Govannen/Kellys Heroes
International Musiv Venue 8th February 2026
Back to the The International Music Venue on sunday afternoon for another wonderful afternoon celebrating St Brigids Day with celtic music from two of the best bands in ther business... Kellys Heroes and Govannen
First up were Kellys Heroes, a band steeped in traditional irish song and tunes, mainly familiar songs, which with the band deliver with massive spirit and musical excellence.
They opened with a cracking version of "All for me Grog" followed by a hymn to the heroes of the building trade "Building up and Tearing England Down" totally setting the joyful tone of the set. The band were firing on all cylinders playing and singing brilliantly and the audience loving it
The pace slowed briefly for a beautiful performance of John Tams "Snow Falls" (originally written as part of "Lark Rise to Candleford") before picking up the pace again with more upbeat material including "New York Girls".As Tony said, he sings chorus songs rather fast... indeed virtually the whole set is delivered with massive energy and style. The band enbded with another relatively new (by their standards) song in Ewan's "Dirty Old Town"
The whole set was wonderful... absolutely heartwarming irresistable irsh magic delivered by a truly great band... Huge thanks to Helen, Patrick, Steve and Tony for wonderful exhilarating set.... follow that!!!...
... and of course Govannen did that... slightly changing their set they started with the beautiful tune "A stor mo chroi", as a touching tribute and memorial for Neil Segrott, led by Adele and her wonderful fiddle playing...
With Govannen the focus falls on each of the musicians in turn, and next up was Roger with his more robust fiddling style, playing a couple of his own tunes.
Following on, the mood changed for a beautiful version of "Salley Gardens" song by Chris, before switching to Dan for a rousing "Matty Groves....
Roger was back next with his song "Indian Tea" based on a Robert Frost poem.
Adele had a rare outing on vocals singing "Spancil Hill and showed what a great singer she is, and what a lovely voice...
For me, one of the highlights of any Govannen set is Dan singing his powerful song of the Clovelley fishing fleet, "The Storm" which he delivered as ever with passion and real class.
A couple more tunes then Chris delivered his classic "Jazz Potato" outlining the fact a jazz pianist plays in a ceildh band... through the set Chris is more than a keyboard player/singer as he adds low pipes, whistles and kalimba to several pieces.
After this Dan was just starting an announcement, when Roger burst into the final rousing song, "The Beggar"
Dan was then able to offer his thanks to all before the band left us with another set of up tempo tunes...
Five brilliant musicians/singers, Neil staying at the back adding subtle and sensitive perciussion throughout ans well as backing vocals
Another scintillating and brilliant set....
Huge thanks to both bands for two terrific performances and a really fabulous afternoons entertainment...
Absolutely great stuff!!!
Keep music live... keep music real... support your local venues
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