Irish giants that made an impact – Legendary singer Christy Moore can ‘deliver real tragedy like Shakespeare’
CHRISTY Moore comes armed with only an acoustic guitar.
But his glorious voice means he can sell out arenas all over Ireland.
Whether as a founder of 70’s band Planxty and member of folk supergroup Moving Hearts in the 80s, and then a solo star, he has had a guitar in his hand and a song to sing for decades.
Now 74, Christy still sounds like The Chieftains with machine guns, blasting the musical traditions of Ireland into the modern world.
RTE Radio’s Risin’ Time presenter Shay Byrne claims the singer’s ‘lilting voice is a mix of ‘nostalgia, pathos and comedy.
Shay told us: “Christy Moore can deliver tragedy like a Shakespearean actor at the height of his powers."
CHRISTY 'BELONGS ON MOUNT RUSHMORE'
It’s no wonder the team behind RTE’s No 1 true crime podcast The Nobody Zone used Christy singing Jimmy McCarthy’s song Missing You as the theme tune of their chilling story of an Irish serial killer loose on the London Underground.
Christy has also inspired and encouraged a new generation of Irish artists including the most acclaimed local act of 2020, A Lazarus Soul.
Joe Chester of the band told us: “When I think about Christy Moore, I have the same feeling I get when contemplating infinity. It’s hard to wrap your mind around the enormity of what he represents.
“In musical terms he belongs on Mount Rushmore. My earliest memory of Christy Moore is of a 7 inch single of Nancy Spain that, as a child, I found in my parent’s collection and that I subsequently played until the grooves had all but disappeared from the surface.
“Fast-forward ten years and I think about being a teenager in Dublin in the eighties and what the album Ordinary Man meant to people.
“It lifted people up, gave expression to a kind of furious determination. I always had the feeling that Christy was fighting the good fight."
Christy Moore
Age: 74
Family: Married Valerie in 1973. His brother is the singer Luka Bloom.
Other jobs: Bank teller and building labourer (and we don’t mean while starring in his own video for Don’t Forget Your Shovel).
Claim to fame: How long have you got? Named Ireland’s greatest living musician by RTE in 2007.
Biggest hits: Lisdoonvarna, Ordinary Man, Nancy Spain, Euro’88 anthem Joxer Goes to Stuttgart and The Voyage.
Did you know? Christy was detained by Special Branch in Holyhead, Wales in 2004 and questioned over the lyrics in his songs under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2002.
The in-demand producer and tunesmith, recounted how after sending Christy a song, he had been touched to receive a handwritten note from his hero.
Joe added: “For Christy, a giant if ever there was one, to take the time to encourage and support a struggling songwriter like me, speaks to the deep quality and integrity of the man.
“Last time I saw him, he was down the front, with his family, at an A Lazarus Soul gig in Whelan’s. Legend”.
As well as encouraging new writers, Christy’s voice can bring new meaning to lyrics of old favourites, Shay Byrne recommends Pink Floyd’s Shine On You Crazy Diamond or Richard Thompson’s Beeswing.
The Kildare man has penned his own songs about defining Irish events and personalities from the Hunger Strikes, to the tragic death of Anne Lovett, the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, and the joy of soccer in Stuttgart.
Christy explained: “I find songs everywhere: gigs, albums, sessions, folk clubs, weddings, funerals, prisons, opium dens, bus shelters."
RUBBING SHOULDERS WITH LEGENDS
Born in Newbridge, Co Kildare in 1945, the eldest of six children, Christy was just 11 when his father died.
He recalled: “I remember certain things about him, the sound of his voice, the songs he sang, the way he whistled.
"He left before I got to know him but I never forget him."
Growing up, Christy strummed along to Bill Haley, Elvis, and Buddy Holly on the radio until The Clancy Brothers blew him away.
Christy said: “They weren’t just singing about Ireland. They were speaking in my language."
He left school to work in a bank.
But a six month bank strike in 1966, saw him jack it in to play guitar in folk clubs around the UK.
The young Christy learning his craft, rubbing shoulders in Irish bars with legends such as Seamus Ennis, Margaret Barry, Luke Kelly, and Martin Byrnes.
While out gigging he played one night in London on the same bill as folk legends Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl.
After releasing two solo albums, he joined forces with musicians Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny and Liam O’Flynn to form Planxty, a band credited with reviving Irish traditional music.
The group was to record three albums and tour Europe before splitting in 1974 with Christy continuing his solo career.
He was back with a band again in 1980 when he formed Moving Hearts with musician Donal Lunny, combining Irish traditional music with rock and roll.
'THE CRAIC, THE GARGLE, THE GANJA'
Moving Hearts scoring their first hit with American songwriter Jim Page’s anti-nuclear weapons song Hiroshima (Nagasaki Russian Roulette).
Front man Christy left the group in 1985 to resume his solo career. with just an acoustic guitar and bodhrán.
A superstar was born with prominent albums over the following 20 years including “Ride On”, “Voyage”, and the aptly titled, “Smoke and Strong Whiskey”.
The constant touring came at a cost.
In an RTE documentary, Christy recalled his early years with trademark honesty as "the craic, the gargle and the ganja” and prepared for concerts by ‘slaughtering pints”.
He admitted he can’t listen to live tapes of his recordings from back then.
Christy said: “Sometimes I’m stoned and sometimes I’m drunk, and it’s horrible, horrible."
Someone who had personal experience seeing Moore in this state was Brian Warfield of The Wolfe Tones.
BEATING THE BOOZE
Brian said: “He certainly had a drink problem. I can remember seeing Christy at the side of the road after some festival.
"People were trying help him but he didn’t want to be helped. He was in his own little world.
“To be fair to him, a lot of artists in the folk world drink because they have anxiety about going on stage.
People don’t realise how tough it is going out in front of people every night, and the fear of being rejected.
“But Christy beat the booze. A lot of people who had seen him down, wanted to help him get back up again.
“He got new management and things really took off for him."
Christy recalled it was ending up in intensive care after a heart attack that forced him to give up the drink.
He recalled: “I swore that I would never drink again and within a week of getting out of hospital, I drank myself into oblivion again.
“That’s when I knew you can’t do this on your own. I can still remember the first time I ever walked out on stage without alcohol or any other substance and it was, for me in my life, it was quite an amazing moment.
“For many years I thought I couldn’t do anything without those crutches.
“I feel very fortunate that for the last 25 years, I have been clean and sober."
LEGENDARY LIVE SHOWS
The Catholic Hierarchy has also been a frequent target of Christy’s songs.
He explained: “I’ve been writing about The Church for thirty or forty years. I have a song called ‘Strange Ways’,(from his 1999 album ‘Graffiti Tongue). It’s about the whole F*** lot of them.
“There is a ring around the world. It ensnares the little ones, as these priests and bishops fall, innocent comes to an end."
He added: “I hate it (the Catholic Hierarchy) but I don’t think about it too much because it tends to make me angry."
Christy live shows have been legendary too, captured on best selling albums Christy Moore Live in Dublin, At the Point: Live and Live at Vicar Street.
But his biggest audience ever came in 2011 courtesy of Coldplay who invited him on stage at Oxegen to play his best known song Ride On with 80,00 fans singing along.
The idea for the duet coming from lead singer Chris Martin, who knowing that Christy was born three miles away from Punchestown, asked him to join them on stage.
Christy recalled: “What made it work was the surprise element. No-one expected it, not even the promoters."
But the Voyager hit maker turned down the chance of supporting another superstar fan Ed Sheeran at his sell out shows in Croke Park in 2015.
He said: “I was tempted, but then I realised Ed’s audience are 16-18, and I just thought, ‘work away, Ed”.
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It was a kind offer but it’s not as if Christy needed the exposure - he’s never off the radio in Ireland.
Shay said: “There’s a tryst a radio audience have when they hear Christy’s voice coming from the radio. ‘Ah it’s Christy. It’ll be good.
“Why do we like Christy? Because he’s one of us....and he’s a bit of craic."
