News Archive...
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Change is gonna come... (January 30th 2006)
Happy New Year from the world of North Cregg where there's
news a plenty so far in 2006...!
Fans
of the wonderful Fiona Kelleher will be dissappointed to hear that she
is no longer North Cregg's vocalist. We were all more than a little disappointed
when she reached the difficult decision to quit life on the stage with
the Creggies as the task of looking after the little ones became increasingly
more difficult to manage alongside her family committments(!).
Fiona has been part of many great North Cregg times and
we thank her for a great four years of songs and friendship. But worry
not, we will endeavour to keep you all posted on the future musical activities
of Fiona as she has no intentions of laying her wonderful singing talents
to rest just yet. Keep an eye and an ear out for Fiona in the future.
And so with the Santa Claus list already gone out in the post the boys
set about the difficult task of seeking out new talent to bring North
Cregg into the future all on their own...
And before you could say 'HUP', one of Cork City's brightest talents stepped
out of the shade and into the spotlight ready to take the music world
and all fans of North Cregg by storm...............................
Introducing CLAIRE ANNE LYNCH...
Claire Anne Lynch is without doubt one of the brightest
young vocal talents to emerge from this island for many a year. She came
to the attention of North Cregg during a spectacular jazz concert performance
some time ago and we are all absolutely thrilled to have her on board
with the band.
Expect to hear her spectacular voice and superb violin playing on stage
with the band in the upcoming concerts as she breathes new life into classics
like "Barbera Allen" and leads the band down some exiting new
musical routes!
The band will premiere the brand new sound during their short tour of
Holland and Belgium next week. All new pics and MP3's will be up on this
website asap to give you all a taste of things to come.
By the way, work is still progressing on the new album which we
are now aiming to have in your CD players for the early summer months
of 2006. This will coincide nicely with North Cregg's 10th anniversary
celebrations... more news anon...
Destination Music... (January 2006)
Destination Music is the brand new music program
currently being screened on BBC World Service. The program captured loads
of the great music played at last years Ballyshannon Folk Festival in
Donegal and features The Creggies in full flight during their main stage
performance on the Friday night alongside Altan and Joe Burke.
The TV station is available worldwide from Narth West Shetland to South
East Asia so be sure to tune in!
New Year Dates... (November 15th 2005)
The band will be taking a wee break from now until the New Year to allow various people to concentrate on a couple of other projects. Creggie drummer and guitarist, Martin Leahy, will be trekking around Austria with the mighty Red Hat Band in the run up to Christmas so be sure cathch them.
The band will undertake their first tour of Holland in February and are very much looking forward to it! A more extensive tour is planned for later in the year there so come back here for more details.
Our new agent in the UK will bring us over that direction in the early summer of 2006 and dates will be added to this site as they are confirmed.
Slan le tamaill, NC
The Winter's closing in... (November 15th
2005)
Dear
all from North Cregg HQ... All is well despite the recent lack of posts
in this section of the website! News just in is that the band have commenced
work on album number four and it's coming together very nicely!
The band are self-producing the new album and will feature the amazing talents of newest member Liam Flanagan, marking just a couple of new departures for the band. Expect the new album to be hitting the shelves sometime in the New Year and keep coming back here for updates on the same.
On the live front, we would like to express our most sincere apologies to our fans in the Newcastle area for being unable to make the show on Monday, October 17th. We arrived out to Cork airport early that morning with our gig shirts nicely ironed, CDs under the arm and passports at the ready only to be told that our BMI flight to England had been cancelled for no apparent reason!! You can only imagine our dismay and frustration at this appalling situation. We frantically tried to arrange alternative flights but, alas, to no avail.
Our thanks to the organisers at The Sage Gateshead and The Tyneside Irish Festival for understanding our plight and encouranging us to come back again soon. We will!!
Concerts all around Europe and beyond are in the pipeline for the New Year. Next year, 2006, will be a special year for us as it will mark the band's 10th anniversary!! Expect a host of Birthday parties along the way and feel free if you wish to host one yourself... enquiries@northcregg.com
Good luck for now, NC
Spiegeltent Tickets... (June 17th 2005)
Please note that next weeks concert in The Spiegeltent,
Cork (Thursday June 23rd) is advance bookings only. Due to licensing
laws all tickets for entry to The Spiegeltent must be purchased no later
than 24 hours before the concert. No tickets can be sold on the day of
the performance.
You can order your tickets by...
Booking on : 1890 200 555
Booking in person at :
The Festival Box Office, Festival House, 15 Grand Parade, Cork.
9.30am - 5.30pm, Mon - Fri; 9.30am - 1pm, Sat.
Then one night in The Lobby... (June 9th 2005)
The
Lobby Bar in Cork City has been the city's best music venue for many years.
The bar will close its doors on July 31st, 2005 bringing an end to an
exceptional era of music in Cork.
Concerts in The Lobby have always been extraordinary. For a musician,
walking up the stairs to play to a full house in The Lobby was one daunting
experience. The front row of the 100 or so capacity crowd sat within two
feet of you, a whisper could be heard from the back row, the view of the
City Hall outside the left windows was a bit surreal, the buzz and the
roar of the crowd was lifting, familiar faces closer to your nose than
ever before, unfamiliar ones even closer, sweat rolling... and the pints
were great!
For the audience, it was great to see nervous musicians up close and in
person giving it holly ...the sweat was a bit much though!! ...but the
pints were great!
North Cregg have played many concerts in The Lobby Bar, played many sessions
in the downstairs bar, stayed on for the odd late wan and came back again
and again. We'll be doing it all one more time on Tuesday the 19th of
July for our farewell to The Lobby Bar.
A limited number of tickets will be available only on the door on the
night, the gig will also be recorded for a compilation CD of live music
from The Lobby. It should be one hell of a great night.
Join us for one more night in The Lobby Bar on July 19th!
First days of Summer... (May 25th 2005)
Greetings
all from the land of music and craic where the festival season is well
under way and nothing but good times to report.
The photo on the left was taken at Aarhus Folk Festival on May 6th when
the band were joined on stage by Irish legends John Sheahan and Barney
McKenna of The Dubliners. To say we were star-struck playing alongside
these men would certainly be an understatement! Thanks a million to Sine,
Christian and all at Aarhus for the wonderful hospitality.
Hospitality is very much appreciated wherever the band travels and we
have been more than lucky over the past few tours. So, without further
ado, lets roll the credits for 2005 so far....
*Rosamaria and Nuno in far off Portugal, thanks for the great food and
the great food... not forgetting the great food of course!!...
*Bruno in Eurodisney for helping us to finally live out our childhood
dreams (although we didn't really fit in most of the rides!)...
*Didier in Lens for treating us to a great concert!...
*The Shetlanders all!! Davie, Pat and Terry, to mention but a few, for
yet another fantastic spree...
*The aforementioned Aarhus crew and of course Svend and Anna-Kirsten for
showing us the sights...
*Declan McCarthy in Baltimore, West Cork for sticking with the great Fiddle
Fair. C'MON CORK!!
*And finally... the wonderful audiences who turn up and cheer us on everytime!!
Next up for North Cregg is a rare gig at The Famous Spiegeltent which
will be docked on Lavitt's Quay, Cork for the Mid-Summers Festival. And
early the next morning we'll be off to the even more famous Glastonbury
Festival to play a few tunes!!
Change of venue in Cork... (February 25th 2005)
Please note that North Cregg will now play at Cypress Avenue at The Old Oak, Cork on March 15th and not The Lobby Bar (which is temporarily closed) as previously advertised. Cypress Avenue is an excellent new venue in Cork City centre situated above The Old Oak in Oliver Plunkett Street, Cork. An excellent night is in store!
Spring in the Air... (February 22nd 2005)
February 1st marks the beginning of Spring in this part
of the world and the New Year is well and truly under way.
North Cregg's first outing in 2005 was to Israel as the sunglasses were
dusted off and new lands were discovered. The result was a mighty success...
great big camels, sunburn in January, a fish called Denise and of course....
the wonderful audiences! Thanks to all for a great time.
Next up will be The St Patrick's Day festive season when the whole world will witness various forms of Irish celebration simultaneously! The Creggies will begin the weekend with two concerts in Ireland before heading off to France for two shows in Paris and Lens.
Big news for the summer is that North Cregg are set to play The Glastonbury Festival in June! Martin will finally be able to give those drums the welly as the band will be up there mixing it with the rock 'n rollers! Hair cuts have been banned within the group until after the festival in a bid to look the part. Christy and Liam are practicing moshing to polkas as we speak!
North Cregg are of course thrilled to be playing at the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world! See ye all out there.
New Year dates added... (December 8th 2004)
New dates have just been added to the tourdates page for the New Year ahead. North Cregg are set to visit many festivals for the first time including two excellent festivals in France around the St Patrick's Day weekend.
The band will also pay their first ever visit to Portugal
in April where they will play two shows promoted by DISCANTUS production
company. Keep an eye to the website for more new dates as they are confirmed.
Flashy Flanagan joins the Creggies... (September 14th 2004)
Dynamic young fiddle and banjo player Liam Flanagan has recently been
announced as the newest member of North Cregg. From Charleville, Co. Cork,
Flanagan's flamboyant fiddling has already etched it's mark on the sound
of the band. Liam has been making waves on the Irish music scene over
the past number of years with some fine fiddle playing and now brings
it to the wider world with North Cregg.
His pairing with Christy Leahy on the button accordion sets the North Cregg shows alight and brings the band to a new level. Martin Leahy, well known for his drum beating skills with the band since day-one, now brings his excellent guitar playing to the stage.
The new five-piece line-up was officially premiered at the
2004 Cork Folk Festival where the band headlined the Saturday late-night
gig at The Everyman Palace Theatre to a rousing audience.
Armagh boys part company with the North... (September
14th 2004)
North Cregg bid farewell to Caoimhin Vallely and Paul Meehan who have recently decided to part company with the band. The Armagh boys have played a huge role in the development and success of the band since the beginning and it was with no small tinge of poignancy that we played the last concert together up at The Ballyshannon Folk Festival. A big thanks to the lads for the great music and crack over the past eight years. Up Armagh!!
Rumours abound over split... (September 14th 2004)
Vallely and Meehan have stressed that their leaving North
Cregg had absolutely nothing to do with the ongoing slagging after Armagh's
drubbing by Tyrone in the All-Ireland Football Final last year. Rumours
were rife last night that Cork's spectacular win in this weekend's All-Ireland
Hurling Final drove them over the edge and out of the County Cork forever.
However a spokesman from Victoria Street in Armagh issued a statement
saying that they were in in fact very happy for the Rebel County. The
statement even went so far as to extend an invitation to Cork hurlers
Diarmuid O'Sullivan and Brian Corcoran to line out for the Armagh footballers
next season! They declined to say where they will go looking for the other
13 replacements.
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