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Davy Spillane
Davy Spillane (born 1959 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish musician, songwriter and a player of uilleann pipes and low whistle. Biography Irish music At the age of 12, Spillane started playing the uilleann pipes. His father encouraged him and inspired him with his love of all music genres. For the next three years he played at sessions and met many prominent Irish musicians. At the age of 16, he played in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Europe. In 1978, he began to write his own music. He starred as a gypsy in Joe Comerford's 1981 film '' Traveller''. Moving Hearts and solo albums He was a founder member of Moving Hearts, along with Christy Moore and Donal Lunny in 1981. Although each member had a strong pedigree of Irish folk music, the band played mostly original compositions, sometimes with a political edge and a folk-rock sound. Their final album '' The Storm'' (1985) was purely instrumental and had several slower pieces written by Spillane. He then made the surprise m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 census it had a population of 1,173,179, while the preliminary results of the 2022 census recorded that County Dublin as a whole had a population of 1,450,701, and that the population of the Greater Dublin Area was over 2 million, or roughly 40% of the Republic of Ireland's total population. A settlement was established in the area by the Gaels during or before the 7th century, followed by the Vikings. As the Kingdom of Dublin grew, it became Ireland's principal settlement by the 12th century Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest in the British Empire and sixth largest in Western Europe after the Acts of Union in 1800. Following independence in 1922, Dubli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck (born July 10, 1958) is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, bringing the instrument from its bluegrass roots to jazz, classical, rock and various world music genres. He is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck has won 15 Grammy Awards and been nominated 33 times. In 2020, he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame as a member of New Grass Revival. Early life and career A native of New York City, Fleck was named after Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, Austrian composer Anton Webern, and Czech composer Leoš Janáček. He was drawn to the banjo at a young age when he heard Earl Scruggs play the theme song for the television show ''Beverly Hillbillies'' and when he heard "Dueling Banjos" by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell on the radio. At the age of 15, he received his first b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kate Bush
Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single " Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female artist to achieve a UK number one with a self-written song. Bush has since released 25 UK Top 40 singles, including the Top 10 hits " The Man with the Child in His Eyes", " Babooshka", " Running Up That Hill", " Don't Give Up" (a duet with Peter Gabriel) and " King of the Mountain". All ten of her studio albums reached the UK Top 10, with all bar one reaching the top five, including the UK number one albums '' Never for Ever'' (1980), '' Hounds of Love'' (1985) and the greatest hits compilation '' The Whole Story'' (1986). She was the first British solo female artist to top the UK album charts and the first female artist to enter the album chart at number one. Bush began writing songs at 11. She was signed to EMI Records after Pink Floyd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rob Roy (1995 Film)
''Rob Roy'' is a 1995 American historical biographical drama film directed by Michael Caton-Jones. It stars Liam Neeson as Rob Roy MacGregor, an 18th-century Scottish clan chief who battles a sadistic nobleman in the Scottish Highlands. Jessica Lange, John Hurt, Tim Roth, Eric Stoltz, Brian Cox, and Jason Flemyng also star. Roth won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the aristocrat Archibald Cunningham. The film is dedicated to two Scotsmen: film director Alexander MacKendrick and football player and manager Jock Stein. Plot In Scotland, 1714, Robert Roy MacGregor is Chief of Clan MacGregor. Although providing the Lowland gentry with protection against cattle rustling, he barely manages to feed his people. Hoping to alleviate their and his poverty, MacGregor borrows £1,000 from James Graham, Marquess of Montrose, to establish himself as a cattle raiser and trader. Wanting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights
''Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights'' is a 1992 feature film adaptation of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel ''Wuthering Heights'' directed by Peter Kosminsky. This was Ralph Fiennes's film debut. This particular film is notable for including the oft-omitted second generation story of the children of Cathy, Hindley and Heathcliff. Plot The story is that of the fierce passionate love between the moor-loving, wild girl Catherine Earnshaw and the poor equally wild spirit her father takes in to be raised as her brother, Heathcliff. When her father dies, Catherine's biological brother, jealous that Heathcliff was their father's favorite, treats Heathcliff as a servant and has him beaten. The story tracks the story of Healthcliff's and Catherine's fierce love and Heathcliff's rage, pain, jealousy and vengeance that he pitilessly enacts on the man that gets in the way of his marrying her, Edgar Linton. Heathcliff and Catherine's love is painted in intense Romantic tones in contrast to the su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Kosminsky
Peter Kosminsky (born 21 April 1956) is a British writer, director and producer. He has directed Hollywood movies such as ''White Oleander'' and television films like '' Warriors'', ''The Government Inspector'', '' The Promise'', ''Wolf Hall'' and ''The State''. Biography Kosminsky was born in London in 1956 to Jewish parents. He was educated at The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School and the University of Oxford, where he studied chemistry under Dr John Danby of Worcester College, Oxford and was elected JCR President. He spent much of his time at the university involved in student theatre, where he was treasurer of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. He produced ''Twelfth Night'' for the OUDS which toured to northern France and starred a young Hugh Grant. On graduation in 1980, he joined the staff of the BBC in London as a general trainee, alongside Kevin Lygo (now head of studios at ITV), Dominic Cameron (former managing director of ITV.com) and Peter Salmon (former Con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enya
Enya Patricia Brennan (; ga, Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin; born 17 May 1961), known professionally by the mononym Enya, is an Irish singer, songwriter, and musician known for modern Celtic music. She is the best-selling Irish solo artist in history and the second-best-selling overall artist in Ireland after U2. Born into a musical family and raised in the Irish-speaking area of Gweedore, County Donegal, Enya began her music career in 1980 when she joined her family's Celtic folk band, Clannad, playing keyboards and singing. She left the group in 1982 to pursue a solo career with Clannad's manager and producer Nicky Ryan and Ryan's wife Roma Ryan as her lyricist. Over the following four years, Enya began to develop her sound with multitracked vocals and keyboards containing elements of Celtic, classical, church, new age, world, pop, and Irish folk music. Enya's first projects as a solo artist included soundtrack work for ''The Frog Prince'' (1984) and the 1986 BBC ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riverdance
''Riverdance'' is a theatrical show that consists mainly of traditional Irish music and dance. With a score composed by Bill Whelan, it originated as an interval act during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, featuring Irish dancing champions Jean Butler, Michael Flatley and the vocal ensemble Anúna. Shortly afterwards, husband and wife production team John McColgan and Moya Doherty expanded it into a stage show, which opened in Dublin on 9 February 1995. Since then, the show has visited over 450 venues worldwide and been seen by over 25 million people, making it one of the most successful dance productions in the world. Background ''Riverdance'' is rooted in a three-part suite of baroque-influenced traditional music called ''Timedance''. ''Timedance'' was composed, recorded and performed for the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest, which was hosted by Ireland. At the time, Bill Whelan and Dónal Lunny composed the music, augmenting the Irish folk band Planxty with a rock rhythm sec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
EastWind
''EastWind'' is an album by Andy Irvine and Davy Spillane, showcasing a fusion of Irish folk music with traditional Bulgarian and Macedonian music. Produced by Irvine and Bill Whelan, who also contributed keyboards and piano, it was widely regarded as revolutionary at recording. The extensive line-up included Nikola Parov on Bulgarian instruments ( gadulka, kaval, gaida) & Greek bouzouki, Máirtín O'Connor (accordion), Noel Eccles & Paul Moran (percussion), Tony Molloy (bass), Carl Geraghty & Kenneth Edge (saxophones), John Sheahan (fiddle), Anthony Drennan (guitar), Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin (piano), Márta Sebestyén (vocals) and Rita Connolly (backing vocals). In an interview with Folk Roots in August 1992,''Eastern Promise'', in ''Folk Roots'' No.110, August 1992. Irvine stated: "We finished it eighteen months ago but (...) John Cook at Tara wanted to try the avenue of big companies." The album was eventually released on the Tara label itself in mid-1992.''Reviews'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Whelan
Bill Whelan (born 22 May 1950 in Limerick, Ireland) is an Irish composer and musician. He is best known for composing a piece for the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. The result, ''Riverdance'', was a seven-minute display of traditional Irish dancing that became a full-length stage production and spawned a worldwide craze for Irish dancing and Celtic music and also won him a Grammy. "Riverdance" was released as a single in 1994, credited to "Bill Whelan and Anúna featuring the RTÉ Concert Orchestra". It reached number one in Ireland for 18 weeks and number nine in the UK. The album of the same title reached number 31 in the album charts in 1995. Whelan has also composed a symphonic suite version of ''Riverdance'', with its premiere performed by the Ulster Orchestra on BBC Radio 3 in August 2014. Biography Whelan is a native of Limerick, and was educated at Crescent College. He gained his Bachelor of Civil Law degree at University College Dublin in 1973 and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kevin Glackin
Kevin () is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; mga, Caoimhghín ; sga, Cóemgein ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ). The variant ''Kevan'' is anglicized from , an Irish diminutive form.''A Dictionary of First Names''. Oxford University Press (2007) s.v. "Kevin". The feminine version of the name is (anglicised as ''Keeva'' or ''Kweeva''). History Saint Kevin (d. 618) founded Glendalough abbey in the Kingdom of Leinster in 6th-century Ireland. Canonized in 1903, he is one of the patron saints of the Archdiocese of Dublin. Caomhán of Inisheer, the patron saint of Inisheer, Aran Islands, is properly anglicized ''Cavan'' or ''Kevan'', but often also referred to as "Kevin". The name was rarely given before the 20th century. In Ireland an early bearer of the anglicised name was Kevin Izod O'Doherty (1823–1905) a Young Irelander and politician; it gained popularity from the Gaelic revival of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rory Gallagher
William Rory Gallagher ( ; 2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995) was an Irish guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer. Due to his virtuosic playing, but relative lack of fame compared to some others, he has been referred to as "the greatest guitarist you've never heard of", and strongly influenced other guitarists such as Brian May and Eric Clapton. Gallagher was voted as guitarist of the year by ''Melody Maker'' magazine in 1972, and listed as the 57th greatest guitarist of all time by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, and raised in Cork, Gallagher formed the band Taste in the late 1960s and recorded solo albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s. His albums have sold over 30 million copies worldwide. His popularity and output declined in the 1980s due to changes in the music industry and ill health. Gallagher received a liver transplant in 1995, but died of complications later that year in London at the age of 47. Early life Gallagher was bor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
