Foxrock Folk Club plan anniversary concert

When the late Luke Kelly performed in the Foxrock Folk Club in December 1972 he commented that it was surely a contradiction in terms.

Maybe so, but it was a vibrant presence on the music scene in the early 1970s. And even more striking, it was organised and run by teenagers who managed to attract to Foxrock some of the biggest names on the Irish music and literary scenes at the time, including the Chieftains, Horslips, Ronnie Drew, Luke Kelly, Donal Lunny, Tir na nOg and Louis Stewart and poets Roger McGough, Pearse Hutchinson and Peter Fallon among many.

The Club has already celebrated in a series of programmes on RTÉ radio 1 presented by one of those then-teenagers, jazz singer Melanie O'Reilly. It featured music recorded at the club which had been stored on tapes kept by the late Lar Cassidy.

Now, the Club’s 40th anniversary is to be marked by a concert in the Pavilion Theatre on June 14.

Among those appearing will be Tir na nOg, Louis Stewart, Melanie O’Reilly, Peter Fallon, Ed Deane and Dermot Stokes and Myles Drennan, whose father Tony Drennan was a stalwart of the club. Also there will be Alison O'Donnell, one of the two lead singer-songwriters of the unique Irish progressive folk rock band, Mellow Candle whose 1972 album Swaddling Songs is now a rare classic, highly prized by collectors.

Tickets are available from the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire. See www.paviliontheatre.ie, or call their box office on (01) 231 2929.