15th October 2007
Hi Folks,
How goes it? Eamon here, just filling you in with what's going on in Beoga world. Firstly, while I remember, tune into BBC2 on Monday night (15th Oct) at 10pm. Beoga will be appearing on 'Blas Ceoil'. We recorded a few sets a couple of weeks ago in the Crosskeys Inn in Toomebridge Co. Antrim. They'll be shown on Monday night so happy times!
We’re also recording a few numbers at the BBC NI studios on 27th Oct for the Blackstaff sessions. To reserve a place in the studio audience, click here. The show will go out on the BBC early in the new year.
As you know we had a hectic summer and the video evidence is now online. So far there are 3 video tour diary entries on www.youtube.com/beogamusic for your viewing pleasure. Liam had to edit them drastically to cut all the controversial stuff out, as words like B@%*$ and D*&^%$* have no place in good clean family entertainment. The footage includes our tour of the U.S, with highlights like the fun had in Boston, Milwaukee and L.A and also the down times like when our hired van was smashed up by a large lorry. There's something there for everyone including some semi-naked shots of Damian in California.........for the ladies of course, (we know how you gals love the magoo).
We have a busy couple of weeks ahead with several upcoming gigs in Germany as well as Sligo Live Festival, a flying visit to Milan and back to sunny Ireland for a ‘Ag Seinm Traditional Arts weekend’ in Cavan.
Anyway, that's pretty much you guys up to speed, oh... our debut album ‘A Lovely Madness’ Is also now available from Compass Records. Check out both albums online at www.compassrecords.com or www.itunes.com
Cheers,
Eamon.x
8th September’07
Hey guys. Here’s some info regarding our concert tomorrow night with the BBC Ulster Orchestra if you want to catch iton radio or TV... Highlights of all five BBC Proms in the Park events will be included as part of the live coverage on BBC ONE and BBC TWO. Digital TV viewers can choose between watching the concert inside the Royal Albert Hall and the various Proms in the Park events taking place across the country. The Carrickfergus event will be transmitted live on BBC Radio Ulster 92-95FM & 1341MW, DAB Radio, Freeview Ch719, Satellite Ch0118 and for digital viewers on BBC Interactive Television (through the red button on your remote control). A special highlights programme will be broadcast on BBC Northern Ireland Television at a later date.
24th August’07
We’ve been filming a video tour diary of our travels over the summer for Compass Records, check out www.compassrecords.com or www.youtube.com - first instalment is online now. Martin Scorcese is directing it and we’re hoping it will sccop at least 7 Oscars, including best soundtrack, Best male actor- Liam Bradley and Best female actor- Sean Og Graham.
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It’s Eamon here, writing from Maine in the sunny states. We arrived a week ago after playing the Ballyshannon folk festival with 4 men and a dog. Great night. From there we went straight to Germany for an outdoor concert in Bonn marketplace. The weather was beautiful and we had a ball playing there! Next stop was Boston, for the ICONS festival. It was an unbelievable weekend of music and mayhem, we played to a great crowd on Saturday just before Nanci Griffith, and on the Compass records stage on Sunday just before the Uncle Earl gals, (pictured above - how hot do we look?)
A big thanks to all of you who came along and made some noise, and to Brian O’Donovan and the ICONS festival committee for having us in Boston again, and also to the Compass records team who took good care of us.
At the moment we are sitting backstage in a place called East Dixfield, a unique venue, full of character, in the middle of nowhere in Maine. From here we go to the ‘Disneyland’ of Irish music, Milwaukee Irish Festival. We will be heading home from the states early September just in time for a peformance at the BBC Proms in the Park at Carrickfergus Caslte along with the Ulster Orchestra... tha’ts right; a freakin’ full orchestra! So overall a packed few weeks ahead.
Cheers, behave, Oh by the way, any ipod owners, check out our stuff on itunes.
Eamon.
24th July’07
Hi all,
Just to let you know that our concert in Carrick-on-Shannon has been postponed until later in the year due to exceptional circumstances. We’ll let you know the new date asap.
20th June’07
The last few months have been good and busy here in the Beoga camp.
Eamon celebrated his 21st birthday in April (Happy b’day Huggy!) and it coincided with our concert at the Roisin Dubh. Galway. So we had a merry couple of days partying in Galway and there were some very sore heads after the trip!
Afterwards, Niamh and Seán Óg rushed back to complete their final music exams at the University in Limerick. Within an hour of their very last test, (‘Colour in the crotchets’, I think it was) we flew to Italy for the Montecchio Precalcino festival, where we witnessed approx 18 million sword fights round a fire... and we drank almost as many beers. Eamon was unable to join us for the gig, due to a minor injury (wee crying girl!) so our good friend, the great Chris McGlone stepped in on bodhrán. Chris provided a new aspect to the Beoga show with a dazzling display of freestyle dancing that would have Justin Timberlake quaking in his welly-boots! Some footage can be found on www.YouTube.com, we hear!
More recently, Beoga played a few gigs across the water in Wales and England. We started with Gower Folk Festival, in a lovely little setting, where there were lots of little furry animals for Niamh to play with. She was particularly impressed by the baby shetland pony, and would disappear off for hours at a time… Then we journeyed north, stopping off for an adrenaline-filled 3 hours at Alton Towers! At closing time, Damian had to be forcibly removed from Rita, Queen of Speed! Two gigs in England followed, one in Middlesbrough and the second in the Tyneside Irish Centre, Newcastle. Two great night’s craic were had and some crazy new friends were met along the way.
We’re getting our bags ready now for an action-packed summer. After a couple of dates in Ireland, including the famous Craiceann bodhran festival in Inis Oirr, we return to Austria for a 3 week tour and the USA for most of August, with a couple of trips to Germany and a few Irish dates thrown in between. For all the dates see http://www.beogamusic.com/html/tour_dates.html. Hope we see you along the way...
Have a great summer! beoga
21st March’07
Hi Everyone,
It’s been an exciting few weeks here. In February we were on a tour of Holland with the Fureys and Davey Arthur and Mary Partlan with Garry O’Briain and Eddie Lynch. We had 17 great gigs and craic and witnessed some strange things in Amsterdam, most of which should never be spoken of...! Look out for our video footage from the trip, which Liam is in the process of editing.
We’re just back from a whirlwind trip to Boston for St. Patrick’s day. With a blizzard forcing Boston airport to close on the 16th night, we were lucky to make it just in the nick of time for our first concert, with only half an hour to spare. 3 of us were diverted to Detroit for the night of Friday 16th, while Soggy and Niamh were diverted to a small airport in Bangor, Maine where they endured a cold hungry night on the airport floor, followed by a 6 hour bus ride to Boston early next morning. But they both managed to stay awake for our 2 Paddy’s day gigs and even to enjoy the lively late night party afterwards, kindly hosted by Brian O’Donovan and family.
We’re looking forward to returning to the states this summer and beyond, for a few more festivals. The band has just joined up with Pat Garrett of RGM Booking agency, who represent some fine Irish groups in the states.
Thanks to all who’ve already bought the album. ‘Mischief’ has been getting a fantastic response so far, including a 9.5/10 in Hot Press and 4/5 in the Irish Times and soon the album will be available from Compass Records. Nashville-based Compass are currently the leading Irish record label in the US and they will be looking after Mischief for us worldwide.
So we’ve been playing a few dates around Ireland to promote the new album and the audiences have been incredible. We had back-to-back gigs in Limerick, Ennis and Dublin, all of which were great... but the Dolan’s warehouse audience in Limerick were particularly amazing... mad eejits... completely buck daft! It was awesome. We’ve a gig right on our doorstep this weekend at Bryson’s Magherafelt, followed by Longford (Mon 26th) and we’re looking forward to our first ever gig in the Roisin Dubh in Galway on 17th April.
UPDATED 26TH JANUARY’06
Hey folks,
MISCHIEF IS HERE! Hope you’re all well and fully recovered from the holiday celebrations. The second album is finally in our hands and we’re very pleased with it... just in time for our 3 week Irish Unplugged tour of Holland, in the fine company of the Fureys and Davey Arthur and the Mary McPartlan band.
Following that we can’t wait to get home for the Irish gigs. Eamon is particurily excited and as a result we’re slightly concerned about what he might be planning. We’re looking forward to the craic and seeing a few friendly faces.
UPDATED 24TH DECEMBER’06
Just a quick note to say have a fantastic Christmas. We’ve had a great year and we’re looking forward to more of the same in 2007.
We’ve some clips of the new album and a promo video online here, so feel free to have a look. And if you have the telly on New Year’s eve, check out RTE’s Celebrity Jigs and Reels around 11.30pm, where you might hear more music from ‘Mischief’, expertly accompanied by the professional Irish Dancers.
UPDATED 3RD DECEMBER’06
Sorry we ain’t been in touch for ages, hope you weren’t worried. We had some computer problems and it took some time to sort them out. But we’re up and running again and there’s lots of changes planned for the website over the next couple of months.
The big news is we’ve finished recording our second album. We had a photo shoot for the album yesterday and are pleased that Damian’s tan almost looks convincing in the shots. Without being biased Eamon would like to stress that this album is the best most awesome creation ever… EVER! He is also delighted that his two year living nightmare has ended, as he managed to wrestle the coveted triangle slot off Soggy... Yes folks, Soggy does not play triangle on the new album!
With all his time living abroad and playing around Limerick, it was felt that he has inadvertently picked up more of a west Clare style of triangle playing, not in keeping with the northern style of the group. Eamon doesn’t get things all his own way on the new album however and Liam would like to draw attention to his fine castenet work on track one (south derry style).
The new album is entitled ‘Mischief’, and as with ‘a lovely madness’, we’re lucky to have had some very talented guest musicians joining us on a few of the tracks, not least the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra! We’ll be officially launching the cd with several Irish concert dates beginning late Feb/March. Full list to follow soon. For those of you living in Holland, we’ll be doing a three week tour there in February, along with the Fureys and Davey Arthur and we plan to bring Mischief along there with us.
But for any hardcore Beoga fan(s) who can’t that long... as a special Christmas present from us to you, check this website on 25th December day for a sneak preview...
24TH JULY’06
Hey folks. We’re writing to you from Homestead studios in Co. Antrim where Niamh is singing her wee heart out. Yes, it’s day one in the ‘Big Beoga’ recording house and already we can see the housemates fighting over who is on tea and coffee duties!
The lads and Niamh have arrived with a trailer load of new tunes and songs. Huggy’s bodhrán is stretched tight, ready for 10 days of severe punishment and Soggy has had his triangle polished every night for the last three months - it’s sitting gleaming in the corner (along with Liam’s baldy head!). Damian has munched his way through 15 bags of crisps this morning alone and has the tan topped up lovely for the big recording…
We’re just back from a tour of north Italy, where the World Cup celebrations were in full swing. The mosquito’s took a particular liking to Soggy and Liam, leaving them looking like wart infested armpits for the most part...! They were so badly disfigured with bites that some of the Italians didn’t recognise them, and in fact many mistook Liam for Zinedine Zidane...
In other news Soggy and Huggy have been witnessing some amazing young talent recently, while teaching at the Meitheal summer school in Limerick and the Craiceann bodhrán week on Inis Oirr respectively. Time to start the practising again lads!
Aside from recording we’ll be filling the rest of the summer with a few Irish gigs and a couple of big European festivals including the renowned Tonder festival in Denmark. See you there. Gotta go... Niamh needs water...
The lads.
16TH JUNE’06
Beoga will be playing a few sets live on BBC Radio Ulster, Tuesday 20th June on the Gerry Anderson show for the official launch of Belfast’s Open House festival programme.
UPDATED 3RD APRIL’06
Seán Óg here writing from a snowy Sweden. Myself and Niamh are continuing our studies here at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm until the end of May before the Beoga summer plans get underway. Hup! So it’s my turn to update you on the recent happenings.
Two birthdays have passed (me - 21st, Damian - 47 I think!) and we visited two countries in March. We played at a great festival in Luxembourg in the town of Dudelange to a very lively ‘luxembourinish’ (I’m sure there’s a better word yes, but it’s late!) audience. Then for St. Patricks weekend it was off to sunny Italy, where Eamon met the love of his life... every 10 minutes... (very attractive race the Italians!). Niamh, on the other hand, wanted to eat all the men (she later settled for pizza though).
On St. Paddy’s night we played in Firenze, where we had the chance to relax after the gig, and as the music continued into the early hours we met some newfound American/Italian friends, who had us up dancing jigs within 4 pints… or was it 7? Anyways, a good night was had by all and I’m sure St Patrick would’ve been proud! The other Italian gigs were much more relaxed (thank God says our heads) and we had a chance to visit two beautiful cities, Florence and Verona. We return to Italy in July, and we’re looking forward to that.
Good news is... plans are underway to record our 2nd Beoga album. So if all goes well, we’ll have the new album ready for Jan 2007. And Niamh will be joining the four lads on the album this time... watch this space...
Signing out,
Soggy
(PS in other news I have bought 2 new guitars and myself and Damian both have new squeezeboxes on the way… and we’re VERY excited!)
2ND JANUARY’06
A lot has been happening in the Beoga camp since we were in touch last. We spent an amazing 6 weeks in Germany, Switzerland and Denmark on Petr Pandula’s Irish folk festival tour in the company of Alan Burke, Kevin Burke, Ged Foley and Solas. What a time we had too… fantastic venues, audiences, food, drink, craic, drink, music… and drink!
One of the highlights was the concert venue in Merkers which is in a salt mine 800 metres under the earth. It’s officially the lowest concert venue in the world. The tour also included the prestigious Koln Philharmonie and the famous Circus Krone in Munich, another tour highlight. After this gig Damian was offered a job in the circus as an elephant, Eamon was mistaken for a clown and Niamh reluctantly declined the position of popcorn lady! We had loads of fun with the Solas crew on the tour, an amazing bunch, and hopefully the German Government will let us all back in soon...
We got a few days rest at home before we were away again for a three week tour of Austria with the Red Hat Band for the Guinness Irish Christmas Festival. Baltic temperatures… -16C at night, which was bad for Eamon as he left home without his coat (a sheepskin, of course). Dietmar Hasslinger (Hasi) was the man responsible for bringing us out to Austria and he looked after us fantastically. We had some amazing gigs and absolutely crazy nights in Austria so thanks Hasi and all the legendary Red Hats. Plans are afoot to make it back to both Germany and Austria for solo tours in 2007, if we’re allowed, so watch this space!
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So that’s all from us at the moment, Happy New Year guys, hope to see you out and about soon.
12TH SEPTEMBER‘05
Hey guys. We’re just home from a long weekend in and around Dublin.
On Thursday we played to a very lively crowd at the Spirit store in Dundalk. Zoe Conway, who recorded with us on the album, played a set with us, which was great. Then, on to Dublin and a full house at the Cobblestone on Friday night. Thanks to all who showed up. A special mention to all the Riverdance girls who took time out between rehearsals to catch the gig and also to Dearbhla, Carla and Leanne (aka Freddy!) who danced a few steps for us on the Thursday night.
A big hello to all who attended our late night gig at the All-Ireland fleadh. We neglected to mention that the clothes we wore for the gig were very kindly supplied Jack & Jones... Damian has never looked as suave in his life! And well done to Sean Og for keeping his outfit clean until the gig.
After the fleadh we played an acoustic concert in the Magnetic Music cafe in Doolin, a lovely intimate venue with candles, very romantic... the sort of place Eamon Murray would escort a young lady to! We have a few more gigs in Ireland before our German and Austrian tours, so hopefully we might catch ye all somewhere along the ‘road to Amarillo’. Percussion fans will be delighted to learn that, following a blistering performance in Dundalk and Dublin, Soggy’s triangle might also be appearing onstage for the remainder of the Irish Tour.
4TH AUGUST‘05
Hey Folks, 
We’d a great time in the North of Italy a couple of weeks ago. We played four concerts, and spent the rest of our time relaxing in the sun. Damian actually achieved a real tan this time! Big thanks to Michel, Giacomo, Fabio and the crew for the week. We’re looking forward to going back in a couple of week’s time.
Last weekend we were in Ballyshannon for the Traditional festival and played a gig on the Saturday night alongside Frankie Gavin and his band. BBC World filmed the concert; we’ll let you know when it’s being broadcast.
‘Ginger Step Dance Co.’ in England are co-ordinating a dance performance based on the music from ‘a lovely madness’. The show is called Celtic Breeze and Beoga are providing the live music for the show for both performances on 24th-25th September in London. Maggie Townsend and Richard Griffin are choreographers for the show. Richard also choreographed the well known show, Gaelforce Dance. Liam and the boys are used to this kind of thing, but young girls dancing around in a provocative manner may get all too much for animal Murray, so we may have to chain him in the orchestra pit to stop him misbehaving. Anyway we are all looking forward to it and are chuffed to have been asked.
Music from the album has also been used in a movie. "The Emerald Diamond" is a 90-minute documentary about baseball in Ireland. The film will feature seven tracks from ‘a lovely madness’.
A belated thanks to John O’Regan who included ‘a lovely madness’ among his selection of albums for the fRoots critics poll award. His selection for 2004 was:
Beoga ‘A Lovely Madness’, Fairport Convention ‘Over The Next Hill’, Planxty ‘Live 2004’, Shirae Tiger’s Island, Gary Walshe ‘Uncovered’, Sandy Denny ‘A Boxful Of Treasures’, Fairport Convention ‘Cropredy Capers’, Christy Moore ‘Whatever Tickles Your Fancy’ and Joe O’Donnell ‘Gaodhol’s Vision’.
12TH JULY‘05
Hi all. Summer time again and the good news for us, is that the band are free to tour full-time for the rest of the year.
Liam and Damian are just back from a week of playing in Nashville. Now, six weeks ago, Damian ruptured his achilles heel while attempting to play football and he was on crutches for a month. But now he has a large boot that looks as if it was stolen from one of the Stormtroopers in Star Wars! Hopefully he’ll have it removed soon, as it makes a bit of a racket when he taps his foot. Surprisingly, it hasn’t stopped him from exhibiting his legendary dance moves... except that one time at his friend’s wedding, when he fell over backwards!
Meanwhile Eamon has spent a week teaching bodhran on Inisheer, where he was joined by Sean Og and Niamh. A lively week’s craic was had, by the sound of it!
Our Irish tour is being updated all the time, the latest addition is Dingle on 4th Oct. If you’re planning to catch our gig in Ballyshannon, please note that we will be playing on Saturday 30th July (it differs in some advertisements). Frankie Gavin and band will be playing also that night.
13TH APR‘05
Hello there. First of all thanks to all who voted for Beoga in the Irish Music magazine best traditional newcomers award poll. Much appreciated. 
We are just back from a sunny week out in Spain. Damian appreciated the real sun, rather than the fake sun he gets at Dunloy’s ‘Tan and Go’ salon! We had a great week in the company of Irish dance teacher Jacqueline Kennedy and her family. But it was not all relaxation, as late each night the boundaries of irish music and dance were shattered in the form of the ‘Alicante Reel’, under the guidance of Texan dance maestro Neal Reagan.
Sadly Seán Óg missed out on the trip as he was catching up on his homework in Limerick. However, he is instead heading for France for a week soon, to play in Alan Kelly’s show, standing in for the great man himself... if you don’t mind.
Details of our October-November German tour are now on the dates page, along with Italian dates in July.
1ST FEB‘05
Hi folks, we’ve been ‘flat to the mat’ recently and unable to keep in touch as often as we would have liked, but we hope you’ll forgive us. Thanks to all who turned out at the last few gigs. The CD is going great and has shot like a bat out of hell to number 1 in the Cork charts… so thanks to all the 6 people who purchased the album in the county in question! We are heading to Cork this weekend for the University trad festival, where we’re gigging with Lunasa on Saturday night.
The album reviews are coming in thick and fast and there’s a few more on the way. Relief all round, as Seán Óg’s triangle playing has finally been mentioned in a review at www.paythereckoning.com/reviews.html. He is now refusing to end growing speculation that he’s in final negotiations for a lucrative 3-month Far East ‘Triangle solo’ tour.
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As some of you may know, we have had guest Niamh Dunne appearing with us at a number of gigs last year. Niamh hails from Limerick and is a great singer and fiddler. She is quite small, which is handy at airports and is also studying Music at the University of Limerick, so she helps Seán Óg out when he is getting it tough at the big hard school! Niamh will hopefully be joining us for more gigs this year, including our German and Austrian tours from Oct - Dec’05. Visit the ‘Band’ page for some more information on Niamh.
1ST NOV‘04
Thanks to everyone for buying the album and for all the feedback which is arriving daily. Seán Óg is still concerned that the reviews have failed to single out his triangle playing on track 4. An eleven-minute triangle solo (in B-flat) is currently being considered for the 2nd album...
We’re finalising plans at the moment for the official ‘a lovely madness’ album launches, beginning in Ennis, Co Clare with the Saturday night concert at Ennis trad festival, followed of course by the now legendary ‘trad disco’. After Ennis we’ll be launching the album over several weeks at concerts in Dublin, Limerick, Birmingham (England), with Cork in early February.
The album is available online and is gradually becoming distributed to record stores. So, if it’s not on the shelf in your local shop, don’t be afraid to ask for it. We need the money (especially Damian… bless!).
Eamon is over in sunny Spain at the moment, playing with Peter Browne and Shane McGowan, however he will definitely be home before Ennis, as he has his weekly appointment for a ‘perm’ on a Tuesday. So, after we convince Seán Óg to invest in a new pair of socks, we’ll be ready for the road. Hoping to see you out at the gigs!
7TH SEPT’04
Hey folks, it’s been a while since we changed the news page but sure it’s worth the wait! Since we were talking to you last a lot has happened... Soggy has bailed over 30 acres of hay (round bales, using the Massey tractor) and Damian has moved 563 bags of crisps closer to his dream of a sponsorship deal from Golden Wonder!
We’ve had quite a busy time recently and the CD is finally in our hands. It can be purchased now on the Mad for Trad website and hopefully will hit the shops in the very near future. We’re all very happy with the finished article and hope you will be too, well worth the wait!
We’d a great time playing at Ballyshannon festival in early August, and we’re still on a high from the Gig’n the Bann festival. We played to a full house and got an almighty response from the home crowd, always good! Other acts on the bill included Kieran Goss and Danú among others, a powerful weekends craic!
We’re officially launching ’a lovely madness’ through the country over the coming weeks (and months), so keep an eye on the gig list to see if we will be anywhere nearby... so you can come to the gig and buy a hundred CD’s, it’s the least that one can do! In all seriousness though, let us know what you make of the album and if you ain’t got one yet, there might still be a few left in the boot of Liam’s car!
Bye for now, Beoga
20TH MAY‘04
Hello folks,
Eamon here, just to tell you hardcore fans that the CD is in the very final stages and will hopefully hit the market in the next couple of months and all that’s left to sort out is the business end of things….yawn. We went for a photo shoot a few weeks ago with photographer Gary Parrott at his Belfast studio, thankfully he even made Sean Óg look presentable! My ‘Playgirl’ photo shoots from the past came in very handy and Gary said I had the looks and body of a Calvin Klein underwear model….actually that last statement was just conjured up in my head. In preparation for the shoot Damian went to the sun beds in Dunloy, but his plan backfired as his head resembled a large beetroot.
Myself and Sean Og are hitting the books for the next few weeks as we have exams coming up but after that the Beoga fest begins! As you know we played before Kila a few weekends ago in Donegal. The gig went great and the freestyle dancing afterwards went even better. Thanks to Theresa Kavanagh (T.K Maxx) for having us and we will hopefully make it back next year for the craic.
We played a gig at Corofin Music Festival back in March as you may remember, and at the Saturday night concert Sean Óg also accompanied Donegal fiddler Ciaran Mooney. I have to inform you that both of these extremely naughty boys spent the afternoon before the gig in the public house with the wine, women and song (how rude!) but below is a review of the gig as featured in the June’04 Irish music magazine...
“Saturday's concert brought me what I'm always hoping for, and am always astounded by, when it, so rarely, happens;a revelation. This time in the form of the fiddle playing of Ciaran 0 Maonaigh accompanied by Sean Óg Graham on guitar. Now, the concert is on the evening of the afternoon when Ireland has just beaten England in Twickenham at rugby for the first time in several hundred years (OK I exaggerate that but a Triple Crown is worth a few embellishments) and quite a few people including our two bold performers are in an exceedingly good mood. This is transmitted live and direct to the audience in Corofin's Teach Ceoil, which can only be described as an intimate venue, especially with around a hundred and fifty people in it: the front row being all of two feet from the stage. This was parlour music with attitude.
Ciaran 0 Maonaigh being from Donegal played tunes got from Tommy Peoples, lohnny Doherty and of course, his uncle, Frankie Kennedy. And believe me as the phrase goes 'they were flyin' it'.”
Well done lads!
11TH FEBRUARY 2004
Hello everyone. Just a quick update from me. (Seán Óg)
We’ve almost finished recording for the album, except a few touches here and there, to be done during the mixing stage. Actually we’ve still one more track to record too, so it might take a bit longer than expected. Apart from that the album is coming along brilliantly... we’ve had the following guests in recording with us over the past weeks and their musicianship and contribution has been outstanding:
James Blennerhasset: Acoustic and Electric Bass
Zoë Conway: Fiddle
John Fitzpatrick and String Quartet
Peter Tomelty: Saxophone
Brona Graham: Banjo/Mandolin
John Duffin: Low and High Whistles
It’s 6 months since we first began by recording the demo’s, so we’re really looking forward to the final result. Many long hours and a lot of dedication have gone into it. In fact McKee’s lost half a pound in weight and Eamon almost cancelled football one night! Some of our sets have changed quite a bit (for the better!) while we were in the studio, so we’re practicing the new versions for upcoming live performances.
I’m currently recording an album in Limerick, playing guitar for the Dunne family at a studio in Milltown Malbay. Quite a talented family they are too, so watch this space. I was also in Glasgow a couple of weeks ago teaching accordian workshops and luckily I was there during the famous international ‘Celtic Connections’ festival, and what a festival it is! Well worth a return visit!
Liam and Damian leave on Thursday to play in California for a couple of weeks. They’ll be playing for Irish dancers in San Francisco and LA, so if anyone’s talking to them be sure to tell them to be on their best behaviour! Anyway that’s all from me as I’m trying to watch the great Austin Powers while doing this! Chat to ye soon. Soggy
DECEMBER 2003
Congratulations to new trad band Callán, winners of this years ‘Tradstars’ competition which was held on Sunday 7th. Chris McGlone, Ciaran Brady, Joe Murray, Stephen Flanagan and Ryan Graham won the votes of a packed audience at Cookstown’s Burnavon Arts Centre. As last year’s winners we were there to play a few sets while the votes were being counted.
Finally... Eamon’s kindly donated 3 photographs of himself (below) for our festive ‘Spot the Difference’ competition. He insists there are subtle differences between them, however we‘ve studied them in detail and are convinced they’re identical. So we decided to throw it open to the public! Let us know if you spot them...
Merry Christmas!
Spot the difference?
November 2003
Hello all!
Welcome to the site. This is our very first news page so you are very privileged! Here we are getting wet for a photograph at the bottom of Bridal falls near Chilliwack, Vancouver in September ‘03. Since the forming of the group in August 2002 a lot has happened. So the next 47 pages will be very interesting to you... Seriously though I’ll give you the lowdown in a few short lines.
beoga was formed after a ferocious night’s tunes under the stairs in the Listowel Arms at the All Ireland Fleadh competitions in August 2002. Our first stage outing was a Charity gig in December ‘02 in aid of ‘Marie Curie Cancer Research’ which was wonderfully organised by musician Brian McCart. Entitled ‘Tradstars - The Rivals’ we were given the opportunity to compete against an all-girl band ‘Greine’, the prize being a trip to Amsterdam to play gigs. We were lucky enough to win on the night and an amazing time in Holland was had by all. Thanks to the Mulligan’s of Amsterdam crew. Some photos are included in the gallery page... the rest have been destroyed in the interest of public safety!
After Amsterdam we’ve been kept busy with gigs in Ireland including the ‘Gig’n the Bann’ festival in Portglenone and ‘Ballyshannon Folk Festival’. However, the highlight so far has to have been our visit to Canada and the U.S of A. We spent a week in Vancouver followed by 5 days in San Francisco. We were well looked after in Vancouver by a good musician friend John Forde and his wife Carmen (not forgetting the kids). We’d several gigs, including the ‘Douglas College Performing Arts Theatre’, a lovely venue to play... but the house party at Jennifer’s afterwards was even better as you might see from the photographic evidence.
We also played a gig in the Abbotsford Curling club and tried our hand at the Curling afterwards... DISASTER! Then, in San Francisco we played a few gigs two of which were in the renowned ‘Plough and the stars’ Irish bar. Again these went very well for us and plans are being made for an extended return.
At the minute we’re busy preparing to record our debut album in Homestead Studios in Randalstown, Co Antrim under the watchful eye of Mudd Wallace. With his help we hope to release the album in 2004, so look out for our upcoming gigs and watch out for the album. Bye for now.
Eamon Murray & Beoga
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