We were very lucky on our Friday morning in Igualada as Pep had free time to take out in the car see some of the sights on the high ground beyond the town. He drove us first to La Tossa which had fantastic views in all directions. Towards Montserrat, the Pyrenees and down the Llobregat / Anoia river valley towards Barcelona. Continue reading “2023-03-24 – La Tossa, Castell de Miralles and the Xauxa gig”
Category: Music
A la vora de l’Ebre
On 15 July 2018 it was a great honour and pleasure to be invited by my friend Fani Fortet to play a concert in her home town of Olost in Catalonia. Fani invited the fabulous violinist Simone Lambregts to join us and we had an hour or so to rehearse in the afternoon. As a special challenge for our set of songs, I suggested we adapt the Dick Gaughan song “Both Sides the Tweed” with a Catalan chorus as I felt that the sentiment in the song of friendship across borders was relevant to the Catalan situation.
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With most of the “heavy wordsmith lifting” done by Simone, the three of us managed to create a Catalan chorus that worked with the melody and carried the sentiment. As a singer with very little knowledge of Catalan, it was quite daunting to attempt to sing this newborn chorus, but Simone did her best to write it out in a simplified form for me to give it my best shot. I think the result was quite a beautiful achievement.
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A la vora de l’Ebre / Both Sides the Tweed
What’s the Spring, breathing jasmine and rose?
What’s the Summer, with all its gay train?
Or the splendour of Autumn to those,
Who’ve bartered their freedom for gain?
Abraceu l’amor de la terra
i també l’amor de la gent.
Que dignitat i amistat s’uneixin
i a la vora de l’Ebre floreixin.
No sweetness the senses can cheer
That corruption and bribery bind
No brightness that gloom can e’er clear
For honour’s the sum of the mind
Abraceu l’amor de la terra
i també l’amor de la gent.
Que dignitat i amistat s’uneixin
i a la vora de l’Ebre floreixin.
Let virtue distinguish the brave
Place riches in lowest degree
Call him poorest, who can be a slave
Him richest, who dares to be free
Abraceu l’amor de la terra
i també l’amor de la gent.
Que dignitat i amistat s’uneixin
i a la vora de l’Ebre floreixin.
Let the love of our land’s sacred rights
To the love of our people succeed.
Let friendship and honour unite
And flourish on both sides the Tweed.
Abraceu l’amor de la terra
i també l’amor de la gent.
Que dignitat i amistat s’uneixin
i a la vora de l’Ebre floreixin.
Original lyrics by Dick Gaughan
Catalan chorus by Simone Lambregts, Fani Fortet and Gerry Mulvenna
Talk to the hands in my Joy Division Oven Gloves
In the wake of the Rage Against the Machine Christmas No. 1 campaign, copy-cat campaigns have been bobbing up and down destined never to achieve the same success.
I saw a bumper sticker the other day for the “Ultravox Vienna for No.1” campaign. When you delve a bit deeper on that one, you discover it’s just a self promoting campaign originating from Ultravox themselves on their comeback tour. I suppose just getting to No. 2 still rankles with them, but it’s not something that fires my imagination, in other words It Means Nothing To Me! As pointed out in Comment #1, I didn’t delve deep enough into the Vienna campaign and got the wrong end of the stick. http://ultravox.org.uk is the band’s official website, but it is run by fans not the band and the fans’ Vienna campaign pre-dated the RATM phenomenon by six months.
However the campaign to catapult Half Man Half Biscuit into the charts for the first time in the band’s long and admirable career gets my support because…
- It makes me laugh. In the spirit of band’s tongue-in-cheek lyrics, the campaign’s target chart position is No. 6.
- It’s one of my favourite HMHB songs: Joy Division Oven Gloves
- Behind the humour, there is a genuine reason for supporting the campaign, namely to raise awareness about the axe looming over the BBC 6 Music radio station, possibly the only radio station that consistently plays the music I want to hear.
Continue reading “Talk to the hands in my Joy Division Oven Gloves”
Sunday Spotlight: We Thought It Would Rain All Day
In my spotlight this week is a song about weather and intimacy. It’s a song where my soul gets bared a wee bit, so if you’re squeamish or lacking the voyeuristic tendency most of us have, you’d best look away now. It’s complex in its simplicity or maybe it’s simple in it’s complexity, but we thought it would rain all day.
Continue reading “Sunday Spotlight: We Thought It Would Rain All Day”
Sunday Spotlight: Everybody has their part to play
On Sundays I like to pick one of my songs and write a little bit of background about it. It feels like a month of Sundays since the last one – the Sunday Spotlight took a break over Christmas and New Year. It returns this week with a song I wrote in 2004: Everybody Has Their Part To Play.
Lyrics | Studio recording, 2005
Live recording, 2009
Continue reading “Sunday Spotlight: Everybody has their part to play”
Sunday Spotlight: Speak My Mind
This week the spotlight is one of the more introspective songs from my Edinburgh student days (like Don’t Fall Again). Back in 1986 I was living at 10 Brougham Place, Tollcross – I was a student of Computer Science & Electronics and shared a flat with two medical students and an arts student. This healthy cross-faculty mix was certainly a factor in the four of us getting on so well over those 2-3 years. But I was definitely the geek of the group and often struggled to keep up with some of the more philosophical discussions that took place.
Speak My Mind was my way of expressing the frustration I felt at not being able to adequately express myself. The theme of the Irish paradox, wounded land and magical paradise, comes from the discussions I had with “closest friend” Linda (the arts student). At the time she was adamant that she wouldn’t visit Ireland because of “the Troubles”. I was relieved when these views mellowed some years later and she was happy to come on holiday through Ulster and Connacht.
Sunday Spotlight: In The City (Nigel Coleman)
This is a slight departure on my usual Sunday Spotlight as, this week, I feature another songwriter’s song. In The City is the work of my good friend Nigel Coleman, a singer-songwriter from Co. Tipperary. From the moment I first heard this song, I loved the atmosphere and images it conjured up in my head. I tagged it on at the end of my recording time during the day I spent at Shay’s Studio in 2005 – a quickie cover to see what it might sound like. You can listen to this interpretation below alongside Nigel’s own recording which appeared on his Highway to the Sky EP in 2004.
Nigel and me at the Performing Arts Centre, UL (March 2009)
Continue reading “Sunday Spotlight: In The City (Nigel Coleman)”
Sunday Spotlight: Weapon of Mass Seduction
WMD are back in the news again, like a synthpop band (War-mongering Manoeuvres in the Dark?) from the Cold War days reforming for a comeback tour and a new album for the twenty-first century. Under the spotlight this week is a song that takes a lot of the language of the current Gulf War and reclaims it in the language of love. Like swords into ploughshares – killing words into loving words.
© Paul Feeney, used with permission
Continue reading “Sunday Spotlight: Weapon of Mass Seduction”
Sunday Spotlight: Don’t Fall Again
This week I point my spotlight on a rather private song I wrote in 1987. It was born out of the shock of hearing that my flatmate George had suffered quite a serious fall, smashing his elbow in the process.
In my second and third years as a student in Edinburgh, I shared a flat with the same 3 friends. Two years is like an eternity when you’re 19 and 20, so we became a really close-knit bunch. We shared our flats in Tollcross and Marchmont with a couple of canine flatmates: Acorn and Ember. So regular dog-walking trips to the Meadows, the Hermitage of Braid and Blackford Hill.
Sunday Spotlight: The Chicken Song
For my Sunday Spotlight this week, I’m going right back to my songwriting beginnings with a song that was born back in 1985 on a Friday night in Kelly’s Cellars, Belfast. It wouldn’t be accurate to claim it as one of my songs as it was a spontaneous collaboration – a blues number that sort of wrote itself between a bunch of 18-year olds out for a bit of a laugh with a few pints and a sing song. For me, it became a fun song to belt out when the mood was right and it has endured in my repertoire down through the years.
Download song Continue reading “Sunday Spotlight: The Chicken Song”
Sunday Spotlight: Blind Spot of Denial
In the spotlight this week is a song I wrote just over a year ago when I travelled to Edinburgh for a weekend with a group from my East Clare football club, Mixed Bag United. The football was over and I was enjoying the last evening of the weekend, touring a few of my favourite pubs with one of the other Mixed Bag players.
Lyrics | No studio recording for this one, but I’ve got this video shot in November 2008 as part of the “Hats Challenge”, which was just a bit of fun on YouTube involving hats and songs.
Continue reading “Sunday Spotlight: Blind Spot of Denial”
Sunday Spotlight: Napoleon’s Nose
In the spotlight this week is a song I wrote in my student days in 1987. Napoleon’s Nose was a deliberate attempt to add a “happy” song to my repertoire. Many people complained that I always seemed to be singing sad songs. Maybe learning Dick Gaughan’s A Different Kind of Love Song would have been a more appropriate response, as the sad songs are the best, aren’t they? But secretly I longed to sing the odd happy love song and I also thought it would be nice to have a happy song that was a celebration of my home town, Belfast, in some way. And so, Napoleon’s Nose was born.
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Sunday Spotlight: Smokey Stoor of Scariff
This is the first in a series of articles taking a look at songs I have written down through the years. So have a listen to the song and I’ll write a bit about the background and the inspiration for writing it.
First up is Smokey Stoor of Scariff, a song I wrote in 2002 shortly after I arrived in East Clare, about Scariff’s chipboard factory. Like many people coming to live in and around Scariff the Finsa factory came as a bit of shock. If the wind is blowing in your direction the sight and smell of the fumes is unmissable. Like most “blow-ins” to the area, my hippy tendencies were outraged by what seemed like obvious pollution and health concerns. However when you talk to the local population, the majority see the factory as the huge employer it is in the town and one that has helped their families through grim times, past and present. Continue reading “Sunday Spotlight: Smokey Stoor of Scariff”
Video: Burning Bushel perform Talking To Yourself
In April 2009 a few of the regulars at the SAMS sessions in Scariff got together to prepare a set for the Iniscealtra Festival of the Arts in Mountshannon, Co. Clare on Sunday 31 May 2009. Thanks to Phil Brown we have a video recording of our rendition of the Brad Pitt Light Orchestra song Talking To Yourself. Continue reading “Video: Burning Bushel perform Talking To Yourself”
Things I Do Since I Took Up With You
Following a pleasant exchange of Tweets last night, @kenarmstrong1 pointed me to some lyrics he had written. Not that accustomed to such collaborations, I printed out his lyrics and took up the challenge today. Fortunately the first idea I tried seemed to fit okay….I think. What do you reckon?
It was a pleasure to try out my new Samson USB microphone – worked a treat straight out of the box. The guitar I’m playing is my son’s 3/4 size classical.
Lyrics: Ken Armstrong, Music: Gerry Mulvenna
Hurting No More
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
I’m not hurting no more
Seems like tears have ended
I’m not crying no more
Broken heart is mended Continue reading “Hurting No More”
Blind and Deaf Blues
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
My woman don’t want my kisses
My woman don’t want my hand
My woman don’t want my kisses
I don’t understand Continue reading “Blind and Deaf Blues”
Something Special
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
Well I’ve known you for a while
I always liked the way you do things
Your energy and your smile
Being near you always soothed me.
Everybody Has Their Part To Play
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
I was just a fourteen-year-old boy when Bobby died
Afraid to go to school that day, I was shocked and dazed inside
Fearful of the future in a sad and wounded land
The meaning of the sacrifice, I could not understand
Blind Spot of Denial
I went to a pub that I used to frequent
With songs for the singing, no sins to repent
When my eyes opened you flashed me a smile
You flushed me right out and exposed my denial
Roadblock
Is there a roadblock in my brain?
Secret harbour of some pain?
See the little soldier(s) standing in the way,
Red light circling just like the bad old days
Asking all the questions ’bout the things they need to know
Like: “where have you been?”, “where d’ya wanna go?”
Is there a roadblock in my brain?
Weapon of Mass Seduction
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
You are a weapon of mass seduction.
Please let me inspect you tonight.
You are a weapon of mass seduction.
I want to inspect you tonight.
In shock and awe, I’ve been reeling for days.
Your beautiful eyes were like laser guiding rays.
In shock and awe, now I’m feeling the pain.
All this searching for contact, leaves me sad ‘n’ insane.
We Thought It Would Rain All Day
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
We thought it would rain all day.
Never thought we’d see the sky so blue.
We thought it would rain all day.
There’s only one thing I wanna say to you.
Sucking sweets on a bus
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
Sucking sweets on a bus
No worries for us.
Sucking sweets on a bus
No reason to fuss
Because summertime is here.
Speak my mind
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
I’m losing myself, I can’t find my mind,
I can’t seem to talk anymore.
There’s things inside me that I just cannot say
And it’s tearing me up, it’s tearing me up.
Smokey Stoor Of Scariff
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
On a fine summer’s day,
Walk the East Clare Way
See a chimney piercing the sky.
Well it blows day and night and
The smoke is black and white.
Smell the chimney, piercing the sky.
Seven Days Torture
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
There’s a balanced view on the Nine O’Clock News
It’s the BBC – it must be true
Sinn Féin are on News At Ten
It’s lip-reading time again.
See you again
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
Well, it’s farewell to Ireland
I’m leaving again.
When this May morning dawns
Another parting will begin
With a sense of hope across the land
For our daughters and our sons.
For the first time in my life
I feel the healing has begun.
I want to see you again.
Over the water
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
My brothers and sisters when they reached eighteen years
They caused my mammy to shed many tears.
Yes, my mammy cried when they had to decide
To go over the water.
Napoleon’s Nose
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
As I was a-walking
In the North of Belfast
I came to a-talking
With a girl from Belfast
Love In The Dark
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
One Night, I was walking alone.
Thought I was talking alone.
So sure I was walking alone,
But I was wrong – oh love in the dark.
Hello Crusade
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
Walking through the Meadows on a rainy day
I am a perfect stranger.
I see somebody coming my way.
He is a perfect stranger.
Footsteps of James Connolly
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
Also recorded by Patsy Mack, c1995
A hundred years before I saw the light of morn,
In Edinburgh’s Cowgate James Connolly was born.
The streets of Little Ireland were his home for many years,
From the West Port to Saint Mary’s Street, you feel him very near.
Feel The Evening Sun
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
Hey! Don’t you feel that lovely evening sun?
It’s gonna burn all your troubles away.
So what if we didn’t do all that we wanted to get done,
Tomorrow, that’s another day.
Don’t fall again
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
I have someone to thank
But I don’t know who.
The elbow of fate twisted nearly too late
Let me be with you.
Birds of Prey
Recorded at Shay’s Studio, April 2005
I was walking, early springtime, just before the dawn
Down where the Shannon meets the sea.
Birds of prey were on the shore,
I never saw so many before
Down where the Shannon meets the sea.