Ringsend was the password. As the salts and singers arrived, they shook hands and saluted one of their own. Paul Cleary, the singer/songwriter, launched his first solo album upstairs in the 51 Club on Haddington Road this week.
His comrades from the band The Blades were there. Former drummer Pat Larkin, also from Ringsend, now plays with The Mosquitoes. They'll be performing at Eamon Doran's on Saturday, October 13th and also in Shelter@Vicar Street every Sunday from November 1st.
Newspaperman Ger Siggins, another Ringsender, who was at school with Cleary in the Star of the Sea primary school, remembered him as "the best footballer in the school". Ah. And Terry Thorpe, rock photojournalist, recalled The Blades playing in the Baggot Inn in the late 1970s with U2 as support. Cleary smiles and says no, it was the other way round.
Actor Ardal O'Hanlon, as well as Mark Doherty and Kevin Gildea, were all there to applaud. And Paul Brady, who arrived late, is limbering up to play in Vicar Street for 23 nights in October. Stephen Averill, designer of the album's sleeve and former singer with The Radiators, came along too. The cover of the upcoming U2 single, Walk On, was also designed by Averill, who used to be known as Steve Rapid.
Also present was Oliver Walsh, manager of singer David Kitt, whose album, The Big Romance, has gone platinum after selling 25,000 copies here. Kitt, the son of Tom Kitt TD, will be performing at the Ambassador Theatre on Friday, October 5th, and then it's a whistle-stop 28-date tour of Europe with the UK band Tindersticks. Whew.
And, just for one evening, Cleary and his wife, Paula Wilson, left their five-week-old baby boy, Dylan Cleary, at home. Ken McCue, an inner-city community worker, offered Cleary a Cuban cigar in honour of the occasion.
The new album, Crooked Town, is released by Reekus Records.