Not so grumpy anymore
I’m missing live music. I really am. I saw Sam Fender had a gig in Newcastle the other day. Socially distant. I’m sure those who attended enjoyed it. But I have to say it looked awful. I was at a great Irish festival last weekend. It was just brilliant. Who played? Well, David Keenan, Liam … Continue reading Goodbye Spotify. From now on I’m paying for ALL the music I want to hear.
I’m a big fan of U2. I’ve seen them quite a few times and, health permitting, I’ll go and see them again if I can. I don’t get the hatred thing. I don’t get the people who rush to Twitter to condemn the band for giving €10m towards the purchase of PPE equipment for medical … Continue reading The bands I like but are cool to hate. (And that includes U2!)
Okay. I’m kind of housebound. Not entirely. But I have to be careful with ‘flu and other stuff about. So I decided to list my five favourite singles ever. That became ten, then twenty. Now I have fifty. (I only allowed myself one song per artist) I doubt anyone will agree. But genuinely, the top … Continue reading The 50 best pop and rock singles ever…according to me.
We celebrate* our successful stars. And rightly so. We’re proud of Saoirse Ronan and Fiona Shaw and Cillian Murphy and Colin Farrell. There’s a long list of successful Irish actors. And writers – from Joyce and Beckett and Yeats through to Seamus Heaney and today’s high achievers like John Boyne and John Banville and others. … Continue reading So many great Irish Rock and Pop stars – but so many more who didn’t get that lucky break…
Anyone who knows me knows I’m sick. COPD. Advanced. Breathing is difficult. I know you know because I probably told you. I have a habit of it. “Hello Paddy, how are you?” “Sit down. I’ll tell you…” Friends have learned to say “hello” and leave it at that. I have three ways of dealing with … Continue reading How to beat illness: Positivity, music and relentless whingeing
How many of the Beatles are dead and how many are alive? Simple question. Well, no. It’s not. We know John Lennon is dead. He was shot by Mark Chapman outside the Dakota Building in Manhattan on December 8, 1980. And we know George Harrison is dead. George died on November 29, 2001 aged 58. So that’s … Continue reading Fab Four – or Super Seventeen?*
It’s fair to say that there are many people who see 1969 as one of the most important years in history. They will point to Richard Nixon being sworn in as the President of the United States, British troops arriving in the North, the Stonewall riots and, of course, the first moon landing. But there … Continue reading My Woodstock
