AFTER HER Eurovision win at Millstreet in 1993 with the Jimmy Walshe song 'In Your Eyes', Niamh Kavanagh took her time in deciding her future direction. Having already sung on the million-selling Commitments soundtrack she was seen by many as a safe bet for future success. When she finally signed on the dotted line with Arista, she was whisked off to Nashville to make an album with Music City's finest session players.

The album, Flying Blind, was released in late 1995 to wide critical acclaim and Kavanagh's career looked set to go international. But, astonishingly, by the following May, she was without a record deal and left to pick up the pieces. Only now, is she getting back to recording activity. An album is due out later this year on the Northern-based Random label, while a single - a duet with Mayo singer/songwriter Gerry Carney - has already been released. Kavanagh is philosopohical about her experiences of the last few years, putting it all down to a lesson learned the hard way.

"It was very frustrating at times," she reflects, "But I don't harbour any animosity. I look upon it as a learning curve. Every decision I made was made in good faith, but you can't always predict the outcome of things. Maybe I didn't shout loud enough when I needed to."

What Kavanagh found most dispiriting was the slow pace at which the industry works. When Flying Blind was finished in 1994 she was forced to wait a full year before its eventual release. "It was impossible to get people to make a decision," she says. "The record company went through three managing directors in the space of three years, so everything was on hold. When it finally came out it just didn't get the support it needed."

The album contained songs by leading writers such as Rodney Crowell, JD Souther, Bonnie Raitt and Riverdance composer Bill Whelan and despite the difficulties she experienced with the record company, Kavanagh still feels that it stands up on its own merits.

"I was very pleased with it myself and I think it's fair to say that anyone who bought it liked it. The only thing that was missing from it was the fact that most of the uptempo things we recorded were left out. Another thing that intrigued me was the fact that Mary Chapin Carpenter did backing vocals on at least six tracks and they left them off the album."

In all, Kavanagh reckons over £250,000 was spent on her over a three-year period. "The album itself only cost a fraction of that," she says. "But, as I discovered, there's a lot of waste in big record companies. For example, they were quite happy to put me up in a hotel at a hundred dollars a night. But I got to know people out there and I stayed in various houses. The only thing they had to pay was the cost of car hire."

The final straw came in May '96 when Kavanagh went back to Nashville to discuss her next move. "They said to me 'let's make another album - only this time we'll make it more R&B-orientated'. So I said, 'fine, let's do it'. Then they said I should go away and do some demos. But I'd already done demos - I had 30 songs down on tape and I didn't see the point of demoing again. I just wanted to make the album and I didn't want to wait another three years before it would see the light of day. We couldn't agree, so we 'parted company' as they say."

Despite this major setback, Kavanagh insists that she's not bitter and intends to revitalise her singing career over the coming year.

"The hardest thing was not knowing what to do next," she says. "You have to try to kick-start things, get the motivation to be up and happening. I rang up some people I'd played with before and I started doing gigs around the country. The deal with Random is a lot different. We're all working towards the same thing."

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Niamh's new singer/songwriter Gerry Carney, is quite possibly the world's most devoted Billy Joel fan, with his passion for the Brooklyn-based ivory-tinkler even extending as far as calling up to his house on Long Island, in New York.

"I parked outside waiting for him to turn up, but he was away on tour," Carney admits unashamedly. "I love everything he's ever done - even the new stuff which a lot of people don't like. I would give the next ten years of my life to perform with him."

Presumably then, Carney was up in the front row at Joel's recent concerts with Elton John in Croke Park. "Sure I was," he confirms. "I was at both concerts. But what I really would have loved was to be up there playing support."

This may not be the tall order that it seems. Carney has already guested with Alison Krauss, Van Morrison and The Corrs, and he was invited by Brian Kennedy to open for him on the northern dates of his autumn '97 tour. Carney's new album Addictive has just been released and it includes the single 'Sometimes Love', an original ballad, written by Carney and also featuring Niamh Kavanagh.

"After I'd written it, I thought it would make a nice duet and Niamh was the first person I thought of, even though I'd never met her," he explains. "I sent it to her and she liked it. The first time we sang together was live on the Kelly Show."

So, for once, something didn't start on The Late Late Show. n

• Gerry Carney and Niamh Kavanagh will be joining forces for an Irish tour in the summer. 'Sometimes Love' is out now on Chart Music.