6 years ago this week THE DRUIDS were formed when myself and Mick o Brien met up after 11 years of me been tuning into his Radio Ballad Show SIN È texting and phoning in for requests every week without fail. We met for the 1st time in The Tram pub on Jamess street Dublin one Sunday evening, and after a long chat we put a plan together to form a Rebel Ballad group, a dream come true for me. I wasnt long playing mandolin and had been goin around learning the trade with my great friends The Rebel Hearts for 2 years previous, Mick was on the Dublin ballad scene playing bodhran and singing with numerous different groups at the time, we said if we get a guitar player we mite give it a shot, a few weeks later we got in touch with Gary Lawlor and one Wednesday nite we met in The Curragh of kildare and The Druids Irish Rebel Band was born. We toured as a 3 piece for almost a year and when we would have a big function we were joined by our good friend Mick Dunne on bass, Few months later after a gig in Tullamore, a musician friend of mine Peter Wrafter said to us that a full time Bass player would make a massive difference to our sound. Gary had a friend Darren Egan that had played bass in a rock band, we met up with Darren and after only a few practice sessions he fitted in like a glove. We toured Ireland, Scotland, Belgium, Spain and America all in a short period of time and got to become a household name in the rebel scene, unfortunately in August 2012 Gary needed to take some time off to concentrate on family and work commitments so we stopped gigging as The Druids. Then in December of the same year Gary found the time that he could commit to the band again, Darren decided that he was not in a position to join back up and now he has a great Ballad group called Acushla on the road.. We had to try find ourselves a new Bass player, Mick Dunne was our 1st candidate to be pursued lol, Mick had been a solo artist for over 20years so to try commit to a 4 piece touring band would be one hell of a commitment to make, so we approached him and he was honoured but needed time to think it thru lol, Finally after a few days Mick said he would jump on board til we found a full time bass player. Mick ended up touring full time with us playing all over Ireland, Scotland and America and a gig that meant so much to him a tribute nite to his lifelong friend Pat Power in Nottingham last year, Mick decided in September this year that he wanted to concentrate on his solo career again and spend time with his family and build his daytime business as a Barber, we also lost Gary again in September but the great thing about it is that it was all for good reasons and nobody fell out with each other or anything like that so thats the main thing.. Myself and Mick decided that we would do our upmost best to keep The Druids name alive this time so after some serious chatting and thinkin we had to get our 2 New members, our 1st was Chris Brosnan an 18year old Ballad singer that had been playing support to us and standing in on bass for Mick Dunne with us since 2013, we asked Chris was he up for the job and we didnt have to ask a second time LOL.. then we needed a guitar player, we had some names in mind but the first man on the hit list was Fran o Mara, Fran had been playing with a trad folk group Duchais and had shared the stage with us on many occasions, Duchais had took a break themselves earlier in the year so we asked Fran was he interested, we said we would have a few jamming sessions together see how it went, after a few nites we had our new line-up as The Druids, there are still 2 of the original 3 Druids together and we are working hard on making 2015 been one to remember, its hard when you loose band members after such a long time, when you have everything goin Like you wanted it to be, but such is the life of a working touring band, there are not too many bands on the go these days without a member or 2 changing from time to time, I want to wish Gary, Darren and Mick all the best for the future, 3 great very talented lads. Massive thanks to the people that have continued to support myself and Mick o Brien thru the hard times and the good, and for welcoming Chris and Fran on-board with The Druids, Go raibh mile maith agat a chairde.. Heres to 2015 THE MANGO xxxx
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 01:07:56 +0000
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