Phil Gaston is an Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 songwriter.

He was born in Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, moved to London in the 1970s and later moved back to Ireland.

He was the manager for Shane MacGowan

Shane MacGowan

Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan is an Irish musician and singer, best known as the original singer and songwriter of The Pogues.-History:...

's first band, the Nips

The Nipple Erectors

The Nipple Erectors are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1976 by female punk artist Shanne Bradley and are notable as Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan's first musical group.-Career:...

.

He wrote "Navigator" for The Pogues

The Pogues

The Pogues are a Celtic punk band, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before...

, "Tommy's Blue Valentine" for Pride of the Cross (a band that included future Pogues Cait O'Riordan

Cait O'Riordan

Caitlín O'Riordan is a British musician. She played bass guitar for the British-Irish punk/folk band The Pogues from 1983 to 1986. She later played with Elvis Costello, her husband from 1986 to 2002, as well as several other projects....

 and Daryl Hunt

Daryl Hunt

Daryl Lynn Hunt was a professional American football player, a linebacker for six seasons for the Houston Oilers appearing in 78 career regular season games after being selected by Houston during the 6th round of the 1979 NFL Draft.-University:Hunt is considered one of the best University of...

) and the lyrics for both "The Lights Of Little Christmas" and "Game Over" for Sean Tyrrell.

According to a posting in a discussion forum at pogues.com (see below), the Limerick Leader

Limerick Leader

The Limerick Leader is a weekly local newspaper in Limerick, Ireland. It was founded in 1889. The newspaper is headquartered on O'Connell Street....

 printed, in 2001, that "His work has been recorded by...Agnes Bernelle

Agnes Bernelle

Agnes Bernelle was an actress and singer, long-based in the UK for much of her career, although she later settled in Ireland. Her family had fled Berlin in 1936...

,...Ron Kavana

Ron Kavana

Ron Kavana is a London-based Irish singer, songwriter, guitarist and band leader. Born in the County Cork town of Fermoy, he is the son of an Irish father and an American mother from Chicago with Cajun roots....

, and has been included on albums alongside pieces from Sir Peter Maxwell Davis

Peter Maxwell Davies

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.-Biography:...

, Tom Waits

Tom Waits

Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...

, Wederkind and poet Adrian McGough."

External links

• http://www.pogues.com/forum/posting.php?mode=quote&p=13624&sid=e20342a9f3e0a8327d91954fe1bfe210 a forum discussion thread at pogues.com
• http://www.icogitate.com/~celticfolkmusic/cr-SeanTyrrell.htm A Review of two CDs by Sean Tyrrell