Last year, Italian “Irish” Trad group Lá Nua attended Waterford’s John Dwyer Trad Festival as visitors and made such a positive impact at sessions that they were invited back as a featured act this year. Indeed, such was the interest among traditional music fans in Italy at the group’s visit to Waterford that they decided to launch their new CD here, at The Marina Hotel on Sunday, October 20th.
Italian “Irish” Trad Band Lá Nua pictured in the Marina Hotel as part of the John Dwyer Trad Festival.Pictured are John and Karen Dwyer, Ben Delaney and members of the band, Gabriele Moscaritolo, Giuseppe De Gregorio, Francesco Brusco and Antonio Siciciano.
What should have been an idyllic weekend for the ‘mad for trad’ Italians, however, started with disaster at Dublin Airport…when the band had their instruments and a substantial amount of cash stolen just minutes after their arrival. Absolutely gutted, the band contact festival organiser and well-known local trad musician Ben Delaney, expecting to have their gigs pulled from the programme.
Within the hour, the Waterford trad community had rallied ’round, replacement instruments had been found and Lá Nua were en route to the city for what would prove to be a legendary weekend.
Afterwards, the band’s Francesco Brusco shared their ‘Waterford experience’ with me:
“In the last months we had put all our expectations on the John Dwyer Trad Festival, which would be our most important musical experience yet in a foreign country (which is, moreover, the home country of the music which inspires us!).
“So you can imagine the frustration we felt when, just a few minutes before this dream was beginning, we lost the baggage containing our gear!! We hoped that someone found it and went to the police several times, blaming our absentmindedness for having left it unattended, even just for a minute. Apart from the money we lost (it contained almost €700), we suddenly fell in desperation thinking “how are we going to play without our instruments?”. We didn’t even have time to go into Dublin and look in a music store.
“But Waterford people’s response was simply moving and affecting: first of all Ben Delaney {festival organiser)’s radio appeal, dozens of telephone calls, runs through the city – from a musical store to a private instrument owner. To the trad music community in Waterford, I must say: what you did was really important and meaningful for us, we’ll never forget!
“After that start, the only positive thing we were thinking was that nothing else could go wrong and the fear we felt about playing in front of the Irish audience just went away. In fact, for first gig, we were full of adrenaline over everything that had happened. The only problem was that we weren’t accustomed to the instruments we were playing (which, in my case, were a lot better than mine – what a beautiful bouzouki and guitars) so we played a little bit shyly at the beginning. But the audience’s reaction was immediately good…and it was so funny seeing old ladies dancing around Antonio, our sound engineer!
“On Saturday, thanks again to Ben Delaney, we were able to do a bit of busking and that really helped in making us feel more confident with instruments. A couple of hours later we found out that Cathy Jordan was listening to us in the street….. we met Cathy after the Dervish sound check and again it was like another piece of a puzzle-shaped dream! Their concert was marvellous, and we were simply astonished when – going away for our gig in Fitzwilton – she said “the Italian stallions are going away…” and after that she gave us the best promo we could ever receive: “listen to Lá Nua, they play Irish music with Italian flavour….”.
“As I said during the concerts, playing Irish trad in Ireland after Dervish and us being Italian is like challenging Barcelona in Camp Nou… bare foot and blind folded! At the end of the gig we went at Dooley’s and, for our big surprise, we met Dervish again! Cathy was incredibly nice and so funny. We talked about music just for a while, then it was just joking…and eating sausages. Finally Sunday it was “our” day…”the” gig!
“After two “hurried” concerts we had all the day to prepare gear properly and we were more accustomed to the instruments. I think we played way better than previous gigs, but what I remember the best is the audience’s attention and love. John Dwyer was full of good words after the cd launch ended. And, what’s more, we felt really proud when we saw Italian people who live in Ireland coming to our concert. It was the first time we played for an Italian audience abroad. Then,the final session with Neil, Edel and the youth musicians.
“We will never forget the friendly welcome and acceptance we received at the John Dwyer Festival… Waterford people really made us feel at home, it’s not just a common phrase, believe me! Last year we discovered a new way of listening music…this year Waterford people taught us how to LIVE music, which is a more precious thing to learn.
“Thank you from all the band, Francesco, Gabriele, Giuseppe and our friend Antonio, to
Ben Delaney and his family, Barry O’Higgins, Edel Fox, Neill Byrne, John Palmer and his music shop, Ollie Breslin, Teddy Halligan, Torann Drums, all the people from John Dwyer Trad Weekend, John Dwyer himself! We look forward to seeing you soon, be it in Ireland..in Italy…or elsewhere!”
