Dia guit a chairde


Damo here writing to youse from Wembley Arena where I'm about to soundcheck with the Sharon Shannon big band, doing the opening for Willie Nelson. There's lots of heads texting me and I've a feeling in my waters that they're looking for free Willie but alas, they mightn't be getting the full nelson tonight. Just doing the 2 songs with Sharon, which is strange for me because it's nearly over before it's begun but I'm getting a chance to try out the new song Maasai and the song is perfect for these big arenas. When you hold notes for a while in these big places it's very powerful and it fills the whole massive space with the voice. You can blow the wigs off people, it's great and Sharon's band are sitting in behind it very nicely. I'm going to do the colony tonight here in Wembley, just in case I'm never here again, and dedicate this song to Tony Benn and not Tony Blair, men you can look up to, not feel ashamed of. When I was a kid we used to play a bit of ball around in St Donagh's green, it was a slope of a pitch but it done the trick. I was brutal at it now, I was a hacker and I used to toe the ball, but once I was enjoying myself, that's the main thing. One cheeky hoor who was a dab hand at the old soccer said to me one day "You'll never make it to Wembley Dempsey" and now he's dead, only joking, he was half wrong all the same cos here I am, gerrup!



I've supported some dingers now over the years, i'm a jam rag all the same, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Morrissey, Warren Zevon, The Dubliners, Christy Moore, Shane MacGowan, Sinead O'Connor, Billy Bragg, The Levellers, Hot House Flowers, The Proclaimers etc etc. There's still a few heads I'd like to open up for, Pavarotti being one. I'd love for him to come on at the end of my set at the 'Love Yourself Today' part of It's All Good, and lash it out. Of course he'd probably smash my glass of port with that big voice of his, then I'd have to clothes line him and the whole thing would erupt in chaos with him slam dunkin me and then stage diving into the crowd and mincing a few unfortunates in the front row, his fans hopefully, not mine. Sorry, I kind of trailed off there a bit. Ah, daydreaming.



Really enjoyed the 2 gigs there in Vicar Street in December. Going to have to stick more solos in the songs though, there's so many words there on top of each other, I was finding it a struggle on the Wednesday to catch my breath, even though I don't smoke and I swim a lot which is great for the breathing. I think it was lashing out 'the Rocky road to Dublin' that finished me off, you'd need a whale's lungs to sing that one properly. So it's either an oxygen tent, an interval for some tea and biscuits or a couple more solos. But jaysus the vibe in the room on them two nights was mighty, it was like a freight train full of soul mowing me down, it's hard to explain, ancient, electric. Oxygen last year was a bit of a mad one as well. It was my first time playing the festival, acts usually start off in a tent and work their way up to the main stage, but we were chuffed cos we got a slot on the main stage. Into the coldest wettest, windiest July day that I have ever seen. There was a small cascade of water being blown from the top of the stage right into my face and onto my guitar and I had fears of electrocution in all of honesty, and my fingers were finding it hard to hit the chords because they were actually nearly clamped frozen with that arctic wind. I thought to myself, this is a test, and I gave a roar out towards the Wicklow mountains in the distance and lashed into the set, I could feel the surges of energy coming up through me from the stage floor (maybe I actually was being electrocuted) and I was looking at the drowned freezing crowd and throwing out every vibe of energy I've ever known, and the fact that they stood there in that weather and even sang along was amazing me. How much they must love music, and they were reacting to my passion and I was