Rock and Pop: LONDONFEIS 2011 - Hothouse Flowers, Jimmy Cliff plus Bob Dylan and The Gaslight Anthem
Published: 26 May 2011
by ROISIN GADELRAB
I THINK it’s time to reveal my incredible links to rock ’n’ roll stardom. Do you remember the one-and-a-half-hit wonder Irish band Hothouse Flowers and their single Don’t Go?
Well... the guitarist is my mother’s cousin. Course, he doesn’t know who I am and I’ve never met him, but there you go, I’m made for a life of rubbing shoulders with musical legends. Or maybe not.
To be fair to the Hothouse Flowers, they were widely lauded for their 1988 Eurovision Song Contest interval performance, which sent them to No11 in the UK charts with Don’t Go. Their second almost-hit was a cover of Jimmy Cliff’s 1993 reworking of Johnny Nash’s 1972 hit I Can See Clearly Now.
I only mention this as both Hothouse Flowers and Jimmy Cliff are lined up to play Feis, Mean Fiddler founder Vince Power’s revival of the Fleadh, Finsbury Park’s now defunct annual tribute to Irish music, with a few international artists thrown in – this year featuring Bob Dylan and The Gaslight Anthem.
They join a long list of genuine Irish acts, including the oft-grumpy Van Morrison, heavily accented hero in my house Christy Moore, with Declan Sinnott, and my teenage angst soundtrack-providers The Cranberries, who have reformed specially for the festival, which takes place over the weekend of June 19-20.
Dylan’s admiration for Irish rebellion songs is well-documented and helped shape his career so it’s fitting the Feis appears to be his only UK date this year.
The rest of the line-up includes all the usual suspects: The Saw Doctors, Clannad, The Fureys, Shane MacGowan, Thin Lizzy, The Undertones, The Waterboys, Camille O’Sullivan and Mary Coughlan. But it’s not all confined to the older generations.
The Lost Brothers may be fresh-faced but their flawless harmonies are beyond their years, Wallis Bird’s talents are even more remarkable when you hear how she learned to play right-handed after a horrific lawnmower accident and Mick Flannery’s my token tip for the one with the gruff vocals you can’t turn away from.
Other rising stars and intriguing acts include the mysterious Keiran Leonard who jokes he was raised by wolves; The Coronas, whose brooding frontman Daniel O’Reilly is the son of Irish singer Mary Black; Imelda May, who was personally asked by Jeff Beck to perform with him at last year’s Grammys; Treetop Flyers, Teddy Thompson, and the unbelievably named Ham Sandwich.
• Full line-up at http://londonfeis.com