Another great night of entertainment at The White Horse pub and restaurant in Ballincollig in Cork ..this time it was a really mixed and varied occasion as we came together as part of a fundraising initiative for Risteard O’Domhmaill’s ‘Atlantic‘ movie project.
This movie producer with a social and environmental conscience, who has already produced the award winning “The Pipe” movie about the Shell pipe laying project at Rossport is raising funds so he can produce a movie called ‘Atlantic‘ to raise awareness about damage to our environment by exploration, big business interests and other issues.
Besides some thought provoking movie footage we were treated to some craft beer, delicious canapés and the very best of music from the White Horse Guitar Club (12 of them!), the quirky, inimitable and brilliant John Spillane and a very special acoustic reunion gig by Rubyhorse.
While the whole night was really special the stand out moment was the Rubyhorse reunion. This crew, one of Cork’s most successful ever music exports came together for the first time in 10 years. It wasn’t a full appearance by the band but we saw Joe Philpott (guitar), Decky Lucey (guitar and backing vocals) and lead singer Dave Farrell perform a number of favourite songs including the US hit ‘Sparkle‘.
I am a huge music fan but for some reason I had never seen Rubyhorse live so I was really curious as to what was the magic that had them at number 17 in the US billboard charts in 2002, that had them performing on the Letterman and Conan O’Brien shows and had the top brass in the music industry including U2’s Paul McGuinness interested in them.
Within 30 seconds I had my answer ..
Of course they are talented musicians and without doubt they have some really great songs including ‘Sparkle’, which brought them huge success, but for me the magic of Rubyhorse is the confident, enigmatic, charismatic lead singer Dave Farrell who is up there with the very best frontmen I have seen.
From the second they started their set Dave owned the crowd in a way that none of the other superb performers on the night could come anywhere near – I’ve seen a lot of bands down through the years and Dave not only has a great voice but also has a rock star swagger and a special charisma that you witness rarely.
I was lucky enough to have a chat with Dave after the gig and discovered a really soft unassuming guy who was telling me about an exciting restaurant project, which he is hoping to open later this year in Cork.
I was really puzzled as to why this gifted singer, who clearly comes alive on stage is not the lead singer in some incredibly huge band at the moment. When I put this to him he explained that he has simply moved onto other passions and interests..
If you find where you truly Sparkle how can you leave this behind?
Tags: Dave Farrell, Fuzion, Greg Canty, Risteard O'Domhnaill, Rubyhorse, The Pipe, White Horse
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