The Celtic Tenors: Irish Album - Featuring The Dubliners / EMI Audio CD 2003 Stereo

UPC 724355760128

The Celtic Tenors began life as the Three Irish Tenors on RTÉ's Theatre Nights in October 1995. The group at that time consisted of James Nelson, Niall Morris, and Paul Hennessey.

In 1998, Matthew “The Gill” Gilsenan from Kells, Co. Meath replaced Paul Hennessey and in 2000 the group was signed to EMI Classics and changed its name to The Celtic Tenors. Singing a mixture of Celtic, operatic and harmonized popular songs, the group has traveled extensively with many tours concentrated in Australia, the US, Canada, Germany, China, and the Netherlands. The group performs as a compact vocal group with piano and guitar, also in larger formats such as band and symphonies such as the Toronto Symphony, the Cincinnati Pops, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. They have performed at major sporting events; rugby, football, Gaelic football, hurling, ice hockey, tennis, Formula 1 motorcar racing, As well as performing for Bill Clinton and Kofi Annan.

The Dubliners were an Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in personnel over their fifty-year career, but the group's success was centred on lead singers Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew. The band garnered international success with their lively Irish folk songs, traditional street ballads and instrumentals. The band were regulars on the folk scenes in both Dublin and London in the early 1960s, and were signed to the Major Minor label in 1965 after backing from Dominic Behan who was paid by Major-Minor to work with the Dubliners and help them to build a better act fit for larger concert hall venues. The Dubliners worked with Behan regularly between 1965 and 1966; Behan wrote numerous songs for this act including the song McAlpine's Fusiliers created specifically to showcase Ronnie Drew's gravel voice. They went on to receive extensive airplay on Radio Caroline which was part owned by Phil Solomon CEO of Major Minor, and eventually appeared on Top of the Pops in 1967 with hits "Seven Drunken Nights" (which sold over 250,000 copies in the UK) and "The Black Velvet Band". Often performing political songs considered controversial at the time, they drew criticism from some folk purists and Ireland's national broadcaster RTÉ had placed an unofficial ban on their music from 1967 to 1971. During this time the band's popularity began to spread across mainland Europe and they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States. The group's success remained steady right through the 1970s and a number of collaborations with The Pogues in 1987 saw them enter the UK Singles Chart on another two occasions.