Folk club vibe the promise as Scullion play the Forge

Date Published: {J}

By Bernie Ní Fhlatharta

It’s hard to believe that the Irish group Scullion was formed over thirty years ago and that they continue to be in demand for gigs around the country is a testament to their success.

They will play in The Forge in Moycullen on Friday week, October 22 in the type of venue Scullion would have played when they started out in the late seventies, when the traditional folk scene had gained popularity in Ireland.

They were one of the first bands I ever saw live and the excitement of a live concert in those early impressionable years made me a huge fan.

I remember Philip King as the talkative one, Sonny Condell the quieter member and I honestly don’t remember the other two, Greg Boland and Jimmy O’Brien Moran. Freddie White was an original member but I never saw him playing with Scullion, though I have seen him playing solo gigs.

Then the group went off the radar in the nineties after their last album, Ghosts and Heroes was released in 1992. The members of the group appeared to go their separate ways to concentrate on solo careers.

But Philip King says that “despite all efforts”, Scullion never broke up because of the pull of the creativeness that was mainly Sonny’s songwriting, which has sustained what was and what continues to be Scullion.

“We never really stopped playing. We sustained durability due to the creative wellbeing of the band. I suppose we came together at a moment in time in Ireland, Sonny of Tír na nÓg, Jimmy, one of the significant pipers in the country and Greg, a hugely popular guitarist who went on to become a session player.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.