I real wet Friday night in galway saw my first visit to the upstairs area in the Roisin Dubh for a gig. I was in town to see the Coors Light peak event the next night but saw that ex Turn member “Oliver Cole” was to play upstairs. Ten euro entrance fee brilliantly included a copy of his three track EP “What Will You Do?”. The EP had been launched in the capital the night previous.
The crowd and room were small as the first figure arrived on stage. This figure was to be “Ultan Conlan”. This guy actually blew me away with his voice and amazing lyrics. How I haven’t heard this guy before is beyond me. The voice just hits you like several punches to the heart. The silky smooth voice and Leonardcohenesque lyrics made an amazing combination. The guy has bags of talent and can’t wait to get hold of his debut album “Bless Your Heart” which comes out later this month. There is a fantastic single on his myspace called "Really Gone" which includes the late great John Martyn in the mix. I cant speak highly enough about this guys raw emotional performance on front of 18 people before he jetted off to work. He will be one to watch like a hawk, let’s hope we see him come to limerick soon. I expect huge things for this man and if not something is wrong in the industry.
Next up was Oliver Cole. You may remember the guy from the really successful Irish band “Turn”, that band came in went in the years 1998 to 2006. Tonight saw Cole being backed by a bassist and drummer, the only thing remaining from the Turn days is his red electric guitar. The songs nowadays are aged and mellowed but like a nice wine. Most songs were converted from piano songs to this layout and it work perfect. The sound was great and you can see the years of gigging as put ollie in a position of complete ease playing live. The band were in a reflective mood and shared fantastic on the road stories. Ollie’s guitar was cursed tonight as it saw two broken strings, but this gave the band more time for telling yarns. The “what goes on tour stays on tour” motto doesn’t seem to apply to these guys as we were treated to stories of threesomes where Ollie’s bassist told us of a night where he brought back a girl to his apartment were Ollie was uninvitingly staying too. Ollie decided to walk into their room and see if he could get in on the action. To secure the deal he said “I promise I won’t touch your mickey”. The tales were hilarious and great to hear and the night turned into a lovely storytelling night between songs. He told us the tale of the red guitar, which involved a member of the crowd at a gig steal the guitar. Not until several years later did they get an e-mail from a guy who was at a house party and over heard the host boosting about stealing Turn’s Guitar. They eventually tracked the guy down and got the guitar back. They spoke of a night bumping into the bass player from the stone roses where he tipped them off about a great bar to frequent. When arriving to this bar they could only get served Cocaine and Moonshine while Ollie played Pool with a big black guy with a gun. They got out of their sharpish. The music was fantastic throughout as they whittled through their paired down set and pints of Galway Hooker to a room of about 18 people. We heard such songs as "Too Many People" which i had heard before as it was featured on the Charity album "The Cake Sale", This project involved many Irish artists writing songs and other people singing them, Glen Hansard sang his song on the album. He also played a an old reworked Turn song and many other that will feature on his upcoming album. Ollie’s album is out very soon and I for one will be checking it out.
SetList :
Oh My Girl
Too Many People
What Will You Do?
Close Your Eyes
We Albatri
Little Bad Dream
Drug Song
Need you Stray
Moths Wing
Holding Your Heart
Life's Great Advice
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