Review: Christy Moore & Declan Sinnott. Colston Hall Bristol 10/5/2015

I saw the great Christy Moore again on Sunday night. I went with my friends Jacquie, Pat, Smithy, Judy and Sian. Christy came on stage at the Colston Hall at 7.30. As usual he was accompanied on guitar by Declan Sinnott. To help out he also had Jimmy Higgins on percussion and Vicki Keating on backing vocals. I had never seen Vicki before so that was a nice addition. The show began with Jackson Browne's great song Before The Deluge  Christy is a great interpreter of other peoples songs as he proved with the next one which was Richard Thompson's beeswing. Jimmy Macarthy's Missing You followed and then the very moving On Morecambe Bay written by Kevin Littlewood. I think Smithy would have really enjoyed this one as it is part of his own repertoire. Christy started singing I'm A Bogman next but it all went wrong and he said to Declan "I'm making a balls of this one", much to the amusement of the audience. This changed into Motherland from his 2003 album Burning Times which was written by Natalie Merchant.

Then Christy paid tribute to the great Ewan McColl whose 100th anniversary is this year with three songs Go, Move, Shift,The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Companeros. Just what I needed after the election results. City Of Chicago and Shane McGowan's A Pair Of Brown Eyes were followed by a John Spillane song but I don't know how to spell it. (Hilary tells me it is called Gortatogort which is the place in West Cork where his mother came from). I did once read that John Spillane went to Africa and made a documentary with African musicians and wrote in his journal about the evils of the slave trade and I am sure that Christy is aware of the fact that the Colston Hall is named after Edward Colston who made his money from the slave trade. There was a big debate a few years ago about changing the name of the hall but it never happened. Then it was Delirium Tremens, Farmer Michael Hayes, Ride On and Viva Le Quinte Brigade. All great songs. I had to go to the toilet and I missed a song by Declan which was a shame and I might have missed one more as well, North And South Of The River was the first song when I got back in my seat followed by the beautiful ballad Black Is The Colour and the very moving Does This Train Stop On Merseyside. Declan played some great guitar during Smoke And Strong Whiskey. 

Christy then sang a request from somebody right near the front. I don't know what the song was called but it mentioned Hull and Halifax in the lyrics.( Hilary just told me it is The Dalesman's Litany, I should have known that because I have heard Christy sing it before. It is written by Dave Burland). Another request followed for Caitlin or is it Cathleen or Kathleen?, anyway it was very moving and called So Do I. The hilarious Honda 50  was followed by the classic Nancy Spain. A song from the Graffiti Tongue album Yellow Triangle was very sombre and powerful. They all left the stage but returned to sing Ordinary Man, another song with a powerful political message. A great show of two hours ended with Mandolin Mountain/ Water And The Well. 

Thank you very much Christy, Declan, Vicki and Jimmy for a great show and I'll see you again at Glastonbury in a few weeks time.