The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173992 Message #4220422
Posted By: GUEST,Peter Laban
07-Apr-25 - 05:58 AM
Thread Name: Review: The Bothy Band on BBC iplayer
Subject: RE: Review: The Bothy Band on BBC iplayer
It was a nice wallow in nostalgia and great to see them at it for perhaps one last time.
I saw the programme just over a year ago when it first aired and revisited a few times in the months after it. I posted about it elsewhere at the time. I have mixed feelings about the reunion business although I readily admit to seeing the reunions of Planxty, both in 1979 and the one during the noughties. I saw Noel Hill and Tony Linnane regroup a few timnes after their break, with and without Alec Finn. Jackie Daly brought Seamus Creagh one night where we usually played for dancers and Tom Munnelly said it was like the Beatles getting back together for the night. Jackie also joined Kevin Burke one night here in town and most recently I saw Buttons and Bows come together again. I even saw the Castle Ceili Band reassemble a few times. And I loved all of it, seeing the chemistry and the joy of the musicians to play together again. And that sweet nostagia for a time when it was all new and exciting.
With that in mind I wrote elsewhere at the time I would go see the Bothies when given half a chance if they came within spitting distance. The promised, and cancelled, series in the national Concert Hall in Dublin I had to let go of, it would have been too costly to go. I think there were more appearances scheduled for the University concert hall in Limerick and I had my eyes on that but it all became moot when further concerts were cancelled. It's now become unlikely they will ever appear again.
Not getting to see them will be a regret, I had tickets to see them in 1977/78 or so but with the audience seated in the hall it was announced they were stuck in customs at Europort and wouldn't be able to make it. Meh.