Basically, being from where I'm from, you can imagine that St. Paddy's Day has a bit of a meaning for me. Well, to be honest, I've celebrated the famous Irish holiday more since I've arrived in Sunderland that I ever did when I was back in my homeland. It's funny how Sunderland makes this day (or whole weekend) an excuse to be 'Irish', have a few pints of Guinness and try to dance along to a few Irish Jigs. All in all, it's great fun.
My weekend was spent between my 'local' The Royalty and of course Paddy Whacks. What did Sunderland do before Paddy Whacks opened I do not know! From Friday, right through the weekend, the music has been amazing. From traditional Irish Folk songs to live Bands from Ireland, Paddy Whacks has not disappointed. It was hard not to get into the spirit of things.
It was also great to meet a few Irish people who flew over especially for this weekend. I had the honour of meeting a few from Limerick and they have already stressed that Sunderland is the place to be for St. Patrick's Day and that's including back home. I couldn't agree more.
I'd like to take this opportunity to mention a band called Good News from Dublin who have flown over to play in Sunderland this weekend. I managed to catch them in Paddy Whacks on Friday and I was amazed. They weren't the traditional Irish band, but more like a rock band with an Irish twist (obviously the best kind). Normally when you think of a rock band, you think of hardly any melodies, hard to hear lyrics and perhaps a lot of shouting. Sometimes that is great. But for a weekend like this, it needed to be different. Good News played an amazing acoustic set on Friday, with amazing covers from the likes of U2 along with their own material. The harmonies between the two vocalists were amazing and despite only having two bongo drums to work with, the drummer managed to keep the rhythm going.
I had a good chat with them after their set on Friday and again in Paddy Whacks on Saturday and they told me that they managed to get this opportunity to tour here by being spotted by Seamus from Paddy Whacks when Busking in Dublin. They haven't been together long, but have had quite a few gigs in Dublin and Belfast. But Sunderland has been their first overseas mini-tour. Check out their myspace and bebo pages with all their latest material. I must say that I love their music as it is fresh and not exactly the mainstream sound you are used to hearing from this genre. Here is my favourite song that I couldn't help but download. It's called Feel That You Own It.
I made this music player at MyFlashFetish.com.
If you fancy a good starting point for your ultimate St. Paddy's Night, I suggest heading to Victoria's Bar just down past The Lambton Worm and Baroque where Good News will be playing their last gig of the weekend. It should be a good one so I really recommend at least stopping by.
Well that's me for now. Have a great St. Patrick's night and enjoy all the Traditional Irish music.
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