Craic On

Winner

The winner of the Moville & Greencastle Songwriter Contest 2013 was Matt Whoriskey and Maria Bonner both from Derry. Matt now lives in Manchester but has a Moville connection being married to Bryna Barr (now Whoriskey) from Moville. Bryna is the daughter of Credit Union Treasurer Brian Barr. Matt’s song Siren got 33 points out of 40.

It was a very close contest with Jack Craig, another Derry man getting 2nd place with 32 points with On the Right Track and Won’t Let You Down. A very lively young band from Derry called Deadpool got third with Ink on 31 points. In joint fourth places was Gareth McLaughlin from Derry with Fields of Horses and another Derry man Paul Herron with Donegal Dream both getting 30 points.

Then came Dublin based Sean O’Neill’s Warm Hand jointly with young Jessica Harkin from Moville with both getting 29 points. Jessica’s song was Not Ready to Talk.

The night was a roaring success with a huge crowd for a Saturday night in April and it was really buzzing. Said Rosatos owner Eddie Harkin “It went well. Everything ran very smoothly”.

Matt

Said winner Matt Whoriskey on his Facebook page “Thank you to everyone, who came out to see Maria and me play last night. We won Gerry and Tony Bramwell’s songwriting competition. Really grateful and appreciate everyone’s positive feedback. A mention to Jack Craig too and the other amazing acts! Thank you!
Sirens was our winning song. Thanks.”
http://soundcloud.com/thefolkremedy/sets/sirens-ep

Matt and Laura formed The Folk Remedy which is making waves in Manchester and beyond. His songwriting really has matured.

Jack Craig

Said runner-up Jack Craig – “Cheers to all the heads that landed for support last nite”.

Said his sister Michelle Craig – “Great wee nite last nite. Bro came second in the singer, song writer competition. Not just saying this but he should have won. Sooooo proud of him”.

Deadpool

Said Deadpool on their Facebook page “Good craic last night down in Moville in the finals. It was a tight squeeze fitting the whole band in the bar but it was a fun gig, we came third in the finals. There should be footage up soon of the gig we managed to film most of it”.

Indeed here it is. See what you think – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5uu-8y91qU&feature=youtu.be
and
Stone Roses cover – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDhxkpiHaNo&feature=youtu.be
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__7_z1F96AQ&feature=youtu.be

Tony Bramwell

Tony Bramwell has now left town but he told his taxi driver Sean Lake “I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was a great weekend and there was some great talent on display”. Perhaps Tony will be in touch with one or more of them when his new record label is up and running.

He took away a load of CDs from John Deery and the Heads whom he saw perform on Friday night in Rosatos. No doubt he will be circulating them to his contacts which include Jules Holland.

Sour Note

We will be writing more about the individual performances in other articles. There was only one sour note from someone who didn’t even show up, a Susan Donaghy, who plays under the name of Susie Blue in Derry who sent organiser Gerry McLaughlin a message on Facebook which said:-

“I’m glad I wasn’t there last night, I heard how it was run, musicians that we’re being disrespectful playing over people and then musicians that didn’t deserve to win over clear winners, I couldn’t believe when I heard how disrespectful deadpool were to a few musicians and then when the were asked nicely to stop playing while people where performing the told the guy to fuck off, this was ridiculous and the night was run horrifically and I hope an apology is issued to the people who were disrespected and to be honest I think some acts only placed because you didn’t want a scene to be created”.

Sorry about the English, the grammar and the language.

You can’t please everyone.

Update

More from the lovely Susie “You are the only one spreading what I said about the comp now take that pathetic article down I’ve had a few people who seen it say to me how pathetic you are for writing it and how unprofessional it is so do yourself a favour And take it down you pathetic old man this is your warning I will involve lawyers slandering me on the internet who do you think you are haha you have no power so you use your site that 3 people read I would tell you who the artist was that made the accusations not me but I’m not as sad as you take it down now”.
and
“Also your making the band look bad I didn’t say those things publicly because they were not proving as I said i was passing on a message and you made them public you spread it and no where is Derry will ever work with you now because of how unprofessional you have been well done Gerry”.