Cork honours pop icon Donovan
International music icon, Donovan who rose to fame in the 1960 with songs like ‘Catch The Wind’, ‘Colours’ and ‘Mellow Yellow’ will, together with his wife of 52 years, Linda Lawrence be presented with Honorary Corkperson awards at the annual Cork Person of the Year awards lunch on March 4. Both have long been residents of North Cork, and this award also serves to mark their long-standing presence in the county.
Locally, Donovan collaborated with Brian O’Reilly and Loudest Whisper in Brian’s musical, ‘The Children of Lir’ in 1973 and again in 1984.
Donovan Leitch rose to prominence on the international music scene in the mid-60’s with the hits mentioned above along with ‘Sunshine Superman’, ‘Universal Soldier’, ‘Hurdy Gurdy Man’ and many more.
At his induction into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 it was stated: “Donovan singlehandedly initiated the Psychedelic Revolution with Sunshine Superman”, an album which he created at the age of 19.
He was accorded the Ivor Novello Award for Songwriting for his first song ‘Catch the Wind’ and Broadcast Music Inc’s Icon Award, for his “unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers.” Donovan is considered a significant influence on The Beatles’ music. He is also credited with writing some of the first songs concerning climate change and a need for climate action. He and his wife, Linda, recently released an album entitled Eco-Song, which features 21 Songs about climate change, and is dedicated to the young climate activist, Greta Thunberg.
Very recently, inspired by young people’s climate marches, he wrote ‘Slow Down World’, an eco-themed opera for schools, which can be downloaded for free from his website.
Donovan’s work can also be found in many hit films and TV series such as ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘The Simpsons’. He has composed scores for films such as ‘Poor Cow’, ‘Brother Sun-Sister Moon’ and ‘The Pied Piper’.
HONORARY CORK PERSONS
Awards founder and organiser of the Cork awards over the last 29 years, Manus O’Callaghan, said, “We are delighted that Donovan and Linda will join our Honorary Corkpersons Roll of Honour recipients - David and Patsy Puttnam (2012), Jeremy Irons (2013), Michael Flatley (2014), Joe Schmidt (2019) and John Bowman (2020).”