Excitement builds

Excitement builds ahead of Big Tom’s TF show

Country Roads
Michael Commins

HE’S back! Country fans around the province are eagerly awaiting Big Tom’s appearance in the TF Royal Hotel in Castlebar this weekend. Both the Friday and Saturday nights shows are completely sold out in advance.
Time has not dimmed the appeal of Ireland’s iconic country star. If anything, the maturity of the years has added an even greater aura to the man from Oram, Castleblayney, who 40 years ago bounded onto the national stage and has remained one of the true stalwarts of the Irish entertainment scene ever since.
Big Tom McBride is truly an Irish institution with a wide appeal. Among his major fans is none other than the legendary Shane McGowan of The Pogues. What you see is what you get with both men, and there’s a strong mutual bond of respect between them.
It is now close on three years since Tom’s last tour. A major health scare in November 2006 necessitated a stay in St James’s Hospital in Dublin, where stents were put in place to cope with the setback. Tom took ill some hours after attending the premiere of ‘Four Country Roads’, a play by the McArdle brothers from Monaghan based on the songs of Big Tom and the Mainliners and their impact on a generation of Irish people in England.
Plans for some shows in 2007 were shelved, as Tom was anxious not to rush matters. Gradually, the old confidence began to return, and news that the big man had decided to undertake a few shows in February was greeted with huge enthusiasm by his thousands of followers all over the country.
The February tour will also mark the first time in about 12 years that all seven members of the original Mainliners will be together on stage. Cyril McKevitt was part of the last tour after being away for the band for around ten years, while Ronnie Duffy, who has been a member of Paddy Cole’s band for more than a decade, and Ginger Morgan are joining Henry and Seamus McMahon and John Beattie to complete the original line-up once more.
Here in the west, Big Tom has always commanded top spot. His appeal to the people from the western seaboard who emigrated to England over the years was truly legendary. On certain bus routes in regions of London, Manchester and Birmingham where the Irish congregated in large numbers, you could always tell when Big Tom and the band were in town, such was the volume of people using the late night services.
Back in November, I was in the local community centre in Tom’s native village of Oram when he performed at the official opening. You could sense that he was ‘back in the groove’, ready to go once again and all set to delight the thousands who will flock to the 12 shows scheduled for the coming month.
After the two shows in Castlebar, the next stop is the Parkhouse Hotel in Edgeworthstown on Sunday night, February 3. The following weekend sees shows in Mallow (Friday), City West in Dublin (Saturday) and the Rhu Glenn in South Kilkenny (three miles from Waterford city) on Sunday night. Big Tom and the band are in Fivemiletown (Tyrone) on Thursday 14 and Castleblayney on Friday and Saturday, 15 and 16. The tour wraps up the following week with shows in Ballinasloe on Thursday 21, the Clanree Hotel, Letterkenny on Friday, and the Tullyglass House Hotel in Ballymena, Co Antrim, on Saturday 23.
Support on Friday night in Castlebar will be provided by Shaun Loughrey and his band, while Thomas Maguire and Fhiona Ennis and their band will perform the honours on Saturday night. Both shows start at 9pm, with the support bands playing until 10.45pm. Big Tom and the Mainliners will come on stage at 11pm for their two-hour show.