Essence of Ireland and new things

,

I've been away on another UK tour with 'The Essence of Ireland' but in England

.

We've toured all over the UK and had lots of fun on the road. There have been some great reviews written about the show and these can be seen at www.essenceofireland.co.uk .

The show seems to get better and better each time we go on tour. The line up has changed in the band. The guys are such amazing musicians and we all clicked musically straight away. ( I do miss the other guys though too, Al, Kieran, Jim and co...). There is an extremely strong team of dancers who are so full of life, vigour and enthusiam.

Ged Graham is the lead singer in the show and the band's front man. He has a great energy on stage and is a great musician. Ged was born in Dublin and now lives in Manchester.

We are very lucky to have Sarah Jory with us on this and the up and coming tours. Sarah is Van Morrison's guitarist, pedal steel player, banjo player and backing vocalist. She's been with Van for years now. She has so much energy and fun and It's great to have someone that you click with musically and personality wise on stage. Her enthusiasm and passion for the music and the show is so apparent and it feels great to be doing 3 part harmonies with her and Ged. We all wear head-mics on the tour now which frees us all up to move around on stage, perform and have the craic whilst playing

.

Hannah Cope is the female bassist who is fab. Her and the drummer Barrie Cooper, are so tight rhythmically which gives the band a great foundation and really produces that energetic feel that the show requires.

Liam Holmes, is the great keyboard player and our youngest band member of 18 is Nathan O'Borne. Nathan is a fab player and he is the guitarist of the up and coming pop star Joe Brooks.

The show goes on tour in March and it finishes in May. It's a 70 date tour of the UK and we've some dates in Ireland. It's gonna be a lot of fun. The show is a fantastic night out for all (even if I wasn't in it myself I'd still say that and I'd still go and watch!

) so make sure you come along. Most dates were sold out on our last tour so book your tickets well in advance.

Anyway, about my music!

It has been said for a while that an album will be out. This is true and although it has not happened yet, it will do somewhere along the way in 2010. I will be on tour for 6 months next year with Essence of Ireland (with gaps in between). This does not leave a lot of time for me to concentrate on my own live project but I am a determined Irish girl with a passion for my craft and I will not give up until I have an album to call my own and a live band to hit venues with

.

I've been writing lots of new songs and have lots more up my sleeve. I'll have plenty of time when I'm travelling on the road with the show and I plan to write and record lots when I'm away. The bumpy tour bus that we've to live on may cause a bit of interference through mics but hey , that's all part of the craic of recording and being on the road

.

A big thank you to Gerry Anderson at BBC Radio Ulster, the best and most respected DJ in the North of Ireland.
His show is probably the most listened to in the mornings all over the North. People from all over the world tune in online to hear Gerry and Sean Coyle's craic and banter.
Gerry has been playing my songs for most of this and last year and it's greatly appreciated to have that level of support from home.

There will also be new videos on their way to accompany my songs so watch out for those and a new website...

Back to my writing and composing of songs (oh and the dreaded tax return

! )

All the best for now and thanks for reading this.

Slan go foill,

Éimear Bradley

Nov 24, 2009 Add comment

Hi :0)

This is a wee page were I will update my music news.

I am currently on a UK tour with the Irish Dance and music show 'The Essence of Ireland.'
It's fantastic fun to be the violinist/fiddler/whistler and backing vocalist in the band 'Shanacie'.

Kieran Cunningham is the lead singer in the band. Kieran is from Newry, County Down. He has a wonderful voice and a great rapport with the audiences. As well as being a great singer and guitarist you may have spotted him in 2 recent episodes of 'Emmerdale'. We watched an episode of 'Shamless' too the other night which Kieran had a role in. It's great to be working along such talented musicians (and actors ;) ).

The bassist is none other than 'The Quiet Man from County Cavan', Jim Hand. On Banjo we have the fun and charismatic Pete Longden. On drums in 'Shanacie' is the tightest, most solid playing drummer around, Barrie Cooper. Liam Holmes is the maestro on keys and on guitar is the chilled Somerset talent, Alex Johnson.
We've been lucky to have Len Whitehead as stand in. Len is currently on tour with 'The Drifters' band.
Rob Chalmers also stood in for two gigs and he brought a lot of energy to the performances with his great playing and fun personality.

Sarah Jory who has been a full time member in Van Morrison's band also guested in the show for 2 nights. She's currently in America with Van. It was so much fun to play music with Sarah on stage. She has so much energy, stage presence and talent. It was fab to have another female in the band as I'm usually in the minority being the only girl :D

The show consists of a mix of traditional Irish dance and has a great dance troupe which is lead by Eloise Shutler and Jamie Meek, who are fantastic dancers.

'Shanacie', our band, perform live on stage behind the dancers and in between dance numbers we come forward to perform some well known and well loved Irish songs like 'The Fields of Athenry', 'The Galway Girl', 'Clare to Here', 'The Irish Rover', 'Dublin in the Rare Ol' Times' and a fun lively medley of some of the old favourites. I play a couple of jigs and reels also and 'Duelling Banjos', performed by Pete and Al, always goes down a storm. It's wonderful to be part of a show with all my favourite Irish songs in it as it reminds me of home... Get the violins out... :D

The audiences have been fantastic and we have had great feedback and reviews about 'The Essence of Ireland' show. This season's tour is coming to an end but there are still a few dates left for those of you who haven't yet had the chance to see it. The show goes on tour again in late September, so make sure you bring a crowd along for a real fun night out with lots of music, Irish songs, dance, craic and banter. Speaking of which, my new song 'Buzz, Craic, Banter' is now up on my music player on my myspace page. You'll find a link to myspace on my front page.

After the tour is over rehearsals are starting again with my own band. I'm looking forward to gigging performing my own material.

Thanks for reading and come back soon :0)

Éimear

xxx