Sean Brady's 'Irish stuff' Blog
 | Welcome to my Irish blog section. As an experiment I'm kicking this page off with three articles. If the response is good, I'll be adding to my blog once a month and will keep an archive here on all of my rants, ramblings and observations. The subject matter will always include an Irish theme of some kind. If you'd like to have your thoughts and observations considered for adding on here email me your offerings and we'll see about sticking your feedback on this page.* *Please keep it 'sweet', clean and nice. It's purely for fun! I don't do nasty! So, here goes! |
What happened to the Irish theme bars?
Do you remember when all of a sudden 'Oirish' theme bars started sprouting on every street corner in Britain? For us poor souls who were scratching a few quid from what was then a shrinking and increasingly grotty Irish music pub circuit, it was like green manna from the heavens. All of a sudden Irish music and song was totally in and very much the bees knees. Being the musical flavour of the month, avant garde, getting paid good dosh as well as having the chance to gig nearly every night of the week in these quaint looking gaffs full of sloane rangers out for some 'Jolly good Irish Craic', was refreshing, lucrative and all in all, pretty fab. Thankfully it stayed that way for a few years before it all went down the Swanee almost as quickly as it came. Ah-ah! said the regional managers and big knobs at head office, 'It's just a fad, all craze's fade out eventually'. Hmmmmmmm, not so sure on that one. After all, Irish theme bars are still very much alive and kicking all over the world. Do you want to know what Sean thinks on this one? No? Err, well, here's my take on it anyway. After all, this is what a blogs for 'innit? My theory (he said thumbs on braces, shoulders drawn back, stomach protruding, chins in,) is that initially the bars were doing a great trade, packing the crowds in and booking proper Irish music regularly. The turning point was when they went a tad overboard with the sheer amount of them and ran out of good managers. Then the 'brainy' ones at the top decided to recruit a 'new' type of manager. Many of these highly trained and 'ready and raring to go' new recruits had one slight drawback. They hated Irish music. In their infinite wisdom they decided that it was high time that the Irish theme pub scene got educated and changed the music. After all, they exclaimed, ' What the F*** do people wanna' listen to that 'diddly dee' sh** for? ' That's where the grim reaper arrived and scythed his way through the whole basis of the concept and make up of what should be the essential bones of an Irish theme bar. The Irish musicians and singers were out, Black Sabbath, Status Quo and Elvis were in. (You'll have to excuse me but this is where I turn into Alf Garnett on crack) I mean let's be logical here! If you went into an Italian restaurant and Carlo shrugged his shoulders as he told you that the menu was changed to Chinese food you might find that a little odd eh? Or, maybe if you went to a Fish and Chip shop to be greeted with a sneer when you asked for Cod and Chips, then smugly told that the shop only sells Kosher kebabs and hotdogs, because the Manager hates Fish and Chips, wouldn't you find that an ever so little bit odd? Well, that's my point you see. If you're going to spend untold thousands of pounds making a bar look just like an old Irish pub from the fifties, give it a really Irish name and festoon the place with zillions of Irish artifacts and antiquities, then it's fairly likely that when the punters come in they're j-u-u-u-u-u-st p-r-r-r-r-robably going to expect to hear live Irish music occasionally. Get my drift? So, the young trendy Dublin managers got their way. Booted out the Irish music and then a couple of years down the line it's. 'Ah well, that was just a fad'. Yeah right. Fad my arse! Is it possible that someone shot themselves in the foot here? The whole kaboodle reminded me of many's the wedding I've played at over the years where the DJ who took over proceedings from the live band, decided to spend the rest of the night blasting out rap, jungle, hiphop and various genres of similar noise pollution onto the assembled masses because he knew better than the guests. All they really wanted was good old disco music such as, 'Dancing Queen', 'Brown eyed Girl', 'You make me feel like dancing,' etc. But of course his nibs knew better. 'They ain't 'avin' Abba or none o' that sh**, iss borin' innit, I'm gonna show 'em wot REAL music is all about'. Needless to say his choice of music goes down like a french kiss at a family reunion and the night ends up a disaster......Phew, that felt good.......Must do more of this blogging lark. It's a merciful release!
If you'd like to have your thoughts and observations considered for adding on here, email to: seansblog@bradysmusic.co.uk
Of all the Irish songs I've sung this is absolutely the bees knees and dogs b's for causing a row by a long chalk. I have to admit that in my, shall we say, 'less emotionally developed days' (sounds better than, 'days when I enjoyed causing trouble') this was always a real corker for livening up a gig at the end of the night. It leaves you open to attack, mainly verbal from all sides for different reasons. I've found myself in the midst of many's the raised hackle, furrowed eyebrow and verbal abuse from singing it, which I often did, regardless of any backlash or consequences. Why? Ok. First and foremost I was going through my 'I'm a victim and a rebel' phase and was simply ultra proud of my Irishness, needed ways to endorse and validate it for reasons that maybe only foreign born Irish people will understand and I was...well...just a bit nutty I suppose. Belting out the Irish National Anthem in a pub or club in England was not alone a great finale to a gig, it was a way of saying 'F*** you to the anti Irish brigade. In the days when being Irish in Britain was something that many felt was something to keep a low profile about, roaring out The Soldiers Song was a great way of saying, 'Listen up you ars***** in Fleet Street and anywhere else who thinks we are kowtowing to your misconceptions and demonising of our Irish identity, this is our National Anthem and we don't give a monkeys! Was I over reacting? Ott and suffering from all sorts of crises? A tad retarded perhaps? You bet. I have always sung it in English too which is another can of worms. Many's the time I've had someone coming up after singing it at the end of a gig, nostrils flared, eyes bulging, with a comment like, 'Yecuntchyawhy'dyesingitinenglishyefocker'. Just for the record, 'The Soldiers Song' was originally written in English and was not translated and adopted as the Irish national anthem until several years later. Peadar Kearney (a relative of Brendan Behan) wrote the Irish language version, so in either language, it works for me. I've sung it in lots of countries and amongst the most fervent and patriotic Irish crowds I've played to, the Glaswegian Irish come out tops. In Glasgow you might find yourself feeling a bit of a 'billynomates' if you don't sing it in it's original format. I think that the line from the original lyric, - that, as legend goes, was sung by the rebels in the GPO as it blazed around them during Easter week - was probably written specifically for those of us who were born in London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Boston, Chicago, etc. "Soldiers are we whose lives are pledged to Ireland, some have come from a land beyond the waves". If you really want to hear that sung with the gusto and pride that it deserves, take a trip to Celtic park sometime. Does it still send shivers up my spine? You bet.
If you'd like to have your thoughts and observations considered for adding on here, email to: seansblog@bradysmusic.co.uk
Traditional Irish songs or plagiarism?
What's a traditional Irish song? Hmmm. Well, in my eyes it's generally an old one that's been sung since God knows when and is one of those bog standards such as, 'Carrickfergus', 'Spancil HIll', 'Wild Rover' etc. How old does it have to be to join the trad club? Good question. I suppose it's up to us and how we feel about it to a degree. Modern Irish classics can also sound very traddy but might only have been written relatively recently. For example many of Pete St John's (if you've never heard of him, shame on you!) best songs such as, 'Rare old times', 'The Ferryman' and of course the 'Fields of Athenry' were written within the last 30 years. Other writers have penned such perennials as 'Grace', 'My Last Farewell', etc, which are also recent creations. We also have a multitude of new songs written to old traditional airs of which the likes of Shane McGowan and Christy Moore have often specialised in and made their own. There's nothing wrong or bogus about putting new lyrics to old traddy tunes. It's an accepted and perfectly honourable method of songwriting, particularly in the Folk genre. I have done it a few times with my own songs. My song about Maggie Thatcher was based on an old Irish emigration song melody. Legally it's all above board too, once a song reaches a certain age and the original writer has been deceased for a certain period, the song becomes public domain. It then counts in the world of royalties as pretty much a brand new song. What's the point of this blog? Well, it's really to encourage YOU to try your hand at writing a song without having to worry about copyright stuff stopping you from giving it a bash. If you're looking for melodies to use, find one, do a Google and see if it's still in copyright or public domain and give it a go. I'm offering a FREE copy of two of my albums of choice for the best submission of a new lyric to a public domain melody. I'll post some of the efforts on here and leave the offer open until the end of April. Get that pen out! Oh, by the way, if you want to know how to copyright a song, in theory it's easy. In practice I can't vouch for it but the idea that was suggested to me when I first started sending out demos was, when you've written it, send it to yourself in a strongly sealed envelope by registered post and DO NOT open it. Keep it safe j-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-us-s-s-st in case**. Theory being that you have a sealed, pre dated version of your song, that if some schmuck claimed were theirs, you could prove otherwise! It would be terrible to wake up one morning, turn on the radio and hear Britney Spears or maybe Bon Jovi singing your new song, 'The green fields of Ballymuck aint green anymore' or 'My Granny's false teeth are full of bits of beef' and you left without a penny! Email your entries to: seansblog@bradysmusic.co.uk **I accept no responsibility for that being 100% failsafe and if you really want to be 100% aware of what's needed to get copyright protected get some expert advice from bodies such as IMRO, PRS or MCPS.
If you'd like to have your thoughts and observations considered for adding on here, email to: seansblog@bradysmusic.co.uk
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