Band from County Hell/Brandy Thieves

BAND FROM COUNTY HELL/BRANDY THIEVES

Duffys 21st March 2026

So pleased to have been back here on Saturday night… I love Duffy's Bar and all it does and stands for… a superb venue. The bill on Saturday night looked like something really special, and in the event it was even more. I have enjoyed many outstanding nights here but surely never a better one than this… two absolutely magnificent bands, The Brandy Thieves and The Band From County Hell both brought their A games and delivered absolutely mind bogglingly great sets… both full of energy, passion and musical prowess… and the audience dancing and singing gleefully right through… it really was a phenomenal night!!

So, first up were the Brandy Thieves… up front Andrea must be one of the most outstanding songwriters and performers around.. .always displaying boundless energy and passion, clearly loving what she does and engaging totally with the audience. Accompanied by the superb band, comprising of drums, bass, banjo and trumpet, matching Andrea all the way with their energy and passion, delivering an exhilarating blend of musical styles, gypsy punk and touching on rock, punk, mariachi, reggae among others. They are totally unique, unforgettable and so exciting to see.

They kicked off acapella with a fine version of “The Auld Triangle” before turning up the intensity and tempo, to say nothing of the excitement and dancing, with a few more songs before the wonderful “The Blackbird” which was greeted with whoops and even more exuberant dancing and singing from the floor… a couple more slices of the trademark gypsy punk and we come to the encore of the classic “Hit the Road Jack” which had the audience roaring out the chorus… and that was it… a glorious raucous up tempo rocking joy of a set by a band who love to have fun and make sure the audience do to… absolutely glorious performance

So, who can follow something like that… the headliners, The Band Form County Hell can!!! They kicked off at full power with a boisterous instrumental piece followed by what Jock described as the only love song he’d written for his wife Joolz, ’Highway to Hell”. The band were rocking and the audience were dancing but with “Streams of Whiskey” the band, and audience, went into overdrive…the tempo, intensity and excitement were turned up even higher, and never dropped throughout the entire show…�As the set continued, the Pogues links continued with “Dirty Old Town”, which Joolz had once sung live with Shane. Jock played the tune several times on the harp as the audience sang quietly.. but that turned to a roar as Jock started to sing… and “If I should Fall From Grace with God” somehow upped the atmosphere another notch

As the second half started Dodger was conspicuous by his absence as the band played an Elvis classic… but reappeared guitar in hand as a flambouyant Elvis in a yellow suit for “Elvis”… The band continued to rock until a glorious “Whiskey in the Jar” got the audience singing at full tilt again…. Followed by a brisk “Fields of Athenry”… that could have been a closer, but a ferocious “Sick Beds of Cuchulainn” followed.

Hammer and Vicious were working like demons on drums and bass respectively driving the powerful beat beautifully while Hill Billy Angus and Deep South Dave were playing like demons on banjo and bouzouki respectively…

Jock threw Hill Billy Angus’s waistcoat into the crowd as a gift…By now the Boot Stick was in evidence with the audience members in turn having a chance to do a routine or dance with it while the rest of the crowd reeled and rocked around the room, I have totally lost any concept of the order from here on… the audience were reeling around with the totally iresistable dance music that was rocking the room… The band did theoretically end the set, but the cries for more kept them rocking, so they delivered a a couple of Irish songs, “Cockles and Muscles” song by Joolz replacing Molly Malone with Seamus… followed by a blistering version of “The Irish Rover”. Jock then felt a rebel song appropriate and to everyones delight gave us hugely rousing rebel song (the name of which I don’t recall).. Somewhere around here the band played the beautiful good night song “The Parting Glass” which saw most of the audience linked together bouncing before breaking into more frantic reeling as the piece moved into another high tempo instrumental section…

Eventually it had to end.. .Jock called the Brandy Thieves onto the stage and called for Joolz to return for a final piece…She then led an acapella “Wild Rover”, rushing through the verses so the bands and audience could sing another rousing chorus…. So, at around 20 minutes after midnight the party came to an end with the bands triumphant and the audience reeling

This was a magical night… two bloody brilliant bands playing with massive energy snd passion…and huge musical ability, rocking the room with their unique brands of Celtic and gypsy punk folk music… two of the best bands I’ve seen.. certainly two of the most exciting bands… and as good a night as I’ve seen, and not only at Duffy’s…

Huge thanks to The Band from County Hell and Brandy Thieves for giving us such a wonderful evening of exhilarating music… and a huge “up” for Russ who as ever managed to deliver superb sound from both bands whatever was happening on stage!!

Lets hope there back for more soon…

Keep music live.. .keep music reel… support your local venues