CLANNAD PLAY THEIR LAST TOUR
A final tour and anthology box set – In A Lifetime – will mark their 50-year career.
Clannad will undertake their farewell tour in 2020, to be accompanied by the release of an 80-track anthology, with both projects named In A Lifetime. The band’s Pól Brennan confirmed to Prog that they’re preparing to record a handful of new tracks to be added to the box set.
Unsurprisingly, the death of Padraig Duggan in 2016 contributed to their decision to call it quits after 50 years. “We were thinking about it on the last tour,” Brennan said. “The passing of Padraig knocked us all back and we started having that discussion, that perhaps the last tour was the last tour. Towards the end of it, we sat down and we said, ‘Let’s do this; let’s go out on a high, let’s call it in.’”
With five decades of material to consider, the anthology contents have not yet been finalised ahead of its release on March 13 via BMG. “It was a very interesting object exercise to go back to the beginning, the first album, all the way up to [2013’s] Nadur. I’d never listened to the albums in order before!”
The new tracks will feature “somebody very interesting” and Clannad are also working on some “surprises” for the farewell shows, which are likely to be delivered without support acts due to the intended length of performances.
Afterwards the members will continue with their own projects; and, says Brennan, the chance of further Clannad work is not impossible. “But more touring? No,” he insists.
Find out more at www.clannad.ie.