Music and Marathons

Come March musician Nigel Connell will be back doing his bi-annual run from the casino to the city. That Nigel is a keen endurance runner, suits well the name Connell meaning ‘strong as a wolf’ and ‘valour’ and the name ‘Nigel’ means ‘Champion’.

Nigel is indeed a champion, especially as a regular charity marathon runner in his native Ireland (Nigel recently successful completed the Dublin city marathon after a lapse of 10 years where he proudly shaved 10 minutes off his previous record and raised money for the Irish Cancer Society).

Nigel will be in Tasmania next week for another kind of event. A tour with Irish entertainer Daniel O’Donnell, when he performs as Daniel’s drummer.

Nigel is always enthusiastic to investigate whatever city he finds himself in on tour and is becoming very familiar with Tasmania having visited here a number of times both with Daniel and with Irish songstress Mary Duff. So familiar in fact,he’s almost a local, on his last visit Nigel even walked into the city to see a movie at the local Village Cinema!

With a fiance from Germany, Nigel’s a big fan of, and frequents when he is in Tasmania the Brezel Backerei at Sandy Bay.

Ties with Australia are growing, with Nigel presently recording a song ‘Washed in the river’ with Australian connections for his new album.

Nigel explains to me how he came about the song at a sound check on his last Australian tour. While preparing his drums he noted one of the technicians, Paul Rusk setting up the equipment which happened to be playing ‘Washed in the river’. Impressed Nigel told Paul he was interested in recording the song.

Paul told him the song was written by his brother, a Melbourne based Kiwi. An interesting coincidence being that Paul’s brother also has a girlfriend with the same name as Nigel’s girlfriend.

Nigel was given the go ahead to record the song and he has attempted to make it his own by embellishing it with a gospel choir, the Irish uillean pipes and whistles.

Another project Nigel has been working on recently is ‘Irish the musical’, a musical conceived by Kate Amesbury which is a tribute to her family, Irish immigrants to the USA. The story recounts the story of four Irish musicians who leave Ireland aiming for success in New York and to perform at Carnegie Hall.

Kate chose Nigel for the part because of his voice, even though he had no experience as an actor. Nigel was a bit apprehensive about acting but Kate set up home in Dublin and began tutoring Nigel in acting. After which, with his confidence at a high, Nigel and the cast recorded the musical at the beautiful Wexford Opera House. The musical will debut on the PBS network in the US and if successful will keep Nigel busy with a theatrical run.

In the meantime, after this Australian tour Nigel will be accompanying Daniel O’Donnell to Sri Lanka, a new frontier for group. Nigel says that Daniel’s friend Cliff Richard is responsible for making Daniel’s music known in Sri Lanka, to the extent that there is even a Daniel tribute artist there!

You can check out Nigel’s music and marathons ; ) at his website http://nigelconnell.com/ and you can see Nigel as part of Daniel O’Donnell’s concerts in Tasmania at the Albert Hall, Launceston 4th March and at Wrest Point Casino in Hobart on 5th March.
Paula Xiberras