Finbar Furey

Artist Description

Finbar Furey. The Irish Bard. In 1972 John Peel gave Finbar, along with his brother Eddie, their big break by voting them act of the year. Their music was phenomenal because it was a new sound – Irish (Uillean Pipes with Guitar and voice which up till then had not been done.) In fact they were barred from playing in Ewan MacCall and Peggy Seeger’s ‘Singers’ Club’ in London as they said it was ‘not traditional’ to combine the pipes and guitar. Subsequently of course it was used everywhere from Planxty to River Dance, Braveheart to Hailey Westenra. (Finbar plays the pipes on Hailey’s album and was a seminal influence on the others.) It was modern music, with an ancient root. The music came from the Irish Gypsy community and when it met the psychedelic era, a new sound was born. Recent years have seen Finbar in film, firstly in Martin Scorsese's 'Gangs of New York' and last year trying to duck blows from Vinnie Jones and Michael Madsen in the bare knuckle boxing epic 'Strength and Honour.' It's a new departure - a new life even - for Finbar who took to film as the camera took to him (ducks and water).