Thurles Information

Thurles will play host to numerous musical entertainment acts in the coming months; each and everyone a household name in the entertainment business.

Cut Loose
One of this year’s largest Irish Country Music Festivals, “Cut Loose”, will take place on Sunday, 15th July, at Holycross GAA Pitch, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, from 1.00pm to 7.00pm. The festival will see a host of artists perform and amongst those headlining the event will be:- ‘Michael English’, ‘Louise Morrissey’, ‘Derek Ryan’, ‘Jimmy Buckley’, ‘Cliona Hagan’ and ‘Nathan Carter’.

Féile Classical
On  Friday 21st & 22nd September 2018, “Féile Classical” will take place in Semple Stadium, Thurles. Bands performing at both events will include ‘The Stunning’, ‘Hothouse Flowers’, ‘An Emotional Fish’, ‘Something Happens’, ‘The 4 of Us’, ‘The Frank & Walters’, with special guests and all will perform alongside the Irish Chamber Orchestra. This festival will be fully seated, complete with organised food stalls and bars facilities.

Phil Coulter – “Cathedral Echoes”
Last, but by no means least, on Friday September 28th, 2018 will be arriving to Thurles on tour, a man whom I regard as one of the truly great international performers of our age; the one and only Mr Phil Coulter.

Born 19th February 1942, and today one of the biggest record sellers in Ireland, the well known and much loved Irish musician, songwriter and record producer is the recipient  of a Gold Badge from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, (October 2009).

He has amassed 23 Platinum discs, 39 Gold discs, 52 Silver discs, two Grand Prix Eurovision awards; five Ivor Novello Awards; also include Songwriter of the Year; three American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers awards; a Grammy Nomination; a Meteor Award, a National Entertainment Award and a Rose d’or d’Antibes, and if that wasn’t enough, he has received honorary doctorates from the University of Ulster and Dublin Institute of Technology.

By 1964, his final year at university, Coulter had already written a couple of hit songs here in Ireland. Having moved to London, he work as an arranger/songwriter with a music publisher in Denmark Street, graduating to work with acts including Billy Connolly, Van Morrison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Tom Jones.

Between 1967 and 1976; collaborating with Bill Martin, they had manufactured four No. 1 hits in the UK: “Puppet on a String”, “Congratulations”, “Back Home” and “Forever and Ever”. They also wrote numerous other Top 10 hits including the Bay City Rollers’ “Shang-A-Lang”; for the glam rock band Kenny “Fancy Pants”; for the Scottish pop group Slik “Requiem” and for Cilla Black “Surround Yourself with Sorrow”.  Both men were joint recipients of an Ivor Novello Award for ‘Songwriter of the Year’ in 1975.

Coulter went on to produced three albums with No. 1 hits in the US  namely “Thanks”, performed by Bill Anderson and “My Boy”, sung by Elvis Presley.

In 1995, the Irish Rugby Football Union commissioned Coulter to write a politically neutral anthem for the Ireland national rugby union team, to represents both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The result was “Ireland’s Call”. “Ireland’s Call” has since also been adopted by Ireland’s national hockey, cricket and rugby league teams.

Friday September 28th, 2018.
Tickets are now available for this internationally renowned composer and musician’s Thurles tour date on Friday September 28th. Same are readily available from the Parish Centre, situated in Cathedral Street, Thurles, across the road from the performance venue, the Cathedral of the Assumption, and from Bookworm, in Liberty Square.

This event will mark the beginning of fund-raising for the Cathedral’s re-roofing project.

Ticket Donation: €35. For tickets contact the parish office Tel. No. 0504 22229, 087 0519697, or 086 2048528.

Tickets for next September’s “Féile Classical – Trip To Tipp” went on sale briefly at 9.00am this morning. I use the word ‘briefly’, most deliberately, since the fully seated venue was completely sold out in 4.8 minutes precisely.

Previous visitors to the Féile of the 90’s, went into ‘nostalgia overload’ this morning, scrambling to get tickets, leaving thousands of people without admission to this most exciting event.

Organisers are now currently meeting as we speak, in an attempt to organise a second night for this music event, possibly the Friday before the sold out September 22nd, 2018 occasion, thus attempting to remove the feelings of disappointment suffered by thousands of people who failed to get tickets, this morning.

More news as same comes on stream.

Breaking News:

It was Oscar Wilde who stated that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”  The event, known and remembered nationally as Féile; first introduced into the town of Thurles at Semple Stadium, by Independent TD Michael Lowry, is to be re-harvested again in September of this year, (2018).

The “Féile – TripTo Tipp” took place annually here in Thurles from 1990 to 1994, and then again in 1997 and now will be replicated again in 2018.

In 1995 it moved to Pairc Uí Chaoimh in Cork City, and took place indoors in The Point Depot in Dublin in 1996 before moving back to Thurles for a one day event in 1997.

From 1990, through the years, Thurles became home to thousands of weekend campers, with many of them arriving into the town by every possible known means of transport, attracted by headline bands included Meatloaf, INXS, Bryan Adams,  The Hothouse Flowers, The Cranberries, Crash Test Dummies, The Prodigy, Elvis Costello and a host of other International Music Stars.

We understand that this return event, (which will be a seated affair), this year will include bands like Galway & Dublin band “The Stunning”, formed back in 1987 and the Dublin alternative rock band “An Emotional Fish”, to name just two.

Take a walk down Memory Lane
It is hoped that music lovers and those who attended past “Trips To Tipp” will still hold a strong wistful desire to return not just in thought, but in fact, to a former time in their lives, and relive the happiness they enjoyed in this former place and time.

Full details regarding this exciting event will be announced in ‘The Dome’, Semple Stadium, Thurles, tomorrow night (Tuesday 24th) at an invitational meeting at 7.30pm.

The Stunning In Concert, “Brewing Up A Storm”.

An Emotional Fish, “Celebrate”.

Same event will also be announced on the Ian Dempsey Radio Breakfast Show; on Today FM and the Tipp FM Breakfast Show between 8.00am and 9.00am tomorrow morning.
Tickets priced from €49.50 go on sale from 9.00am this coming Friday.