John Spillane – on form in the Cork Opera House…
May 12th, 2008 by Frank
I was thrilled to be invited, by the man himself, to go and see John Spillane in the Opera House last night. I hadn’t seen him play in quite some time and so was really looking forward to it – and he did not disappoint.
Before the man himself made an appearance we were treated to some wonderful songs from Ger Wolfe, who seemed to have gone from strength to strength since I had last seen him perform. His guitar playing was unbelievable, and his rendition of ‘Curra Road’ was, as he said himself, a wonderful welcome to the summer.
John himself has a new album out called ‘My Dark Rosaleen & the Island of Dreams’, which is available to buy on iTunes (or buy the cd on Claddagh), and his set featured a good mix of old and new songs from the ‘Hit Factory’.
I own a copy of all John’s albums (except the latest which I will purchase during the week) but there’s something about John Spillane’s music that is best experienced live.
John Spillane has an incredible stage presence, it’s not a large ego type presence – he’s an incredibly humble and self effacing man – but something changes when he walks on stage, and he immediately forms a connection with the audience which allows him to create a wonderfully intimate atmosphere, even in a large venue like the Opera House.
“Everything’s Turning to Gold Cathy” was probably the finest version of it I have heard yet, and that’s saying something as I have been to a huge number of John Spillane gigs where he has played it. “All the Ways You Wonder” always seems to have something new every time I hear it performed and this was no exception, definitely another highlight.
I was delighted to hear “When You & I Were True” had made it onto the new album, it’s an old song but isn’t on any of John’s solo albums to date, and the live version last night was beautiful. “Not My Love” from the new album also stood out, and his current single “There Was a Man” seemed a lot rockier than the recorded version, which really worked.
Overall it was an incredible night, and after playing an encore of three or four songs, John Spillane and friends left the stage to a standing ovation.
I will leave you with a music video I created for John Spillane a good number of years ago now, but which people still seem to enjoy – I discovered the other day after putting it up on my own profile that IrishMusicCentral had already put it up and it has over 6,000 views!
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May 12th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
That’s lovely Frank and goes very well with the song. His hair is a bit funny though, like a hedgehog or something.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Thanks Martin, had you not seen it before? I modelled his hair on Bif’s hair.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
That’s brilliant Frank, it deserves to be out there for everybody to see and enjoy.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Thanks Janie!
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:13 am
Hey Frank, thanks a million for that great review of the Opera House gig. Yes everyone loves the We’re Going Sailing animation. It’s got loads of views on Youtube as well. Check out Lorcan’s video of There Was A Man.
Be great if you ever wanted to do another animation of one of the other songs again sometime like,
Rock On Frank,
best wishes,
john.
July 4th, 2008 at 2:45 am
Thanks John… been a while since I did any animation.. maybe it’s time I started thinking about a new animation project
Talk to you soon!
August 18th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
I am a Dutch and I am in Ireland for one year now, I have seen John Spillane at de Barras in Clonakilty, his music made me to like Ireland more than I already did. His songs go straight to my heart. Thanks for that.
March 1st, 2009 at 12:40 am
We came over to Cork, from Cheltenham, just to see John perform his Christmas show at The Everyman. We had previously seen him in Kilcrohane (Craig on the Coast) when on holiday. when the whole steaming noisy pub fell quiet in dereference to his talent, and I was moved by music, for the first time in years. He did play a blinder at The Everyman and was surrounded by the same quality of love and respect from his audience. In my life I have met a few “celebs” but when I had my photo taken with John I still felt like a star struck child, not because of the man, but because of the gift he has in him. Thanks for the words, John & for the music. I hope you realise just how massive you could be, keep it real
Julie & Laurence