Christy Moore: Royal Festival Hall 25/5/2019.

I had a wonderful weekend in London with my friends Jacky, Bill, Patrick, Wayne, Sarah and Laurie. The highlight was seeing Christy Moore at the Royal Festival Hall on Saturday night. This is what happened. We got down to the Southbank at about 5.00 and had a nice meal in a restaurant by the river. Then we chilled out with a bottle of wine and passed the time people watching. It was a nice warm sunny evening and hundreds of people strolled by, dressed in all their summer fashions. Sitting quietly in the bar of the Southbank Centre I spotted a familiar face who I last saw at Van Morrison’s Lit Up Inside concert in 2014. “I think that lady over there is Edna O’Brien”, I said to Jacky, but I wasn’t certain. Jacky looked on google images on her phone and we agreed that it was almost 95% certainly her. Sorry Edna if it wasn’t you.

Anyway, time was getting on and we took our seats. This was the third time in the last five years that we have seen Christy at the RFH. I think this was the best one of all, no hecklers or any of that carry-on at all. There was a very warm friendly vibe to the whole evening. As before, Christy took to the stage accompanied by Declan Sinnott, Cathal Hayden and Jimmy Higgins. The first song was the wonderful City Of Chicago which as you probably know was written by Christy’s brother Luka Bloom. This was followed by the powerful North And South Of The River which has become even more relevant recently due to the present political mayhem that is going on. Only Our Rivers Run Free was next and was written by Mickey McConnell fifty years ago I believe, and still timeless to this day. On Friday it was Bob Dylan’s 78th birthday which you will know because I wrote a tribute to Bob that you can read if you scroll down. Christy marked the occasion by singing the great emotive song The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll. I think May 24^th should be declared International Bob Dylan Day and all radio stations should play at least one Bob song an hour in order to educate the masses. Yellow Furze Woman was written by Christy for his mother Nancy Power. Some Christy songs have a very feminist vibe to them which you often don’t get with male singers.

Don’t Forget Your Shovel written by Christy Hennessy got the lively good-natured audience clapping and singing along. It was great. This was followed by the very moving song Burning Times. Christy didn’t write this song but as I said it is very feminist but also relevant to today because we are facing an environmental catastrophe because of what we have done to the planet. In the face of this, the politicians plan new wars and have leadership contests. Every time I have seen Christy down by the South Bank, he has felt obliged to sing the Ewan McColl song Sweet Thames Flow Softly and why not, because it is a beautiful song. Last week Christy took part in a concert in Dublin called Palfest as an alternative to the Eurovision Song Contest. It was streamed live on Gaza TV and Christy sang No Time For Love written by Jack Warshaw and I must mention Declan’s fabulous guitar playing during this song. Bright Blue Rose written by Jimmy McCarthy is always one of my favourite songs performed live. It is one of Christy’s most spiritual songs and the interpretation is entirely up to the listener. Cathal’s violin playing certainly deserves a mention as well.

I must admit that I had never heard of Rob Corcoran until Christy sang his song Ringing That Bell but I enjoyed hearing it on Saturday night and I’ll seek out more songs by Rob. I have discovered lots of great music through Christy because he always makes a point of giving credit to the songwriters when he performs their songs. For instance, I discovered the music of Mick Blake a couple of years ago thanks to Christy. I loved Sail on Jimmy although I hadn’t heard it live before, but I had found it on YouTube. The audience loved it as well and sang the chorus, encouraged by Christy. The Voyage was dedicated to young Molly & Patrick aged 13. What a beautiful song it is. I Hate Politicians or Lingua Politico or whatever it is called had the audience in stitches. It is a hilarious song, but underneath the humour as in many of Christy’s ‘funny’ songs there is a serious message.

Two songs written by Bobby Sands followed. The first one was McIllhatton and followed by Back Home In Derry. In the middle of the two songs Christy recited On The Mainland from his Graffiti Tongue album. Beeswing is arguably the best, saddest and most beautiful song that Richard Thompson ever wrote, and at first I didn’t like Christy’s version as much as Richard’s, but I have been won over. I like both versions equally these days. I have heard it said that the song was inspired by Anne Briggs and I think Christy heard Anne sing live back in the day. That must have been a treat. I wish I had seen her. Missing You always seems even more poignant than usual when you hear it in a big city like London and you see the homeless people living on the streets. Christy said that he sang Raggle Taggle Gypsies with Planxty in 1973 in a concert in London called Fanfare For Europe and told an amusing story about the Prime Minister Edward Heath meeting the musicians backstage. Viva La Quinta Brigada is a tribute to those who fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War, but it is very appropriate to today’s events in Europe and a warning against repeating the mistakes of the past. Black Is The Colour is a beautiful ballad song Christy learned from Hamish Imlach back in the 60’s and I never grow tired of hearing it.

Me down by the aul Southbank.

I always love hearing Lisdoonvarna as well, especially with Glastonbury only about four weeks away now. It’s a shame Christy isn’t gracing the Acoustic Stage this year, but never mind, there will be other times hopefully. Another reason I like this song is because of the references to Van the Man, especially when Christy says, ‘Turn It Up, Turn it up’ and goes into I’ll Tell Me Ma and then Decco lets rip with his electric guitar. The four amigos left the stage, but we knew there would be more. The first song of the encore was Ride On from the album that got me into Christy in the first place in 1984. The audience joined in and sang beautifully. After that, it was time for some fun with Joxer Goes To Stuttgart and the audience gave a huge cheer when Ray Houghton got the ball and stuck it in the net. Finally, Christy sang Spancil Hill for Valerie from Kilmainham. It was fabulous and brought a wonderful concert to a close. It’s not often I leave a concert having enjoyed every single song.

Next morning, I caught the 11.15 from Waterloo and headed home, back to the forlorn rags of Brexit and all that bollix. Thank you very much to all involved, especially the one and only Christy Moore.

 PS, If I have made any glaring errors, I hope Hilary or young Colm will put me right. Cheers.