Debut album success boosts O'Rourke tour

Singer Declan O’Rourke today revealed that the launch of his acclaimed debut album has sent concert-goers around the country scrambling for tickets.

The Dublin-born songwriter said he was just wrapping up a sell-out tour of small venues around the country.

“I’ve done many tours by myself and not many knew about me, it is amazing what airplay can do,” O’Rourke said.

“I have played in Cork before this year, twice, the last time 35 or 25 people turned up. This time it was sold out with around 70.”

O’Rourke, who has played support for acts such as Paul Brady, Planxty, the Thin Lizzy reunion tour, Paddy Casey and Damien Rice, said he was still celebrating the success of his album, ‘Since Kyabram’, which was launched on October 15.

“It has been going great it went into the charts at number five, which is really high for a debut album and it is hanging in there. Since it is the hardest time of the year, they call it the Grand National, where all the greatest hits albums are out for the Christmas market.”

The 28-year-old said there were plans to release the album in the UK early next year.

O’Rourke’s talent on the guitar led him to work with another solo performer, Paddy Casey, over the last two-years, playing on almost all of the tracks on his multi-platinum selling album ‘Living’.

Before that the determined Dubliner had spent around eight years working as a carpenter and labourer to fund his constant gigs around the country.

It was the steady work with his friend, Casey, that allowed him to give up labouring and chance going solo around two-years ago.

O’Rourke, who is from Dublin’s Ballyfermot, said the years spent backing bands throughout the country had given him a huge amount of stage experience.

“It was ultra beneficial, I get to test out songs,” the 28-year-old said. “It gave me a chance to figure out which ones worked and which didn’t.”

He first picked up a guitar after his family moved to Australia when he was 10-years-old and began writing songs after his return four-years later.

O’Rourke said the songwriting was most important to him, and his talent with lyrics has yielded praise from Scottish singer-songwriter Eddi Reader and Irish star Paul Brady.

The singer is wrapping up his country-wide tour with two final gigs in Whelans in Dublin tonight and tomorrow, December 6.