Conor O'Brien remembers this show , promoting the new
Villagers album
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music ... -1.2162717
(extract)
The confidence to do this has much to do with some musical encounters in the last two years. One was when O’Brien played at the Ceiliúradh show in London during President Michael D Higgins’s state visit to the UK last year. He was soundchecking to what he thought was an empty Royal Albert Hall when he saw a person staring intently at him from the middle of the room.
“It was Elvis Costello and I was like ‘wow’. When I was 15 or 16, I got a tape of Punch the Clock in Blackrock market and I remember hearing Shipbuilding and falling in love with that tune. When I heard I was asked to sing on that song at the Royal Albert Hall, it was mindblowing. Afterwards, he came up to me and said he really liked the chord change in My Lighthouse. All I could do was gush, ‘I bought your album when I was a teenager and, and, and!’ Those things mean a lot.
“That show was quite influential on this album too. I was very aware of this incredible, grandiose event, this big cultural event, and I just walked out on my own with my guitar and sang my song.”