Grada Australian Tour

Straight from the gang from Grada, do yourself a favour and get to one of the many gigs that are happening around the place...

Hello Everyone.

We are delighted to announce a return tour to Australia, New Zealand and Japan! It has been over three years since our last tour down under and we will be touring our new CD “Cloudy Day Navigation”, which is due to be released on April the 3rd! The new CD also includes a bonus DVD with 6 exciting tracks from a live gig in the Temple Bar Music Centre, Dublin.

We will be showcasing an array of new tunes and songs as well as our new singer, Nicola Joyce, and fiddler, Colin Farrell. We have been flat out touring and recording lately, playing in 15 different countries last year and finishing off the record, which is being released under Nashville-based record company, Compass Records.

“Cloudy Day Navigation” will be available from April the 3rd from our shop: http://www.gradamusic.com/shop/index.php

You can listen to 30 second clips of the new CD on our “myspace” page at: http://www.myspace.com/gradamusic

Please check our tour dates page for further details regarding times, tickets etc: http://www.gradamusic.com/gradaNEW/tour.htm

Take care and we look forward to catching up with a lot of you. Please pass this email on to lovers of good acoustic music.

GradaAustralia

TH 5th April: Clifton Hill Hotel, Melbourne, VIC

Fri 6th April: National Folk Festival, Canberra ACT

SA 7th April: National Folk Festival, Canberra, ACT

SU 8th April: National Folk Festival, Canberra, ACT

MO 9th April: The Harp, Tempe, Sydney, NSW

TU 10th April: The Clarendon Hotel, Katoomba, Blue Mountains, NSW

WE 11th April: Central Coast Davistown RSL, NSW

TH 12th April: The Rails, Byron Bay, NSW

FR 13th April: Joe's Waterhole, Eumundi, QLD

SA 14th April: The Queensland Irish Club, Brisbane, QLD

SU 15th April: The Sound lounge, Currumbin, Gold Coast, QLD

New Zealand

WE 18th April: Auckland, The Dogs Bollix. Door Sales or from venue

TH 19th April: Hamilton, WEL Energy Trust Academy of Performing Arts, The University of Waikato. 8:00 PM, Tickets

FR 20th April: New Plymouth, TSB Showplace, Tickets from TiketekSA 21st April: Taupo, The Centre Stage,

TU 24th April: Takaka, The Mussel Inn. Door sales at venue.

WE 25th April: Nelson, The School of Music

TH 26th April: Blenheim, The Boat Shed, Hodson St, Blenheim. 7:30 PM. Tickets on sale at Ken Ham's Music Works and Tan's Place

FR 27th April: Christchurch, The Harbourlight

SA 28th April: Dunedin, Functions Suite, Dunedin Railway Station

TH 3rd May: Lower Hutt, Memorial Theatre (Schools Concert) Please email info@gradamusic.com

FR 4th May: Hawkes Bay, Playhouse Theatre: 704 Hastings St. Nth, Hastings, 8:00 PM. Text for tickets: 0274 462 727

SA 5th May: Wellington, Illott Theatre (Town Hall), 8:00 PM. Tiketek
SU 6th May: Palmerston North, The Globe Theatre, Tickets

Japan

FR 11th May: Tokyo, Sorani Mame Maite

http://www.gradamusic.com

Sista She 8th March - The Factory, Enmore

Playing the best of the last 5 years, Sheila MC Eila and Rasheda Eda MC made me laugh as hard as they ever have.

Loved the sneaker medley. These chicks are hot. Ok so Id heard alot of the material before, but hey it was a best of...

Everyone should see these two very talented, hilarious, hip hop rhyming cabaret comedy!

The numbness returns

Wednesday 7th February & Thursday 8th February

Yeah what can I say, its been one hell of a time for my family over the past 2 years, your just getting up from the last blow and then you steady yourself only to be hit again then again....

And well its happened again, another dose of bad news, my sister in law, Glenda, her brother David was found dead in his house in Hokitika on the west coast of NZ. He was 39 years old and died of a ruptured stomach ulcer, something in this day and age you would think is curable.

Many will remember meeting Dave at John and Glenda's wedding or at the lads christening. Dave was a friendly jolly guy, but was suffering badly from depression. he died of ailments that could of been treated and that saddens me to no end. He was a good brother, will be sadly missed in his home town who are still in shock, and will be missed by his sister, brother in law, nephews and me. Ill miss his visit to Oz every April that he made and we all looked forward to.

Depression is something that affects so many people and i think everyone in some way will experience varying degrees of depression at different times. But how do you ask for help? Especially if you are unaware that your suffering depression or if your not sure how depressed you actually are?? And even if you do ask for help, what sort of help is it? I recently picked up a postcard that had some tips to help with stress and depression, 'have a cup of tea', 'go for a walk' 'read a book', these must of replaced the postcards from the 50's that said 'take a bex and have a good lie down'. Seriously if you seen the picture and the rest of the coping methods no wonder people don't know how to cope when they are suffering from deep depression.

I don't have the answers, Its an illness that affects so many and I'm sad that David could not see past the depression he was in...

Some sites that tackle depression and are worth a look at include...

http://www.beyondblue.org.au/

http://www.reachout.com.au/

So yeah that was the news on Wednesday and as Johnny and Glenda rushed around trying to get passports for the twins more bad news arrived on Thursday.

My aunt in Chelsea, London, Dads sister Bridgie died after complications from major surgery that she had on the previous Monday. My aunt was a fighter, she had been fighting for years, after she had a failed kidney transplant years earlier (having had only been born with one kidney).

She had been undergoing dialysis for many years in the hope that she would be once again strong enough to try again for another kidney transplant. My aunt was a strong women in her day, many people liken me to her, she was my Dads younger and only sister. She never gave up hope that she would once again be strong enough to have another operation and live a healthy strong life.

Whenever any of us would travel to Ireland we would always stop off in London, stay with my aunt in Chelsea and spend time with her. She was great craic and she will be sadly missed by her three children and by all her family and friends. London is simply not the same without first the death of my uncle Pat and now my aunt.

So on Friday, my Dad flew to London to bury his sister in what can only be described as the longest journey to make under such cirrcumstances and my brother, Glenda and the twins flew to NZ. I'm so over death, I'm just numb at the thought of all the death in our family over the past couple of years, that brings the total to 6, and the scary thing is, most of been under tragic circumstances and not one of them was over 64. Makes you wonder!

So get out, be healthy, live your life to fulfil your dreams and desires, take chances and be happy with who you are... that's what Ive got planned.

Stay in School.. cause its the best

Peaches
Home Nightclub - Sydney Wednesday 24th January, 2007

What can I say?? This chick rocked, Ive been hanging out to see Peaches live for so long, and well she lived up to all expectations.

Managed to catch the end of the support Macromantics, and yeah Id def be into seeing her perform again.

Now I had read all the spitting at the crowd stories from previous gigs, and how a Peaches show can be filled with lots of smut and well i cant say that I seen much of that, what I did see was an energy and passion for music that was intoxicating. The venue was intimate and the crowd were fully getting into ms Peaches and her band. The drummer, hmmm well she had the boys and girls in the crowd all going mad for her, anyone get her name?? ha

Lots of hits, good selection of old and new, some fantastic costume changes and some very cool guitar throwing and balancing on the drum kit all up made for one hell of a show. Having not really seen any pictures of Ms Peaches without a stick on beard or some form of head covering in the past, well I have to say she didn't look like the Ms Peaches in my head, she actually reminded me of my cousin in Wisconsin, think it was the mad curly dare I say permed looking hair that did it, she could of been a cheer leader from one of those small country towns in the North West.

Hair aside, this was a great show, and for the weeks that followed, the one liners flowed, Ms Peaches is truly under my skin.... "cause the boys wanna be her, the girls wanna be her, I wanna be her.. so do you?"

Weddings & Funerals : PRELUDE

Its now heading towards the end of March 07, I started writing this entry in November 06, its taken me a while to get my head around a few things, hence the total lack of blog entries. And for fear this blog is going to look more like an obituary column I had better start publishing some of my entry's.

Its only been a few months since the events of this entry occurred. It was a mad couple of weeks back in August/September that were full of extreme highs and equally of extreme lows. I can safely say these 4 weeks changed the way I treat life forever.

Life is precious.

Love is precious.

Weddings & Funerals Part 1

Sunday 13th August, 2006

Exactly a week before I was due to leave for Eire and Spain to attend some largely anticipated weddings, bad news arrived. My cousin Paul Finn had died in a motorcycle accident while on holiday in Germany, he arrived Friday and was killed on the Saturday. Complete shock and numbness ensued.

(picture: Uncle Michael, cousin Lisa, Aunt Joyce, cousin Paul (RIP) Newcastle England, Nov 2004)

Id seen him not a year ago, we had buried my uncle Kieran Finn in Clonbur, we had laughed together, cried together, stood together and supported each other and our families. He had beaten me at pool, over and over, he laughed, i beat him at cards and kept me company at the bar. He called me "couz" in the thickest jordy accent you ever heard and ill always see him as a complete nutter, needless to say we got on well.

We talked about his son, how proud he was to be a Dad, how it had changed his life. We talked about all the mischief we had gotten upto in Sydney and Terrigal when they had come over for Christmas with the rest of his family and of my trip to Newcastle to visit them in 2004 after leaving New Zealand.

On Saturday 12th August Paul Finn, just short of his 33rd Birthday died tragically in Germany.

On Monday I rang the airlines ready to change my ticket and rush to England to the funeral. No need to rush, things are done differently in England I was told, burials are not straight away like Eire and Oz. So we waited, Peggy and Eddie were already in Eire. It was a long wait, there was an inquest in Germany before the remains could be released and to make things harder on my uncle Michael and aunt Joyce and cousin Lisa, no one in the police station could tell them in English what exactly happened or when they could send the remains back to England.

So on Saturday 19th August as planned I flew to Eire and landed in Shannon with uncle Tommy to pick me up on the Sunday. Still no news on the funeral. So I just got on with it, always waiting on news, but it wasn't going to bring back Paul.

I caught up with old friends and family and visited the Cliffs of Moher for the first time ever, I know shocking considering how close Galway is and how they are such a huge tourist attraction, well worth a look, but not as grand as I had expected. Road trip was worth the trip, thanks gals.

It was also hard coming back to Clonbur with no Kieran to welcome you to Kilbeg, it really hit home that no one was in the old house any more. For the past few years it seems as if there has been nothing but deaths and funerals and sadness. Something that I dont want to associate with Ireland.

News of the funeral finally came from England, driving to Dublin, then flying to Newcastle, it was a rough couple of days for the family, but I'm glad I was there, got a good opportunity to meet his friends and give him a send off he would of been proud of. I also got to meet his beautiful son Reece, whom I know will miss his Dad very much.

Mt Gable - view from Kilbeg, Clonbur, Co Galway
Cliffs of Moher, Co Clare, Ireland

Sandy/Loz/Anita Cliffs of Moher
Co. Clare, Ireland

Weddings & Funerals Part 2

But hey my holiday was not just filled with lows, there were highs too...

Friday 25th August, 2006
Sue Lohan & Mick O'Driscoll
Wedding on Inis Boffin

Yes you heard right folks, Mick O'D finally went down the aisle and I can only say that I was privelledged enough to be there. It was an absolute beautiful spot for a wedding. For anyone that has not been to Inis Boffin, get out there, take the time to explore and take in some good old fashioned trad music.

Sue looked absolutely stunning, slight drizzle saw the old ford transit van come into action to drive her to the church, but the smile of her face said it all as she walked up the aisle and as for Mick, well he dont scrub up too bad himself and there was no wiping the smile off his face id say for at least a week.

In the speeches Mick likened getting married to Sue as winning the All Ireland and from the pure emotion I believed every word. Have to say lads, one of the best weddings Ive been too.

Great to catch up with Yvonne and the mad Jennings and all the Crew. And I was thrilled to be able to get there. Inis Boffin, the small Island off Ireland is one hell of a spot, I know the old ferry ride back in was a little shaky for some the next day.