J. Eoin ~ Reviews
Live Review - J. Eoin - 12 Bar Club, London
From: The Irish Post
On the evening of the ninth of the ninth of
1999 J. Eoin took to the stage at 9 o'clock
to present his Eve of Solution and
Millennium Bug song.
As many of you are aware September 9 was
the first day when it was feared that the
Millennium Bug, or worse, might strike. Well,
if you're reading this, it's a safe bet
everything passed off safely, not least that I
didn't get trapped on London Underground
- something that did happen to me a few
years ago when I was trapped on the down
escalator for over an hour at Walthamstow
Station.
I am glad to report, however, that J. Eoin's
gig proved to be Y2K Compliant - although I
did see someone wearing a 'Y2K complaint
T-shirt' which may have been a subtle joke,
or perhaps the first evidence that there is
something in this Millennium Bug thing after
all.
At any rate J. Eoin's concert at the 12 Bar
Club went without a hitch or glitch and the
man from Limerick entranced a packed
venue with an hour of his self-penned
numbers: Sean One Shoe, an anthem for
the London Irish if ever there was one,
Mother Tongue, a moving song about a
Nigerian poet hanged by the corrupt
authorities and The Deluge, a translation of
a 17th century Irish poem about the
clearance of trees from the land - even four
centuries ago people were worried about the
environment. J. is a fluent Irish speaker and
uses a fair bit of our mother tongue in his
songs to wonderful artistic effect.
This great lyrical dexterity is an integral part
of the material - J. Eoin's previous songs
have included Claws written after his
father's death from cancer. Could there be a
better evocation of this dreadful disease
than the single word 'Claws'? Similarly his
summing up of the Famine talks of
'Ribbonmen' - a chilling image of that time.
J. Eoin is a powerful singer, a fine guitarist
and a truly gifted songwriter. His
background of growing up in the west of
Ireland with a native Irish-speaking mother
combined with spending the last 15 years or
so in London has given him a wide range of
experiences to draw on for his thoughtful
material, a task he has set to with
imagination and flair. J. will be doing a series
of gigs round the country in the coming
months leading up to the Millennium, and all
being well, in the first few months of the
Millennium. If you get a chance, treat
yourself to an evening of this man's music -
music for the mind as well as the soul.
