On Friday 25th July, not only did the 50-ft high Royal DeLuxe theatre company ‘giants’ take to the city of Liverpool, so did some of the Manx! A number of Manx music performances were organised by the University of Liverpool as part of the Festival of Ideas (organised in association with the Centre for Manx Studies and with support from...
Read More[caption id="attachment_513" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Performing at Noa Bakehouse to a full-house who also enjoyed watching the trailer for 'Island Bound'[/caption] It’s really not an overstatement to say that Davy Knowles — Joe Satriani’s “new favourite modern-day bluesman” — is a phenomenal musician. Davy grew up on the Isle of Man (indeed, we became friends at the same secondary school) and left...
Read More"How do we get INTO Media City?!" puzzled David and I as we floundered our way round Salford Quays in David's little Ford hatchback. We'd somehow managed to take a wrong turn from our GoogleMaps printed-out directions, and were no longer on the yellow brick road to BBC Radio 3 but instead were driving in circles - down a proverbial...
Read MoreLast night a track from Sheear - a Manx language version of 'She moves through the fair' was played on BBC 3's Late Junction with Max Reinhardt. Thanks to the Cornish dancer Carmen Hunt for alerting me to this! You can hear the track here (<--click, click!) for the next six days. Dave, Ness and I are very excited to be heading up...
Read MoreI'm pleased to say that my album is now available to purchase digitally (whole album and individual tracks) on iTunes, Amazon and CD Baby. Please help me to spread the word!...
Read MoreMy trio and I will be heading to Media City in Salford on 26th June to record live performances and be interviewed for ‘The Verb’ on BBC Radio 3. Exciting stuff! The programme, presented by Poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan is ‘dedicated to investigating spoken words around the globe’ so I’m very much looking forward to being able to discuss...
Read MoreMy album has been stocked in Tambourine Music, a Celtic music specialist shop in Japan, since it was released in February this year. It was great to see 'Sheear' listed as number one in Japan’s ‘Top 10’ in the June edition of the Irish Music Magazine! Though the CD was actually released under my own label 'Purt Sheearan Records', I...
Read More‘Sheear’ received some lovely reviews this month from Aidan O’Hara - Irish Music Magazine and Neil King at FATEA Magazine. I have posted the full reviews below (though you can also access the FATEA review online here). FATEA review: One of the many things I love about music is its capacity to keep cultures, traditions and even languages alive. Over the years...
Read MoreThis morning, I received a rather spluttery, excited call from a friend: 'SWITCH ON BBC RADIO 6 RIGHT NOW! YOUR SONG IS PLAYING!' ...
Read MoreA couple of weeks ago, I travelled to Ireland to bring Manx music and language to BA and MA music students at Dundalk Institute of Technology, and the conservatory at Dublin Institute of Technology. With the help of my trio, I delivered lecture-recitals which focussed on the characteristics of Manx music; shared traditions between the Isle of Man, Scotland and...
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