Larry Kirwan
Encyclopedia
Black 47
Black 47 are a New York City based celtic rock band with Irish Republican sympathies, whose music also shows influence from reggae, hip hop, folk and jazz...
.
Prior to Black 47, Kirwan and fellow Wexfordian Pierce Turner
Pierce Turner
Pierce Turner is an Irish singer-songwriter. After forming a duo with Larry Kirwan he went solo in the mid-1980s and has since released several albums to critical acclaim.-Biography:...
were the house band in Malachy McCourt
Malachy McCourt
Malachy Gerard McCourt is an Irish-American actor, writer and politician. He was the 2006 Green Party candidate for governor in New York State, losing to the Democratic candidate Eliot Spitzer. He is the younger brother of Frank McCourt.-Personal life:Born in Brooklyn, New York, McCourt was raised...
's Bells of Hell in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
. The music was an amalgam of folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, trad
Traditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
, progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
, Celtic rock
Celtic rock
Celtic rock is a genre of folk rock and a form of Celtic fusion which incorporates Celtic music, instrumentation and themes into a rock music context...
, punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, and any other genre that came to mind. The group was one of the few banned from CBGB's; in the words of Hilly Kristal
Hilly Kristal
Hilly Kristal was an American club owner and musician who was the owner of the iconic New York City club, CBGB, which opened in 1973 and closed in 2006 over a rent dispute. -Early years:...
they were "too demonic." However, all was forgiven for they played many times at the club thereafter. They then led the new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
band Major Thinkers for some years. Their song, Avenue B (is the place to be) became a radio hit whereupon they were signed to Epic-Portrait Records. They recorded an album, Terrible Beauty, that was never released and went their separate ways after a somewhat memorable performance in Irving Plaza on St. Patrick's Day, 1985.
Kirwan has also written and produced eleven plays and musicals, many of which have been performed in the United States and Europe. The plays deal with many topics including Irish history and politics. The most popular however is Liverpool Fantasy, a "what if" The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
had broken up while recording Please Please Me
Please Please Me
Please Please Me is the debut album by the English rock band The Beatles. Parlophone rush-released the album on 22 March 1963 in the United Kingdom to capitalise on the success of singles "Please Please Me" and "Love Me Do" .Of the album's fourteen songs, eight were written by Lennon–McCartney...
and never made it. Five of the plays, Liverpool Fantasy, Days of Rage
Days of Rage
The Days of Rage demonstrations were a series of direct actions taken over a course of three days in October 1969 in Chicago organized by the Weatherman faction of the Students for a Democratic Society...
, Mister Parnell, Blood and Night in the Garden are published in the book, Mad Angels. Kirwan is presently working on a musical, Transport
Transport
Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...
with Australian author Thomas Keneally
Thomas Keneally
Thomas Michael Keneally, AO is an Australian novelist, playwright and author of non-fiction. He is best known for writing Schindler's Ark, the Booker Prize-winning novel of 1982 which was inspired by the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor...
.
Kirwan formed Black 47
Black 47
Black 47 are a New York City based celtic rock band with Irish Republican sympathies, whose music also shows influence from reggae, hip hop, folk and jazz...
with Chris Byrne in late 1989 after a jam in Paddy Reilly's Pub in Manhattan. The band has released 13 CDs including Fire of Freedom (1993) containing the hit, Funky Ceili; RAQ} (2008) and Bankers and Gangsters (2010). They have performed well over 2000 shows.
Since April 2005, he has hosted 'Celtic Crush', a radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams of music and 65 streams of...
that features artists from the 8 Celtic nations who play a wide variety of genres. He also writes a weekly column for the Irish Echo. He has had three other books published, a novel version of Liverpool Fantasy; Green Suede Shoes - An Irish-American Oddyssey, a memoir. A new novel, Rockin' The Bronx, was published in Feb. 2010.
Discography
- 1971 - Aftermath - "We Have No More Babies Left/Neck and Neck"(Original Version)
- 1973 - Turner and Kirwan of Wexford - "Neck and Neck(New Version)/When Starlings Fly"
- 1974 - Turner and Kirwan of Wexford - "Bootleg"
- 1978 - Turner and Kirwan of Wexford - Absolutely and Completely
- 1980 - Turner and Kirwan of Wexford - "The Book of The Law"/ also goes under the group name, Heretix
- 1987 - Chill Faction - Eggman on the Deuce
- 1989 - Black 47 - Home of the Brave/Live in London
- 1991 - Black 47 - Black 47
- 1992 - Black 47 - Black 47 EP
- 1993 - Black 47 - Fire of Freedom
- 1994 - Black 47 - Home of the Brave
- 1996 - Black 47 - Green Suede Shoes
- 1998 - Larry Kirwan - Keltic Kids
- 1999 - Black 47 - Live in New York City
- 2000 - Black 47 - Ten Bloody Years of Black 47
- 2000 - Black 47 - Trouble in the Land
- 2001 - Larry Kirwan - Kilroy Was Here
- 2001 - Black 47 - On Fire
- 2004 - Black 47 - New York Town
- 2005 - Black 47 - Elvis Murphy's Green Suede Shoes
- 2006 - Black 47 - Bittersweet Sixteen
- 2008 - Black 47 - Iraq
- 2010 - Black 47 - Bankers and Gangsters
- 2011 - Black 47 - A Funky Ceili