Mick Flannery at Cork Opera House
September 26th, 2006 Posted in Ireland, Live Music, Music, Photography
Mick Flannery played in Cork Opera House on Sunday night to complete the Beamish Experience festival weekend. And what a show it was!
The show was based on the story which runs through the excellent debut album Evening Train where one guy is down on his luck, playing cards and losing money while his brother and girlfriend begin to have feelings for each other. The story was well developed by Mick even though he started the show telling us that he’s not one for talking. I hadn’t quite got the full story from the album so it was good to hear the witty connections between each of the songs from Mick. Despite his initial assertion, Mick relaxed and gained more stage presence as the show progressed, at one point good-naturedly reprimanding one audience member who shouted something along the lines of “Go on the Blarney lad” with “You’re making a show of yourself”. What he lacked in quantity of talking on stage, he certainly made up for by the quality. In fact, he seemed to enjoy taking the mickey out of the others on stage a bit too much!
One of my favourite songs from the album, Take It On The Chin, was performed brilliantly on the night by Mick and the lads from the Lynch Mob and it was definitely the highlight for me. Donncha has a great picture of this song being performed at the Spiegeltent gig earlier this year.
Aaron Dillon and the guitarist from Mick’s band started the show with some great songs, slighlty more political than the main act but their guitar interplay was very effective and I must say that Aaron Dillon’s voice is excellent, very similar to Mick’s.
For a video of one of the Mick Flannery songs check out the Corkgigs.com blog.
Some more pictures from the gig:
Full set of photos on Flickr.
10 Responses to “Mick Flannery at Cork Opera House”
By Betty the Sheep on Sep 26, 2006
Some nice pics, I like the one of the support act.
By G and G on Sep 30, 2006
The gig was fantastic.Nice to see some local talent getting some recognition.The support acts name is Aaron Dillon and not Andy Dunne though.Nice photos.
By donal on Sep 30, 2006
Thanks for the correct name, all four of us at the gig had different names for him after he introduced himself!
By Drew McCarthy on Jan 5, 2007
Nice to see the photos came out so well, I did the lighting for the gig just want to say thanks for not using your flash, even though you should not have been using your camera at all.
By donal on Jan 6, 2007
Thanks Drew. I never use flash at gigs, I was so far back that flash wouldn’t make a difference anyway, although that doesn’t stop others!
The lighting was great for this show which made it easier to get shots from so far back. By the way, are you from Blackrock? I seem to recognise the name from years ago.
By Drew McCarthy on Jan 7, 2007
Ya i am from Blackrock its been a while since i was out there. See you have few photos of other gigs i have done the lighting for, i dont get a chance to take any my self because im too far away and too busy.
By Andy Dunne on Feb 10, 2007
Really nice collection of photos.It was a pleasure (as always) to join Mick on stage.
He’s some man for one man!!
Slán, Andy.
By Ken Devine on Nov 29, 2007
Hi Mick,
I was listening to the radio tonight, I didn’t know anything about you or the series. The first thing I noticed was you were from Cork, I’m from Cork and I’ve been living in Dublin for over 30 years I feel isolated until I hear someone like you. The second thing I noticed was you seemed to sell yourself short, why! you don’t need to, just relax say nothing if you’re uptight and play the music. I loved your music and your description of it and I will get the album tomorrow to hear some more. I heard about the gigs for december all in Cork before Christmas, where are you after Christmas I will be down for a week from 27th dec. Any chance you play in Dublin soon. Ken