Foster-ing a love of Irish music

I am talking to Mick Foster, one half of the legendary duo Foster and Allen as he is being chauffeur driven through Canberra. The Irish boys are half way through their Australian tour, about the 17th show of a 34 show tour.

Mick Foster is true to his name in continuing to foster a love of Irish music by ‘the Foster and Allen’ treatment around the world.

The boys have been performing in Australia for 30 years from the beginnings in 1984,in that time they have travelled the length and breadth of Australia and in 18 trips there is probably nowhere they haven’t been, Darwin, Kalgoorlie, Mt Isa, Alice Springs included and each place they visit is a favourite for a different reason. With Western Australia it’s the countryside, Queensland has the weather to promote it, and Sydney, well, in Mick’s words ‘Sydney is seriously alive’.

The boys love visiting Hobart and it’s the Wrest Point venue they enjoy for it’s complete services, they can ,eat, sleep, perform and enjoy playing their music all in the one place and call it ‘fabulous’.

Mick and Tony have managed to find a winning formula in bringing Irish traditional instruments, especially the accordion and utilising its ability in performing numerous musical genres with something that appeals to everyone from Irish traditional to Strauss to Dire Straits and with their dose of humour giving it, as they say ‘the Foster and Allen treatment’.

The two hour show that the guys perform doesn’t give them the opportunity to do all of the songs they have recorded over the years but allows them to play the hits as well as some of the new material from their latest album ‘The Happiness of Having You’, there is also time given to others in the band to have their moment to shine.

Mick tells me he loves to perform traditional music and that is what he did before becoming as he said ‘commercial’. Mick still gets together with the boys for a session where they can play for 4 hours or so, have a drink and some of the famous Irish ‘craic’ or fun.

Foster and Allen are continually evolving as a band, and when they return to the UK after this tour they will record a pop song with Shane Ward, a young UK singer popular in both the UK and Ireland. Mick says they will record the upbeat Irish song ‘Galway Girl’. Although that won’t be on the play list for this tour but Mick promises it will be in two years when the boys tour again.

Young Shane Ward’s parents are big Foster and Allen fans and Mick and Tony say hopefully it will bring some of Shane’s contemporaries to their concerts and vica versa. The idea of a collaboration with Shane was in part because of the rise of boy band One Direction and the fact one of the members is from Foster and Allen’s hometown of Mullingar.

This year also sees Mick and Tony bring out their biography. It’s been long in the thought process and at last is coming to fruition. It will recount the early days before they became the famous duo. Mick says his childhood was a period in Ireland when the country ‘came a long way in a short time’. He recalls and reminisces the pony trap as the method of transport and then in a short space of time most families having a number of cars.

My last question to Mick must be about the relationship between him and his treasured accordion. He famously once said it would be the last possession he would give up and he doesn’t disappoint in saying that is still the case. We are grateful for that close connection and with Mick having no plans for retirement we can look forward to he,Tony and their accordions entertaining us for some time yet.

As his name suggests Mick Foster continues to foster the love of Irish music with Tony and the band around the world.

You can see Foster and Allen in Hobart at the Wrest Point Entertainment Centre 24th June and in Launceston at the Country Club Show Room 25th and 26th June.

• If you love Irish music you can have a night out for free. The first three Irish music fans to write to editor@oldtt.pixelkey.biz each wins a double pass and CD for their concerts next week at Wrest Point and the Launceston Country Club. Get emailing!
Paula Xiberras