Pugwash draw stars to album launch

Thomas Walsh, in jubilant form, was joined by Neil Hannon on keyboards, percussionist Nelson Bragg from Brian Wilson's band and XTC legend Dave Gregory.
The crowd, which included Father Ted creators Arthur Matthews and Graham Linehan, Matthew Devereux of The Pale, Cathy Davey, Nick Kelly, and Saville (minus Tosh who was helping out on stage), were treated to a mixture of new songs and classics like ‘Apples’, ‘Nice To Be Nice’ and ‘Anyone Who Asks’ which Thomas proudly pointed out is gracing the new Ed Norton, Colin Farrell and Jon Voight movie, Pride & Glory.
Paul Butler of Little Britain fame acted as MC for the evening and also shook a mean pair of maracas during the encore. Bragg, who’d jetted in specially from California, made Mr. Walsh blush when he described him as a “secret genius” who he was determined to bring over to the States this year.
Those sentiments were echoed by Dave Gregory who was given a hero’s welcome by the huge contingent of XTC fans in the crowd – and repaid the compliment by chatting to them afterwards in the bar.
“I love Hot Press, you always wrote really nice things about XTC,” he told our woman on the scene, Roisin Dwyer. The feeling, sir, is mutual!
We’ll have a full report in our next issue, out on Thursday April 10.