Moving Hearts - The Ulster Hall, Belfast

The Storm by Moving Hearts is on my list of favourite records and I have been listening to it since I bought it as a present for myself on my 21st birthday back in 1986. I had seen the band several times before in concert in Belfast, Dublin and Lisdoonvarna and already owned their previous albums where the emphasis was on the songs song by Christy Moore and later Mick Hanley.
However, The Storm was an entirely instrumental album that somehow seemed to combine Irish traditional music with a global outlook… uilleann pipes and jazz saxophone marrying with the Eastern European rhythms of bouzouki and the rock backing of guitar drums and bass.
The lead instruments were played by Davy Spillane (pipes and low whistle), on sax was Keith Donald, originally from Co Derry and who grew up in Belfast, while the bouzouki player was Donal Lunny, veteran of two of the most influential Irish trad bands of the 70s, The Bothy Band and Planxty. The three of them were back on stage last night in the Ulster Hall in Belfast with most of the other original line-up from The Storm days, although minus bass stalwart Eoghan O'Neill.
In some ways Moving Hearts have a lot to answer for – their sound went on to be imitated, usually poorly, by a host of other trad bands with a ‘contemporary’ backing, culminating in the abomination which was Riverdance, which actually featured a number of former Hearts. However, listening to them live last night, and on The Storm (live album released in 2007) it is clear that there is some element in their collective playing that lifts them to levels that their imitators can only crane their necks and gaze wistfully up at.
In terms of pure musicianship you could put Spillane up on a stage by himself and he would hold and audience enthralled, while Lunny’s often manic playing of the bouzouki kept a counter rhythm going. Normally if you put a saxophone player on stage I would be the first one to make my way to the exit, it is an instrument I can’t abide and jazz is a style of music that I just never got, but Keith Donald’s contributions are an elemental part of the overall Moving Hearts sound and possibly what makes them unique.
The introspective bass-sax into of Finore sets the aural landscape for Spillane’s low whistle lament. The combination of contemporary jazz and Irish trad are given their most remarkable workout in McBrides, a tune that dates back to their first album when Christy Moore was still in the line up. Other highlights included Tribute to Peadar O’Donnell, Lake of Shadows and The Titanic. However, the highlight, as always, was The Lark a 12-minute set of jigs linked together combining mellow foot tapping moments that builds into a pounding percussion-driven crescendo.
The band only reunited two years ago and I saw them playing last year in Newcastle, minus Lunny. I’ve pasted below my review from that gig, as Gaeilge, which appeared in The Irish News An tEolas pages.

‘Ag dul siar bóithre na smaointe i gcuideachta na Moving Hearts’

Ihí sé thiar i 1983 gur léim mé ar an bhus ó Bhéal Feirste go Gaillimh agus uaidh sin, ag siabsiúl trasna an Bhoireann go Lios Dún Bhearna I gContae an Chláir.
Bhí mé ansin le ceol Rory Gallagher agus Van Morrison a análú isteach ach eipeafáine ceart pearsanta a bhí ann nuair a tháinig Moving Hearts ar an ardán.
Ó shin i leith, chonaic mé iad i mBéal Feirste agus i mBaile Átha Cliath agus cheannaigh mé gach albam dá gcuid. Bhí mé le feiceáil féin sa lucht féachana nuair a scannánaíodh coirm dá chuid i mBéal Feirste!
Ainneoin go raibh mé doirte i ngrá leis an bhuíon tráth a raibh Christy Moore agus Mick Hanley ag amhránaíocht leo - ní fhaca mé iad le linn na tréimhse gairid sin a raibh Flo McSweeney ina hamhránaí acu- is é an t-albam deireanach a rinne said sa stiúideo, The Storm, an ceann is mó a éistim leis go fóill.
Le himeacht aimsire, tá dhá leagan vinil agus dhá leagan CD de The Storm meilte agam as siocar an ró-úsáid. Anuraidh, cheannaigh mé an t-albam Live in Dublin, ach ba bheaichte The Storm Live a thabhairt air, é a thaifead ag foireann úr athnuaite Moving Hearts.
Chóir a bheith gurb í an fhoireann chéanna a bhí ag seinm sa Slieve Donard Hotel ar an Chaisleán Nua oíche Dhomhnaigh seo caite mar chuid den fhéile Celtic Fusion, is an fhoireann a thaifead The Storm i lár na 1980í, seachas Dónal Lunny, ar an drochuair.
De ghnách. bheadh díomá mór ar dhaoine gan Lunny bheith i láthair. Tá Dónal, a bhí le The Bothy Band agus Planxty ar ndóigh, ar dhuine de na ceoltóirí traidisiúnta is mo tionchar in Éirinn - nó ar fud na cruinne féin ach is cuid de neart Moving Hearts é, nuair a ghlac Manus Lunny, ait a dhearthóra ar an bouzouki oíche Dhomhnaigh, go raibh daoine beagnach ar nós cuma liom.
Bhí an píobaire Davy Spillane ansin leis an tine a choinneáil lasta, agus threoraigh fear an tsacsafóin, Keith Donald - arb as Contae Dhoire ó dhúchas dó - an ceol traidisiúnta i dtreo an snagcheoil.
Bhá fear an doird Eoghan O'Neill - a bhí le pósadh inné (Dé Céadaoin) a dúradh linn - agus laoch na gcnaguirlisí, Noel Eccles, i gceannas ar an rithim. Bhí an boscadóir Martin O'Connor mar aoi speisialta agus chuir sé beocht breise in amhráin seanaitheanta na Hearts.
Dalta na seanlaethanata, thosaigh an bhuíon le píosa scaoilte snagcheoil a athchruthaigh turas fuaimeanna ó lár Manhattan i lár na hoíche go mala shléibhe i gContae Chiarraí agus away le Spillane agus é ag seinm McBride's.
Sheinn an bhuíon gach rian ó The Storm ar an oíche agus bunús an cheoil uirlise ó na halbaim roimhe, Lake of Shadows agus Category san áireamh.
Ar bhuaicphointí na hoíche, bhí tús aoibhinn Finore agus Keith Donald ag seinm go séimh ar an sacsafón, á leanúint ag Davy Spillane ar an fheadóg íseal agus é ag seinm leagan íoslach de May Morning Dew - ar a raibh Manus Lunny, Spillane agus aclaíocht O'Neill ar an dord - agus Tribute to Peadar O'Donnell.
Sin ráite, an bhuaic-phointe ba mhó a bhí ann ná an ceann céanna a chuir draíocht orm ag an chéad choirm sin ceathrú céid ó shin agus mé ag mo chéad gig Moving Hearts. Is féasta ceoil 12-bhomaite é Lark, ina dtig le gach duine den naonúr sa bhuíon mearbhall a chur ar dhaoine le feabhas a gcuid seinnte.
Tá sé á shíor-sheinm ar mo sheinnteoir CD ó shin I leith!