Clannad Start Their ‘In A Lifetime’ Farewell Australian Tour Tonight…

Celebrating an exceptional award-winning fifty-year career, CLANNAD start their ‘In a Lifetime’ Farewell World tour in Perth tonight which also heads to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra. This will be the final Clannad Tour of Australia. This tour will mark ten years since the legendary Celtic folk heroes toured Australia. It will also be the first Australian tour without founding members Pádraig (2016) and Noel, who passed recently. The Grammy and BAFTA award-winning band have sold more than fifty million records worldwide and are responsible for such timeless music as Theme From Harry’s Game, In A Lifetime, I Will Find You and the soundtrack to the Robin Of Sherwood TV series.

The multi-award winning Clannad have without doubt done more than any other group to take Irish music and the Irish language to a worldwide audience. Framed by Moya Brennan’s heavenly voice, their music carries the listener across oceans and aeons to a time when a proud culture was first born. Fusing elements of Irish folk music with rock, pop, new age, and jazz they have created a beautifully unique and ethereal sound that combines haunting melodies and mesmerising vocals to transcend the sands of time whilst appealing to a worldwide audience of all ages.

To coincide with this very special Farewell Tour, BMG Records have released In a Lifetime Anthology, a multi-format, career-spanning compilation containing tracks from their 50-year recording career. The live shows will see Clannad performing songs from the Anthology that will both delight and excite their enormous and loyal fanbase as well as introduce this legendary, influential, and culturally important band to a whole new generation of music fans. Don’t miss out on this final Clannad return to Australia. Pól Brennan answers a few questions about the tour for Hi Fi Way.

Having had an amazing career did the band know it was time to say farewell?
Yes, we decided in 2018 to plan the In a Lifetime Farewell Tour, to release an Anthology of our music and to do a final world tour, health issues and former members passing, played a part in this decision.

Had it been a discussion amongst the band that fifty years would be it?
No, we reached the decision after much discussion and after our successful reunion world tour 2012-214, this felt like the right time to bow out.

Has it been an emotional experience so far?
It has been an emotional roller coaster so far and has ramped up with Covid delaying the end date (we have had to reschedule our tour dates twice !) but once we got back to the UK, it all felt more real and more precious and the audience have played a major role in this. Europe last year was unbelievably emotional and was only topped by our final Dublin show last month!

Do you get nostalgic and reflect a lot of the ups, downs and in betweens of being in the band?
Not really, Clannad have had many highs and a great career and to be still playing to sold out shows everywhere we go is a real honour and a privilege, the lows have only really come in the last years where we have lost Padráig and more recently Noel.

What moments or career highlights stand out most for you?
Singing Theme from Harrys Game in Gaelic on Top of the Pops in the 80’s, what a blast that was, the show featured Michael Jackson and Dionne Warwick, for a ‘roots/indie folk band from Donegal that was a mind bender !

Is it hard not being able to celebrate the farewell tour with Noel and Padraig?
Yes, it’s been tough, of course we knew that Padráig wasn’t going to be with us but to lose Noel last year with a full year of our tour to go was devastating for us, we miss him but we celebrate them both onstage.

Does the show experience cover the entire Clannad back catalogue?
We have shaped the concerts on the Anthology released by BMG in 2020 to celebrate the Farewell Tour. We had to make many hard choices with our back catalogue (which is huge), and after many discussions and meetings we agreed on a set list that we believe, tells the story of our musical journey. We also decided on no support act and two halves to accommodate the songs we wanted to cover.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Clannad on the following dates, tickets from Live Nation…