The Frank and Walters and Me

Sporting my 1993 Frank and Walters t-shirt in 2024

Rockaway Park, Nov 27, 2024

Ceasefire in Lebanon. Trump appointees. Irish Elections Friday. Thanksgiving tomorrow. 

 

I had a lovely WhattsApp chat with Paul Linehan from the Frank and Walters last week.  We talked about guitars, songwriting, the music business, Noel Gallagher, Tony Cochrane, 1990s merchandise and more.  I’m very happy to announce that I’ll be opening for them at the Broadway in Brooklyn on March 15th. The Frank and Walters are, without exaggeration, one of the main reasons I started playing music. I was exactly the right age when they rose to prominence in the Irish and UK music scene. They were on Top of the Pops when I was in Junior Cert. Paul McCartney was on the same episode. Their gig in Cork City Hall was either my first or second gig. The Sultans played right around then too and I can’t remember which was first? They made me want to make music. I loved them. I still do. I even still have their ‘Think before you Think’ t shirt I bought in the mid 90s. Their  gigs are such joyous and communal affairs. It’s like a cross between a football match and a cult.  A winning football team and a happy cult, to be clear. Back in the early 1990s Noel Gallagher worked for them and they also had Radiohead open for them on a UK tour. All to say, you Dear Reader, are very cool, but they were cool before you were cool. And I’m opening for them in Brooklny next year. If any of you have a time machine, please go back and tell 14 year old me all about this.

Where was I since I last logged in here? Thank you to the Coronas for having me open for them in Boston earlier this month. The band and all their team were extremely friendly and I very much enjoyed warming up for them at Brighton Music Hall. Our mutual friend, Shuggy brought a literal bus load from Boland’s in Worcester making it feel like a home game for me. The Boland’s gang sang along to almost every word of my set. So much so, that Danny from the Coronas joked “I hope Niall’s fans will stick around for our set.” It was my first time seeing them live and they were extremely tight and had the crowd in the palm on their hands for the entire night. I don’t feel any great need or desire to be famous at this point in my life, but I did enjoy the temporary famous perk of onsite parking. Rock and roll.

 

This past weekend myself and Clare and Saoirse bundled into our trusty old Honda Civic and drove up to Canada for a couple of house concerts and some much needed time with old friends. The first gig was at my friend Donal Ward McCarthy, his wife, Darcy and their two children’s beautiful home in Toronto.  Donal is originally from Glanmire too and we both played in bands in the same bills as teenagers. I really loved his band Orchid, we both opened for the Sultans at Sir Henry’s once upon a million lives ago. We hit some Friday traffic between the border and Toronto but otherwise the drive was fine. I was extremely impressed with how well Saoirse did in the back of the car for so long. Pro tip: I downloaded a few films on my phone for the endless stretch on i90. For her, not me. All  four eyes on the road for me.

 

Next day we we took the relatively short drive to my friend Mervyn and Saaara’s house in Guelph. Mervyn was in my class in Sociology 101 in UCC. I enjoyed Sociology but went on to do a major in English with a minor in psychology. Not that you asked. Mervyn’s still at the Sociology. He was down at Yale a few weeks ago so I suspect he might be brilliant at it. Saara’s also a sociologist. They’re both fine musicians and have three lovely children, nine chickens and a trampoline.  This was my second time playing in their home and I loved it. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I love house concerts. If you have some walls and some friends, ask me.

 

Other upcoming gigs include:

Sayra’s Wine Bar, Rockaway, Tonight and Wednesdays I’m around

Irish Haven Sunset Park, Brooklyn Dec 6th

Boland’s, Worcester Dec 8th

Levis’, Ballydehob, Dec 22nd

Whelan’s Dublin, Dec 28th

Coughlan’s, Cork Dec 29th ( Sold out)

Club Passim Cambridge, MA 

 

 

Upcoming Big City Folk Song Clubs 

Dec 5th at the Vale with Chris Q Murphy

Dec 13th at Irish Arts Center with Nada Rien  ( Casey Black)

Jan 9th at the Vale with Ken Griffin ( Rollerskate Skinny/August Wells)