Xmas Message from Barry

What a fantastic, even if funny, year it has been for all of us at Charlie´s Bar!  The fantastic parts of the year for me were seeing so many familiar faces again and again, and watching Charlie´s Bar becoming more and more like a local, despite the fact that so many people are here for a week only – and how many of you know each other from returning again?! I was amazed when we were in Galway
so many people knew each other from back in Lanzarote and decided to meet up together at our Xmas gigs back home.

As I write this in Thailand on a working holiday, I am just thinking of all of those who travelled to Galway from Scotland, England, Wales and all parts of Ireland, and it was great to see everyone together, even those that can´t sing or dance!  It was a very unusual feeling to be playing outside of Charlie´s Bar and to see so many friends.  We all looked so different with four layers of clothing, designer Wellington boots and walking sticks – or were they umbrellas? Now we are looking forward to the Cork gigs (18, 19 & 21 Dec – info HERE), and I know some people that were at the Galway gigs who are going to be in Cork as well.

Another great memory I have from 2009 was welcoming Sharon Shannon, Damien Dempsey, The Wolfe Tones, Jon Kenny and then, just before we closed for the holidays, the great Finbar Fury.  Each time we had special guests over we all got a great buzz from it and enjoyed their company as much as their music.

We were all delighted to have acquired the Craic´n Ceol in June of this year. It´s a bar that fits in very well with what we do and complements Charlie´s Bar as well, and we are very proud to have it.  We were also delighted to have Rory Gallagher joining us at Charlie´s Bar & the Craic with his fantastic talent, and we wish him and his fiancée Cara the very best for their future.  Both of you have only 4 months left to do what you have to do!!

If I made one cock-up this year, it was opening Charlie´s Bar 7 nights a week from May until October.  It was too long playing 7 nights and we should have stayed on 6 nights until the middle of July – but I will learn at my own pace!  I am even contemplating opening 5 nights a week from January with the way things are at the moment, but we will see as we go along.  Unfortunately, there have been quite a few bars that have closed down in Lanzarote over the year, and I know the same is true in Ireland and here in Thailand as well.  Thankfully we have gone from strength to strength, but we have to be on the ball all the time and never let up.  It´s a good job we all love what we are doing and get on so well, or it would be next to impossible to keep going in these times.

One benefit I can see since the Celtic Tiger ran out of borrowed steam is that the arrogance that some of the Irish yahoos had is gone, thank God, and we are back to doing what we do best: drinking a few pints, having the craic, singing a few songs and talking proper shit, not the Celtic Tiger shit.

Looking forward to 2010, we will have quite a few special guests coming over again, and the fantastic Sharon Shannon will be the first on 20th February 2010.  We are currently working on mixing more tunes with songs and we look forward to doing plenty more of that – for me that is what I love the best and to see what kind of concoctions we can come up with.   It´s amazing what can happen when you put 6 thick heads together!

I learn so much about life in Charlie´s with friends and customers telling me so much about their lives.  It´s as if they reflect on life when they get a chance while on holidays, and it´s great to see them a few months or a year later and see how they got on with whatever situation in the meantime.

Like I already said, we are now looking forward to the Cork gigs and then re-opening Charlie´s Bar on 26th December, and getting back to what we do best together.  I won´t talk about what we don´t do best together here, apart from fishing, cooking and skydiving!

We all wish you a very Merry Xmas and a peaceful, prosperous, loving and, above all else, healthy New Year.

“Go raibh mile maith agaimh” which translates as “I hope you get laid soon, have triplets, a crippling mortgage, and never see the light of day again!

Cheers
Barry and all at Charlie´s Bar

P.S. My back is f*cked here in Thailand – and not for the reason you perverts think!  It´s from trying to get under showers that were built for 4´6″ humans and not 6´4″ aliens.  Happy Christmas.