, the audience saluted Pete….and we sang the chorus of his song…..
later, I got home to watch a recording of yesterdays match from Twickenham….there He was again,
“Low lie The Fields of Athenry”
I just saw it too. RIP Pete St John.
Hello Christy,
That gig page of yours is starting to look very healthy. Wishing you good luck and joy for tonight.
Loads of rugby today. I’m looking forward to the match at teatime. It’s better singing from the Aviva, I’ll remember Athenry rising through the hacker forever.
Rebecca
Despite an RTE series some years ago, Pete St John’s “Fields of Athenry” surely must be Ireland’s most popular Folk Song..for some reason ,the adjudicators omitted it from the list upon which we were invited to vote..I still wonder betimes about this omission…might we ever be enlightened..
I send best wishes to Pete….I love singing his “Inchicore Wake” here in the workroom…
“There was chase-the-hearse Whelan and auld Joe Sartini
His twin saddled bike a Black Market on wheels .
Into Stick-Foots in Church St, the auld Hen & Chicken
came the Inchicore News Molly Sonex was dead”.
..from “The Inchicore Wake ” by Pete St John
each of these characters, and others too, have the most colourful and varied histories
I still recall my first hearing of Pete’s beautiful song..
twas “The Pudding NIght” in the Góilín Singers Club back in Christmas 2012… Anna Buckley sang it and ( almost) silenced the night….
PS…10 hours later…I’ve just recieved the sad news of Pete St John’s passing….one of the rare auld stock…
Hey Christy, the ever ‘popular’ eddie jones is fairly pumping his gums about the game so here’s to ‘irish ways and irish laws’.
I donned the boots last saturday and played 80 minutes ‘in extremis’ and survived the ordeal for our 2nds so if cian or johnny fail the late fitness test i can make the 3pm flight from edinburgh down to londinium….’scots wha hae’.
My eldest is in Rome, photos abounding from the coloseum yesterday, hopefully he and Finn can orchestrate the ‘just one cornetto’ anthem today.
Meanwhile last night it was a tight one between the ‘bread of heaven’ and a chorus of ‘ croissants’ , but maybe the better baker just won.
Love the rugby, see you at ‘the aviva’ next saturday.
Rory
I will travel by Private Jet from Twickers to Drogheda this evening..I plan to parachute down onto the car park of the Barbican Theatre..hopefully the wind will not drop me into The River Boyne… I’ve recieved some coaching from Prince Charles’ Parachute Regiment…
Will you be sitting with Princess Anne today ?
gotta hand it to Eddie..he sure can put the cat among the pigeons
The Bob Dylan musical is coming to the Olympia theatre at the end of June might be of interest to you
Bob himself will be playing in Dublin come The Autumn…I hope to play Bodhrán with him…I await the call
Lucky folk to enjoy the Drogheda gig, Christy…
I’ve just read a Guardian review of a project by Arun Sood – a Scots/ Indian multi talent… what an escape from this cruel world, to check out http://www.arunsood.com ‘Searching Erskine’ was my starting point from The Guardian review , but I think any exploring will be fulfilling. Arun’s family history is a fascination in itself…
Dave
‘Keep on truckin’ on the Drogheda set list, Christy? D
“all along the Valley of The Boyne on to Tara Hill
I know that it always was and I know that it always will “.
… ( Mandolin Mountain…Tony Small )
practicing this for tomorrow night
Here’s the truck, in case anybody missed it.
https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1500838594671529993?s=20&t=3JA6DkpVhMPe2_2QDK97TQ
back away back away
Hello Christy,
I saw this and it made me smile.
https://www.thejournal.ie/russian-embassy-orwell-road-independent-ukraine-road-5706473-Mar2022/
Loving what can be done with a truck and a road name.
Since the Mick Blake link appeared here a few times I’ve plastered it onto Facebook and twitter. I’ve somehow wound up with around 2800 friends on Facebook, all musicians and other like minded souls, I can’t see the point of an Internet that makes people unhappy.
Anyway, I’m usually completely non-political on there, and it looks like my friends are too. Not a single response.
Strange old journey. Maybe we’ll meet at the end of it.
Rebecca
Mornin’ Christy
Thanks for posting the Mick Blake link – more genius work by him.
The trad Ukrainian tune is striking. I hope it’s being played a lot. I’d love to hear a cello version of it.
Have a good day
Dave
You’re reply to my last question was very interesting some of those singers I have never heard of so I be looking them up thank you I have learned quite a bit about singers since I have come on here thanks again
Thanks for the Mick Blake link. He never gets it wrong. Understated maestro.
Rory
Hi Christy,
Distracted from the grind by Poor Old Earth from the box set.
Did you just make it up on the spot? Has it ever been ‘performed’?
It is somewhat entrancing.
Regards
Rory
twas a neighbour called Samuel Beckett wrote it…never performed it myself apart form that winters night in a studio near Kilkenny with Messrs Lunny and Sinnott playing the melody of “Love is a Pleasure”
https://youtu.be/jphIEP4KIfk
Mornin’ Christy/ all
Just received a newsletter from a new/ very well intentioned organisation – close to many hearts here, I think http://www.folkforrefugees.com
Have a good day with Atkin and a Drogheda setlist…
Dave
thanks Dave
Hello Christy,
Just musing this morning on how lucky we all are to have the music.
It’s not been many years for me, many people here have years and years of knowing it. I’ve been a musician all my life, I remember the first tune I learnt on the piano when I was little more than a small dot.
But folk songs are something that have become all consuming in the last few years. I listen and I listen and I listen, and I sing.
It’s a journey in great company and often alone.
I was thinking the other day of your depth and breadth of knowledge of songs. Do you know you’ve been at it 20 times longer than me.
I’m chasing as fast as I can.
Rebecca
all our roads lead to the same destination
Hi Christy,
I was listening to ‘on the road’ and just love the way the audiences are part of the recordings.
Favourite currently would be Lisdoonvarna, the crowd are fairly wound up into it.
Though you don’t know us all personally, everyone at a gig feels we know you and ‘gies it laldie’.
Fair play
Rory
audience reaction and participation creates what it takes for us to play
Fair play to you Christy with the Redcross concert, we all need to make a stand no matter how small. Listening to the words of Yellow Triangle got me thinking Maybe if the rest of the world had stood more with the people of Syria when the likes of Aleppo was being razed to the ground by Putin then the invasion of Ukraine may never have happened. Then again Syrian people aren’t white European Christians living on our doorstep, so western goverments thought making speeches and tutting would be sufficient.
https://youtu.be/jphIEP4KIfk
Thanks for quoting the headline, Christy – gave me a much needed chortle…
Terrific news about your aid gig…I’d already bunged a few quid to Red Cross and just used the local self service Tesco. Coincidentally, they’ve set up an optional checkout donation to The Red Cross Ukraine fund – rounds up the change to the next pound etc…not exactly gig scale, but a few thousand 70 pences will mount up.
Enjoy the pre Drogheda prep – a favourite town of mine, having enjoyed much family time there and on nearby beaches etc… there’ll be a mega welcome waiting for you – hopefully, some of your family too.
As ever, thanks
Dave
it is gig scale Dave…its our collective activity that ,hopefully, will make some slight difference….. its hard to figure out how best to deal with a tyrant….
Thankyou for the poem, it made me smile and laugh. And the guy in the Russian embassy truck.
Hope the red Cross gig goes well. You’re right, need to do something.
Hello Christy,
Just lost my last comment. Spent an hour looking for a song. Nothing. It would be called Stop it Now.
Thankyou for posting the video by Mick Blake.
Maybe this is somewhere near
https://youtu.be/CodfLPnzrbc
Rebecca
transports me back to 1976 and that recording time