On Friday October 7th I was presented with the 2011 Alumnus Illustrissimus award for distinguished past pupils by my old school St Columb’s College, Derry ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Columb%27s_College) . The award itself is a beautiful piece of sculpture by my friend the late Eamon O’Doherty representing the voyage of St Columba and his fellow monks to the island of Iona in the year 563 AD. Previous recipients of the award are:Read More

A six part entertainment series on RTE television hosted by the legendary broadcaster Gay Byrne and featuring music and chat from stars of the Irish Music World.. Paul Brady, Christy Moore, Bob Geldof, Imelda May, Mary Black and Daniel O’Donnell is being recorded in June.
If you would like to be part of our studio audience for the show with Paul Brady, which will take place in RTE studios in Dublin on Thursday Evening the 30th of June, you can apply for an application form to onenightonly@rte.ie and please put Paul Brady in the subject box. Closing date for Applications will be Monday the 20th of June; unfortunately there are limited tickets available so first come, first served. If you have any problem emailing you can contact Avril on (+3531) 208.3906 .

While it could not come close to eclipsing his musical achievements, Paul Brady’s reputation as something of a curmudgeon precedes him. So when I find him in a loquacious mood at his South Dublin home, it is both a surprise and relief.  Indeed he says that he wishes Van Morrison, his Northern contemporary, ‘was a bit happier’.

But Paul is not a man without his own darkness. Now, for the first time, he reflects on his childhood, and in particular his fraught relationship with his mother, Mollie, who has since died. He says she ‘probably felt’ she should have married someone other than his father, and that he never really came to know her at all during her life. It is a remarkable insight into a man renowned for being guarded. But these days, Paul maintains he has come to be ‘comfortable’ with who he is.Read More

The Lefsetz Letter (http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/) is an influential music industry blog from LA based Bob Lefsetz that goes out to around 250,000 people. This is a recent issue which I don’t think he’ll mind me sharing with you. Also my reply to him which he re-blogged.

From: “Bob Lefsetz” <bob@lefsetz.com>

Date: 12 November 2010 04:49:04 GMT

Subject: The Long Goodbye

This is a number one record.

“I know they say if you love somebody

You should set them free (so they say)”

So they say.  Don’t you wish it weren’t true?  Don’t you wish every cliche was wrong, that you could reinvent the wheel, that things could be different for you?

But they’re not.

Sting sang that song about setting someone you’re in love with free, but the tonality of that number gave the impression that he was the one being set loose, or he was giving the advice.  And we all know love advice is given to make you feel good.  But it doesn’t.  The more your friends talk, the more they try to cheer you up, the more isolated you feel, you believe they just don’t understand, just don’t get you.Read More

A correction to the Wikipedia Paul Brady page…well at least one of the dozens of inaccuracies that need to be fixed…is the supposed quote from Bob Dylan saying I was “One of only five artists in the world worth getting out of bed for.” BOB DYLAN NEVER SAID THAT!!!! If anyone has any input to Wikipedia will they please remove that?
It was some jaded, jaundiced hack in some British music rag back in the 80s who thought he was being funny. He probably never even read the actual quote.
What Bob Dylan really said in the booklet accompanying his 1895 box set ‘Biograph’ was “..people get too famous too fast these days and it destroys them. Some guys got it down- Leonard Cohen, Paul Brady, Lou Reed, secret heroes,- John Prine, David Allen Coe,Tom Waits. I listen more to that kind of stuff than whatever is popular at the moment. They’re not just witchdoctoring up the planet, they don’t set up barriers…Gordon Lightfoot, every time I hear a song of is it’s, like, I wish it would last forever.”
I’m constantly amazed at how even reputable journalists continue to rely upon Wikipedia for their background information. Wikipedia is a joke and it brings the internet into disrepute. End of rant!