The Young Dubliners

Biography

The Young Dubliners are a musical group, who have developed a reputation early on for high-energy gigs fueled by musicianship, pints o' bitter, and the thrill of a good Celtic-rock mash-up. Drawing on obvious influences (Waterboys, Pogues, U2), the group began as a musicians' "revolving door" in the early '90s, but finally hit its stride with a stable lineup to back founding singer-guitarist Keith Roberts a few years ago. A Dublin native and University College Dublin grad (politics/sociology),...

The Young Dubliners are a musical group, who have developed a reputation early on for high-energy gigs fueled by musicianship, pints o' bitter, and the thrill of a good Celtic-rock mash-up. Drawing on obvious influences (Waterboys, Pogues, U2), the group began as a musicians' "revolving door" in the early '90s, but finally hit its stride with a stable lineup to back founding singer-guitarist Keith Roberts a few years ago.

A Dublin native and University College Dublin grad (politics/sociology), Roberts thought about pursuing journalism upon his late Reagan-era stateside arrival. He thought better of it after an internship at PBS, deciding he'd share his homeland history by making news, rather than reading it off a teleprompter. The quintet's still rolling after Roberts' vocal cord surgery, and touring behind last year's wry, sprightly tour de force, Real World. They are a true purveyor of Irish rock that's thrilling to hear, fun to watch, and certain to swing your shillelagh.

Deep History: There is more to the story than what is written above. The Young Dubliners began in 1988 (maybe even 1987) as a duo, Keith Roberts and Paul O'Toole. Both played acoustic guitars and sang. The format was mostly Irish folksongs and Irish pop. Keith and Paul made an interesting contrast. Paul, an electrician by trade, was a multi-instrumentalist and true Dubliner, from the north side. Keith was a college-educated product of the pairing of two well-known Irish entertainers. Not truly from Dublin, Keith was raised in the posh suburb of Dun Laoghaire (sounds like Dun Leary to an American ear). One of Keith's musical motivations may have been having known members of the band Hothouse Flowers during his days in college. Paul's musical motivations might have been more simple; he simply liked playing and singing a good tune in between sips of Guinness Stout.

Their homebase in the earliest of the early days was the Irish Rover on Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica. They were an underground phenomenon back in those days, and they often played to a packed, but very small, house. 'The Rover', as it was called, would become a solid mass of humanity who were all smoking and drinking until the cigarette smoke burned your eyes and the heat and humidity of a hundred sweaty bodies turned the tiny pub into a sauna filled with undulating human flesh. They shared the Rover back then with another Irish band called "The Lads", one would play Friday night and the other would take Saturday night. Paddy's Day 1988 had The Lads go on first, followed by the Young Dubliners. This was powerful testimony to the popularity of the 'band' back then, that an acoustic act could out-muscle an electric band for headliner of an Irish bar on Paddy's Day.

Back in those days they had a soundman, Rob McCulley, who would record all the shows. There are dozens and dozens of these tapes in existence. They self-produced their first cassette, "Young Dubliners Live", based on those early recordings. The tape included their very first original song, "Keaton's Bar", written by Paul O'Toole. The act developed. They added instruments, and gave the yoke to ones they didn't care for (e.g. bongo player). "John" Brendan Holmes, another Dubliner, joined them on bass, a role that he has held ever since (while a myriad of other musicians came and went). "Dirty Old Town' developed into their closing number, and it was during this period that "Fisherman's Blues" and "Rocky Road to Dublin" became essential numbers. In answer to the mosh pit, the front of the stage would feature what would (much later) be called the 'jig pit', and the traditional instrumental "Coolies" was the song that would get it in full gear.

During this period they opened for Christy Moore (who insisted on meeting 'the boys' before going on) and The Furey Brothers (who counseled them to play more originals--fine advice from a band that had maybe one or two original songs to their name). They released another self-produced cassette, this time a studio release called "Home", featuring the eponymous (and their second) original song. They began to branch out of the Rover and play other gigs. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.