We woke from our slumber at 10am where our host had prepared breakfast for us. It was a pretty solid spread as touring musicians go, with choices of cereals, fresh breads, juices and teas and coffees. Food always tastes best when it’s free, so we filled our boots and had a pretty hearty carb orientated breakfast. We were driving to Dublin which was a fairly solid 3 hours away; usually we’d laugh at a 3 hour drive, we literally had those for breakfast some days in Germany; however drinking for 8 nights was starting to catch up with us and none of us were particularly enthusiastic about the drive. Only about the destination; Dublin.
We said bye to our host who’d been so lovely for our stay and hit the road, stopping briefly at a nearby stone circle on our host’s recommendation. We drove down some dirt tracks to our deserted destination and posed for some photos before getting back in the now filthy VW with Chris Tavener at the helm and began the drive to Dublin. I slept most of the way. I’d perfected my skill of sleeping in cars on this tour and used any and every opportunity possible to hone it. I awoke as we were arriving and missed some pretty cool views by the look of some of Brendans photos but felt a lot better for it.
We checked into our Airbnb and met our friendly host for the next two days; Roy. We were staying about 40 minutes bus ride out of the city centre and faced a tricky decision for the show that night. We could either drive to the show, not drink anything but have an easy job transporting equipment back and forth OR take a crowded bus into town, with all our gear, have many drinks and stumble into a taxi with our stuff. We unanimously decided that we would like to drink. Roy pointed us to the nearest bus stop and we enjoyed some traditional Irish grub from ‘Abra Kebabra’ en route and headed into the city armed with expensive guitars, valuable Merch bags and expensive recording equipment.
We were booked to play a featured slot at an open mic night at a pub called The Bleeding Horse a little out of the centre. I was meeting up with my old band mate Loz; we’ve been good friends for years and I was buzzing to catch up. Loz greeted us at the door to the venue (beat us there) and we sat around drinking and chatting til the night got underway. It was a fairly quiet evening really but despite this it was very enjoyable, some open mic nights can be utterly tedious but this one was well hosted with a fine selection of Dublin’s local talent on display. There were some standout performances from the open mic and the host John was hilarious. He reminded me and Chris ALOT of an Irish version of Josh Fletcher, an open mic host at the Pint Pot in Salford from back home (Manchester open mic’ers will know!). Chris played to a respectful audience who appreciated his stuff and the task fell on me to close the night.
The crowd had thinned out a bit as it was approaching midnight on a school night but Loz was sticking around and the other acts weren’t going anywhere so I took to the stage. Just before I was about to play a large group of football players walked into the bar, holding a cup and pints in hand, wearing massive smiles they screamed out ‘we’re here for a big one’. Me, Chris and John all shared a nervous glance. We all knew I was most likely, absolutely fucked. Here’s a large group of Irish lads brandishing a trophy they’d just won looking to get rowdy and here’s an English lad with an acoustic guitar getting ready to play some of his own sad songs in close vicinity. Chris shouted from the crowd “Joel, go mental!” and my song choices suddenly shifted from slow ballads to the liveliest of my own songs I had in me. To everyones shock, and fair credit to the lads if any of them are reading this. They were absolute angels. They LOVED it and were so respectful of the music. They cheered so loud the tiny room filled with just about every person left in the pub downstairs at 12.30 on a Sunday. The lads passed the cup they had won round and everyone threw in some change for me and Chris’ touring efforts. The music finished late with a small (it had thinned out as it was approaching 1am, but still brill, standing ovation.) I was swarmed as I came off stage with excited people wanting to shake my hand. It made my tour. If any of those lads are reading this; thanks for making my first (very small) gig in Dublin brilliant.
We hit up a bar round the corner called Wheelans with the open mic host John and a couple of others after the show and drank til the early hours. John let us put our equipment downstairs as we were playing round the corner the next night at International Bar and offered us a slot at the Wheelans’ jam night after we were done. Chris was knackered but we powered through. I got talking to John’s mate who’d been in a band for years and we got chatting about the music biz and who we both knew etc etc. We caught a local rock band playing on stage and thoroughly enjoyed it before residing to the burger shop opposite to end the night. This was the start of a love affair for all of us. WOW Burger do the BEST burgers I’ve ever tasted. Just the thought of it now has me salivating. The cheese burger on that first night in Dublin was the greatest fast food I’ve ever had in my life. We’d be back.
The next day we got up and explored some of Dublins sights. We went to Temple bar and listened to a great singer who’d played in ‘The Dubliners’ (original writers of Whiskey In The Jar) sing some traditional Irish songs and covers and of course; Whiskey In The Jar whilst we sipped on our €7 pint of Guinness. We then returned to have our second WOW Burger in the last 24 hours. Chris had missed out last time as he doesn’t eat cheese and wanted to save some money, but we had raved about it so much that he had to try it. Second time really was the charm here and we wolfed down our new favourite meal once again.
Loz came and met up with us again and we grabbed our stuff from Wheelans and went down the road to get ready for our next gig on the tour; International Bar’s Circle Sessions. Loz had stayed well past when he should have done last night, leaving us around 12.30am to then take a 40 minute taxi ride home and be in work at 9am so understandably fucked off home! Just as he was leaving though a familiar figure walked through the door. My friend Ryan Bacon and his girlfriend were here! Which is totally bizarre as they both live in Manchester. They’d seen we were playing and decided they’d catch a flight and come see the show. We couldn’t believe it.
The show itself was an unplugged songwriters night. It was lush and we met some amazing people and had a great time. I went on first this time as Chris knew that this was the perfect audience for his stuff and he’d generally been opening up most nights (only because my stuffs a bit louder). The crowd were silent and seemed to love my tunes! They sang along at unannounced singalong sections and seemed to be vibing the whole time. The applause at the end of each tune was big and enthusiastic and it was just generally lush and I’d play there again in a heartbeat. Chris absolutely knocked it out the park when his set came around. The crowd were laughing at lines in his songs that weren’t even meant to be funny and he had them in the palm of his hand. If I ‘won’ on night one in Dublin, Chris won night two. And fair play; It was a masterclass that night and his act couldn’t have fitted the night or the audience better if he tried.
After the show we hit up the jam night at Wheelans and met some lovely new people who were phenomenally talented. John saw us walk in and laughed with us saying ‘I’ll get you guys on, just about anyone who’s a musician in Dublin has just walked in.’ We both played a quick tune unplugged and Chris’ ‘Bottle It Up’ song got a huge laugh at the key change. I played my song ‘More To Life’ and some of the musicians jammed along (keys player later turned out to be the keys player for Gabrielle Aplin) and they all seemed to like my stuff! At the end when I hit the big note the whole band behind me broke out into an impromptu 7 part harmony and it sounded amazing. I think other musicians who are clearly very accomplished digging your stuff is one of the biggest compliments you can get as a musician. They really got it in Dublin and that was brilliant for me. We watched the other artists until the early hours and eventually the ‘open mic’ broke down into a ‘someone just sing a feckin song and we’ll all sing along’ kind of night. The bartender even stopped serving at one point to grab the guitar and sing everyone a tune. Everyone was feeling it and the whole bar broke out singing harmonies to The Carpenters ‘Close To You’ later on which was a particularly amazing memory. We left the night with some new friends, a couple of new people that would hopefully come see us again, a few new instagram followers and some AMAZING memories. Best open mic or jam night I’ve ever been to. Hands down.
I love Dublin.
Joel's Side Of The Story 
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