B-Side the Leeside: Simple Kid - Simple Kid (SK1)

Cork's Greatest Records: Douglas musician Kieran McFeely was part of Cork's original Young offenders, shared a stage with Kings of Leon and created a huge hype with his stunning debut album. It wouldn't last

Kieran McFeely in Simple Kid mode. 

The lights went down and the screams went up. It was September 21, 2007, and Kieran McFeely was on stage at the 3000-capacity Tower Theatre in Philadelphia, singing to thousands of shrieking teenagers.  True, they weren’t actually shrieking for him: he was the opening act on a bill that also included Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Kings of Leon. Nonetheless it was a surreal evening. McFeely talk out it now as though it were a dream. 

“I was supporting Kings of Leon and they were just exploding with Sex On Fire. The first five or six rows on that tour were young girls who had got there early to see them,” he recalls. “I was particularly bearded and unkempt when I came on with my harmonica and banjo. All these American girls were going, ‘oh my god?’