Last night (19th May) was the start of the Irish/China festival in Shanghai and to kick it off there was a three hour concert at the old Majestic theatre in Shanghai, a lovely art deco building built in the 1920's when it was the heart of the British Concession.

The line up was impressive. Donal Lunny was the musical director and with him he had;

Mary Black, vocals
Cara Dillon, vocals
Roisin Elsafty, vocals
Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill, fiddle & guitar
Pat Crowley & Martin O Connor, accordians
Liam Bradley, bass
Sam Lakeman, keyboards

Donal Lunny of course was on bouziki, guitars and bodhran.

The first set consisted of two groups of instrumentals and Roisin Elsafty singing sean nos style to Eleanor A Run.

This was follwed by an incredible set by Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill. This was the first time I had seen Martin hayes live and his hallmark seemed to be a slow start building up to some very very fast fiddle work.

The third set saw Cara Dillon come on stage to perform some beautiful songs, Black isthe colour, I am a youth inclined to ramble, Green grows the Laurel. She has a very beautiful voice and I am adding her to my wish list for CD's

Mary Black's set was good too. Ellis Island, Song for Ireland and several others but I did not think her vocals as good as those of Cara Dillon or Roisin Elsafty.

The final set was combined of all the musicians. There were songs such as the Rambling Irishman, Red is the Rose, Spanish Lady and more tunes from Martin hayes and Dennis Cahill.

The sound quality was excellent and the venue quite cosy so everyone got a decent view of the stage.

Donal Luny had obviously been at the Chinese dictionary as he was able to give short intros to the style of song/tune they were about to do, which pleased the predominantly Chinese audience no end.

If there was a down side it was not the musicians but the audience. Why oh why cannot people turn off their bloody mobiles? It is a real problem in China. Good musicians, lovley music and then bling bling, beep beep,.....