Traditional Irish music stalwarts Shaskeen will play the Town Hall Theatre on Thursday, May 30.
Between them, the band’s eight members have hundreds of years of experience having started gigging in London pubs in the 1970s.
The band is led by Tom Cussen from Limerick who answered an ad to put together a trad band to play the Oxford Tavernin Kentish Town.
"When we first came on the scene, I can honestly say that we were the new kids on the block,” says Cussen. The Kilfenora Ceilí Band and the Tulla Ceilí Band were well-known, but Shaskeen put a fresher twist on traditional Ceilí tunes.
While the roots of Shaskeen can be traced back to Camden pubs, the band was relatively short-lived as Cussen moved to Galway for work in 1971. That original band was a five-piece, including Cussen and Benny O'Connor. Chance would reunite the two in Galway later that year.
"It just so happened that I came across Benny while driving around Eyre Square in 1971. He was driving an Austin A50 and had recently come back from England. I just said to him: 'what the hell are you doing here?'.”
In the meantime Cussen had been playing with PJ Hernon in O’Reilly’s bar on Foster Street where they met at a Comhaltas meeting, and with John Dooley and Sean Deveney who used to play in a pub called The Oyster Bar - where Booley outdoors shop on Eglinton Street is now.
"We used to play together, a lot of a certain style of music and I was getting sick of playing it so I restarted Shaskeen with Benny and the rest is history," says Cussen.
The reincarnated Shaskeen, made up of Cussen, O'Connor, Dooley and Hernon, would plough into the Irish music scene in the 1970's, balancing full-time jobs with playing for concert halls across the country during their free time. By the mid 70's, all the hard work had paid off, with Shaskeen labelled 'The west of Ireland's leading Traditional group' despite new genres from across the pond vying for youngsters’ ears and attention.
The decades that followed followed a smooth upward trajectory with multiple tours of the United States, Britain, playing concerts in Russia, West Germany and even teaching young Irish traditional music lovers in France how to make their music resonate within the soul.
The 1980's saw the introduction of members Sean Conway, Mike Fahy and Charlie Harris and the moving on of others, keeping the band’s number to a steady five. The decade before had seen the group work with musicians like Eddie Malony, Paddy McMahon and Carl Hession on LPs and albums.
Two long time members of Shaskeen, Loughrea natives Pat Broderick and Pat Costello passed away within days of each other in the spring of 2020.
"We have had many talented people join us in the band over the years," says Cussen. "Unfortunately, in 2020, we lost two of our members, which was very sad and a big shock and to me: you don't 'replace' musicians; you can't replace a person."
Next week’s gig sees Eamonn Cotter on flute, Cussen on the banjo, Geraldine Cotter on keys, Patsy McDonagh on box, Katie Theasby with her whistle, fiddler Dave Sanders, Mary Liddy on concertina and Johnny Donnellan banging his bodhrán.
Tickets €24 from www.tht.ie
