Tickets for the upcoming Paddy Goodwin & The Holy Ghosts gig featuring Johnny Fean of Horslips are selling like the proverbial hot cakes.
As most of you will be aware, Paddy Goodwin is a Clones-born blues and rock guitarist with impeccable musical credentials. His sterling contacts in the music world ensure that his gigs are events you cannot afford to miss. Over the years, his band The Holy Ghosts has featured a dazzling array of celebrated guest musicians – guitarist Henry McCullough (ex Paul McCartney’s Wings and Joe Cocker), and Johnny Fean, Barry Devlin, Charles O’Connor, Jim Lockhart and Eamon Carr of Horslips.
Paddy is the only guitarist to have played on stage with all five original members of Horslips. Indeed, he was a pivotal figure in the triumphant return of Horslips to the concert arena and recording studio after a gap of more than two decades.
Paddy started out his music career by playing support to Horslips way back in the late Seventies. His latest gig was playing support to them again in the 3000 capacity Irish National Exhibition Centre in Killarney in December 2010. Johnny Fean is Paddy’s hero and features in Paddy’s band as often as possible. “I learned how to play the guitar from watching Johnny in the Starlight Ballroom and various other places way back then”, says Paddy, “it’s an absolute thrill for me to have him play in my band and I’m learning from him still.”
Paddy played guitar alongside Henry McCullough on McCullough’s acclaimed 2008 album “Poor Man’s Moon”. Paddy also produced the album and his generous support ensured that an entirely new generation of music fans came to appreciate McCullough’s masterful blues playing. Henry McCullough is a true Irish rock music legend, being the only Irishman to have played at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 where he featured as lead guitarist with the Joe Cocker Band.
From a large Clones family, Paddy has lived for many years in Drogheda, Co Louth, where he has a successful legal practice. A man steeped in the blues, his playing career stretches back to the late 1970s. He did a residency as the lead singer and guitar player of the Anchor Blues Band in McKenna’s Bar in Monaghan for about two years back in the late 1980s. This was a memorable band featuring his old friend Mickey McCarney also from Clones. Paddy also played in the infamous Bursted Sofa Ceili Band at some stage. Apart from that particular brand of lunacy he has played with Wayne Kramer from the MC5, Glen Tilbrook from Squeeze, Guy Clark of “Desperadoes waiting for a train” fame, Otis Rush, Shane McGowan, and fellow Clones man Pat McCabe with whom he formed half of that incomparable duo The Buck Eejits.
The Holy Ghosts’ gigs in Drogheda are legendary affairs, featuring a succession of top class local and national musicians and singers taking their turn to join Paddy on stage. Recent performers have included guitarist Tom Newman who produced Mike Oldfield’s ground-breaking mega-selling “Tubular Bells” and actor Colin O’Donoghue currently co-starring with Anthony Hopkins in a move called “The Rite”. At one of Paddy’s last gigs the drummers consisted of Brian “Rat” Murphy from Clones, Eamon Carr from Horslips and Brian Downey from Thin Lizzy. Ted McCarthy from Clones played bass on that particular night and will feature in the Clones gig.
Make this a night to remember in Clones. Tickets can be bought in advance by calling in or phoning the Lennard Arms on 047-51075.