THE MARY WALLOPERS - GLASGOW, UK.
The Mary Wallopers at the Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, UK (16/12/2023).
with support from Monjola!
As my 2023 concert calendar came to an end I made my way to the legendary Barrowland Ballroom to finish the year in style, preparing to watch The Mary Wallopers bring their signature style of Irish traditional music to the masses. After a great year for the band and a fantastic album in ‘Irish Rock & Roll’ I was excited to see them round out their UK headlining tour in what is easily one of the world’s most iconic venues and even with the expectations set as high as they were, the band were more than ready to smash them with every single song.
Sadly being unable to make it in time for the support, I was only able to see The Mary Wallopers but upon asking friends of mine I met throughout the night the sentiment was united with everyone that Sam Shackleton and Jinx Lennon both brought their unique blend of trad and folk to the masses on that night. Seeing such a big room united in the love of trad and folk is very special to me and seeing the trajectory bands like Brògeal and of course The Mary Wallopers are on is a very good sign for the future of the scene.
As the band took the stage to the sound of thunderous applause, they introduced themselves and introduced their opening song with a sentence to explain it. It felt like being in the world’s largest pub and the band in for the night only cared about having the craic. It was such a great atmosphere from the start. Before the band broke into the raucous ‘Bould O’Donoghue’, frontman Charles Hendy let us know “This is a song about marrying the queen’s daughter and getting one over on the royal family by putting an Irishman amongst their ranks.” Every song throughout the show was introduced with a similar, silly spiel to prepare the audience for what we were about to hear. It was a great atmosphere and the band were on top form throughout. They even managed to have so much craic and get up to so much nonsense during ‘Rothesay-O’ they took a song that’s less than 3 minutes long and stretched it out to close to 10 minutes in a truly impressive act of tomfoolery.
However, it wasn’t all “This one’s about getting fleas. I’m telling you don’t get fleas it’s no craic, especially not on your Mickey,” before ‘Rothesay-O’ or “This one’s about a fella who said fuck having a job and even though he was poor he was great craic and everyone thought he was a legend,” before ‘The Rakes of Poverty’ as the band ensured to give the proper gravity to songs that deal with real issues like clerical abuse by the Catholic Church, the treatment of travellers in society and the way immigrants are treated when the performed ‘Gates of Heaven’, ‘Wexford’, and ‘Building Up and Tearing England Down’ respectively. Those songs are some of the most important songs put out by the band and to hear the passion on display about all of these things from them as well as to hear how passionate the crowd were in seeing these injustices called out made it clear how important it is to everyone there to raise a voice for these things.
As they began to wind down the whole of the Barras waited in anticipation for one song, the band’s signature cover of Hamish Imlach’s Glasgow anthem ‘Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice’ and when those first chords were played the roof nearly came off the ballroom. The song that began the band’s meteoric rise being played in the most iconic venue in the city the song sings of was a special moment.
As they came back on for the encore, a two song affair showing love to some of Irish music’s finest, they began with a speech to honour the late Shane MacGowan before the band went into a fantastic performance of The Pogues’ iconic ‘Streams of Whiskey’. This was one of the few songs of the night where Charles, Andrew and Sean split vocal duties as each of the three singers took a verse each in a glorious tribute to one of the best musicians to ever put pen to paper. The show was rounded out with the band’s version of ‘All For Me Grog’ and it was clear to me that The Mary Wallopers are the future of Irish music. They’ve managed to take Irish Trad and Folk and make it relevant to the masses again. The gig was packed with people of all ages, everyone there to enjoy the band’s take on all these classic pub songs you’d hear in front of a fireplace with a Guinness in hand. The way they’ve helped to revive the scene and introduce so many to this music is nothing short of amazing and after seeing them live it’s easy to see why so many people care about this band. An amazing night watching an amazing band play an amazing venue to round out an amazing year of live music for me.
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