Composer, songwriter and pianist Phil Coulter plays Westport Town Hall Theatre on Tuesday, 19th December.
Ireland’s Call, The Town I Loved so Well, Puppet on a String, Steal Away and Congratulations are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the output of the Wicklow resident over almost 60 years.
Ireland’s Call was even performed by Bono during U2’s new residency at The Sphere in Las Vegas recently, to kickoff one of the Ireland World Cup rugby games.
Westport is one of the stops on his current Four Score And Then…….. nationwide tour, which also includes Bord Gais Energy Theatre, Dublin among the 23 shows.
This year, at the age of 81, Phil decided to learn his own composition Steal Away in Ukrainian. This was after he heard that a large Ukrainian community based in Cavan had adopted the song in English and Ukrainian, as a sort of anthem. Drawn from the Ukrainian communities from all over Ireland, a choir was assembled to record Steal Away with Phil on piano.
He has performed with everyone from James Galway and the London Symphony Orchestra to Nanci Griffith and The Blue Moon Orchestra, not to mention Henry Mancini, Elmer Bernstein and Quincy Jones!
Phil Coulter is the only Irish songwriter to have their music sung by Elvis Presley, the song My Boy.
Add to this successful collaborations with Sinead O’Connor and Picture This and you can see how the octogenarian is still leaving his mark on the music business.
