Tom Dunne: Facing the tricky task of picking the best Irish tunes this century
Greetings from a cave in Afghanistan. I have moved here for my personal safety. By the time you read this I will be 'cancelled'. Someone asked me to update Tom Dunne’s 30 best Irish hits for the 21st Century. In the social media age!
Before there was ‘going viral’ there were ‘hit singles', little wonders that seemed to come from nowhere and change everything. As Bono (a wise man of the East) once said, “All you need is one song. One song will manage you, get you on radio, get you gigs.”
There are also songs that will steal your money, keep you off radio and lock you in own home. Knowing which one you have involves playing them to people. We all try to make music we love. For some this will lead to fame. For others – and it has to be said: NO LESS TALENTED - it won’t.
You have to live with that in music. I have set this up an imaginary bus with 20 seats. The first bus will emphasise the ‘hits'. It will contain Oscar winners and the most played song of the 21st century. There might be a second, not quite hits but more craic, bus.
The ultimate example of what Bono said. Hozier played this to me on an acoustic in a studio once and I thought 'Wow!'. Has a song ever arrived so perfectly formed into the universe? 1.39 billion streams.
Re-ignited Sinead’s career, got her on US TV and daytime radio again. More than anything reminded the world once again of a generational talent.
Quitting something that is great but not quite right for you is a recurring theme in music. The Immediate, Conor O'Brien's initial band, were wonderful. But he left. Some Choice Music and Ivor Novello Awards later he is now one of the most gifted voices of his generation.
As above, Damien quit his early band Juniper (who became the equally brilliant BellX1) despite Mike Hedges (Manic Street Preachers) having produced their album. He kept his album O under tight control until he was totally happy with it. It was perfect. It sold millions.
Worth bearing in mind that the album before this was called Final Straw. It was so called because that was how the band, after two earlier not quite huge albums, saw it. Run transformed that album, but this, from the follow up, became, wait for it, the most played song on UK radio of the 21st century!
When I started my first radio show I picked The Frames as an example of a band who were every bit as good or better than foreign acts that got more Irish airplay. An early incarnation of this song was one of nine recorded in a quick radio session. For it to win an Oscar, to see Glen and Marketa on that stage… even Carlsberg would have blushed.
I could carry on down related roads here for a while (Fionn Regan, Lisa Hannigan, Damien Dempsey, Ash, Mundy, Declan O’Rourke et al) but for a ten-song list, let's shoot forward.
The progress of these acts has been ‘covid’ delayed, but once those markets open up, watch them go.
A Grammy nomination is a big deal. The second album was exactly the right album at exactly the right time until nature got involved. They must be set to explode.
They are such a heady mix. The harmonies, the uilleann pipes, the traditional roots that still suggest My Bloody Valentine, Radie Peat’s voice. Venues, open up your doors we beg you.
If I was starting a radio show now it would be this band I’d champion. They have a sound, an identity, a uniqueness and, never to be ignored, killer melodies. Eager to see how the USA will react.
A master work. For David Balfe to have conceived this idea and then deliver it on it with such passion, vision and power is astounding.
Right, that just leaves Denise Chaila, James Vincent McMorrow, Mick Flannery, May Kay and a few hundred others to fit in. Not to mention Joe Chester, A Lazarus Soul, Gemma Hayes et al.
We might need a bigger bus.
