The Queen might be celebrating her Golden Jubilee but folk legends The Dubliners are back on the road celebrating a staggering 50 years in the business.
Legend has it they formed in a Dublin pub in 1962 taking their name from the James Joyce classic, but guitarist Sean Cannon says they are still amazed by their longevity.
“Fifty years is some going and Barney McKenna has done all 50 and he’s 72 now. Had the Beatles still been going they’d have been going as long as us as they started in 1962, but I believe the Rolling stones are still doing concerts.
“On this tour we’ll be doing all the popular songs strongly associated with the Dubliners and one or two new items, and to honour the people who passed away there is going to be some video clips of Ronnie Drew and Ciaran Bourke’s performances with the band from the 70s and earlier.
“It’s a celebration of the first 50, and onwards to the next 50.”
Sean is something of a new boy joining the band only thirty years ago after the death of Luke Kelly.
“I’ve only got 30 years in the band. I was a fan and I used to go to see them in Coventry or go over to Birmingham Town Hall. There was a pub behind the town hall called the Shakespeare, and we’d play all night until daylight which I where I met the Dubliners.
“I was asked to go on tour with them in Germany because I had played with them a few times before, and I knew the repertoire because I was in a band that modelled themselves on the Dubliners called the Gaels.
“Off I went to Germany, and I thought it was a few weeks until Luke got better, but sadly he died and I’ve been in ever since.”
It is testament to the band’s huge fan base in Irish communities across the globe and their freewheeling, easy going style that they are still playing big venues like Leeds Grand Theatre.
“There‘s a bit of humour and some sad songs, but most of it is light hearted so there will be plenty of the craic and the Irish philosophy – you can’t take it with you so you might as well drink it.
“Everybody has got a bit of Irish in them and Obama has been to Ireland as have President Kennedy and Ronald Regan. You would imagine that with mass immigration from Ireland to USA and it’s said there are more Irish people in America than Ireland.”
But like great acts they have influenced many bands throughout their long career and they enjoyed a chart renaissance with The Pogues who clearly owe a great debt to The Dubliners.
“That was 25 years ago and that was something else, but we still see the Pogues and Shane McGowan. We were on Gay Byrne’s One Night Only recently and Shane came on and sang the Wild Rover with us.
“We then had a party until four in the morning and the RTE staff asked did we have no homes to go to.
“Mind you, it was six the morning when we were in Manchester for the BBC folk awards playing through the night with the Oyster Band and Ralph McTell.”
Sean is too modest to mention that while they were drinking the cream of British folk under the table they also picked up a well deserved lifetime achievement award.
“The success of the Dubliners has created lots of interest in traditional music and spawned lots of bands, not just here but around the world. There are so many bands in Germany that have modelled themselves on the Dubliners line up.
“We played once in Leeds and there was no sound but because I used to live in Barnsley I knew a guy called Steve Rusby, and he came over to set us up. Of course, he’s the dad of Kate Rusby, and she’s a wonderful young singer.”
* The Dubliners play Leeds Grand Theatre on Sunday March 18 and tickets are available from the Box office on 0844 848 2700 or boxoffice@leedsgrandtheatre.com
I’m a lengthy time watcher and I just believed I’d drop by and say howdy there for the quite initially time.