September 2006
The band visited Italy twice and enjoyed a very warm welcome on both visit.the gigs were on all occasions fun and on most ocassions wild. One fantastic element of each show was the surprise for the audience of the switching from an Irish reel to the Italian world cup theme song mid tune. This caused great elation and rapturous singing along. The Willingfools recommend that all bands should tour a country after they have won a major sports trophy!!
During this tour the male female balance in the band was more even with the addition of two female singers (lovely girls) who also added to the texture of the gigs with flute playing and Irish dancing.
A regular in the line-up on Uillean pipes and whistle is Darragh O Heiligh whom was able to join for these trips. Darragh, who would practice his pipes until callous appeared, was a huge hit with the Italians having never come in contact with Uillean pipes. One of the Italians said that he found Irish Uillean pipe players ‘Interesting’
The Rhythm section kept the band solid in the steady hands of David ‘Toaster’ Mohan on Bass and Damien ‘Cement mixer’ Brennan on Drums. This was the first time the lads had been on a ‘Fools’ tour and were a pleasure to be with. Not only did they play their part musically, they also were on hand to bail rainwater out of a flooded apartment block during a flash flood in Padova. The flood came during the night and the morning revealed a shocking scene for the bands instruments which were lying in inches of water. There followed frantic efforts to dry the instruments using hairdryers, thankfully all instruments were saved for that nights gig. We will always remember that night titled by Damien as ‘The Great flood of 2006′!!!
All profits from the tour have been donated to ‘CrossCause’ a charity foundation operating in Romania helping special needs children and families in poverty stricken circumstances. Conor and Barry have been involved with CrossCause since it began in 2001. To find out more go to www.crosscause.org.
We would also like to say a huge thanks to everybody who helped make the trip so pleasurable ie. Soundmen, tour promoters (the Barions), and the person who invented Sat Nav without who we would probably still be trying navigate our way out Rome airport!!!