Simon says RDS

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CONCERT promoter Peter Aiken was at the RDS yesterday to announce Paul Simon’s return to Ireland.

The singer will play Dublin on Friday, July 13, as part of his Farewell Tour with support from James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt.

And Aiken admitted the gig was particularly poignant for his family after his dad Jim set up Aiken Promotions in 1966.

He said: “The first major concert we ever did was with Paul Simon in the RDS in 1982. It was the first time the aul fella thought he could make a business out of it.

“So to be returning here to play the RDS again, which will be his second last date, it’s bitter-sweet.”

Simon last performed in Dublin in November 2016 at the 3Arena as part of his Stranger To

Stranger tour, where he played best-loved hits such as Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard, Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes and You Can Call Me Al, as well as Simon & Garfunkel classics The Boxer, America and The Sound Of Silence.

Over the course of his career, he has played in Ireland numerous times, also putting on shows in The Marquee, Cork, and Nolan Park, Kilkenny.

Announcing the concert yesterday, Aiken also said: “Dublin can be a difficult city to do business in.”

And he admitted it had taken him a long time to get over the Garth Brooks fiasco which saw the US singer cancelling his five Croke Park gigs when Dublin City Council would only grant event licences for three of the dates. Aiken said: “The Garth Brooks thing was extremely stressful and very embarrassing for me and my family. It’s not an easy thing to go through.

“If you heard a promoter in New Zealand had five outdoors with Brooks and they were cancelled you’d think, ‘What an eejit’.

“It took a lot to get over that. Hopefully things will change eventually and these things will be appreciated more.” Meanwhile, the concert boss was keeping tight-lipped on whether he is applying for permission to hold a fourth gig at Croke Park this summer.

But he did quash rumours he has booked the Rolling Stones for the slot, saying: “I don’t know where that came from.”