I recently shared a video of Christy Moore performing Black is the Colour at Glasgow’s Barrowlands in 2008, accompanied by Declan Sinnott and waxed lyrical about Christy and his friendship with Hamish Imlach, from whom he learnt the song.
As I mentioned then, his autobiography One Voice – My Life in Song is a brilliant book, as much for the variety of the content as his life tales that cross so many paths – from politics and Marggie to recollections of old friendships and fellow singers.
Anyhow, today, he has shared another. His autobiography is heavily dosed in humour, and Joxer Goes to Stuttgart is a classic but one that also celebrates a very proud moment for Ireland.
This is so steeped in the fabric of a lost age that the lines just stay with you…as they did with this Glasgow audience.
In case you’ve not worked out the scenario from the song’s opening lines, this is set around the Republic of Ireland’s incredible 1-0 victory against England at Euro ’88; I can remember the joy of my mother, a Kerry woman. It was after this match that Jack Charlton, the honorary Irish man, famously said, “Somebody once told me fortune favours the brave and God, our lads were brave this afternoon.”
In his own words, Christy wanted to sing a song about a young Dublin that wasn’t “about heroin, that doesn’t mention the guards or TDs or church or abortion or divorce or corruption…”
Here he is, once again, in front of that superb audience at Glasgow’s Barrowlands.
For all of Christy’s upcoming dates, visit: https://www.christymoore.com/gigs/