Trad super band The Gloaming have announced a four-night residency at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, kicking off on March 5, 2018 - their only live shows of 2018.
The acclaimed band must hold some kind of record at the NCH, having sold out 17 concerts at the prestigious venue in their career to date. Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, one of two celebrated fiddle players with the band, is not so sure and he told RTÉ Entertainment the "[RTÉ] Symphony Orchestra have bettered that".
Either way, the much-loved traditional Irish music act are adding to their incredible run with another four shows at the venue from March 5 to 8 next year.
Caoimhín's specialty instrument, which he calls a Hardanger D'Amore, is a 10-string conjoining of the Viola d'Amore and the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle.
The other members of The Gloaming are fiddler Martin Hayes, guitarist Dennis Cahill, piano-player Thomas Bartlett and singer Iarla Ó Lionáird. Between them, they have enjoyed many years in performance, recording and production, accruing skills along the way.
Caoimhín's specialty instrument, which he calls a Hardanger D'Amore, is a 10-string conjoining of the Viola d'Amore and the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle.
Yet all the know-how in the world doesn't make it necessarily easier according to Caoimhín: "Making the two albums, you’re very much figuring it out as you go along.
"Each person brings some ideas for material and then people react to that and things take form."
The band recorded their eponymous first album at Grouse Lodge studios in Co. Westmeath. However, for their second album, they used soundchecks before concerts to arrange the new pieces and do an initial recording - rather than "wasting time" as Caoimhín puts it.
In the course of his career in music, Caoimhín has played hundreds of venues with different combinations of musicians and different band formats, including shows at the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Albert Hall and the Lincoln Center with The Gloaming. It’s almost guaranteed that their four Dublin concerts next year will sell out.
"Nothing’s guaranteed but hopefully we will have good crowds," he says in his modest way.
"It’s always a joy to go back to the Concert Hall, it’s an amazing space. I think our first concert there – our first concert as a band - was in 2011 and we have been back every year since."
So how does he feel when he looks out and sees a full house? "I usually close my eyes."
Tickets go on sale on Friday, November 17 at 10.00am from Ticketmaster and usual outlets.
