Damo plays after racing in Leopardstown tomorrow. 15 euro admission for some average flat racing and some quality music.
I see he is playing two gigs in the Donaghmede in next week. Might venture to one
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In case youāre not aware, Donaghmede Inn = Cellar Bar of āNo star ever played the Cellar Barā fame.
Informative
Deadly.
Informative
Glass and bottle fights
We saw some crazy nights
But then fights do excite youā¦
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7:20pm ish, The Maples, Iona Road.
Molly Malone breaks out. Followed immediately by The Green and Red Of Mayo. Followed immediately by Spraypaint Backalley.
Sing.
Damo live on RTĆ Radio 1 with Miriam now. Heās only after going and forming a supergroup with Declan OāRourke and John Sheahan to play original and Dubliners material.
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Surely to god Damo will have a new album out in the not too distant future. It has been nearly 4 years since Almighty Love came out in 2012
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Disappointing cheap shot there against Taoiseach Kenny at 2.20
Outstanding
He is going to release a best of album in February which will contain some of a couple of new songs
Iāll be attending his show at the Roisin Dubh on March 17th.
Mammy sings wonderfullyā¦
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Unreal, unbelievable.
Letter from Damo
Dia guibh a chairde,greetings my friends.
Damo here saying hello from the wild west of Ireland,majestic and ancient Connemara to be precise.
Im over here visiting a school in the beautiful Gaeltacht(irish speaking area),a stunning little village called Carraroe.
Connemara(West Galway),West Kerry and parts of Donegal are the 3 main Irish speaking parts of Ireland(although thereās pockets in Cork and Waterford and Meath and Belfast city that are Irish speaking).
My visit was part of a competition for the charity i work with,Preda,and international freedom day.Myself and the head of Preda Galway,the great Phillip Cribbin,had the idea to have a song contest for schools around Ireland and the best song would get a visit from myself(not much of a first prize ha but it encouraged kids around the land to write songs and think about what other kids around the world are going through).
A wonderful young singer here in Carraroe,Roisin Seoige,won the competition with her amazing song āFreedom Songā about the plight of street children in the Phillipines.Father Shay Cullen(a true christian) and his organization Preda save these children from brothels and prison and slavery(the trip i made out to Shay to see the work that him and Preda are doing is up on youtube).Iāve played in a few jails over the years like Mountjoy and Portlaoise and Trinity House and jails in Manilla but they still scare the bejaysus out of me.
The new album Soulsun is not far off being finished. Weāre looking for someone to release it now. Its terrifying wondering how it will be received,but only one sure way too find out i suppose.Iāve written a couple of songs to do with the centenary of the 1916 Rising in Ireland,and John reckoned we should release them in March to give the people something while they wait on the album.Weāre hopefully going to have finished CD at Vicar street on Easter Sunday. It will be on sale at the gigs and on the website too. And we have a live DVD from the Sheperds Bush Empire last Saint Patricks day coming out as well. Was a great night.
The CD is called āNo Force on Earthā.Its a fairly raw affair of a few songs,old standards that i sing about the Rising and a few self penned songs.We tried some production on the songs but John turned around one day and said ājust play and sing them into the mic like you would at a singsong in a house or in a pubā.I wanted to highlight the diversity of the people who fought in 1916 in Ireland.The women from all walks of life and Irish Travellers and English Aristocracy and people from beyond Ireland.So i sang āBanna Strandā,a song i learned off my brother about the rebel Sir Roger Casement trying to land rifles in Kerry for Irelands struggle for freedom.
āJames Connollyā(a scot) i learned from the singing of the late great Dublin singer Liam Weldon that iāve been singing at some of the Water Protests.
āThe Kings Shillingā i got off Fiacre Gaffney my tour manager,its about the poor men from Britain and her colonys who went off to fight and kill and be slaughtered in Britains wars because they needed the money(it relates to the 1916 Rising as there was many Irish fighting in the trenches during it,who were promised home rule or even a united Ireland for their efforts).
āThe Islandā by Ewan McColl about the conquest of Ireland over the centuries and the indomitable spirit of its people who never stopped struggling for their civil rights(i took Christys Moores spiritual version and slowed it right down because i couldnāt match his tribal rhythm).
āThe Death of Cuchulainā,a Yeats poem that i put music to(theres a video we done for it up on youtube) about 1916 where he compares the people who fought to the ancient mythical warriors of old Ireland.
And then theres 3 originals. One I wrote with Black Bank Folk about my great aunt Jenny(or Jinny as she was known) Shanahan. My pals John Colbert and Jimmy Sheeran done a whole album about 1916(Johns great uncle Con Colbert was executed for his part in it) and asked me would i write a piece over some chords they gave me,they needed a song about the 200 or so women that fought but they didnāt tel me this so it just happened organically.I had just found out about Jinny and felt she deserved a song.Jinny and her comrade Rosie Hackett(who has just had a bridge across the River Liffey named after her) met and worked together in Jacobs factory before going on strike during the 1913 lock out in Dublin.They were members of the Irish Womens Workers Union and then joined the Irish Citizen Army,Jinny running the womenās section( according to Helena Molony).Jinny then fought in the 1916 Rising in City Hall in Dublin under Sean Connolly(she gave the shot and dying Connolly the act of contrition in his ear).She held off the attacking British army when she met them advancing up the stairs and they took her to be a civilian who had been taken hostage by the rebels(the British army couldnāt believe till afterwards that women were fighting),she told the army there was hundreds of rebels on the roof(there was only around ten men and nine women),the Army retreated and advanced more cautiously later on,if not for her quick thinking and spoofing the rebels may well have been slaughtered.The British held onto Jennie and when the rebels were captured she was brought to where they were being held to identify them.Of course when she was brought into them, the rebels,all fearing Jennie was dead, all cheered with joy and greeted her,next thing she knew she was imprisoned with them.I can see Jennie in my minds eye trying to tell the rebels with her eyes that the British thought she was a civilian,oh dear.She was imprisoned in Ship street barracks in squalid conditions,Richmond Barracks and Kilmainham jail and participated in the War of Independence and ran a hospital in Cullenswood house(Pearseās Saint Endas) for anti treaty casualties during the Civil War.I remember ny grannie Shanahans stories of delivering messages to the rebels as a young girl(she was born in 1912) and her and her brothers and sisters being made to lie on top of guns in the bed if the british army or the tans where near.Jinny came from a tenement house in Mercer Street in Dublin with 55 people living on top of each other in a house built for one family with one cold water tap and toilet bowl in the backyard for all to share,and was one of four survivors of the nine children her parents had,the 3rd world tenements of the time stealing away little lives left right and centre.She was buried in Glasnevin cemetery with the rest of our Fenian dead and the oration around her graveside was given by her fellow warrior and comrade of 1916 Helena Molony.Her coffin was draped in the starry plough,the flag of the Irish Citizen Army.The song is also about all the forgotten warrior women who fought in the Rising.
I only by chance found out about Jinny last year when i was researching my great uncle Ned Bridgeman.He fought with the Irish Volunteers in the Four Courts in 1916.And my pal the actor and writer John Connors and myself were chatting one day and realized that his two ancestors were in the same battalion as Ned,Company C,Dublin Brigade.I was researching this and found that both Ned and Johns great uncle George Ward were both sent to Frongoch internment camp in Wales after the battle of the four courts in 1916,Frongoch was where the war of independence was planned.So they must have known each other.While researching it my Father said to look up Jinny Shanahan and thats how the song came about.John then told me about his Great Grandfather Paddy Ward,an Irish Traveller who fought in 1916 and the war of independence and the civil war and was then murdered by a landlord near Athlone who was given a paltry sentence of 6 months,if it had of been the other way around it would have been a hanging offence.I felt he deserved a song.
And the last song i wrote for the recording is about the Wave Hill Walk Off in the Northern Territory in Australia.This year is the 50th anniversary of the walk off and the start of the aboriginal land rights movement in Australia.I thought iād add this one for some solidarity with other struggles around the world and because we share a common year of rememberance.The wonderful Tim Edey dropped by and learned a few songs and accompanied me on a few of them to add some colour but we kept them very sparse which i like doing now and again,like the twang man and factories and not on your own and kilburn stroll etc
Must say i was fierce proud of the Irish people last year,voting for equality in the same sex marriage referendum,and standing up to the fat cats with the Irish water protests.One of the strongest memories i have of singing at the protests was a group of Black ladies from Detroit who came all the way over in solidarity and told us not to let them privatize the water,the horror stories they had from Detroit were sobering.My position on it would be somewhere near Michael Fitzmauriceās, the turf cutting T.D.'s thinking on it,that water meters can be good because they identify leaks,but only charge people for the water if their using crazy amounts,we are already paying for water in our tax,theyād charge us 3 times for it if they could.But i think the reason the whole country came out in force to protest was that it was the last straw for people,and scandal after scandal and betrayal after betrayal came to a head,the arrogance and greed and Iām alright jack attitude of those in power was infuriating.We showed that when united we can make a difference.60 percent of people have refused to pay their Irish Water bills,and they cant bring us all to court,a peaceful rebellion.
I toured New Zealand a while ago,amazing place and people,had a few jogs through the centre of christchurch,very haunted erie place after the earthquake,alot of the buildings condemned and empty,i ran alone in the middle of an empty city,was apocalyptic.Another night there i went for a walk because i couldnāt sleep,walked into a rough looking neighborhood,noticed the liquor store and a gun store.Linwood it was called,turned a corner and walked into a big gang of mountainous men drinking on the street,all Maori,they all stopped talking and looked at this ghostly white man coming towards them in their neighborhood,was glad of my brown trousers that night,my instinct was to cross the street or turn around but had to keep walking and look as though i was just nipping out for the paper,as i got to them i said Kia Ora men(the Maori greeting) and they all smiled thanks be to jaysus and said Kia Ora(thanks Anand Rose who taught me the phrase in Wellington).
Theres an island off aukland called Waiheke island,incredible place.I looked back through the huge window of the bar from Waiheke island, back at New Zealand or Aotearoa(land of the long white cloud),and saw a strip of low cloud running horizontally along the land like a bonny tyler video,and the Maori name Aotearoa made perfect beautiful sense.Anand Rose the irish musician living in new zealand had organized a Maori welcome for me there.We went to some sacred ground and were given the nose rub(hongi) by two big burly Maori,Paora Te Oti Takarangi Joseph and Paora Toi Te Rangiuaia Deery,try saying them two names fast with a skinful of beers on you.The nose rub or Hongi is a very intimate welcome that many irishmen would find terrifying but you know that its pre christian and organized religion and very spiritual,you breath in the spirit of the person you meet,a cold selfish person would have to do a lot of acting greeting people this way and would shudder doing it.During the maori welcome i was sitting on a log as Paora talked and sang to the ancestors,suddenly this rainbow colored pretty bird flew over the ceremony,stopped and hovered for a few seconds looking down on us,skwalked something like it was talking directly to Paora and flew off,Paora nodding his aknowlegdement.The cynic in me said quietly to myself that it was a drone in a bird suit dusted off for awe struck visitors but of course it was the real deal.I saw how they revered their ancestors and a lot of folks back home couldnāt give two dams about their own,they revered ancestors,animals,elders,nature and the land.All the stuff most of us donāt give a damn about in modern western society.Their carvings and art were incredible,mind-blowing,and man do they love to sing,heaven.
It made me look into my own ancestry and i found out all sorts,Brian Boru and Niall the great and Rockett the Pirate and Jinny Shanahan and coffin ships to Quebec and teamsters unions in Boston and Dublin tenements and country evictions and industrial schools and one lot even had money for a generation! but lost it,doh!
People keep asking me about my unplanned wash in the Slaney river in Enniscorthy.In the words of comicbook guy,best publicity stunt,EVER! As you may know iām a spiritual man and believe in and have seen things i cant explain in the domesticated sated modern world,i saw myself dragging someone from water two days before it happened,the day before it happened i was discussing with my mate about what to do and what not to do when someone is drowning,so then when we drove across that bridge over the river Slaney and saw two drunken young men jumping off the bridge and starting to drown i was ready,i looked around the bus for something to throw to them,found a quilt under the bass drum but couldnāt get it out from under it,then saw a sheet and grabbed it and jumped off the bus and took off the boots so they didnāt fill with water and hopped down off the bank,rolled the sheet up so it was rope like, and swam out to the lad that was in the most trouble.He had a relaxed dreamy look on his face,he had just come up for the 3rd time after slipping under the surface(Iāve since heard that the dreamy look is the look people have when their after swallowing a lot of water before they drown) i threw the sheet and he just about got a hold of it thank god.Towing him back to where i could stand was difficult,he was a dead weight and i didnāt see this but he was clawing his way up the sheet,the grip of a drowning person is like a vicegrips,just as i got to where i could stand he got a hold of my arm and his grip was like death,i got a fright because if he had of grabbed me out in the deeper water he may have pulled us both down,i can nearly taste that peaty slaney water going down my throat and burning into my lungs as the panic takes over and you try break the grip.So its very dangerous what i done even for a strong swimmer like myself so be very careful my friends and always throw something to a drowning person from land rather than go into the water if you donāt know what your doing because most people who try to save someone from drowning drown themselves as was they case with that little warrior Ricky Osagie in the lake just two months before.Theres people saving lives day in day out who donāt get nearly enough credit,i got far too much,huge respect to them.
I recently moved house my friends.Ive been looking for somewhere for a long time now that i can play music late at night in.Iām a bit of a vampire,up all night.I like the fact that everyones dreaming,and loe the peace of the streets in the dead of night,well,every night except fridays and saturdays.I couldnt find anywhere to rent that i could play music in that was affordable and not isolated from family and community because i like being around them when Iām not touring,even though Iām trying to write when i get home so Iām not even around that much then,but i found a place now finally where i can play and sing all night to my hearts content.And howl.
Lets see,any more news? other bits and pieces Iāve been doing? i acted in a movie written by John Connors called Cardboard Gangsters about the reality of what happens to many young men who think that thug life is glamorous,i sang in Moore street in Dublin at the OccupyMooreStreet protest to protect the buildings that the 1916 leaders made their last stand in(the developers were circling),Iām a patron of Coolmine drug rehab centre so Iāve sang out there a few times for the men and women,many of them would have seen their parents die from addiction,Iāve sang a song on Seamus Begleys stunning album 'the bold kerryman,Iāve sang on Lethal Dialects amazing album 1988,i wrote a poem for Morrissey called āordinary poem by an ordinary man for the poet morrisseyā when i heard of his cancer scare,Iāve gotten a nose job,i was hoping to wake up with a Al Pacino but it turned out looking more like a Danny DeVito,oh dear,no the problem was internal,my septum was badly deviated from pucks in the head for many years around Donaghmede,now i can breath through my nose again and smell,iāll never wear old spice again.A big thank you to all of you who made the gigs around the world so special,i always say the audience make the gig,so youz are legends! keep your faith in the good and the great my friends and until we sing all our cares away together again,i wish you Almighty Love in everything you do, slan slan go foill(bye bye for now), Damo X
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They used Negative vibes during the traveller documentary on RTE last night, havenāt listened to Damo in a while,
Bought myself a little Christmas present yesterday. Bought two tickets to Damo in Vicar Street on the 22nd.
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Tonightās gig is live on Facebook now.
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