Creating new musical roots for the iconic Joshua Tree

Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell

Imagine taking the songs from an iconic album and re-inventing them with an accomplished live band and 14-piece orchestra to create a musical experience that not only honours the iconic songs it presents but, in many ways, enhances and expands upon them.

That’s the core idea of Beyond The Music, formed under the direction of experienced Irish musicians Nigel Connell, Brendan Reaburn and Mark Cahill.

Initially taking U2’s The Joshua Tree album, the trio have spent two years preparing to bring Beyond The Music to life in Galway’s Black Box Theatre on Wednesday, December 12, in association with Monroe’s Live.

The show coincides with the launch of a carefully crafted album, recorded with the internationally acclaimed Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra.

Talking with Nigel and Brendan, there’s a sense of true excitement about a project that has required passion and dedication.

“There’s going to be 30 people on stage, a full-on production. . . We’re gonna be using an LED screen to project some images to enhance the experience and make it an atmospheric spectacle. It’s gonna be totally different,” Nigel declares.

“Myself and Brendan have worked with orchestras before on other projects but this gel of rock music and U2’s music is something that not even the band have done. Our versions of these songs are completely redone – we’ve completely orchestrated and arranged everything ourselves carefully with our producer Mark Cahill, so to perform them live for the first time is gonna be a learning process for us to hear different things on stage.  As musicians, we’ve been covering some U2 songs for years but to hear these songs live is gonna be really different.”

With such close attention being paid to the arrangement and direction of the music, the decision to showcase The Joshua Tree seems secondary to the performance itself. Brendan explains the thinking behind paying homage to U2.

“The concept behind the ‘Beyond The Music’ group . . . we have a tagline we’re using called ‘inspired to honour greatness’,” he notes.

For more,  read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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