Stockton’s Wing – a beautiful affair that has lasted 40 years

Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell

Their roots lie buried deep in the soil of Clare’s traditional music scene, but a crossover album and two songs in particular long ago catapulted Stockton’s Wing into a whole different space. The trad influence remains but they also found themselves a more mainstream vein to mine with great success – and now, more than 40 years later, they’re in reflective mode as they set out on another nationwide tour.

They’re even calling it A Retrospective Tour, working their way through a massive back catalogue that spans the critically acclaimed Light in the Western Sky through to the stripped back sound of the Crooked Rose.

But even as they crossed over from trad, the name of the group alone should have indicated they wouldn’t be that easily pigeonholed – Stockton’s Wing comes from the Bruce Springsteen song, Backstreets, from Born to Run, where the Boss sings: “Slow dancin’ in the dark on the beach at Stockton’s Wing…”

They signed their first record deal with Tara Records after winning the Trad section of a music contest in Limerick. Another young band won the Rock section that night; they were called U2.

Record producer, broadcaster and musicologist PJ Curtis produced Take a Chance and the groundbreaking album Light in The Western Sky featuring hit singles Walk Away and the iconic Beautiful Affair.

It was those iconic singles that endeared them to a wider audience and – despite long periods working on other projects – it’s a connection that remains cast-iron ever since.

They also wrote a tune called Over the Moor – better known these days as the sig to RTÉ Radio’s Liveline….but that’s another story.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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