Thomas Walsh plays Best Video Film & Cultural Center on Sunday, October 1st @ 3 pm. Tickets $20 in advance. If not sold out, tickets will be available at the door for a cost of $25. Doors at 2:00 pm. Show begins promptly at 3:00 pm. Click HERE for tickets.
Pop guru Thomas Walsh was born in his parents' house in Drimnagh, South Dublin, Ireland, in 1969. "Lazy bugger even then I was, not wanting to go to the hospital to be born". As men landed on the moon and the sixties were officially coming to a grand musical close at Woodstock, Thomas set about listening to all the classic pop music that was streaming forth literally every week from his parents TV, radio and stereo. "My brothers started to bring Al Stewart, Mike Oldfield, Queen and E.L.O records into the house along with Roy Wood, Slade and Gilbert O'Sullivan ones that my Mam and Dad already had there.....you can see why I'm steeped in a love of great pop!".
If awards were handed out to Best Kept Secrets or Lamentably Lost Legends, Thomas William Patrick Walsh wouldn’t be able to move for the sheer weight of gongs. In the 25 years since Walsh founded the Irish band 'Pugwash', and co-founded 'The Duckworth Lewis Method', with global musical savant Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy), his reputation has grown by stealth and has caught the attention of almost all of his musical heroes, yet mainstream success has remained frustratingly, tantalisingly just out of reach.
Could his first solo venture bring him to the precipice, to finally dive headfirst into success?
Walsh’s love of classic pop is manifested in his music - songwriting that has garnered him an impressive collection of celebrity name-drops he can count as fans (Brian Wilson! Jeff Lynne! Joe Elliot!). His cricket-themed collaborations with The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon (as "The Duckworth Lewis Method") saw Walsh garner Ivor Novello, Choice Music Prize and Meteor Awards nominations plus two UK Top 40 albums.
In 2017 the Jason Falkner (St. Vincent, Beck, AIR) produced 'Silverlake', recorded in the suburb of Silverlake in Los Angeles, won 100's of accolades from far and wide (Top 5 Irish Album Of The Year - Irish Times, & Number 1 Album Of The Year - Tom Dunne - Newstalk Radio) and 2019 saw Sony-Japan release a 20 year career retrospective entitled "Popularity Pending".
A call from the good people at Disney led to Walsh re-recording his 2005 Brian Wilson endorsed track 'It's nice to be nice' for the hugely successful Disney cartoon series 'The Ghost And Molly McGee'. Another Walsh track was written and featured in the series and was recorded and sung by the industry pop meister Linus Dotson.
During this period Walsh continued to reissue his extensive catalogue of rare out of print albums on vinyl through English Independent label 'Sugarbush Records'. These releases (Picture discs, coloured vinyl, rarities sets) are all collectors items now in their own right.
Walsh also continued to travel the world and perform (Boris Grebenshikov shows in Russia, House and club shows in Paris, the U.K and America) and Wild Honey Shows in the U.S with Chris Collingwood, Carnie Wilson, John Sebastian and Graham Coxon (amongst many others).
As with the rest of the world, Walsh stayed put during lockdown but performed over 200 online shows and appeared on numerous legendary podcasts (Word in your ear) with the inevitable finally happening in 2021 when Walsh demoed 15 new songs in the bedroom of his new home in Ireland.
A hugely successful IndieGoGo campaign was fulfilled and in February 2022 Thomas and his musical friends sojourned to the glorious Black Mountain Studios in Ireland to record what has become the first solo album from Thomas Walsh.
"Bless me Father for I have sinned. It's been 6 years since my last pop confession.."
With guests ranging from Joe Elliott (Def Leppard) and Michael Penn (MTV award winner) to Neil Hannon (Wonka) and Dave Gregory (XTC), who composed and orchestrated the strings for the closing track 'We Knew' at Abbey Road, Studio 2, London in April 2022, what you're holding onto here (or about to press a button) is an album of simple pop sincerity. No frills, no hanging about (11 songs - 35 minutes) just good old fashioned hummable, whistle-able pop songs.
"It's time for a reawakening. We've had our enforced lockdown rest. Now the rest is history."
Oliver Garch - 2023…