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2009
16th November 2009
“Hello everyone and Merry Christmas! Ho ho ho!”
It’s Niamh here, and although it’s not quite Christmas, it’s drawing near and so it’s time for the Beogas to hang up the weapons for a wee while and take a well earned rest. It’s been quite a year, with the new album release, 142 concerts, including our special 400th gig, 54 flights, 13 countries, 4 lost suitcases, 10,022 beers (mostly Damian’s), and thousands of pounds in excess baggage charges (Ryan air, we salute you).
On the music side of things these are exciting times for the band, with an Irish Music Award nomination, inclusion on the ballot for the 2010 GRAMMY award nominations, Congressional Recognition from the US House of Representatives and front page coverage in the St. Patrick’s Day edition of the Wall Street Journal! Thanks to our hardworking Agents, to Compass Records, music reviewers, co-musicians and sound engineers and everyone else who helped make it happen.
The last few months have been pretty eventful, too. We were delighted to return to Germany in October, where we enjoyed some fantastic audiences, as well as a few dangerous days off in Koln where we caught up with the 2009 Magnetic Music Irish Folk Festival line-up (note to the David Munnelly Band, Naimh Parsons and Graham Dunne, Jennifer Rolands and co., and Tommy O’Sullivan... you almost killed us! Great fun as always!) Then we popped up to the Netherlands for a few days and finished up the tour in Haveloftloit on the Danish border. Poor little Eamon had a bad tummy after a dodgy chicken curry, and Liam lost his wallet twice (and found it again - TWICE! - jammy dodger), but otherwise, a great tour and we all returned home for the spuds in one piece.
We ended October at Pitloughry in Scotland and the Dougie McClean Festival where we were honoured to be joined onstage by Dougie himself for a blast at the end of the concert. It was a evening to remember. An early flight the next day however made for some very sore wee men on the way home, courtesy of the customary whiskey overload that goes hand in hand with our beloved Scots! To make sure we will never again be sober, Dougie sent us all home, each with a bottle of his very own whiskey label, aptly named ‘Caledonia’.
November then, and a gruelling overnight bus, plane and van journey landed us in Denmark for a week of concerts around the country. OH, THE COLD!! OH, THE RAIN!! Despite the grim weather we had a brilliant time, with the highlight being our first visit to the famous Copenhagen Irish Festival. We enjoyed some great performances there from Dermot Byrne and Steve Cooney, Kathleen Loughnan, Sean Garvey and Alec Finn, and the great new Waterford based group Caladh Nua. Afterwards, we had a few tunes with some of our Danish friends for good measure. Lovely!
And so the year comes to a close, but we’re not quite finished yet... for the final hoo-hah we play in Newcastle West, Co. Limerick on Sat 28th November, so get on the nearest bus and we’ll see you all there!
In December, Eamon and Soggy are travelling to the USA to perform in New England’s Christmas Celtic Sojourn. They’ll play in the distinguished company of Seamus Egan, Liz Carroll and John Doyle, Karine Polwart, Christy O’Leary and Chico Huff. Damian and Liam will be travelling to the Netherlands to play a few shows with our good friends Chris McGlone and Joe Murray, and as for me... well, someone has to think of the children, so I’ll be back home teaching in lovely Limerick, plus lots of seasonal shopping (for ME!), and of course plenty of mulled wine and the occasional mince pie.
So that’s all for now. Thanks to each and everyone one of you who came to see us play, who made this year a truly memorable one for Beoga... Roll on 2010!
Love, the little one!
8th October 2009
Hi all. Fantastic news... Beoga’s album ‘The Incident’ has been placed on the official ballot for the 2010 Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary World Music album.
7th October 2009
Hi folks. Here is a link to a radio report (5.10.09) from a gig we played in Bad Pyramont, Germany this week. http://www.radio-aktiv.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1222&Itemid=196&rubrik=4#
25th September 2009
Hey all, it’s Sean Og here with the Autumn news.
We decided to give the good folks of America a break this summer and instead we took the opportunity to play some European festivals. Germany saw a lot of us, and we spent most of July there, followed by some great festivals in Luxembourg, Belgium, France, Spain and Scotland. We devoured bucket-loads of fresh mussels in Normandy, drank some strong local beer in Belgium, got burned silly in Spain and Luxembourg, and played a memorable, but wet, gig underneath Europe’s largest crane, in East Germany. And not forgetting the tasty (!) haggis and very fine whisky we savoured in Scotland. Good times… but some very strange weather.
For our final gig of the summer we returned to my home town of Portglenone in Co. Antrim and the Gig’n the Bann festival. This is one of the best traditional music festivals in Ireland and we were honoured to finish off a special 10th anniversary concert, which also featured the amazing talents of Mairtin O’Connor, Cathal Hayden and Seamie O’Dowd, and Colm and Siobhan O’Donnell. It was a memorable night for us, marking not only the 10th anniversary of the festival, but also Beoga’s 7th birthday and also our 400th gig, and right in the spot where the band was formed! We had the Beoga 10-piece band out in full force for the performance and it was a great night. Aine Whelan and Siobhan Petit joined us on backing vocals, Richard Mawhinney brandished his clarinet, Brona Graham played multiple instruments masterfully and Gareth Hughes rounded off the sound on bass. We had a few video cameras knocking around to capture it, so look out for Beoga’s DVD coming next year!
Of course with many big occasions, things inevitably go wrong and just before the encore my nose began to bleed uncontrollably. It was like the Red Sea backstage, but luckily Eamon was on hand with one of his facial wipes to save the day. Then, during the after party celebrations Damian lost his precious iphone and sadly it remains missing. Our condolences to Damian as his iphone contained information of irreplaceable value to him… his list of all KFC’s throughout Europe… alphabetical list of beers, origins and their strengths… Danny Minogues cell number… (not Dani from X Factor, Danny who owns the local sunbed salon)... etc, etc
All in a good night out eh? Thanks and congratulations to Chairman Brian McCart, Geraldine Donnelly and all the Gig’n the Bann committee.
Beoga are now enjoying a couple of weeks at home. I’m accompanying the band ‘Buille’ for a few Irish dates including Belfast’s Open House festival this weekend, Eamon has played with ‘Cara Dillon’ at the DVD recording of her recent Grand Opera concert, and the others are all attending to their farms on facebook’s ‘Farmville’. [except Liam who is busy rewriting this news-page for me!].
Next up on the list for us is another tour of Germany throughout Oct, which will also include a couple of dates in the Netherlands. Then it’s Pitloughry festival in Scotland, followed by a short tour of Denmark in November, to include the famous Copenhagan Irish festival.
That’s all for now. Need to rest the nose…
Later,
Soggy
23rd July 2009
Congratulations to Joe Echo, who is currently No. 1 in the USA iTunes Charts. Joe is the composer of the Beoga song ‘On the Way’ and trades vocals with Niamh on the song on our new album ‘The Incident’. Paul Oakenfold’s new remix album “Perfecto Vegas” has gone to Number 1 on the US iTunes and Amazon Dance Chart. The album features a remix of Joe Echo’s ‘On All My Sundays’. Check out more of Joe’s music on www.joeecho.com and www.myspace.com/joeecho and look out for Madonna’s new single Celebration which is also co-written by Joe. Wonder would she be wanting an oul reel composed at all...?
15th July 2009
Beoga will be appearing on RTE1’s ‘The Reel Deal’ at 7.30pm this Friday 17th July for a wacky music video. View with caution!.
4th June 2009
Hi folks, it’s Liam here with all the latest. The sun’s shining and, after a very busy few months, we’re enjoying 2 weeks at home to recharge the batteries. Eamon is nervously awaiting the final results of his degree, Niamh is in Limerick learning how to drive without bumping into... well everything, Damian is watching re-runs of Prison Break with one eye on Facebook and Soggy’s out in the field saving the hay.
Thanks to the great crowds who supported our Irish gigs in April. The craic was as good as always and our guest musicians made it all the more enjoyable. In Belfast, we enjoyed the talents of Joe Echo (vocals) and David Howell 
(sax/clarinet), while in Cork Aine Whelan and Sara Corkery sang brilliantly with Niamh onstage. In Limerick our own Brona Graham plucked a mean banjo and the one and only Brian Finnegan joined us to complete a very memorable night. Brian finished off the tour with us in Ennis too. Sincere thanks to all of them.
Then it was straight up the road to Monaghan for the newly rejuvenated Fiddler of Oriel Festival. There was a party atmosphere throughout for our midnight concert as we jammed onstage with the newly crowned junior Fiddler of Oriel, Niall Murphy, along with Paul Meehan, Damian Stenson and Oisin MacDiarmada... great steam altogether.
We traveled back to Texas in April to perform at the Houston Interna
tional festival. This year Ireland was the featured country and we were honoured when they asked us to collaborate with the legendary Kevin Burke and Cal Scott for several performances over the two weekends. We enjoyed trading sets, and a few beers were also downed with the lads along the way to help the learning process! Our final gig was temporarily halted by the arrival of Congress Member Sheila Jackson Lee, to announce that Beoga had won the Dr. Paul Zanowiak Award for Best New Artist. She also presented us with a Certificate of Congressional Recognition from the US House of Representatives and a stunning trophy. Not content with all the above, Soggy tried to negotiate with her for unrestricted access to AREA 51 and to Houston’s NASA’s mission control room... plus a girls shopping day out with Michelle Obama (for Niamh and Eamon). He did offer Congresswoman Jackson Lee a signed copy of ‘The Incident’ and a ham sandwich in return though...
Last weekend we travelled to Scotland and the Orkney Folk Festival in the beautiful town of Stromness and it proved to be one of the most enjoyable festivals we have been to. We were privileged to share the stage with Buille, Karen Casey and band, and Jeana Leslie and Siobhan Millar - another few days of superb music, fun and good company. The spectacle of several of the above artists, along with one Eamon Murray, parading in chicken outfits at the farewell concert is one that shall remain forever!
Back to awards again… and Beoga are chuffed to be nominated for Best Young Traditional Act in Ireland’s Music Awards, a ceremony which takes place in Castlebar this August. Also nominated are Liadan, Grada, Slide, Teada and the Dave Munnelly band – all great pals of ours and well deserving of the award… “sure they all have lovely bottoms!” To vote click www.irelandsmusicawards.com/nominees.php. Thanks to the committee for considering us - Damian and myself are stunned to be associated with the term ‘young’ – I know for a fact that Damian has socks older than the combined ages of the Liadan members.
Finally, the Reel Deal is a new television series focusing on traditional music and it kicks off on RTE1 this month. Beoga will be making an appearance in the 3rd programme in the series which is on Fri 26th June @ 7.30pm. We underwent the ‘Big Brother’ treatment at last summer’s Celtic Fusion festival. On Fri 17th July tune in to witness the band acting like buck-eejits for a crazy music video. Any remaining credibility will go out the window that night I’m afraid.
That’s all the news for now. Back to the sunshine. Coming up for us soon, are some gigs in England, Wales and Spain this month, then lots of festivals in Germany through July, plus Speyfest in Scotland. Take her handy and enjoy the summer!
Liam
17th March 2009
Happy St Patrick’s day folks! 
It’s Eamon here, writing from sunny New Mexico. We’re on tour in the states again and having a blast!
We started off in the beautiful state of Arizona where we played several great gigs and then took a few days off to explore. We crossed deserts, swam rivers, fed the deer, wrestled with snakes and even managed a flying visit (in a helicopter) to the Grand Canyon... a mighty big hole indeed!
Then we performed in Dallas Texas “Y’all” at the North Texas Irish festival. Liadan, Four Men and a Dog, and the Slide crew were all there to help us party well into the early hours... great craic, except it resulted in all the beogas sleeping through alarm calls and we nearly missed our onward flight. Big thanks to Betsy and all the gang in Texas for the superb hospitality.
We finish up our tour here in New Mexico doing a bunch of double-header shows with our good friends, the mighty and slightly insane Grada. I have a feeling that there may be some very dodgy YouTube footage documenting the extravaganza!
Thanks to all who made our February tour in England very enjoyable. The gigs were great and the crowds were full of lovely English people, cheers for coming out. Next up are the Irish gigs in April, Spain for Easter weekend and a return visit to Texas for the Houston International Festival.
So that’s all the news for now. We’re very excited because ‘The Incident’ has been getting excellent reviews so far, and today there is an article about the band in the Wall Street Journal (17th March) ...very exciting indeed so a big thanks to the people who make it happen.
See you soon!
Eamon
4th February 2009
Hi folks! Damian here, back in the hot seat again to let you know what’s happening in Beoga-land. Firstly our new album ‘The Incident’ has hit the shelves and the airwaves... so grab a copy while they’re hot! You can order the album from us on this website, or alternatively it can be found on www.itunes.com and www.compassrecords.com. We hope you all enjoy listening to it.
I’m writing from Germany where we’ve been hard at work on tour for the past three weeks. We’re having a great time but Soggy has just about had enough schnitzel at this stage. Liam and Niamh are trying to stay off the drink... so they are drinking red wine instead of beer! Red wine doesn’t count... right??? I just love the German beer, so I‘m in my element here. 
A big thanks to our close friend and occasional band member Chris McGlone, who filled in for Eamon on bodhrán for a few gigs recently in Denmark and Germany. Eamon is nearing the end of his 9-year university course and his last exam happened to fall in the middle of our tour. We thoroughly enjoyed having Chris with us and as well as some mean drumming, the audiences were treated to impromptu dancing and songs from Chris, not forgetting a verse of ‘The Cheeky Girls’ during his bodhrán solo in Aschaffenburg.
We have tours coming up in England and the USA later this month, and then we’ll be back in Ireland in April for a few shows to launch ’The Incident’. We always love the Irish gigs and it’ll be great to catch up with our friends from home. We may have a few very special guests joining us onstage too...
That’s about all for now. We’ll chat to you soon. Auf wiedersehen!
Magoo and the beogas