Staff opening the Town Hall Theatre last Monday morning could not believe their eyes.
A line of people snaked across Court House Square with only one common aim: securing tickets for what is expected to be the greatest cultural bookmark in the history of Tuam since St Jarleth’s wagon got a puncture in Cloonfush – Shamtown.
“We’ve not seen a queue outside before doors open since at least before Covid,” says Town Hall Theatre manager, Fergal McGrath. “Normally 85 per cent of sales these days are online, but not for this – people were saying they just had to make sure they had tickets in their hands, and we sold out in days.”
This theatrical production celebrating the 1980s and 1990s music scene in Tuam, from The Saw Doctors’ manager Ollie Jennings, opens in the Mick Lally Theatre for ten shows from November 15. In response to demand, Jennings has arranged an extra week of eight additional performances from Tuesday, November 24, to Sunday, November 29.
These new tickets go on sale today, Thursday, July 2, at midday.
“People can leave comments online when they buy tickets, and the staff here were amazed reading the nostalgia and connections people were leaving after bookings – all about the music scene in Tuam in those days,” says McGrath – who was himself a one-time drummer in Tuam’s world famous Saw Doctors: “Yeah I say I’m like the Pete Best [of The Beetles fame] of the band, except he was dismissed, whereas I moved on,” he joked.
Written by Jennings, Shamtown is inspired by the memories of people worked, played and partied during the heyday of the late twentieth century’s arts scene in Ireland’s smallest city.
Directed by Andrew Flynn and musical director Carl Kennedy it begins in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Macnas paraded Gulliver down Shop Street in Galway city; The Waterboys recorded Fisherman’s Blues in An Spidéal; and a young band from Tuam played the opening slot at the infamous Trip to Tipp in summer 1990.
Judging by the ticket booking addresses, McGrath reckons fans of the Saw Doctors from across Britain, Ireland and further afrield, plus many of Tuam’s global diaspora, are planning a pilgrimage to Galway to soak up sounds of punk, folk and rock from the land of the shams.
“They say the response to Italia 90 was the cultural moment that kicked off the Celtic Tiger. This could be the same for Tuam,” predicts McGrath. “It’s great that Ollie [Jennings] managed to organise extra dates at the Mick Lally – which only holds 100 people for this show – and let’s just see where this goes next… “
Tickets for the extra Shamtown shows go on sale today, Thursday, July 2, at 12 noon, at the Box Office at Town Hall Theatre Galway. Phone 091569777 or book online at www.tht.ie
