Bio..so far
Who are Celtic Symphony? We are three friends playing a choice of songs and tunes delivered in a professional manner, infused with welcome harmonies, good delivery and ”beside the fire passion” not seen anymore in gigs.
Where did it all begin for Celtic Symphony, back in 1989 I started to sit in on friends throwing house parties and enjoyed the music and the singing so much that I wanted to see what I could add to the mix. The first song of many to have moved me was The Fureys singing Clare to Here and this became my mantra for any gigs and sessions until I started to add others.
I remember listening to my fathers record collection, the one that I had scorned for so many years, and recording onto tapes songs that I felt I liked. Then I set about learning more and more, travelling around with some close friends Mark Birney and Stephen Lindsay playing the guitar, singing songs and enjoying seeing pubs all over Ireland willing to allow us to play.
In 1996 we travelled out to Howth on a Friday night and went into The Pier House pub which sat at the end of the town. We asked the owner, then Aiden, if he minded us playing a few songs and he was agreeable.
We sat down and played a session, mostly for our own enjoyment, and at the end of the evening Aiden seemed happy enough with us. We made a pitch to him asking if he would be interested in us playing music there every Friday and he invited us back the following week with the promise of a few quid for playing.
Celtic Symphony were born.
During our time in The Pier House we met many musicians and had the pleasure of playing music with some of them, one such musician was a young man called Michael Lacey who played the banjo at the time. He impressed us enough in a loud smoke filled pub that we asked would he come back the following week and sit in with us. He did and he has been sitting in with us ever since.
We played here for 18 months before moving out and asking a friend of ours Gabriel Roberts if he would be interested in playing there on Fridays with Sean Og Mc Kenna, a well known banjo player around Howth, and they continued the gig for a further 8 years, with Michael stepping in during the last few years, before being told there services were no longer needed. The Pier House has since stopped trading and closed its doors. ( Should have kept the session going!!!)
We moved on up to The Lighthouse on a Monday night and again asked the owner Paul would he mind us playing a session. Again he was agreeable and there we played for 7 fantastic years before the pub was sold on.
We have had some personnel changes and back in approximately 1998 one of the founding members Mr Stephen Lindsay packed up his guitar and moved to America where he still lives and continues to sing and play with his wife, Susan, an extremely good musician herself playing the saxaphone, flute, whistle, piano and also singing. (Check out the link to their web site in our Links page)
During 1998 we asked Mr. Gabriel Roberts if he would like to join the band and continue on where Stephen left off. He was agreeable and the line up was then Gabriel on guitar and vocals, Michael on banjo and mandolin, Stephen Mahon on banjo, mandolin, mandola, whistle, low whistle, bongo, bodhran and vocals, Mark Birney on vocals and percussion and myself Roy ” Rocker” O’Donnell on vocals and percussion also. This was our line up and continued for a number of years with friends Wes joining us on the bass all the way from Tallafornia and also Tony joining us on guitar and vocals.
The sessions were loud, unplugged, friendly and always always enjoyable.
Some of the lads still join us when they can but not as often as we, or they, would like so we continue as a tight three piece with Gaybo, Michael and myself still gigging around Dublin.
We have always enjoyed the unplugged session, something not seen as often nowadays, beside the fire place, inhaling the fumes of the burning turf as we belted out song, after song, after tune, after song.
It has always been our greatest pleasure playing music and thanks to all of the friends who have supported us throughout our singing and musical lives.
We are still playing, plugged in, unplugged, in pubs, in clubs, in houses, in parks and enjoying every session so feel free to join us, check out our upcoming gigs section and meet up with us. We will look forward to it.
Yours in music and friendship.
Rocker.