Brian Kennedy and Liam O’Connor were a sell-out in Boherbue
A MEMORABLE NIGHT WITH LIAM O’CONNOR, BRIAN KENNEDY AND A HOST OF YOUNG LOCAL MUSICIANS
“IT was about bringing it all back home,” said Liam O’Connor as he chatted about his sell-out concert in Boherbue last week.
Liam, a native of Barnacurra, Newmarket, and a former pupil of Boherbue Comprehensive, said that it was great to get the local school involved for what was a big community event.
Ahead of the concert, Liam was in rehearsals with the Comprehensive School students for up to eight weeks and was vocal in his praise of music teacher Anne Marie O’Keeffe and Principal Vera Leader for their superb help throughout. He also paid tribute to Fr. Jim Kennelly for making The Church of the Immaculate Conception available as a venue.
Students from the Comprehensive played a blinder, performing music pieces as well as singing and dancing while singer Lisa Aherne, a native of Boherbue, got a rapturous welcome from the audience.
Meanwhile, it’s been a busy year so far for Liam and his band, as well as gigging all around the country they played on All Ireland Final day at Croke Park and were also on stage at Electric Picnic.
Liam’s special guest on the night, singer songwriter Brian Kennedy, went down a treat with the audience. Before the concert, Brian took time out to talk to The Corkman about his tough battle with colorectal cancer over the past three years. He has just recently got the ‘all clear’ after undergoing radical surgery and chemotherapy. “It’s very surreal, it’s nearly like when they first tell you that you have cancer, you can’t quite believe it. It’s been a three year journey to get the all clear, and it’s just as unbelievable.
“I said ‘ are you sure, are you really sure I’m clear?’. I did everything they told me to do and, thank God, it’s a good result,” Brian said.
He remarked that everything is deeper now in terms of his music. He wrote ‘A Better Man’ when he was in his 20s.
“All of a sudden I’m in my 50s, being a better man, and getting on with my life. All the songs that I wrote have a deeper meaning now to me,” he said.
Brian has a brand new album, entitled ‘ The Recovery’. “I started thinking of those songs when I was in hospital and when I was going through chemo I was writing them with my producer, Billy Farrell, then I recorded the vocals on days that I wasn’t totally exhausted,” he said. “For me, that was the way out, as long as I could actually get up a few days a week and do a bit of singing. I wore the little bottle of chemo into the port in my chest while on stage and continued to gig,” he added.
He got out of hospital on November 19 last year and within two weeks he did a concert. “I could barely stand up. I certainly couldn’t bend over to pick up my guitar, even, and I was learning to walk again. I didn’t survive the Falls Road to be taken down by this,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
“When I could get up on stage and hit those notes, I knew I was progressing, and at the time I was watching people die all around me, friends I had made while I was going through this; it’s very tricky,” he said.
His great friend Anita McGuigan, Barry McGuigan’s daughter, who used to live with him, has just recently passed away at the age of 33, and that hit him really hard.
Celebrating his return to full health, Brian has a full diary of dates to look forward to over the next few months with an appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York on December 9. Readers can pick up a copy of ‘ The Recovery’ at their local music store or download the album online.
Meanwhile, Liam and Brian plan to collaborate on a new recording which is set to be released before Christmas.