WE GET THE NEWS
It was fantastic to have the opportunity to play the St Patrick’s Day Festival in Trafalgar Square, courtesy of Hot Press and Visit London. We’re on a campaign in the UK at the moment to win hearts and minds, so it was a gig we were really looking forward to from the moment we heard that we’d been chosen. We could communicate with 20,000 people all at once. Brilliant…

THE NIGHT BEFORE
We were playing Sunderland on Saturday – and, no, Andy Reid didn’t show up with his guitar! It meant that Joe (our bass player) had to drive through the night to get us back to the capital, and so we didn’t hit the sack till 7am. Bloody hell. Back up at 9am. Needless to say, after two hours sleep, we were all feeling a little bit grumpy!

TRAFALAGAR SQUARE HERE WE COME!
Not for long. It was 10am when we got to Trafalgar Square, right in the heart of London, and it looked truly amazing: there was a massive open stage with big screens on either side of the stage. Already, about 4,000 people had gathered and as the morning went by they kept on coming. The excitement was intense. So were the nerves…

IT’S INTERVIEW TIME…
The sun was blazing down and we were in full swing at one of the biggest gigs of our lives. Just as we were getting into the mood, a lovely lady from BBC Radio approached us and asked would we do an interview – needless to say, we were happy to oblige. We had a great chat about the band live on air and threw in a couple of jokes. We then slipped backstage to the artist area, where we met the totally insane, and legendary, Hector Ó hEochagáin, who was MC for the day. We had a chat, more than one cup of coffee and then the madness began...

TIME TO PLAY
Before we knew it, we were whisked onstage to do a 30-minute set. We opened with ‘Tempomanic’ and blasted the ears off the crowd – just to warm them up! The onstage sound was great so we were lovin’ it. We played seven songs in all, dedicating ‘Only Darkness’ to a great mate, Stephen Reynolds, who sadly passed away recently. We ended with ‘Feel That You Own It’, which is one of our really big songs, and the reaction was great. Relief all ‘round. They like us!

TIME TO NAMEDROP!
We were buzzing when we came off the stage – and who should we walk into except The Coronas! They said they’d enjoyed our performance, which was encouraging. We chatted with Binzer, drummer with Mundy. It turned out that Mr. Enright couldn’t make the gig because his flight from America was delayed. We got a few pictures with Hector and went looking for some free drink. Lucky us! We found the VIP area and chatted with Kíla and John Spillane for a bit, while knocking back glasses of wine and Porterhouse beer! The good life, eh? Our mate Bresy (from The Blizzards) showed up. We convinced him to DJ for a night we’re doing on Tuesday March 30 in the Boogaloo in Archway, which should be epic. All in a day’s work…

THIS IS THE END…
Shane had to go off to work at 5 o’clock so the rest of us made sure to drink his portion of beer while watching John Spillane and The Coronas. Kíla then took to the stage to bring the festival to a close. They were incredibly powerful. It was amazing sitting on the steps in a crowd of about 20,000 people, glass of white wine in hand and the sun still beaming down on us. A great end to a great day, but, of course, it wasn’t really the end.

AND NOW FOR A DRINK
After the Kíla finale (they were joined onstage for it by John Spillane) we packed our gear and went looking for a cool place to hang. Not hard in a brilliant city like London, which has just about everything a man could want! Joe went off with some friends to a blues bar and I hooked up with Bresy, Lance (the drummer from Kíla), The Coronas and Hector for a few drinks. Ensconced finally in The Porterhouse Pub we listened to a covers-band and got merry on randomly chosen beers. Joe showed up a little while later, and we enjoyed the end of a great day, dancing and exchanging stories.

LET’S DO IT AGAIN SOMETIME!
It was amazing to meet all these quality artists you’ve looked up to, and to discover that by the end of the day they actually remember your name. All told, it’s been a very emotional experience winning the Hot Press competition, and so we would just love to thank all of our fans for their support. Visiting London was momentous. Now, can we do it again?