Last week I had the pleasure of talking to one half of Irish singing duo Foster and Allen, the lovely Tony Allen. Tony tells me the duo and their group love Tasmania and adds the venues, including the casino in Hobart are beautiful, not to mention the wonderful audiences. Tasmania reminds Tony very much of Ireland, especially the friendliness of the people. To top off the connection to Tasmania is the fact that their tour manager, Michael Hayes, is a Tasmanian!
Mick Foster and Tony Allen are legends in the music industry and unique in creating a bridge between easy listening music and Irish music performed with traditional instruments.
Mick and Tony always employ a rigorous schedule when touring, in this particular 5 week tour they will perform 29 shows all over Australia. This touring also means there won’t be a lot of sightseeing except of course of the incidental kind while driving in blocks of two or two and half hours from venue to venue. When they do get the opportunity to stop in smaller villages they like visiting various eateries and meeting the locals.
That’s the easy part of the tour because when the boys do arrive at the venue there is the problem of choosing from a list of song titles from over 30 albums and 13 videos of which to perform! I ask Tony about the group’s favourites from this extensive list, wondering if it might be one of their two most known signature songs, ‘A Bunch of Thyme’ and ‘Maggie’.
Tony, while acknowledging these songs as well as another favourite ‘Black Sheep’, tells me that one of the most requested songs is ‘I will love you all my life’ because it is a favourite of so many, performed for birthdays and anniversaries.
As well as making sure all the favourite songs, which number about 12, are covered Tony says they do some ‘expectations’ as well as ‘a few nice tracks’ off the newest album.
Always keen to evolve and extend their reach, Foster and Allen have done a duet of ‘Galway Girl’ with Shayne Ward (winner of second series of X Factor UK) and sang with British TV personality Gloria Hunniford. Most recently on the new album the duo have done some jamming with those other traditional Irish musicians The Chieftains and Mick has had the honour of performing a duet of his fathers with Jimmy Shand Junior.
Tony himself is a lover of all kinds of music including The Beatles, Elvis and country music and have covered songs from The Beatles and Dire Straits among others. He doesn’t believe in putting music into genres and uses the analogy of someone who loves Gaelic football but also loves golf and horse racing. They all come under the umbrella of sport and he doesn’t believe anyone needs to choose one favourite, similarly a person can love more than one type of music.
Tony always loved music from the time he was at national school and to the time he worked at the hardware store. In a family of nine kids who all played and sang including his brother, who performs under the name of T. R. Dallas and was ‘the brave one’ who wasn’t afraid to get up and sing. Ironically on the morning we speak Tony said he had a call from T. R. Dallas who didn’t realise his brother was in Australia, himself being in New York working on one of the entertainment cruises.
Like his brother Tony still loves travelling and says he can’t understand how some entertainers bemoan the travelling aspect of the business. That being said it looks like we are set to enjoy the combined talents of Foster and Allen and their merry band for many years to come.
You can see Tony and Mick in Tasmania at the following venues:
HOBART Wrest Point Entertainment Centre Thursday 16 June
LAUNCESTON Country Club Saturday 18 June
BURNIE Town Hall Sunday 19 June
Paula Xiberras
