Went to see the Dubs at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin (the venue featured on the DVD). It was a bit of a nightmare trying to decide whther to go when the guest was Ronnie Drew, or when it was Shane MacGowan. In the end it had to be Ronnie - I’ll see Shane at the Pogues gig in Brixton in December anyway.
The audience was very young, much to my surprise. 18 - 30s were everywhere - and they all knew all the words!
John Sheahan is a splendid whistler. Such a shame he’s only got one pair of hands and can’t fiddle and whistle at the same time. Hard to see what he was playing from my vantage point in the balcony, but it looked and sounded Overtonish.
Those old guys are just so cool. Especially Barney McKenna. When he did his tenor banjo solos the shouts of “C’mon Barney!” were deafening.
Wise choice, I read the review in the Irish Times last saturday, it said McGowan never turned up
I think the last time I saw them was in 1979 in the Olympia in Dublin.
They did a tv show recently (with of all people Phil Coulter). They told a story of how they were playing in France at some point and were staying in the same hotel as Stephane Grapelli. Sheehan is a great admirer of Grapelli’s music. Anyway, Grapelli turned up at their gig. Next day they were in the hotel pool for a swim and got talking to Grapelli. Sheehan, quite anxious, asked how he liked the gig. ‘Ah Monsieur Sheehan, you are a great player of the tinwhistle’ Grapelli replied.
I think you can hear that slight jazzy edge in JS’s fiddle playing sometimes - especially when he plays some of his own waltzes etc. I’m not surprised he’s a Grapelli fan.
Shame about Shane not turning up. I hadn’t heard that. I hope he gets his s**t together before the Brixton gig.
Poor Jim McCann sounds really rough. He could barely speak, let alone sing (so he didn’t even try). He did go on to play guitar in the encore, but I really felt sorry for him. He always seemed to me to be the chap who didn’t really fit in the Dubs. Seems like a nice bloke, just a bit more of a solo-performer vibe about him… And heavy chorus on an acoustic guitar at an Irish folk gig is just so not appropriate (see the DVD).
Loudest non performance-related cheer of the evening was probably when Ronnie referred to the death of Queen Victoria.
This was the first time I’d spent any time in Dublin (as opposed to driving through it on the way from the port down to the south west of the country). It was interesting to see all the statues, and the post office where the Easter Rising guys holed up. Ireland certainly knows how to celebrate her heroes.
