In that comment you go on to say Tom was responsible for the classic sleeve of the first Planxty album, which has been compromised on later releases, and you go on to say:
“The artwork has been compromised by the various charlatans who have owned the album subsequent to its original vinyl release in 1972…..buck them, the lot of them….they may own the rights, they may divvy the spoils but they will never experience the pleasure and satisfaction we gained in making the music”
I enjoyed that comment, fair play to you.
Sorry Christy, I came across a guestbook comment from years ago, (numbered 33905!)which credited the photo on the sleeve of the album Christy Moore to Tom McIlroy, taken upstairs in The Meeting Place.
I wondered what the meeting place was and If the album was recorded there. And if that was a fun place….
Ace!!
I usually feel sure of the answer and get nowhere near. This time I had no idea if it was right.
This will be my approach from now on, crystal balls, search engines and fingers in the air…
Begobs Bourky, here we are caught between a reek and a harp place…..
I reckon Kunte Kinte (and Chicken George) were long freemen by the time the puck came down from the reeks …but no beating the champion googler Reb…..
Love your comment 33905 Christy….must have been some fun upstairs in the meeting house…
Christy's reply
33905 Pat ?..too cryptic for me…can you simplify matters
Jaysus Pat
It was because he was zipping up his boots
and going back to his roots.
Looks like Rebecca stole it at the line to come first.
Least we did better than poor old Lazarus.
Happy Wednesday everybody
Bourkey
Christy's reply
recorded 47 years ago in Dublin Sound it featured a host of friends nomads and countrymen….the engineer was Pat Morley…Donal Lunny produced…Barney McKenna featured as did Kevin Burke, Jimmy Faulkner, Michéal Ó Domhnaill, Declan McNelis, Robbie Brennan…… a grand time was had in the making…in a burst of creation and inspiration the record company called the album …..”Christy Moore” ( well done Rebecca)
It was my last album on Polydor who subsequently dropped me… whereupon I was welcomed back to the Tara Label….I think all the albums from that period have found their way to Universal where they have been re-mastered and made ready for another generation of listeners
The Kerry vote for the competition goes to King Puck, of course ! Sure what else could you be descended from not ? if not a wild goat roaming the MacGillycuddy Reeks, only coming to town once a year for a 3 day party, crowned and hoisted on a throne. AND it’s well recognised that you are the G.O.A.T. ( I had to ask and was pleased with the freagra !! ) I will give you my address for the prize later. H
Christy's reply
I hear talk that they are thinking of resting the goats for the next few years ….members of The Upper House will be alternated, hoisted and crowned …wherepon they can gaze fondly down upon their constituents ,local dignateries, all Ireland medallists, foreign visitors and tourists , Rev Fathers, Brothers and Sisters……one member at a time happily corralled up there in that awesome 6×3 paddock chomping on turnips and shiting in the straw
Hello Christy,
I think the album in the quiz was called Christy Moore.
I’m ashamed to report that in the recent vote for the ceasefire in Gaza, the UK abstained. I hate our politicians. All front and no substance. What a load of cowards!
I’m disgusted that anyone could fail to vote against genocide.
Thinking about the posts about spending time, mainly in London I guess, as someone from another country. I had a couple of brief adventures down there in my youth. I felt like a foreigner, but not as much as you guys must have. Bravo to Tom on his work on the sheltered housing scheme. Bringing a bit of love and kindness to that merciless place.
Rebecca wins the race by a shorthead,
second place was a dead heat between
Bourkey, Pat D, Dave from Suffragette City
(Dave entered by email and prob would have had to be disqualified had he won, lest rancour break out in stalls, were his entry accepted as legit, the next step would be people ringing in the middle of the night with late entries..feck that for a game of cowboys)
just prepping now for Tonight in Tullamore….always a hot spot for rambling balladeers…give them Their Dew , they know how to show a guy a good time over there in Offaly..
PS good version of Martin Leahy’s song… and he plays everything himself
We are on the morning flight to Birmingham. But before we go. Thank you to Pat for the link. And a special thanks once again to Christy. Those words about the moment Vishva and I embraced at Vicar Street will stay with us forever as will the whole night. We went to the Emigration Museum yesterday. Well worth a visit.
In England I was once responsible for developing a sheltered scheme for elderly Irish Men who never made it home. They worked all their life on building sites, living in bedsit. To be abandoned when they could no longer work. We tried to give them a warm safe home in their final years. Just Ordinary Men.
Take care all.
Tom and Vishva.
Ach Rory, you bet me to it. Just listening to Shane, Thousands are sailing, after my chat with Tom, and I got to thinking about three generations of my family:
Three out of four members of my granny’s family crossed the Western Ocean, as young children, separately, looking for their father and a better life in the land of opportunity than what they had in the orphanage in Dundalk. They made it.
Three of the four in my daddy’s family took the emigrant boat to England in the hungry fifties looking for work, indeed my daddy joined them in the late sixties as our shoe industry collapsed. They made it.
From us six, I am the only one to go abroad, but by choice not economics.
And as I listen to Shane I wonder Christy, Like Rory., If you have Shane’s Thousands are sailing in your repertoire. (I know Planxty/Andy’s version is different)
And I wonder how many of the 75 million Irish abroad (yourself amongst us) did/do as Shane sang
‘When I got back to my empty room I suppose I must have cried…’?
Christy's reply
I remember crying in exile… but it was always the drink that brought it on….a feed of drink bringin on lonesome feelings…I’d end up singin “O My Papa” in some jax mirror
most of the time I loved my years in exile….Yates Wine Lodge, Dwall Flunking in Beverly, Skittles in Peebles, Anwar’s in Grafton Way, Elland Road, Easter Road, Snooker with Aly Bain and Owen Hand in Auld Reekie, buyin a 3.2 Jaguar off Dave Brady in Bradford for £300 on the drip,The Scotia in Glasgow, The Rugby in Hull, The Pack Horse in Birtle, black pudding in Bury, t’Upper George in Halifax,The Bridge in Newcastle, The Grove in Leeds, White Hart in Fulham Broadway,
we had a reet good do
Hi Christy,
I have a fascination, it seems, with Blackbirds.
Not only does one, as we well know, accompany you in Folk Tale, but there he is in St Kevin and the Blackbird, and the very same fella is singing away in Philip Chevron’s ‘Thousands Are Sailing’………as i danced up and down the street.
I wondered if you have ever tried to sing Philip’s gem, sung with such passion by Shane, perhaps in a shed somewhere with a wee untuned guitar or in the bath (without guitar) .
On the subject of Shane, i still find it strangely hard to think of him dead. I am no sentimentalist, but i keep listening to his songs and cannot quite think of him unable to charm me again ‘in person’ , it is a strange thing as i do not think i have felt this way about the death of a musician or entertainer in this way before.
rory
Christy's reply
never heard it that way..gotta listen again..I still sing Philip’s “Ballad of The Faithfull Departed ” here in the work room..great song from a beautiful man
And hi again Tom!
Roots……Kunte Kinte eat your heart out!
Tom, a link to the Irish census online…..the 1901 census lists 6 Murtha families in Co. Louth!
my last competition here never passed muster
another one
what album of mine was nick-named Kunte Kinta
first up best dressed ….the judges decision will be final
Hi Again.
Thanks Pat for the information on Jim. My great great grandfather and grandmother came from Dundalk. So there might be a link there. As Christy said earlier, names were often changed slightly by immigration officers. But I think the Murthas have been around for some time. I will keep tracing them. Thanks for the good wishes. I don’t need to tell all how there how special nights with Christy have become. I hope there will be many more.
Take care all.
Tom and Vishva.
Christy's reply
I have a lovely picture in my mind from Monday Night in Vicar Street…the entire audience celebrated your presence… when you and Vishva embraced it felt as if we were all together in that magic moment
Congrats Tom & Vishva on the 50th. I knew a Jim Múrtha, born in Troy NY, moved to Burbank to work for Disney. He was a great fan of Dundalk FC . Sadly Jim passed away in 2016, but he has left a few Murthas behind. He is survived by 4 girls, Nicole Murtha-Chamberlin of Minnesota, Allsun Murtha-West of Dallas, Ashleigh and Diane Murtha of Burbank, and his one grandson Clayton. . Donno if that helps Tom for your roots …good luck.
Damn! B major. I don’t sing a single song in that exotic key, and the harp refuses to play an A sharp. A minor, different kettle of fish..
I’ve always felt in very safe hands when David Meade does your sound. Very proud and happy to have the listeners ears looked after by such an accomplished man.
I’m thinking looking after your monitors could be a demanding experience. Well done to the brave man that looks after your ears during a gig.
Christy's reply
his name is Dickon…he has been on my crew for over 30 years….my monitors sing sweetly
Christy, yet another special night in Vicar street last night. Like the big man on the ground floor, haven’t missed a performance in years and like a fine wine each year tops the last. Great tribute to Shane and loved the new song on social media no names. Happy Christmas Christy and no doubt we’ll see you somewhere in 2024. Best wishes. Frank
Christy's reply
“Snowflakes” was written my Martin Leahy…he kindly permitted me to make slight alterations to his lyric and melody….last night was the first time I played it softly and accapella, and at the very end of the gig..
Martin sings his song “Everyone should have a Home” outside Dáil Éireann every Thursday between 1 and 2….
support him if you can..hear him on YouTube
……………..VOTE NO.1…. Martin Leahy.. ( on your ballad paper)
Shane, rest him, did not leave quietly….they waked him,carried him,praised him, sang for him and eulogised him to the highest degree…the good man deserved every moment of it all…we’ll never forget him….twas great to see his old Pogues Companeros up there together on the high altar of Tipperary….he’d have loved that…
Hello Christy,
Back story to Vicar Street? I’m intrigued. You know me, I love a good story.
In January I’m hoping we’ll venture north of the Liffey and explore around the Cobblestone and up to Arbour Hill. It takes a long time to discover new places, so many pubs on the way. And once we find a nice one we tend to stay put.
I agree with Anne. There’s nothing like basing yourself within walking distance of a venue. And the area round Vicar Street at that…
My very best wishes to all those who will be experiencing Vicar Street for the first time.
Interesting question about what venues are like to play in. As soon as you’ve added a PA, you’ve made it into something different, haven’t you. There’s a job to be done and that’s the best way to do it. But to sing or play in a space completely acoustic, that’s a different feeling. Some are warm and welcoming, others are dead as a dodo, I’m thinking of the Royal Festval Hall. Played there once, it was like singing into a sock. Maybe it’s better now.
And the listeners change everything too. I guess that’s a whole new subject.
Sorry for the rambling, I’m in bed with a bad back. It gives you time to womble along.
Rebecca
Christy's reply
playing through a PA system as against playing without a PA system …two entirely different experiences…neither one better than the other…I like to embrace both…I seldom gig without these past 50 years but prior to that…in the hundreds of great Folk clubs we experienced, PA systems were the ruin of manys the good night…problem was, no one knew the first thing about how to use them, how to set them up….we would forewarn each other when comparing notes…. “the mic in the Stags Head in Clacton is a dangerous weapon”…. “beware of the PA in the Kings Head in Walton Under Lyme” it howls endlessly and the organiser is afraid to switch it off”
returning to Ireland in 1972 we formed Planxty and gradually began to understand the benefits of good systems….
these times I work with the very best technicians…great care and preparation goes into every gig….last night in Vicar Street I heard a spider fart during a quiet song.. it had the decency to fart in A minor but drifted into B major towards the finale
In that comment you go on to say Tom was responsible for the classic sleeve of the first Planxty album, which has been compromised on later releases, and you go on to say:
“The artwork has been compromised by the various charlatans who have owned the album subsequent to its original vinyl release in 1972…..buck them, the lot of them….they may own the rights, they may divvy the spoils but they will never experience the pleasure and satisfaction we gained in making the music”
I enjoyed that comment, fair play to you.
Sorry Christy, I came across a guestbook comment from years ago, (numbered 33905!)which credited the photo on the sleeve of the album Christy Moore to Tom McIlroy, taken upstairs in The Meeting Place.
I wondered what the meeting place was and If the album was recorded there. And if that was a fun place….
Ace!!
I usually feel sure of the answer and get nowhere near. This time I had no idea if it was right.
This will be my approach from now on, crystal balls, search engines and fingers in the air…
way to go
Begobs Bourky, here we are caught between a reek and a harp place…..
I reckon Kunte Kinte (and Chicken George) were long freemen by the time the puck came down from the reeks …but no beating the champion googler Reb…..
Love your comment 33905 Christy….must have been some fun upstairs in the meeting house…
33905 Pat ?..too cryptic for me…can you simplify matters
Jaysus Pat
It was because he was zipping up his boots
and going back to his roots.
Looks like Rebecca stole it at the line to come first.
Least we did better than poor old Lazarus.
Happy Wednesday everybody
Bourkey
recorded 47 years ago in Dublin Sound it featured a host of friends nomads and countrymen….the engineer was Pat Morley…Donal Lunny produced…Barney McKenna featured as did Kevin Burke, Jimmy Faulkner, Michéal Ó Domhnaill, Declan McNelis, Robbie Brennan…… a grand time was had in the making…in a burst of creation and inspiration the record company called the album …..”Christy Moore” ( well done Rebecca)
It was my last album on Polydor who subsequently dropped me… whereupon I was welcomed back to the Tara Label….I think all the albums from that period have found their way to Universal where they have been re-mastered and made ready for another generation of listeners
The Kerry vote for the competition goes to King Puck, of course ! Sure what else could you be descended from not ? if not a wild goat roaming the MacGillycuddy Reeks, only coming to town once a year for a 3 day party, crowned and hoisted on a throne. AND it’s well recognised that you are the G.O.A.T. ( I had to ask and was pleased with the freagra !! ) I will give you my address for the prize later. H
I hear talk that they are thinking of resting the goats for the next few years ….members of The Upper House will be alternated, hoisted and crowned …wherepon they can gaze fondly down upon their constituents ,local dignateries, all Ireland medallists, foreign visitors and tourists , Rev Fathers, Brothers and Sisters……one member at a time happily corralled up there in that awesome 6×3 paddock chomping on turnips and shiting in the straw
Hello Christy,
I think the album in the quiz was called Christy Moore.
I’m ashamed to report that in the recent vote for the ceasefire in Gaza, the UK abstained. I hate our politicians. All front and no substance. What a load of cowards!
I’m disgusted that anyone could fail to vote against genocide.
Thinking about the posts about spending time, mainly in London I guess, as someone from another country. I had a couple of brief adventures down there in my youth. I felt like a foreigner, but not as much as you guys must have. Bravo to Tom on his work on the sheltered housing scheme. Bringing a bit of love and kindness to that merciless place.
Oh well, I might as well wrap up this cheery little post with Martin Leahy’s song
https://youtu.be/6UKEWtpVK6I?si=waLM-YDyOGrZdyzH
I’m a pretty cheerful person usually, sorry.
Rebecca
Rebecca wins the race by a shorthead,
second place was a dead heat between
Bourkey, Pat D, Dave from Suffragette City
(Dave entered by email and prob would have had to be disqualified had he won, lest rancour break out in stalls, were his entry accepted as legit, the next step would be people ringing in the middle of the night with late entries..feck that for a game of cowboys)
just prepping now for Tonight in Tullamore….always a hot spot for rambling balladeers…give them Their Dew , they know how to show a guy a good time over there in Offaly..
PS good version of Martin Leahy’s song… and he plays everything himself
We are on the morning flight to Birmingham. But before we go. Thank you to Pat for the link. And a special thanks once again to Christy. Those words about the moment Vishva and I embraced at Vicar Street will stay with us forever as will the whole night. We went to the Emigration Museum yesterday. Well worth a visit.
In England I was once responsible for developing a sheltered scheme for elderly Irish Men who never made it home. They worked all their life on building sites, living in bedsit. To be abandoned when they could no longer work. We tried to give them a warm safe home in their final years. Just Ordinary Men.
Take care all.
Tom and Vishva.
safe journey home to the River Avon
Good man Burkey…Kunte Kinte…..the black album…..
Note to Bourkey & Pat Darcy..
Only two in the running for this quiz but neither of you have yet named the title of the album that was once nick named Kunta Kinte
first past the post will gain the spoils
Melinda and I are so happy to have arrived from Arizona yesterday to see the concert tonight! All love from the States Mr. Moore!
Tullamore..here we come !
Your 1976 album was nick-named Knute-Kinta !
Note to Bourkey & Pat Darcy..
Only two in the running for this quiz but neither of you have yet named the title of the album that was once nick named Kunta Kinte
first past the post will gain the spoils
Was the 1976 album nick-named Kunte Kinta ?
Hey Bourkey !
this is a quiz
I need an answer..not a question !
Ach Rory, you bet me to it. Just listening to Shane, Thousands are sailing, after my chat with Tom, and I got to thinking about three generations of my family:
Three out of four members of my granny’s family crossed the Western Ocean, as young children, separately, looking for their father and a better life in the land of opportunity than what they had in the orphanage in Dundalk. They made it.
Three of the four in my daddy’s family took the emigrant boat to England in the hungry fifties looking for work, indeed my daddy joined them in the late sixties as our shoe industry collapsed. They made it.
From us six, I am the only one to go abroad, but by choice not economics.
And as I listen to Shane I wonder Christy, Like Rory., If you have Shane’s Thousands are sailing in your repertoire. (I know Planxty/Andy’s version is different)
And I wonder how many of the 75 million Irish abroad (yourself amongst us) did/do as Shane sang
‘When I got back to my empty room I suppose I must have cried…’?
I remember crying in exile… but it was always the drink that brought it on….a feed of drink bringin on lonesome feelings…I’d end up singin “O My Papa” in some jax mirror
most of the time I loved my years in exile….Yates Wine Lodge, Dwall Flunking in Beverly, Skittles in Peebles, Anwar’s in Grafton Way, Elland Road, Easter Road, Snooker with Aly Bain and Owen Hand in Auld Reekie, buyin a 3.2 Jaguar off Dave Brady in Bradford for £300 on the drip,The Scotia in Glasgow, The Rugby in Hull, The Pack Horse in Birtle, black pudding in Bury, t’Upper George in Halifax,The Bridge in Newcastle, The Grove in Leeds, White Hart in Fulham Broadway,
we had a reet good do
Hi Christy,
I have a fascination, it seems, with Blackbirds.
Not only does one, as we well know, accompany you in Folk Tale, but there he is in St Kevin and the Blackbird, and the very same fella is singing away in Philip Chevron’s ‘Thousands Are Sailing’………as i danced up and down the street.
I wondered if you have ever tried to sing Philip’s gem, sung with such passion by Shane, perhaps in a shed somewhere with a wee untuned guitar or in the bath (without guitar) .
On the subject of Shane, i still find it strangely hard to think of him dead. I am no sentimentalist, but i keep listening to his songs and cannot quite think of him unable to charm me again ‘in person’ , it is a strange thing as i do not think i have felt this way about the death of a musician or entertainer in this way before.
rory
never heard it that way..gotta listen again..I still sing Philip’s “Ballad of The Faithfull Departed ” here in the work room..great song from a beautiful man
And hi again Tom!
Roots……Kunte Kinte eat your heart out!
Tom, a link to the Irish census online…..the 1901 census lists 6 Murtha families in Co. Louth!
https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/
my last competition here never passed muster
another one
what album of mine was nick-named Kunte Kinta
first up best dressed ….the judges decision will be final
Hi Again.
Thanks Pat for the information on Jim. My great great grandfather and grandmother came from Dundalk. So there might be a link there. As Christy said earlier, names were often changed slightly by immigration officers. But I think the Murthas have been around for some time. I will keep tracing them. Thanks for the good wishes. I don’t need to tell all how there how special nights with Christy have become. I hope there will be many more.
Take care all.
Tom and Vishva.
I have a lovely picture in my mind from Monday Night in Vicar Street…the entire audience celebrated your presence… when you and Vishva embraced it felt as if we were all together in that magic moment
Congrats Tom & Vishva on the 50th. I knew a Jim Múrtha, born in Troy NY, moved to Burbank to work for Disney. He was a great fan of Dundalk FC . Sadly Jim passed away in 2016, but he has left a few Murthas behind. He is survived by 4 girls, Nicole Murtha-Chamberlin of Minnesota, Allsun Murtha-West of Dallas, Ashleigh and Diane Murtha of Burbank, and his one grandson Clayton. . Donno if that helps Tom for your roots …good luck.
Pat… a real roots man for sure
Damn! B major. I don’t sing a single song in that exotic key, and the harp refuses to play an A sharp. A minor, different kettle of fish..
I’ve always felt in very safe hands when David Meade does your sound. Very proud and happy to have the listeners ears looked after by such an accomplished man.
I’m thinking looking after your monitors could be a demanding experience. Well done to the brave man that looks after your ears during a gig.
his name is Dickon…he has been on my crew for over 30 years….my monitors sing sweetly
Christy, yet another special night in Vicar street last night. Like the big man on the ground floor, haven’t missed a performance in years and like a fine wine each year tops the last. Great tribute to Shane and loved the new song on social media no names. Happy Christmas Christy and no doubt we’ll see you somewhere in 2024. Best wishes. Frank
“Snowflakes” was written my Martin Leahy…he kindly permitted me to make slight alterations to his lyric and melody….last night was the first time I played it softly and accapella, and at the very end of the gig..
Martin sings his song “Everyone should have a Home” outside Dáil Éireann every Thursday between 1 and 2….
support him if you can..hear him on YouTube
……………..VOTE NO.1…. Martin Leahy.. ( on your ballad paper)
Shane, rest him, did not leave quietly….they waked him,carried him,praised him, sang for him and eulogised him to the highest degree…the good man deserved every moment of it all…we’ll never forget him….twas great to see his old Pogues Companeros up there together on the high altar of Tipperary….he’d have loved that…
Hello Christy,
Back story to Vicar Street? I’m intrigued. You know me, I love a good story.
In January I’m hoping we’ll venture north of the Liffey and explore around the Cobblestone and up to Arbour Hill. It takes a long time to discover new places, so many pubs on the way. And once we find a nice one we tend to stay put.
I agree with Anne. There’s nothing like basing yourself within walking distance of a venue. And the area round Vicar Street at that…
My very best wishes to all those who will be experiencing Vicar Street for the first time.
Interesting question about what venues are like to play in. As soon as you’ve added a PA, you’ve made it into something different, haven’t you. There’s a job to be done and that’s the best way to do it. But to sing or play in a space completely acoustic, that’s a different feeling. Some are warm and welcoming, others are dead as a dodo, I’m thinking of the Royal Festval Hall. Played there once, it was like singing into a sock. Maybe it’s better now.
And the listeners change everything too. I guess that’s a whole new subject.
Sorry for the rambling, I’m in bed with a bad back. It gives you time to womble along.
Rebecca
playing through a PA system as against playing without a PA system …two entirely different experiences…neither one better than the other…I like to embrace both…I seldom gig without these past 50 years but prior to that…in the hundreds of great Folk clubs we experienced, PA systems were the ruin of manys the good night…problem was, no one knew the first thing about how to use them, how to set them up….we would forewarn each other when comparing notes…. “the mic in the Stags Head in Clacton is a dangerous weapon”…. “beware of the PA in the Kings Head in Walton Under Lyme” it howls endlessly and the organiser is afraid to switch it off”
returning to Ireland in 1972 we formed Planxty and gradually began to understand the benefits of good systems….
these times I work with the very best technicians…great care and preparation goes into every gig….last night in Vicar Street I heard a spider fart during a quiet song.. it had the decency to fart in A minor but drifted into B major towards the finale