Stopping to drink the requisite toast to Arthur Guinness at 17.59pm resulted in me missing the wonderful Imelda May. For what it’s worth, I did catch some of the rockabilly queen’s sound-check earlier, and that was great. Presumably the presence of a couple of thousand enthusiastic Galwegians made her even better.
Newton Faulker was on stage when I finally arrived. Is it just me or does the Surrey singer look like Glen Hansard with dreadlocks? ‘Dream Catch Me’ gets a rousing cheer, but it’s his by now trademark covers of Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrops’ and Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ that really push the crowd’s buttons.
Our Thursdays finalists Empire Saints are up next, enthusiastically introduced by Galway Bay FM’s Jon Richards. The Bray four-piece play tight, confident, gothic, slightly bombastic indie rock – best demonstrated on the excellent ‘Eventually’. If the audience were more familiar with these songs, the response would’ve been better. Something tells me that they will be by this time next year.
Of course, everybody’s well familiar with Sharon Shannon and her band, who get the local crowd hopping, completing their 30-minute set with a stomping rendition of ‘Galway Girl’.
Adopted son of the City of the Tribes David Gray completes the night with a six song set of some of his greatest hits, opening with ‘Fugitive’ and ‘Sail Away’, and closing with ‘Babylon’ and ‘Please Forgive Me’. Coming off a full year of touring, he’s as polished as ever, but I’d have much preferred to have caught his set in the Roisin.
All told, not a bad birthday party, but on the night that was in it, it would’ve been a lot warmer indoors.