THE stories came thick and fast in my short conversation with Eddie Furey the eldest of the Furey brothers as I joined him browsing through a music store in Dublin earlier this week. His parents Ted and Nora got the boys into music at an early age, fine musicians themselves, Eddie tells me “We always had people up in the house including Eamonn deButleir, Seamus Ennis playing sessions in the house, which was unusual for a family in a Ballyfermot housing estate to have all these people dropping in, there was always a pot of stew on anyway.”
Eddie and Finbarr Furey started as kids being one of the first to play in Dublin’s now famous O’Donoghues sessions back in 1960 with their father and Ronnie Drew, “Ronnie was just back from Spain teaching English to Spanish kids, so you had all these Spanish kids speaking English in Ronnie Drew’s accent.”
Touring the folk clubs around England and Scotland, Eddie lived in Edinburgh with folk singers Billy Connolly and Gerry Rafferty. In the late 60s he released two albums with Finbarr. The brothers met The Clancy Brothers by chance at a train station in London and were asked to join the group for the recording of ‘Bold Fenian Men’ and then joined them on tour.
A 16 year old Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame was a runner for the band credits Eddie Furey as his first guitar teacher.
The sound and approach Eddie and Finbarr worked on was starting to get the duo recognition, John Peel of BBC Radio voted them his number one folk act of 1972. “Myself and the brother were the first to put pipes and guitar together and sing contemporary songs, we were looked down upon by the traditionalists and now they are all doing it. Contemporary songs like Ralph McTell’s ‘Clare to Here’ were recorded with uilleann pipes, and mandolins, that’s why The Clancy Brothers took us on tour to the US because we were adding a different sound to their music”, says Eddie.
It wasn’t until 1978 that George and Paul Furey and Davey Arthur joined the two elder brothers to form The Fureys and Davey Arthur and in 1981 they hit the UK and Irish charts with ‘When You were Sweet Sixteen’. They appeared on Top of the Pops with The Police and Haircut 100. Eddie remembers, “There was Kool and The Gang, they were great and Midge Ure (Ultravox) was playing Phil Lynott’s bass on the show”. Gary Oldman was there that night, he and Midge Ure and myself went off for a few pints after the recording and had a great night.” Midge Ure had written the song Yellow Pearl with Lynott that became the TOTP theme later that year. “Playing on TOTP was a great breakthrough for an Irish band, especially playing Irish instruments” Eddie reflects.
The lineup of The Fureys and Davy Arthur has changed over the years, Paul Furey died in 2002, Finbarr has his own solo career in music and film since 1996 and Davy has worked on solo projects over the years but the group releases albums regularly the latest being ‘Songs Through the Years’. The album features some great songs among them ‘Creole Girl’ written by longtime friend of the band Allan Taylor, a song about a man returning to his hometown of New Orleans and many years.
Currently on a 60 date tour that will see them play all over the UK, when asked what has helped The Fureys and Davey Arthur maintain such a high profile over a 35 year career, “We wouldn’t be a typical bacon and cabbage band, every album we have recorded over the years has been different, it wasn’t a case of releasing volume 2, 3 and 4 over the years and repeating ourselves. We have people offering songs to us all the time, I get about fifteen CDs a week sent to me.” says Eddie.
The group will play the big hits and some new material this weekend, “We always love coming to Limerick to play and lot of old friends like Mick Dolan turn out to see us play and its great to meet all of them again.”
