Craic On

Beatles road manager Tony Bramwell has been to Moville 6 times and he’ll be back to judge the Songwriters Contest final on April 20th. He had told us that he makes a report to Paul McCartney and Ringo about the Moville BeatlesFest each time he comes. Indeed he turned Paul McCartney down when he invited Tony to see him play in Toronto when Tony told him he was already booked for the Moville BeatlesFest. Tony told local journalist Katie Barr that his three favourite places in the world are Hawaii, Nashville and Moville.

Paul McCartney

Tony has been asked many times “When are you bringing Pau McCartney over?” But Movillians were still astonished to see ‘Sir Paul’ accompanying Tony on Easter Sunday. It seems that they were over talking to the Derry City of Culture people about a potential appearance there later in the year when Tony decided he would take his old pal down the road to Moville.

Tony had told BeatlesFest organiser, Gerry McLaughlin, that Paul loves pubs and pub grub. He used to regularly go out with him to pubs in London. At the first BeatlesFest in Moville Tony texted Paul with a picture of himself sitting outside of Rosatos with a pint of Guinness. Paul texted back “lucky b*stard”.

Guinness

So, this weekend Paul was able to sample Moville hospitality by himself and also a pint of Rosatos’ best Guinness as well as some of their Hotpot. Said Eddie Harkin “I was so surprised to see Tony again that I didn’t even notice who was with him. When he started talking with the same accent as Tony I thought it might have been his brother. It gradually dawned on me who it was.

“They had a pint of Guinness and sat outside in what we call Tony’s Seat watching the world go by. It was funny to watch people go by and see them think “Is it….? No, it couldn’t be”. I did ask him if he was coming over for the BeatlesFest this year and he said he would have to look at his schedule”.

Tony and Paul stayed for about an hour and half before they took off for a drive around Inishowen before heading back to Derry for another round of meetings.

So where was BeatlesFest organiser Gerry McLaughlin? Said Gerry “I was playing tennis with my son down the Green. When I got back I saw a message from Tony in his usuall terse style saying “I’m in Rosatos”. I had a cup of tea first and then went up there. When I got there Eddie told me that Tony had just gone. I couldn’t believe it when he told me who had been with him. I shouldn’t have had that cup of tea”.

This year’s BeatlesFest will take place in Moville from August 29th to September 1st.