Manchester Irish Festival stage tribute night to Liam Clancy

This years’ 2010 Manchester Irish Festival will stage a special Tradfest tribute night to Liam Clancy who sadly passed away on the 4 December 2009. Liam was the youngest and last surviving member of Ireland’s legendary traditional super group The Clancy Brothers. The group recorded 55 albums, achieving global sales of millions and appearing at sell out concerts all over the world.

The free concert is part of the annual two week Tradfest, which is being staged in Levenshulme village for the city’s Irish Festival. It takes place on Saturday 6 March at the Union Inn, a traditional Irish music venue situated in the heart of Manchester’s Irish community on Stockport Road in Levenshulme. Manchester based band ‘Whiskey in the Jar’ will headline the night, which will also feature a number of special guests. Other musicians who would like to get involved in the event can email the festival at info@manchesteririshfestival.co.uk Admission to the special evening is free and the doors open at 8pm, with the live music starting at 8.30pm.

When asked about why the band decided to stage a tribute night to The Clancy Brothers, band member Phil Taylor said "the band's name - Whiskey in the Jar was named after our favourite Clancy brothers song, and after the sad demise of Liam we wanted to put on a tribute night in his honour and the Manchester Irish Festival seemed an ideal opportunity to stage such an event. Tommy Makem and the Clancy brothers are legends of the traditional Irish scene the world over and we are honoured to be involved with such an event. We have recently started a facebook group for the event and it has had messages of support from all over the world. The band are really looking forward to the night which takes place on March 6th and would welcome any musician who wants to come along and take part in the tribute."

The band comprise of Phil Taylor, who Irish origins stem from Dublin, he plays guitar and is lead vocalist. Brendan Comer who’s ancestors hail from Mayo is on mandolin, banjo and bodhran. While Bass guitarist Jeff Bickerton and lastly fiddler Jamie Knowles are both Manchester born musicians. The band toured Ireland extensively during the 1990’s but for the past ten years have concentrated on building a following the length and breadth of Britain.

With a repertoire which is based on the traditional music made famous by the likes of the Clancy Brothers, the Dubliners and the Wolfetones, but they inject them with a bit of punch which guarantees that an audience will want to leave their seats and take to the floor.

Special guests include Carmel Gunning an award winning flute player from Sligo in Ireland.