Wind back the clock to early May. The Rhythm and Roots Festival is in full swing and four New Yorkers called The Duke & The King are the big hit of the weekend.
Those who saw their two shows knew they were seeing something special and it looked like it would be onward and upward for Simone Felice, Robert Bird Burke, Simi Stone, and Reverend Loveday with their unique mix of soul, folk, and country.
Within a month circumstances had changed and it looked as if the whole Duke & The King story was about to come to a halt when this message appeared on their website:
“We must tell you all, with a heaviness we cannot convey of the news that our dearest brother Simone Felice has been scheduled for emergency open-heart surgery as a result of aortic stenosis. The operation will take place tomorrow at Albany Medical Center. We are devastated, yet hopeful that he will pull through.”
The operation was a success and I spoke to Simone Felice last week, just before they left their home in the Catskill Mountains to resume life on the road. An eventful time, Simone? “You can say that again! But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, at least that’s what they tell me...”
Simone has made a full and speedy recovery. In the new photographs he displays a massive scar down his chest. “Yes I’ve been telling everyone I was ambushed by Comanches.”
Within two months of having his surgery Simone made his first steps back into the music world. “I did a two week solo tour in August, two months after the surgery, just me and my guitar, it was a bit of a vision quest, reconnecting with the essence of why I do this, the writing and the poetry.”
Now with a clean bill of health the band are packing their bags and heading out on their biggest tour to date.
“It’s sad sometimes to leave home, but there are seas to be sailed, seven if I remember rightly, and what is life without a little adventure now and again?”
The adventure resumes in Kilkenny when they return to do a show in The Set, along with Pete Molinari next Thursday, October 21. They plan on spending a couple of days here, so if you spot four exotically dressed people on the street it will probably be The Duke & The King. The weather may be a little too cold for Simone to show off the scar, but let’s wish them good health and success on their musical journey.
On then to Rockfall
A good night was had at the Rockfall launch down in the brewery last week. To survive and thrive for 22 years is no mean feat and a huge range of local bands are performing free over the October Bank Holiday weekend. I have counted 38 different events on the programme and it is not all music...
There is leg waxing in Biddy Earlys on Friday night, and dancing and dining, Elvis style, with the Memphis Cats in The Clubhouse Hotel. I do not know if Jim Brennan and his team will be serving up Elvis’s favourite sandwich, mentioned here a few weeks ago. His special, called ‘Fool’s Gold’, is made with a jar of strawberry jam, a jar of peanut butter, and a pound of fried bacon. You can dance all that off to The Memphis Cats.
Almost every music venue in town hosts gigs over the following three days: Kytelers, Ryans, The Set, Cleere’s, Annaconda, Billy Byrnes, Egans, Little Andys, Pat Carroll’s, Black Cat, O’Gorman’s, Hotel Kilkenny, The Pumphouse, Rafter Dempsey’s, Paris Texas, Leydon’s, Matt The Millers, Biddy Earlys, Clubhouse, and Tynan’s will all be opening their doors to Rockfall gigs, so dig deep for this vital source of funding for the O’Neill Centre.
It’s not rocket science
There is a phrase I had hoped had disappeared from use, but it popped up again, courtesy of Micheal Martin, our Foreign Affairs Minister. According to Martin stabilising the country's finances is "not rocket science". He says the process of fiscal correction is straightforward, once an assessment of where the spending is and where cuts will have to be made is completed. Health, welfare, and education, as well as the capital programme are all potential areas for cutbacks, according to this genius. There we were concerned about our future when everything is so simple. What were we worrying about for the last few years? Let the party begin and bring back Bertie Ahern while you are at it.
It is rocket science!
Imagine opening a florists that does not sell flowers, a butchers that does not sell meat, a shoe shop with no shoes, or a service station without petrol? How long would they last? Not very long and I doubt if any bank would be very sympathetic to your business problems.
Now some genius in the banking sector has come up with the idea of a bank with no cash. Step forward National Irish Bank and take a bow. Since last Monday you cannot lodge or withdraw cash from their branches.
For once I am not the only one struggling to understand the logic. Here is a comment from another National Irish customer on Facebook:
“I was told that from the November 17, I would be able to lodge it through the post office.
“And up until then,” I asked. “Well,” said the nice lady, “you go to the post office with your cash. You use your cash to purchase a postal order. You then bring said postal order up to the NIB and lodge it into your account.”
WOW! WOW!! WOW!!!. In the immortal words of Victor Meldrew (One Foot in the Grave ) “I DON’T BELIEVE IT”
You had better believe it, NIB customer. They could have just said, “Eff off, we don’t want your business.” But the banks are much too polite to say anything like that. Banks, don’t ya just love ‘em?
