Whether people liked it or not, I was going to give it a go.’Ĭome 1970, the nascent Clannad just about made the entry deadline for a competition in the annual Letterkenny Folk Festival. ‘I thought we could save some of them and play them in the pub. ‘There was a wealth of Gaelic songs that were being lost around our area of Donegal,’ says Ciarán. Noel’s mother, meanwhile, advanced an audacious thought: instead of singing English language songs by favoured songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, she suggested, why don’t they start singing in Gaelic? ‘We would avoid augmented, jazzier chords because we wanted it to be more Celtic,’ says Ciarán, who, like Noel, was especially taken by contemporised English folk ballads as delivered by the likes of Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention and Pentangle. ‘There was a real focus on substance at an early age,’ recalls Pól, sketching the blueprint of future creativity. All constituent family members would be furthering their love of harmonies through 1960s’ pop groups such as The Hollies, The Beach Boys, The Mamas and the Papas, and The Beatles. Moya, too, was undertaking voice training as well as harp lessons. Pól was slowly becoming an accomplished flute and guitar player, while also achieving grades and undertaking voice training in nearby Derry. Subsequently, Leo - who in parallel with all this taking place, was in the process of buying and developing a pub, Leo’s Tavern, in the nearby village of Meenaleck - bought him a set of drums, and another relative taught him guitar chords. ![]() Music influences, inevitably, seeped in: at the age of thirteen, Ciarán discovered a battered double bass in an outhouse and set about mastering it. A showband that performed jazz, ceilidh, pop and whatever you’re having yourself in the dancehalls of Ireland as well as in the Irish-colonised sectors of London, Birmingham and Glasgow, Leo’s group would, by osmosis, influence the future members of Clannad in the ways of stage performance. Swirling around in the gene pool were blends of musical experience, from being taught the fundamentals of piano by their music teacher mother, Baba, to learning from their father, Leo, a broader repertoire through his time in the Slieve Foy Band. It was so natural, and I think that was the secret of Clannad.’Īnd it was, of course, yet family - the open secret - was also crucial. It’s very hard to describe, but if you love what you do and are enthused by things, we were influenced by then everything just arrives. Donegal has that kind of mystical and ethereal, an earthiness that we allowed into our music. As if out of nowhere, and just as spontaneously, a bond was forged: the indisputable, beautiful ruggedness of the landscape cleaved to the intangible force of music. ![]() For them, the cultural placebo of television was non-existent (the family didn’t own one), so time was passed with outdoor pursuits such as fishing or clambering over cliffs, and indoor pastimes such as playing the piano and other musical instruments. ![]() There were no thoughts of making it big (whatever ‘big’ actually meant) or of anything other than the celebration of the wealth of music that enveloped them like a hug and the nature that surrounded them like an invisible cloak. For Pól, Ciarán and Máire (Moya) Brennan and the Duggan twins, Pádraig (1949-2016) and Noel, there was nothing beyond such simple pleasures. In 1970, in the remote parish of Gweedore, County Donegal, three siblings and two of their uncles decided to fuse folklore with an intrinsic passion for singing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |