Sidewinder was seen as a Dunboyne band, although only one of the band actually lived there. We did, however, rehearse in a shed beside his house, out the country a bit from the village. That was how I came to know Dunboyne, and a little seed was planted in my mind that eventually saw me come to settle there and live happily ever after. It’s a very special place to me, and I even wrote a song about it for a fundraising campaign to build a Community Centre in the 1980s.
While my main involvement in music had finished before I came to live in Dunboyne in the early 1980s, I was still enticed on stage from time to time to stand in on keyboards at local gigs with Dunboyne troubadours such as Mick McAuley, Sean Henry, Joe Murray and Jimmy Maguire. Many of those gigs were in the upstairs lounge in Fingal House, still known as Kelly’s to many of us although the name Mulvany’s has been above the door for nearly 30 years – I hope Dolores and Brendan Mulvany can forgive me that!
Since I made my return to the music scene a year ago, I’ve been very keen to do a hometown gig and, while I have a lot of time for the Slevins, O’Dwyers and Nealons who own the other three pubs, there was only ever one venue that was going to be the right one for me – I’m going back to the scene of so many happy memories from my musical past, and bringing a full band to Fingal House (or Mulvany’s, as I’m going to try to remenber to call it) on Saturday 29 July.
I’ll be doing a mixture of originals from my albums, and some new stuff, along with a whole host of classic covers from the 50s, 60s and 70s. I’ll leave Ed Sheeran songs to the young musicians, but I’ll be giving you Gene Vincent, the Everly Brothers, Sam Cooke, Little Feat, Chuck Berry, Neil Young, Tom Waits and the Beatles.
My band incorporates the brilliant ELKIN, a superb band in their own right, and they’ll perform some of their own songs. I also have a couple of very special guests lined up.
This is going to be a really good night and, just like in the old days, there’s no cover charge – everyone is welcome to come and enjoy a night of quality music, absolutely free of charge. Drop down around 9.30 if you want to be sure of a seat!