news
28th April 2008
Hi folks, Liam here with all the latest from the band...
We’re back in Ireland, hard at work preparing for our third album. The lads and Niamh have been hanging out at my house for a few days and we’ve been trying out all sorts of new stuff. We’re all very excited about it, but I’ll be glad when it’s all over - I’m finding various items of Soggy’s clothing in weird places, Damian has emptied the fridge, and my computer may never recover from Eamon’s internet activities! But we’re all looking forward to recording the new music in July.
Eamon is determined that this album will outsell Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ album as opposed to ‘Mischief’ which barely outsold 'History'. Soggy has been hinting strongly that Eamon’s triangle playing on the last album was too loud and generally unacceptable, so expect to hear Soggy back in the coveted triangle slot for this album - great news for all fans of good triangle playing! If any of you folks have any good suggestions for the album title drop us an email.
We spent most of late Feb/March in the USA where we had a blast! We kicked off with almost 2 weeks around sunny California and stopped off for a few fun-filled days in Las Vegas. Following our recent good fortune at a casino in Switzerland, confidence was riding very high.
Unfortunately our winning streak just wasn’t happening this time round and we even had to consider selling Niamh to pay for our hotel. But nobody would buy her, so we finished off the tour in the freezing temperatures of Ohio and Michigan. Amazing scenery, fantastic people and a great time... marred only by a nasty bout of food poisoning for poor Niamh on St. Paddy’s day.
Then it was off to a very wet Portugal for a couple of nights, beginning with a crazy gig in Oporto. It was chaos - an extremely lively audience! The rain didn’t prevent us from taking a dip in the River Douro after, which turned out to be a bit too slimey and slippy round the edges. There were a couple of badly bruised limbs as a result. Our sound engineer Sean Egan took the biggest tumble and suffered a hideously swollen leg, with all the appearance of a small shark attack!
Anyhow, all has been very good to date. Things are looking busy for the rest of the year and we’re hoping to launch the new album in early 2009. Next stop.. the World bodhrán championships in Kerry... hundreds of bodhrán players all in one place... say no more!!!
Talk soon. Keep in touch with the album title suggestions at info@beogamusic.com. - all are welcome.
Liam
19th February 2008
Hey folks. Eamon here, filling you in with some news from the Beoga camp! Before i forget... check out BBC2 Northern Ireland this tuesday (26th February) at 10pm to see Beoga performing a few sets on the 'Blackstaff Sessions'.
Anyhow, we've been busy bees of late playing here and there, including University College Cork tradfest and the University of Limerick tradfest respectively - we had a blast! Why are students so mental? Seriously though...during our encore I saw a guy dancing around with 2 girls, holding one by the hand and the other by the leg...like it was the most normal thing in the world! That gives you some indication of sanity level.
Beoga have scooped up a load of awards for 'Mischief' in the past few weeks... an Oscar, a Bafta, A Brit Award and a TGI Fridays ‘All you can eat’ Award - Go team! Nah, really the album did great for us in 2007 and here’s a few of the end of year honours we received -
Live Ireland Music Awards 2008: Instrumental Cut of the Year
German Music Awards: 3rd place in folk category
Irish Echo No.4: (Earle Hitchner)
Boston Globe Best cd’s of 2007
Folk Alley: Best of 2007
WVIA-FM ‘Mixed Bag': Best of 2007 Albums (selected by George Graham)
Philadelphia City Paper: Top 10 Roots Albums of 2007 (selected by Mary Armstrong)
WNCW FM: Top 10 Celtic Albums of 2007
Dirty Linen Magazine: Top 10 2007 releases (selected by Tom Nelligan)
Hot Press Magazine: Top Albums of 2007
Well done the beogas, I am currently patting myself on the back and when i see the rest of the bunch they will get an equally big pat. We are all getting packed and ready to head back to the U.S of A this week. We start in San Fran, make our way round California and finish up in Michigan for St. Patricks day!
We have loads coming up in 2008 (including a new album to plan!) so keep an eye on the website for updates.
Talk soon,
Eamon.
21th December 2007
Hey there everyone. Damian here… Yes, I’ve finally been allowed to write a news page. It’s only taken 5 years. (Damian began writing this in 2002!). This is probably a great opportunity for me to get Eamon back for all the abuse he showers on me on stage, but we’ll leave that for another day. First of all I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. On behalf of the band I would like to thank all of you who came out to the gigs and supported us in 2007. It’s been a great year for Beoga and 2008 is shaping up to be even busier again, so keep an eye out.
Well, we’ve just got back from a hectic weekend in Switzerland, where we were provided with an ‘always dangerous’ free bar! We had amazing hospitality and craic all weekend from Roli and his team, and good company, namely - Niamh Parsons, Graham Dunne, Cara, Kieran Goss with his wife Annie and Gareth Hughes, along with the lads from Lunasa. Our original plan was to come home on the Saturday following our Friday night gig, but after a swift visit to a neighbouring Casino, we realised our luck was in and we stayed all weekend! A great time all together! Check out some of the evidence online in our 4th video diary.
Anyway, the band is all finished up now until after the New Year where Glasgow’s Celtic Connections will be our first port of call. Eamon and Seán Og however, will be performing in the Market Place Theatre Armagh on the 7th of January with Brian Finnegan’s “Singing Tree” project, which features some of Ulster’s finest musicians and singers. They should have a blast!
In other news, the Boston Globe has included ‘Mischief’ as one of the best cd’s of 2007. We’re extremely honoured to feature among some very distinguished company!. And we’ve just heard that Mischief has also received a nomination for the German Music awards, taking place in January.
And those of you able to receive BBC2 N. Ireland, look out for Beoga on the BBC ‘Proms in the Park’ programme, playing with the Ulster Orchestra, to be broadcast on Sat 29th December at 6pm.
Festive wishes from all the Beogas! See you all in the New Year.
Damian
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