Christy Moore; singer, songwriter, troubadour and all round Irish national treasure entertained the Royal Festival Hall last night. For 2 hours he winded his way through his immense back catalogue, with the help of Declan Sinnott, his musical partner for over a decade, turning the immense hall into an intimate bar room session.
Famous for not sticking to any set list, Moore took a brief dip into his most recent album ‘Folk Tale’ before heading off in a variety of directions, taking requests as he went. ‘Sweet Thames, Flow Softly’ by Ewan MacColl suited the location perfectly, ‘My little Honda 50’ paid tribute to an entirely unlikely little motorbike capable of ‘doing the ton in second gear’. ‘Delirium Tremens’ got a rare outing with a new line about telling an imaginary dancing Michael Flatly to ‘Feck off’.
There were more sombre moments too of course; ‘Matty’ was a song which reminded him of his Grandmother’s tales in County Kildare, while ‘Viva la Quinta Brigada’ told the tale of the Irish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. Moore has long chronicled the causes he believes in and been a champion of the underdog and there were many ballads in this direction.
The one stand out moment of the night though was ‘Ride on’, If Sinatra had ‘My way’, and Motorhead have ‘Ace of Spades’ then ‘Ride on’ is Christy’s legacy in a nutshell. At once beautiful, heart breaking and haunting, the moment he let the audience take over the final chorus was truly one to put a lump in your throat.
Rounding out the evening with ‘Burning Times’ and a rowdy sing along of ‘Lisdoonvarna’, Christy Moore shows no signs of having aged or indeed of slowing down. G’wan ye good thing.
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