View from the Green Room: Climbin’ into the past
The Fureys Farewell Tour.
The Fureys returned to the Royal for a sell-out performance for the Waterford leg of their last tour. The group is reduced to two Fureys now – Eddie Furey and George Furey – along with Adam Kelly, Camillus Hiney and Tony Murray, although only two played with Eddie and George tonight.
The audience loved the nostalgia of the night and sang along all night as all the Fureys classics were played.
Slides, polkas, slip jigs bring much-needed life to the concert and the highlight for me is the box-playing of Camillus Hiney that has the house rocking.
George Furey likes to set the context of the songs to add depth to the performance. Sadly, these rambling introductions bore little or no connection to any of the numbers and only served to drag out the evening as tales of late night drinking filled the gaps between the numbers.
Tonight’s audience enjoyed the show and stood in applause at curtain. I heard lots of satisfied comments after the show.
Climbin’ into the past makes for a comfortable evening of nostalgia. Katy Reilly’s or T&H’s in George's Street back in the early seventies all came to mind with big attendances for traditional music and balladeers.
But…that was then…and…this is now. The world has moved on and we expect more today. Especially at €38.50/seat. Rear screen projections of the band, record covers, band pictures, video recordings, Top of the Pops and Late Late Show appearances, along with a well-rehearsed script are all pretty standard now and make for a far more professional show and interesting evening.
Climbin’ into the past isn’t what it used to be.
