A mate in Melbourne reckons Christy Moore, Irish folk singer extraordinaire for the past 40 years, doesn't do gigs outside Ireland any more. He was wrong. Christy played London over Easter and, by merest fluke, I saw the gigs advertised in time to snaffle one of the last FIVE tickets, scoring a lone seat in the front row of the balcony.
And Christy rocked! It was a funny sort of gig - it was at the Barbican, which is kind of like the Melbourne concert hall - a very wide, round theatre, lots of early 80s decor, and initially at least, polite applause but that's all. Very odd for a bloke who, at 61yrs of age, walks out looking like he's straight out of Trades Hall or off a picket line somewhere... It took about half an hour for both Christy, and the crowd, to fire up, but he scored 2 standing ovations at the end, and in the meantime played some of my favourite songs (he wrote such legendary pub songs as Lisdoonvarna and Delirium Tremens as well as some serious protest songs against nuclear armament, South African apartheid and pro peace in Northern Ireland), and got all of us to sing along for choruses, which was rather fabulous.
Definitely glad I didn't go to Penzance for the weekend now (although Penzance would almost have been cheaper!)
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