Galway Advertiser 2002/2002_06_06/GA_06062002_E1_035.pdf 

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BUDDY GUY is coming to this year's Galway Arts Festival and that alone shows that this years musical line up is something very special. Kernan Andrews looks at some of the upcoming events.
BIG TOP CONCERTS Legendary Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy will play the Festival Big Top on Friday 26. When he moved to Chicago from his native Louisiana in the 1950s, Guy entered into the pantheon of blues greats. During the 1960s and 70s he astonished audiences in the USA and Britain with his guitar playing and was a profound influence on a young man named James Marshall Hendrix. By the mid 70s his partnership with harmonica player Junior Wells led to the classic blues album DRINKIN' TNT AND SMOKIN' DYNAMITE. After a fallow period in the 80s, Guy returned in 1991 with DAMN RIGHT I'VE GOT THE BLUES. He's never looked back. Now in his mid 60s, he continues to record albums, win Grammys, tour to ecstatic audiences, and join his friend Eric Clapton on stage for concerts. The man is a legend and one of the finest guitar players in blues or any other genre. Miss him at your peril. The following day at the Big Top sees a unique journey into forward looking modern rock with headliners The

theatre [ents] Music provides a feast of variety for Galway Arts Festival
Kitt will preview material from his forthcoming EP and album not due for release until the autumn. Neil Hannon returns to Galway (still as The Divine Comedy) on Saturday 27 where he will be joined by a band and string quartet for a refined and sophisticated evening of wry humour and cynical observation. Support is from singer-songwriter Damien Rice who impressed with his beautifully crafted debut album O. St Nicholas' should provide the perfect setting for Rice's haunting ballads. In a more traditional vein the Cois Cladaigh C h a m b e r Chioir will perform Renaissance and contemporary music on Friday 19. ROISIN DUBH Traditional and Roots music will be well represented at this year's festival with performances by the brilliant white bluesman Chad Dughi who will show off his skills on July 15, one of Galway's greatest singer-songwriters Sean Tyrrell who will play on Wednesday 17, Breda Smyth, who will also launch her fine new album BASIL AND THYME on Wednesday 24, Maire Ni Chathasaigh and Chris Newman play on Thursday 25, and the legendary Scullion on Friday 26 and Saturday 27. There will also be a whole series of trad lunchtime gigs from July 18 to 26 featuring, among others, Alan and John Kelly and Liz and Yvonne Kane. Other acts to watch out for are Charis on Tuesday 16, Van Morrisons' daughter Shana Morrisson on Thursday 18 and Friday 19. James Yorkston on Sunday 21 and the highly talented singersongwriter Dawn Kenny on Monday 22. RADISSON SAS HOTEL Roots and traditional music will also feature strongly in the Radisson for this years festival. Citizens Keane will play on Tuesday 16, featuring one of the great Irish singers of our time Sean Keane and his brothers Noel, Pat and Matt. Scottish singer Eddie Reader is no stranger to Ireland and will play on Tuesday 23. CUBA* Latin music lovers are in for a treat when Cuba's Loca. the nine piece Salsa band play on Wednesday 17, followed a week later by Cuban Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers. Donal Dineen has been a regular arts festival attendee for many years and provides the entertainment on Friday 26. Irish soul rockers Relish play on Saturday 27. WARWICK HOTEL Two acts from the northern part of the country, Donegal's Allan will play on Wednesday 24 and Derry's The Undertones on Thursday 25. A line up no doubt to suit trad purists and teenage dreaming punks everywhere..

Frames and Cornershop, The Dirty 3, and Gorkys Zygotic Mynci. The Frames are one of Ireland's most revered acts whose legendary live performances have inspired a loyal following while frontman Glen Hansard has earned a reputation as one of our finest songwriters. The eclectic Cornershop's Anglo-Asian take on rock will show there is more than a 'Brimful of Asha' to these gentlemen. Also expect the unexpected from The Dirty 3, and Gorkys Zygotic Mynci. ST NICHOLAS'S CHURCH St Nicholas's Church is an unusual venue for rock concerts, but its acoustics should serve as an ideal venue for a series of acts bound to draw the crowds. David Kitt and The Divine Comedy will play there as will US Alt Country heroes Lambchop (Tuesday 16) and Icelandic visionaries Sigur Ros (Sunday 28). David Kitt and his band play on Saturday 20. Fans are in for a treat as

Review: Trident double bill
T R I D E N T T H E A T R E Co were in An T a i b h d h e a r c last week with t h e i r latest offering; a double bill of short plays by Pat Bracken and John O'Regan. Pat Bracken is well known locally for his puppetry work with the likes of Na Fanaithe and Macnas, not to mention his street performances, but he's also a qualified stonecarver. His play JOURNEY MAN, which he performed as well as wrote, was an autobiographical account of how he made the transition from stone to foam and, in recent times, back to stone again. There were reminiscences of a boyhood meeting with Brendan Behan, his stone-carving apprenticeship with his father, working with the late Deirdre O'Connell at the Focus Theatre, an influential trip to north Africa and much else besides in an amiably discursive hour or so. While there's the makings of a very fine show in JOURNEY MAN, as yet it doesn't quite fulfil its potential. Some of the anecdotes could be 'worked up' more, both in terms of how they're written and how they're staged, a few others could be discarded. Greater use might also have been made of the handful of puppets that were onstage, integrating them more into the narrative. JOURNEY MAN returns for the Arts Festival (at the Cellar bar) and, with a bit more work from its author, and director Jimmy Rooney, it could be quite a hit. Completing the double-bill was John O'Regan's COLD STORAGE a piece of Beckettian science-fiction, set 80 years in the future, about four disparate characters being cryogenically frozen. During the freezing process they realise they might not be revived which gives rise to no little anxiety and distress, as you might imagine. While the piece was visually interesting and contained some worthwhile ideas it was well-nigh impossible to engage emotionally with any of the four characters and. consequently, to care very much about their fate. Deborah Dignam directed and Marc Channon, Angela Ryan, Willie Moriarly and Sarah Smyth played the four deep-frec/c cases. CMcB

CANTANDO CHAMBER Choir will give a special free concert in St Nicholas' Collegiate Church. Galway on Saturday June 8 at 8pm. Cantando recently won Choir of the Year 2002 at (he Navan Choral Festival. The choir will perform an impressive programme of Vivaldi's 'Gloria' and Handel's Four Coronation Anthems under the direction of Orla Barry. Cantando was formed by Barry to explore the choral repertoire from Renaissance madrigals to c o n t e m p o r a r y works by leading

' hi o the Ya' to Co f r er prom i Gwy efr n a a l
national and international composers. T h e choir q u i c k l y e s t a b l i s h e d a reputation as a highly accomplished and musical group and was the first choir lo receive the Mayoral Trophy for 'Most Promising C h o i r ' at the Sligo Choral Festival. The choir has also performed at the Royal H o s p i t a l , K i l m a i n h a m , the Hugh Lane Gallery and Maynooth and Trinity Colleges. The choir has made several r e c o r d i n g s for RTE and competed successfully in numerous choral competitions.
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Richard

Murphy -- a clarification

POET and writer Richard Murphy whose intriguing life story THE Kick is flying off t h e shelves of b o o k s h o p s around the country has a s k e d us to clarify a p o i n t r e g a r d i n g his interview in last week's

In the interview, he was quoted as saying that he never lived for longer than two years in any one place. T h i s w a s a misprint, as Mr Murphy resided in C l e g g a a , Connetnara from the late 1960s to 1980.