Christy Moore returned to Leisureland Galway for an evening of songs and bonus anecdotes in a sell out show Friday, September 2.
Coming to the stage in fine form, Christy bounded up, the energy level of a man half his age and thanked the crowd for coming out in “this terrible evening,” to which he received a near deafening applause. The applause was hugely warranted for Christy Moore as an artist, but also helped by the fact that attendees had been stockpiling cans from the bar, once they learned that it would close before the show, and would stay closed.
Within seconds, he was off, opening with the ever powerful and poignant, ‘Ordinary Man’, a song with lyrics of, “It seems to me such a cruel irony. He’s richer now then he ever was before, and now my cheque is spent, I can’t afford the rent. There’s one law for the rich, one law for the poor,” are very topical as further discussions of the cost of living dominate airwaves.
Some of the best parts of the concert were the breaks between songs, breaks where Moore would jokingly say things like, “The doctor says that after a fast one I have to play two slow ones,” and give glimpses into the music icon’s long career.
After preforming the ever popular ‘Lisdoonvarna’, Christy took a break to walk the audience down memory lane, talking about gigging in the old Pavillion Ballroom, which was known locally as the Hanger, saying “Some of you may have been to the Hanger, and some of your parents may have been conceived in the back of the Hanger,” to uproarious laughter from the crowd.
He went on to share anecdotes about his time in Salthill as a young man, with 10 people being crammed into a two man tent, while playing in O’Connors Music Pub. Moore, further mentioned hugely influential figures during that time, including John Flood, Des Kelly, Christy O’Connor and Iggy Broderick.
“Christy O’Connor would buy me a few bottles of stout and I was like a pig in s**t.”
In his online guestbook, Christy further reflected on his time in Salthill, playing ‘The Hanger’ and paying homage to his “great friend, the late Des Kelly.”
Starting by discussing his first time camping in 1962 for The Galway Races, he and musician John Flood, “never made it out to Ballybrit.” Ten years later he came back with Planxty, “to play ‘The Hanger’.. another ten years on and Moving Hearts played 3 nights in The Castle Lounge for my great friend, the late Des Kelly. In his younger days, Des was the leader of the great Capitol Showband. He went on to manage many great bands, including Planxty from 1972- 1975.”
Moore’s concerts have a reputation of having a kind of set list of rules, all influenced by previous concert experiences which are mentioned in lyrics to his song Encore, but overall, the asks of the audience of ‘don’t come back from the toilet in the middle of a song’ and the more obvious, ‘don’t heckle unless you’re ready to be heckled back’, are very fair.
A lesson learned by one audience member who piped up with inaudible yelling, and was put firmly in their place, when Moore said, “I can’t hear you but I bet you’re very interesting. Now shut your hole.”
At one stage, in the towards the end of the gig, Moore called out for Harry, an 11 year old fan who, he explained, had written to him “before the show telling me that he is learning to play the guitar.” Coming up to the stage, Moore gave a beaming Harry what appeared to be a set list, before telling him “and I’ll have you up here next time.”
For a man who has been in show business and preforming since he was 18, Moore’s strong voice shows no sign of dulling and his witty mind is still churning out topical and humorous new verses to his most popular songs.
Overall, Moore’s performance of songs from his hefty repertoire and some covers originally penned or taught by friends over the years, were fantastic. The atmosphere in the room was one of full engagement, with the audience singing when they were invited to, and shutting up quickly when they weren’t.
