Early life

Musical career

After leaving Planxty in 1975, Moore continued on his solo career, reforming his old band on occasion (which he has been doing ever since). He also formed the band Moving Hearts with Lunny and five other musicians in 1980. In 2000 he published his autobiography, ''One Voice''.

Moore's earlier years of heavy drinking, sleeping dysfunctional hours, continual travelling, and often eating takeaway foods resulted in a decline in health, and several operations. Moore's battle with alcohol, and subsequent heart operations have taken their toll. At the end of the 1990s, Moore was requested to reduce his workload for medical reasons.

Some of Moore's songs are heavily influenced by drink and the effects of drink. His song "Delirium Tremens" being a good example. Listening to Johnny Mulhern's song "Hard Cases" causes Moore, in his website chat, to recall the Galway drinking scene with local musicians  Mickey Finn, Pete Galligan, Corky and Terry Smith.

On April 17, 2009 Christy Moore released his first new studio album in four years, titled 'Listen' and it was promoted through a series of live gigs.

Political and social commentary

Individual political songs he has performed throughout his career include Mick Hanly's 'On the Blanket' about the protests of republican prisoners, his own 'Viva la Quinta Brigada' about Irish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War and his own 'Minds Locked Shut' about Bloody Sunday in Derry.

Moore has endorsed a long list of left wing support causes, ranging from El Salvador to Mary Robinson in the 1990 Presidential Election. At Glastonbury Festival in 2005 he sang about the Palestinian solidarity activist Rachel Corrie.

With typical Moore social consciousness, he opened the festival marking Ballymun's inception as Dublin's first Fairtrade Town on 23 November 2006. Ballymun, once synonymous with social deprivation and drug problems, is currently the largest urban regeneration project in northern Europe.

Allusions in his songs

Musical style

Family

Memorable Events

An Góilín Surprise

Desert Island Discs

Detention Incident, 2004

Oxegen

Discography

Solo

With Planxty

With Moving Hearts

Compilation albums

Video

DVDS

References

http://www.christymoore.com/lyrics_detail.php?id=13

http://www.christymoore.com/lyrics_detail.php?id=178

External links

Category:1945 births Category:Newbridge, County Kildare Category:People from County Kildare Category:Irish male singers Category:Irish folk singers Category:Living people Category:People of the Year Awards winners

Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan (born 25 December 1957) is an Irish musician and singer, best known as the original singer and songwriter of The Pogues.

History

MacGowan's mother, Therese, was a singer and traditional Irish dancer, and had worked as a model in Dublin. In 1971, after attending Holmewood House School at Langton Green, Tunbridge Wells, MacGowan earned a literature scholarship and was accepted into Westminster School, a renowned English public school close to the Houses of Parliament. He was found in possession of drugs and was expelled in his second year.

MacGowan got his first taste of fame in 1976 at a concert by English punk band The Clash, when his earlobe was damaged by Jane Crockford, later to be a member of The Mo-dettes. A photographer snapped a picture of him covered in blood and it made the papers, with the headline "Cannibalism At Clash Gig". Shortly after this, he formed his own punk rock band, The Nipple Erectors, later renamed "The Nips".

Fame

Between 1985 and 1987, he co-wrote what is perhaps his best-known song, "Fairytale of New York", which he performed with Kirsty MacColl. In the coming years MacGowan and The Pogues released several albums successfully. After The Pogues threw MacGowan out for unprofessional behaviour, he formed a new band, Shane MacGowan and The Popes, recording two studio albums, a live album, three tracks on The Popes "Outlaw Heaven" (2010) and a live DVD, and touring internationally.

In 1997, MacGowan appeared on Lou Reed's "Perfect Day", covered by numerous artists in aid of Children in Need. It was the UK's number one single for three weeks, in two separate spells. Selling over a million copies, the record contributed £2,125,000 to the charity's highest fundraising total in six years.

In 2010, MacGowan offered a piece of unusual art to the ISPCC (Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty) to auction off to support their services to children. It ended up fetching €1,602 for the charity.

The Pogues and MacGowan reformed for a sell-out tour in 2001 and each year from 2004 to 2009 for further tours, including headline slots at Guilfest in England and the Azkena Rock Festival in Spain. In 2005, The Pogues re-released "Fairytale of New York" to raise funds for the Justice For Kirsty Campaign and Crisis At Christmas. The single was the best-selling festive-themed single of 2005, reaching number 2 in the UK Charts. In the autumn of 2010, he played a number of shows with a new five-piece backing band, including In Tua Nua rhythm section Paul Byrne (drums) and Jack Dublin (bass), with manager Joey Cashman on whistle. This line up went to the Spanish island of Lanzarote in November 2010 to record a new album.

In 2006, he was voted 50th in the ''NME'' Rock Heroes List. He has been seen many times with The Libertines and Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty. MacGowan has joined Babyshambles on stage. Other famous friends include Johnny Depp, who starred in the video for "That Woman's Got Me Drinking", and Joe Strummer, who referred to MacGowan as ''"one of the best writers of the century"''. Strummer occasionally joined MacGowan and The Pogues on stage (and briefly replaced MacGowan as lead singer after his sacking from the band).

His sister is Siobhan MacGowan, a journalist, writer and songwriter, who released her album ''Chariot'' in 1998, and published a children's novel, ''Etain's Dream''. In early March 2007, MacGowan announced plans to marry his longtime girlfriend, Victoria Mary Clarke.

Shane is the subject of a number of books and paintings. In 2000 Tim Bradford used the title ''Is Shane MacGowan Still Alive?'' for a humorous book about Ireland and Irish culture. "Shaman Shane-The Wounded Healer" by Stephan Martin brands Shane as a latter-day London-Irish spirit-raiser and exorcist. This commentary is found in the book "Myth of Return - The Paintings of Brian Whelan and Collected Commentaries, 2007". London Irish artist Brian Whelan paints Shane, his works are featured on Shane's official website, and is also the illustrater of The Popes "Outlaw Heaven" cd (see above).

Self-destructive behaviour

In 2001, Sinéad O'Connor reported him to the police in London for drug possession — in what she said was an attempt to discourage him from using heroin. At first furious, MacGowan later expressed gratitude towards O'Connor and claimed that the incident helped him kick his heroin habit.

Speaking on BBC Four's ''Folk Britannia'' television programme in early 2006), Robyn Hitchcock recalled: "I remember going to the Hope and Anchor [a punk venue in London]. The Pogues were all on stage and ready, it was a full house, but they hadn't started yet. Then this character shambled in through the door and shambled downstairs. I thought, 'Jesus, you're not letting that guy in are you?'. Then he walked on stage. That guy was Shane MacGowan."

On 7 September 2002 MacGowan became so intoxicated before a performance at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin that he stopped singing and threw up over fans in the front row. Fiona Wynne wrote in the ''Daily Mirror'' that the consequent criticism of MacGowan's behaviour, "who was in a wheelchair after breaking his leg", led Sinéad O'Connor to call Joe Duffy's RTÉ Liveline programme three days later to defend him, saying: "He is an angel near the end who needs support. He's too far gone to stop drinking; he has an illness that cannot be cured, and as far as I can see, the end is near for him".

MacGowan has suffered physically from years of binge drinking. He often performs while drunk and has been impaired in interviews. In 2004 on the BBC TV political magazine programme ''This Week'' he gave incoherent and slurred answers to questions from Janet Street-Porter about the public smoking ban in Ireland.

MacGowan's fiancée, Victoria Mary Clarke, blamed his alcoholism for an earlier split, but in a 2007 interview, she said, "[Shane] loves a drink and he probably always will. But he drinks less than people think and I haven’t seen him drunk for quite some time". She blamed his problems with drink on fans ("it became difficult for us to get from A to B without being dragged into bars by well-wishers desperate to buy him a drink") and social anxiety. ("To cope with his social anxiety, he began drinking more and more")

Selected discography

Solo singles

Guest appearances

Filmography

References

External links

Category:1957 births Category:Celtic punk Category:Irish male singers Category:Irish rock singers Category:Irish singer-songwriters Category:Living people Category:People from Tunbridge Wells Category:People from London Category:People from County Tipperary Category:The Pogues members Category:Folk punk musicians Category:English people of Irish descent Category:Musicians from Tunbridge Wells Category:People educated at Holmewood House School

She spent much of her youth in Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne. Her father was Lieutenant-Colonel Spain, a freeman of the city and a prominent figure in local military and antiquarian affairs. He was a writer himself and appeared in a number of radio plays as well as broadcasting commentaries on Newcastle United games. Nancy's mother, Norah, was the daughter of Lucy Dorling, a sister of Isabella Beeton.

As a child, Nancy remembered pushing the future eminent journalist William Hardcastle into the Bull Park Lake on the Town Moor, where she used to learn to ride at five shillings an hour "with other little bourgeois tots".

Nancy went to Roedean School (a family tradition) where she began wearing "mannish" clothes, and developed the speaking voice which stood her in such good stead in her eventual media career. She played lacrosse for Northumberland and Durham, and hockey for the North of England, as well as acting on BBC radio, where she took over the star parts vacated by Esther McCracken. During the war, Nancy served in the WRNS on Tyneside, a period covered in her book ''Thank you, Nelson'' (1945).

Nancy Spain became a star columnist for the ''Daily Express'', ''She'' and the ''News of the World'' in the 1950s and 1960s and made many radio broadcasts, particularly on ''Woman's Hour'' and ''My Word!'' She later appeared as a panellist on BBC TV's record review programme ''Juke Box Jury'' and in 1962 performed 'The Blaydon Races', the Victorian Tyneside song, at London's Marquee Club with Alexis Korner and Blues Incorporated. A recording of the latter was published on the album ''R&B; from the Marquee''.

Spain's scatty style of column-writing caused the ''Daily Express'' to be sued successfully for libel - twice - by Evelyn Waugh. Often in the news, and tempted to marry to seem 'respectable' - her name was linked with that of Gilbert Harding - she lived openly with the editor of ''She'', Joan Werner Laurie (Jonny), and was a friend of the famous, including Noel Coward and Marlene Dietrich. She and Joan were regulars at the Gateways club in Chelsea, London, and were widely known to be lesbians.

She died, with Joan and four others, in a light aeroplane crash on her way to the Grand National and was cremated with Joan at Golders Green Crematorium, London. She left one son - publicly unacknowledged during her lifetime - Tom Carter. Noel Coward summed up: 'It is cruel that all that gaiety, intelligence and vitality should be snuffed out when so many bores and horrors are left living.'

As well as her books of memoirs, including ''Why I'm Not a Millionaire'' (1956), Nancy wrote a biography in 1948 of her relative Mrs Beeton, and a series of detective novels. Rose Collis wrote a posthumous biography of the broadcaster and journalist in 1997.

Bibliography

References

Mickey MacConnell (born 1947) is an Irish musician and song writer.

Life and work

Mickey began writing songs very early in his life. In 1965 he wrote ''Only Our Rivers Run Free'' about the constitutional status of Northern Ireland; it became an instant hit in Ireland. This encouraged him to seriously devote himself to writing music when he moved to Listowel, County Kerry where he lives with his wife Maura.

His first album "Peter Pan and Me" ; was released in 1992 to critical acclaim and included the haunting ballad "Lament for Judy Garland".

Many of his songs have been recorded internationally by such artists as Christy Moore , The Wolfe Tones, Mary Black, The Kelly Family and many more including The James Last Orchestra.

The album "Joined Up Writing"; features many new songs and takes a wry look at life and politics, not just in Ireland but worldwide.

MacConnell's work has been greatly influenced by The Troubles in Northern Ireland and his songs reflect that there are those who suffer on all sides. "Follow the Flag" is an example of this. "The Little Drummer Boy" is a song that uses the story of the drummer boys of the old days (similar to the sentiments evoked by the more famous Minstrel Boy by Thomas Moore) to remind us of the influence of the poets and singers on public opinion.

See also

References

Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez () (September 28, 1932 – September 16, 1973) was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter, political activist and member of the Communist Party of Chile. A distinguished theatre director, he devoted himself to the development of Chilean theatre, directing a broad array of works from locally produced Chilean plays, to the classics of the world stage, to the experimental work of Ann Jellicoe. Simultaneously he developed in the field of music and played a pivotal role among neo-folkloric artists who established the ''Nueva Canción Chilena'' (New Chilean Song) movement which led to a revolution in the popular music of his country under the Salvador Allende government. Shortly after the Chilean coup of 11 September 1973, he was arrested, tortured and ultimately shot to death with 44 bullet shots by machine gun fire. His body was later thrown out into the street of a shanty town in Santiago. The contrast between the themes of his songs, on love, peace and social justice and the brutal way in which he was murdered transformed Jara into a symbol of struggle for human rights and justice across Latin America.

{| align="right" |----- | ''"As long as we ''sing his songs, ''as long as his ''courage can inspire ''us to greater courage, ''Victor Jara will ''never die." |----- | align="right" | ''Pete Seeger'' |}

Early life

Jara's mother died when he was 15, leaving him to make his own way thereafter. He began to study to be an accountant, but soon moved into a seminary instead, studying to become a priest. After a couple of years, however, he became disillusioned with the Church and left the seminary. Subsequently he spent several years in the army before returning to his home town to pursue interests in folk music and theater.

Artistic life

Political activism

Death

Jara's wife Joan was allowed to come and retrieve his body from the site and was able to confirm the physical damage he had endured. After holding a funeral for her husband, Joan Jara fled the country in secret.

Joan Turner Jara currently lives in Chile and runs the Víctor Jara Foundation. The ''Chile Stadium'', also known as the Víctor Jara Stadium, is often confused with the Estadio Nacional (National Stadium).

Before his death, Jara wrote a poem about the conditions of the prisoners in the stadium, the poem was written on a paper that was hidden inside a shoe of a friend. The poem was never named, but is commonly known as Estadio Chile.

In June 2008, Chilean judge Juan Eduardo Fuentes re-opened the investigation into Jara's death. Judge Fuentes said he would examine 40 new pieces of evidence provided by the singer's family. On May 28, 2009, José Adolfo Paredes Márquez, a 54-year-old former Army conscript was arrested the previous week in San Sebastian, Chile, and was formally charged with Jara's murder. Following Paredes' arrest, on June 1, 2009, the police investigation identified the name of the officer who first shot Víctor Jara in the head. The officer played Russian roulette with Jara, by placing a single round in his revolver, spinning the cylinder, placing the muzzle against Jara's head and pulling the trigger. The officer repeated this a couple of times, until a shot fired and Víctor fell to the ground. The officer then ordered two conscripts (one of them Paredes) to finish the job, by firing into Jara's body. A judge ordered Jara's body to be exhumed in an effort to determine more information regarding his death.

On December 3, 2009, a massive funeral took place in the "Galpón de Víctor Jara" across from "Plaza Brazil". Jara's remains were honoured by thousands. His remains were re-buried in the same place he was buried in 1973.

Víctor Jara's legacy

On September 22, 1973, the Soviet/Russian astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh named a newly found asteroid 2644 Víctor Jara, in honor of Víctor Jara's life and artistic work.

American folksinger Phil Ochs, who met and performed with Jara during a tour of South America, organized a benefit concert in his memory in New York in 1974. Titled "An Evening With Salvador Allende", the concert featured Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie and Ochs.

An East German biographical movie called ''El Cantor'' (the Singer) was made in 1978. It was directed by Jara's friend Dean Reed, who also played the part of Jara.

Dutch-Swedish singer-songwriter Cornelis Vreeswijk recorded "Blues för Victor Jara" on his album ''Bananer - bland annat'' in 1980.

In the late 1990s British actress Emma Thompson started to work on a screenplay, which she planned to use as the basis for a movie about Víctor Jara. Thompson, a human rights activist and fan of Jara, considered the political murder of the Chilean artist as a symbol of human rights violation in Chile. She believed a movie about Jara's life and death would make more people aware of the Chilean tragedy. The movie would feature Antonio Banderas – another fan of Víctor Jara – as Jara himself where he would sing some of his songs and Emma Thompson as Víctor Jara's British wife Joan Jara. The project has not yet been made into a film.

The Soviet musician Alexander Gradsky created the rock opera ''Stadium (Стадион, Stadion)'' in 1985 based on the events surrounding Jara's death.

The Southwestern American band Calexico open their 2008 album ''Carried to Dust'' with the song "Victor Jara's Hands".

Portuguese folk band Brigada Víctor Jara is named after him.

Songs mentioning Víctor Jara

Chuck Brodsky wrote and recorded "The Hands of Victor Jara." This 1996 tribute includes these words:

The blood of Victor Jara Will never wash away It just keeps on turning A little redder every day As anger turns to hatred And hatred turns to guns Children lose their fathers And mothers lose their sons

Rory McLeod's title song on his album "Angry Love" is about Jara.

"No olvidamos el valor de Víctor Jara/ dando la cara siempre a la represión/ le cortaron sus dedos y su lengua/ y hasta la muerte gritó revolución."''

"We won't forget Victor Jara's courage/ always fighting oppression/ They cut off his fingers and his tongue/ And right up to his death he shouted 'Revolution'."''

American folk icon, the singer-songwriter and performer, Jack Hardy (1947–2011), mentioned Victor Jara in "I Ought to Know," a song recorded on the album Omens in 2000. (song lyrics: http://jackhardy.com/JHIOughtToKnow.html, and live performance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT16T-Ms3Is)

Theatre work

Works directed by Víctor Jara

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilations

Tribute albums

Documentaries and films

Notes

References

External links

Resources in English

Resources in Spanish

Category:1932 births Category:1973 deaths Category:Academics Category:Anti-fascists Category:Assassinated Chilean people Category:Chilean actors Category:Chilean educators Category:Chilean folk singers Category:Chilean poets Category:Chilean singer-songwriters Category:Chilean theatre directors Category:Chilean Christians Category:Chilean torture victims Category:Deaths by firearm in Chile Category:Former Roman Catholics Category:Latin American folk singers Category:Marxist humanists Category:Murdered musicians Category:Nueva canción musicians Category:People from Chillán Category:University of Chile alumni Category:Chilean Marxists Category:People murdered in Chile Category:Communist Party of Chile politicians