According to bass player Ken Doyle, the band that penned all-time classics ‘Summer in Dublin’ and ‘Streets of New York’ didn’t take to retirement as enthusiastically as they had hoped and will now play occasional gigs throughout the year but have stepped back from their previous hectic touring schedule.
In the meantime the band have received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Sunday World among other accolades.
RTE 2FM DJ Will Leahy put out a call to his listeners to come up with Ireland’s iconic Summer Song and of course Bagatelle’s Summer in Dublin took the prize with ease and re-entered the Irish charts no less than three times in the following months.
In a Daily Star Newspaper poll the summer anthem was voted in at No. 3 on the paper’s Best Irish Song Ever chart, up there with The Pogues Fairytale of New York and U2’s One.
There have been over 100 cover versions of ‘Summer in Dublin’ recorded to date and still counting all drawn to the song for its vivid lyrical imagery.
You know the lines well, I’m sure …
‘So, I jumped on a bus to Dun Laoghaire,
Stopping off to pick up my guitar,
And a drunk on a bus told me how to get rich,
I was glad we weren’t going too far.’
Bass player Ken Doyle laughs..
“You won’t believe this, but we have had dozens of people come up to the band over the years claiming – “I was the drunk on the bus that day”
Bagatelle play Lime Tree Theatre this Friday October 7.
