ROCKABILLY star Imelda May will play ‘Live in the Big Top’ at the Milk Market on Bank Holiday Sunday June 5. The recent cancellation of the Cold Pro Music & Surfing festival where Imelda was to play has meant that Miltown Malbay’s loss in Limerick’s gain. Since her appearance on Later with Jools Holland in 2008 playing bodhrán and singing ‘Johnny got a Boom Boom’ Imelda May and her band have shot to fame in Ireland and the UK. Her 1950s retro swagger and style and her authentic blues/jazz infused music has won her admirers and fans worldwide.
May (real name Imelda Clabby) was born named in Dublin and raised in the Liberties. The youngest of five children she discovered the music of Elvis, Eddie Cochran and Billie Holiday from her older siblings. At age 14, Imelda’s first paying gig was singing about fish fingers for a Findus advert. At 16 years she was playing the pubs, clubs and functions circuit in Dublin.
She met and married renowned rockabilly guitarist/singer, Darrell Higham and sang on some of his recordings before releasing her first CD, ‘No Turning Back’ in 2005 under her own name. No Turning Back was home recorded and Imelda was never happy with the sound quality and re-recorded her vocals for the CDs re-release in 2009.
She was singing with the swing troupe Blue Harlem, had an interesting spell of singing in burlesque clubs but by 2006 she was itching to go solo, and formed her own band. She says, “We started out a bit jazzier, but it needed balls and roughing up which it got.” The resulting album, ‘Love Tattoo’ was soon released and started to get noticed particularly by Jools Holland and then Jeff Beck who asked May to sing with him on tour and at the 2010 Grammy Awards.
Forever a down-to -earth personality, May after her performance with Jeff Beck at the Grammys faced a breathless celeb-obsessed interviewer asking Imelda in a slightly patronising way, “what stars, if you saw them right now, would make you drop on the floor?” Imelda laughed answering, “Most of the people who really inspired are all dead, from Gene Vincent to Johnny Cash to Billie Holiday and Patsy Cline, so if I saw them I would drop on the floor.”
Her latest album ‘Mayhem’ continues to fuse classic rockabilly with a exceptional modern songwriting ability. But it is in the live arena where Imelda May’s charisma and talent really shine. All Imelda’s recent shows in Limerick have been sell-outs. Staged in the intimate surroundings of the Milk Market this is an event not to be missed.
Expect a night of be-bopping, old-time rockabilly boogie interspersed with the beautiful ‘Falling in Love with You Again’ and the heartbreakingly poignant ‘Kentish Town Waltz’ dedicated to her husband and guitarist Darrell Higham. They are sure to be some of the show’s highlights.
Imelda May plays ‘Live in the Big Top’ at the Milk Market on Bank Holiday Sunday June 5. Gates at the Milk Market will open on the night from 7:30pm. Food stalls and a bar will be open for the event and tickets are now on sale.
