PERFECT 10
HERE’S OUR TOP TEN THINGS TO DO IN CORK THIS WEEK
SHARON SHANNON TO PLAY BALLYMALOE GIG
THE great Sharon Shannon will play a concert at the Ballymaloe Grainstore in Shanagarry on Saturday night accompanied by Alan O’Connor on keyboards, mandolin and guitar.
The button accordion player from Co Clare has recorded and toured with a ‘who’s who’ of the Irish and global music industry, including Bono, Jackson Browne, John Prine, Steve Earle, the RTE Concert Orchestra, The Chieftains, The Waterboys, Willie Nelson and Nigel Kennedy.
The genre-defying star has had multi-platinum album sales and several number one albums, singles and DVDs. Her album Galway Girl went four times platinum, with the title track winning her the Meteor award and for two years running was the most downloaded song in Ireland.
Tickets from www.eventbrite.ie priced at €28 (plus booking fee).
TRIBUTE TO ‘THE MAN IN BLACK’ AT THE OPERA HSE
THE unmistakeable sound and music of the late, great Johnny Cash will fill the auditorium of the Cork Opera House on Sunday night courtesy of America’s top rated tribute show.
Featuring Terry Lee Goffee and his band, ‘ The Man In Black’ takes audiences on a whirlwind journey through Cash’s from the 1950’s to his final recordings just before his death in 2003.
The set-list will incorporate a raft of timeless classics including ‘Ring of fire’, ‘I Walk the Line’, ‘Boy Named Sue’ and ‘Hurt’.
Goffee has received lavish praise from the Cash family, with both Joanne and Tommy Cash joining him on stage at his Nashville shows on several occasions. Indeed Tommy Cash has described the show as “great, my brother would be proud.”
Tickets for the show from the Opera house box office on 021 427 0022 priced at €28.50, €31 and €33.50.
SKA AND REGGAE VIBES WITH THE NAILDRIVERS
THE wonderfully named Pontius Pilate and the Naildrivers will bring their infectious brand of eclectic music to the Crane Lane Theatre for a free gig on Saturday night.
The Naildrivers have been playing together for more than a decade, energising audiences with their note perfect of covers from the seventies and eighties mixing covers by bands like The Specials, The Jam, The Beat, Madness and The Clash with their own original material.
While the music they play has been variously described as ska, reggae, punk and rock it is, in truth, a wonderful mix that takes the best bits from each genre to create a live sound that is guaranteed to get audiences up and dancing and set pulses racing.
THE FABULOUS FUREYS TO PLAY INEC CONCERT
TRAD legends The Fureys will bring their latest Irish tour to the stage of the Gleneagle Ballroom on Saturday evening for what promises to be a magical night of ‘craic, caint agus ceoil’.
An Irish musical institution in their own right, The Fureys are responsible for some of the most stirring and evocative Irish songs ever penned, with a catalogue of timeless classics that have captured the imaginations of music lovers worldwide.
In addition to performing songs from their extensive back catalogue such as ‘Sweet Sixteen’, ‘Steal Away’ and, of course, the anthemic ‘Green Fields of France’, the band will also sing songs from their most recent album ‘ The Times They Are A Changing’.
Their shows and not just musical events as the individual members regale audiences with tales of their more than four decades on the road.
Tickets from the INEC box office on 064 667 1555 priced from €27.90.
PERFECT NIGHT OF MUSIC WITH EDDI READER
POPULAR Scottish singer/songwriter Eddi Reader will make a welcome return to Cork tonight (Thursday)when she takes to the stage of the Everyman Palace theatre.
She first came to prominence in the 1980’s as lead singer with Fairground Attraction whose toe tapping single ‘Perfect’ topped the UK singles charts and became the anthem for a generation.
Reader, with her captivating and powerful performance, has effortlessly developed into one of popular music’s most thrilling and affecting performers, successfully fusing contemporary and traditional music.
What sets her apart is the depth and quality of the emotional performance and the ability not only to move the listener, but also to connect her experience to that of an audience.
Tickets from 021 450 1673 priced at €30.
ELECTRIC SOUNDS FROM JAPAN AT DE BARRA’S
JAPANESE garage rock band Electric Eel Shock (EES) will bring their unique celebration of classic rock, punk and metal to De Barra’s Folk Club in Clonakilty on Friday night.
Formed in Tokyo 1994 the band left Japan at the end of the millennium to conquer the rest of the world, touring countries across the globe ever since and picking up an ever increasing and loyal fan base along the way.
Described by Brent Hinds of the band Mastadon as “nothing short of awesome”, EES have gone on to headline festivals across Europe and the US.
The band has released nine studio albums, including their most recent LP ‘Sweet Generation’, their first collection of completely new tracks for seven years and a number of compilations and DVD’s.
Tickets for the gig from www.tickets.ie priced at €10.
‘GOD HAS NO COUNTRY’ TONIGHT AT THE INEC
THE INEC Acoustic Club in Killarney will host a one-off performance of Donal Courtney’s acclaimed play ‘God Has No Country’ this evening (Thursday) at 7.30pm.
The thought-provoking play is a dramatic retelling of the exploits of Kerry priest Hugh O’Flaherty and how he saved the lives of more than 6,500 people in Rome during the Second Word War.
The story follows O’Flaherty’s torment as he has to decide to act in defence of those suffering under the tyranny of the Fascists. The play also reflects on his upbringing and education in Killarney and how joining the priesthood protecting him from involvement in The War of Independence.
Told with humour and sensitivity, ‘God Has No Country’ brings the heroic deeds and achievements of this extraordinary man to a wider audience.
Tickets €10 from www.inec.ie.
FINAL CURTAIN CALL FOR 2019 FIT-UP FESTIVAL
THE final curtain will come down this week on the 2019 Blackwater Fit-Up Festival, which has been running plays at intimate venues across the north Cork region over the past numbers of weeks.
The final play of the 2019 festival will be Noni Stapleton’s award winning black comedy ‘Charolais’, a surreal tale of female jealousy with an unexpected twist - the ‘other woman’ is a cow, quite literally a pure bred Charolais heifer.
The play has received widespread critical acclaim with the Sunday Independent describing it as “superficially crude” but “full of wisdom and tenderness.”
It will run in the Meelin Community Hall tonight (Thursday) and the Kades County in Glenville on Friday before the final performance at the Town Hall in Mitchelstown on Saturday.
For ticket information visit www. fit-uptheatrefestival.com.
GREAT COMBO OF FOOD AND MUSIC IN COBH
THE Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh will kick-start its 2019 ‘Sirius Supper’ series of evenings combining the best in local cuisine with live music on Friday evening from 7.30pm.
Following supper supplied by foodies Comida, the Galway duo of Mossy Nolan and Colm McGowan (aka The Silken Same) will perform at the intimate venues.
The pair draw on musical influences that are both familiar and exotic to the ear, rooted in the traditional and the modern to produce a sound that artfully combines the bygone and the new.
Songs that on the face of it will seem instantly familiar, but that supplant the traditional with fresh melodic and conceptual ideas and will feature on their debut album due out early this year.
Tickets €20 from .www.siriusartscentre.
NIGHT OF TOP TRAD WITH DUO IN BALILE MHÚIRNE
THE talented folk duo of Zoë Conway (fiddle, vocals) and John McIntyre (guitar) will perform an eagerly anticipated concert on Friday night at the Ionad Cultúrtha, Baile Mhúirne.
With an exciting blend of eclectic fiddle and guitar music husband and wife Conway and McIntyre, who were described by the BBC as “simply one of the best folk duos on the planet”, bring to the stage sympathetic arrangements of traditional Irish music, compositions and songs - old and new.
The folk duo possess a rare facility to draw pieces into their repertoire from other genres such as classical, jazz and world music and express this material in way. This not only displays the sheer range and knowledge of both instrumentalists but also exhibits the wonderful versatility of their instruments.
Tickets from the venue on 026 45733.