IN THE mid-1960s, somewhere in the working class area of the Liberties in Dublin, a six-year old boy heard The Dubliners for the first time.
Flash-forward nearly three score years and that young boy, Ged Graham, is now in his own mid-60s and singing the songs of The Dubliners all over the world.
This year, Ged is touring Britain and Ireland with Seven Drunken Nights: The Story of The Dubliners, a show celebrating the music of the iconic Irish folk band that has been entertaining audiences across the globe since 2017.
But when did Ged first hear the gravelly voice of Ronnie Drew, the passion of Luke Kelly and the musicianship of Barney McKenna, John Sheahan and Ciarán Bourke?
“Oh, I think it would have been late 60s, about 1966 or 1967, just before Seven Drunken Nights came out,” recalls Ged, who has Seven Drunken Nights shows coming up in Derry and Belfast.
“Although I was only about six-years-old, I knew there was a real scandal about the song on the front pages of newspapers and I was just loving to know what was going on,”
If it was the whiff of scandal that drew young Ged to The Dubliners, it was the music that caught him, hook, line and sinker.
“All these songs just seemed to appear out of nowhere, songs like The Black Velvet Band and The Wild Rover and the whole back catalogue.
“And the thing that really sort of amazed me was that they were singing in the same voices that my mother and father were speaking in.
“That was the strange thing, because listening to the music on the radio it was all Americanised pop music or The Beatles, and then you heard these voices that were like people in the street around you. It was amazing.”
The thing that really sort of amazed me about The Dubliners was that they were singing in the same voices that my mother and father were speaking in
Ged Graham grew up in Dublin until his musical parents moved to England when he was 10, but the love of Irish music stayed with him – just like the multitudes of Irish who took the ferry to find work in England and Scotland.
I suggest to Ged that the Irish need to be told what cultural riches they possess by people outside the country before they recognise it themselves.
“Oh, very much so,” he agrees.
“The people took the music with them when they emigrated and brought it into the pubs of wherever Irish people were working in England, and they would congregate in their own communities, usually in a pub, and sing songs often about home.
“When Luke Kelly went to England to work on the building sites, even he wasn’t really fully aware of Irish music. He was into Frank Sinatra and rock and roll, and it was only when he heard his fellow Irish immigrants singing songs that he became folk singer, so even some of the greatest were introduced to Irish music away from home.”
In fact, the five original members of The Dubliners came from different backgrounds. I once read that Ronnie Drew was a boy soprano before his voice broke – I’ll take that with a pinch of salt – but it is true that Jimi Hendrix loved Ronnie’s voice!
Indeed, all the Dubliners were very talented musicians and singers, whom fate brought together in 1962.
Ged sees them first and foremost as a group, but they were great solo artists as well.
“Barney’s banjo playing, even now, when you listen to it, is on a different level. Not just in his technique, but in the spirit that flows through his music.
“Add that to John Sheahan’s soulful and melodic way of playing, and then you had Ciarán Bourke with his great storytelling and songs in the Irish language bringing a slightly different sort of vibe to the group,” says Ged.
“Then, of course, there was Ronnie with his Dublinese songs – your Dicey Riley and Finnegan’s Wakes – and in a voice that, God, who created it? I’ve never heard its like since.
“And then you had Luke with his socially conscious songs and the urban ballads.
“So, as individuals, they flourished together as a group, at some magical moment arriving in the same place at the same time and playing music together.”
Folk music is often thought of as solely a rural artform, but The Dubliners were definitely city boys.
“The majority were urban songs that, if you were working in Manchester, like my Dad was, or you were working on the buses in Birmingham or the building sites in London, you could feel an affinity with the music, and that was a great thing,” says Ged.
“And that filtered down then to the next generations.”
That, of course, is the nature of folk music, whether it is Irish or Inuit or Igbo: it is passed down from generation to generation and, in some cultures, that feeds into a strong sense of identity, especially for diaspora communities – hence the strength of Irish music in places like Manchester and Chicago.
“Certainly for us, when we came to England and to Manchester, my father’s [Irish] identity grew stronger by being away from home,” recalls Ged.
“I believe we were exposed to more Irishness by not living in Ireland, and I’m sure many others become more Irish whenever they live away from home.”
That of course doesn’t mean you become just one thing: Ged is a freelance vocalist, musician, actor, writer, producer and creative director.
He has done highly successful shows in the past, including Fairytale of New York and his latest project, Pretty Vacant – The Story Of Punk And New Wave.
Now, Ged is bringing Seven Drunken Nights: The Story of The Dubliners to audiences, but Ged insists that the show he has put together with a band of fine traditional musicians won’t be a look-alikey, sound-alikey tribute with guys in wigs!
“I sing the songs of Ronnie because I just love his voice,” he says.
“I love everything he stood for. He was a cantankerous, grumpy fella – I met him on a few occasions – and he was all the better for being like that. You wouldn’t want him any other way.
“In the same way, Luke sang songs that were important to people and that’s what we celebrate.
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“But the show also honours not just the five originals, but the other people who played a part. People like Bobby Lynch, who was with the band early on before John joined. And Eamon Campbell, Jim McCann, Patsy Watchpon and Sean Cannon, everyone who created legacy of The Dubliners as we know it.
“So it’s a celebration of the music, a show that will take people out of their everyday lives and give them a chance to open their hearts in song.”
There is nothing more beautiful in any concert than the point where the band stops playing and the audience arrives on.
“That happens all the time,” says Ged, “and it takes your breath away, because I think folk music, as opposed to any other music, it’s a conduit for the audience to take part in the experience.
“So when you sing, say, a simple song like Molly Malone, and then the audience just take it over, they’re not just singing along with you, they’re digging deep into past memories of the fathers, the mothers, the grandfathers, the grandmothers, and they’re bringing all that together.
He adds: “It’s an emotional wave and to be part of that is incredible.”
Seven Drunken Nights: The Story of The Dubliners plays at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall on 29 May and in Derry’s Millennium Forum on 31 May.
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‘It’s a celebration of the music’ – Ged Graham on Seven Drunken Nights: The Story of The Dubliners – The Irish News
