Greg Canty Fuzion Blog

Once in a lifetime?

We were sitting in the fabulous intimate atmosphere of the White Horse in Ballincollig, Cork privileged to be watching another great musician, Mundy (he’s from Birr , County Offaly as it turns out and he knows the Loughnane boys from the County Arm’s Hotel!).

Joe Carey, the owner of the White Horse is a great musician himself. He loves his music and thanks to his passion we are lucky to have regular quality gigs on our doorstep in this fabulous “up close and personal” venue.

I love my music but for some reason Mundy was one of those artists that I had never really come across or seen at a gig but it was clear to see why he had such a great following. This gig was a solo, acoustic gig, which is always tough for an artist but he literally pumped it out, he has a great stage presence and a terrific sense of humour, which had the crowd “warm” and in his hands from start to finish.

I loved his story telling and his tales about his dad who warned him that he “shouldn’t talk to the audience about everything that was in his head” ..class!

His songs are really clever and he’s not afraid to bring in the odd snippet of a popular cover .. the girls standing at the bar were well impressed and bought him a pint of Murphy’s!

He launched into his anthem “July” ….wow, was that his?  I love that incredible, upbeat summer song and am embarrassed to admit not realising whose it was. This was clearly his crowning glory, his signature song as everyone in the audience reacted immediately at the first hint of the song. Everyone in the audience sang along, how couldn’t you? …what a classic!

A few songs and stories later the gig finished and we were more than happy to buy his CD’s 24 Star Hotel, Strawberry Blood and his latest, Shuffle and have a quick chat with the man himself (Edmund Enright – that’s how we found out he knew the Loughnane boys).

I wonder when he wrote “July” did he have any idea how great a song it was, the huge hit it was going to be and the difference it would make to his career. On YouTube I searched for the track and watched him entertain a huge crowd of 10,000 at Oxygen in 2008 who sang their hearts out to this happy, upbeat, memorable and really clever summer anthem.

He’s clearly a really talented musician and song writer and I wondered does he ever get frustrated waiting for the same inspiration and another “July” to come along . Like so many other great artists, often an incredible, defining song comes to them, never to be repeated or surpassed. Does this eventually become a burden?

I thought back to the gig, the anthem he’s clearly played thousands of times to audiences all over the world and I thought about the audience reaction and the huge beaming smile all over his face as he played it.

While “July” might come along once in a lifetime he can enjoy sharing it every day ..

Oh! ma ma ma,oh! ma ma ma,oh! ma ma ma My July …all together now

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion PR

Tags: County Arms, Fuzion PR, Greg Canty, Mundy, Oxygen, White Horse Ballincollig

This entry was posted on July 1, 2012 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Music, Positivity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.