Craic On

Busker Abu

I took my son to see Spring Tides attempt to qualify from their heat of TG4’s Busker Abu, the competition to find Ireland’s best Buskers.

It was in RTE’s studios in Dublin.

There was a minibus full of Spring Tides fans from Moville also at the studios to see them perform.

There were 8 acts altogether and two of those were chosen to compete in the sing-off at the end of the show to pick the one act to go through to the semi finals.

Spring Tides

It was announced that Spring Tides would go on first of the two acts. Then the floor manager announced that there was a change and that Spring Tides would now go on last.

I thought that this was a good omen as TV shows usually like their best acts on last.

I saw the floor manager talking with the judges.

Therre was some discussion and as he was walking away from them I saw him shrug his shoulders and say “well, if I was a betting man…”.

I took that to mean that he, and possibly the producer thought that Spring Tides were more likely to win and so they were putting them on last.

I then heard one of the judges say to the others “I think they think they’ve got it won too”.

Suantrai

I did.

After their performance I said to the McGeady brothers beside me that I was 90% sure that they had it won. the girls in Suantrai were good – but I thought that the audience, at least, preferred Spring Tides.

However, they hadn’t won.

The judges gave it to Suantrai.

I spoke to the producer afterwards and she said that she thought that Spring Tides had shaded it.

However, the judges picked Suantrai.

Busker Abu Final

Suantrain then went on to win their semi-final two weeks ago and took part in the final tonight.

There were four acts in the final.

They would sing and then the three top would go through to the Last Three.

They would sing again and a Final Two would be picked.

It would be the acts who got the quickest times for all three judges to hit the coins button five times.

Quickest Time

In the last four Suantrai were voted in by the judges in the quickest time.

In the last three they were voted in again in the quickest time by the judges.

In the Last Two each of the judges would pick whom they liked best.

The first judge went for Suantrai.

It looked like Spring Tides conquerors had it in the bag.

The next judge gave it to Mahoo – as did the third judge.

So, Mahoo won and Suantrain were 2nd.

Best Buskers

They were voted the top and second best buskers in the whole of Ireland.

It shows how well Spring Tides did and close they were to going a long way in the contest.

You can see them at the Inishowen Vintage Show supporting the Yetis in three weeks time.