Around The World For Sport

Recorded in 1980, the London-based "Shegui" were John Skelton, Sean Keane, John Coakley, Denis O’Rourke and the best Irish concertina player ever to come out of Scotland, Dundonian Willie Haines. Still one of my favorite recordings, a great selection of tunes and songs with quite a high percentage of "Sliabh Luchra" music.

Great album this. I might burn my vinyl copy on to CD so that I’ll play it more often. There were some great musicians in this band who all went on to do a lot of interesting work.
I saw Willie today, in fact, but didn’t get a chance to speak….

Was on tour in Brittany in the Summer of 1980 & met up with these guys on tour. I remember John was very much in charge, cracking the whip & keeping them in order! The May Morning Dew stood out when they played live - cracking stuff!

"Jimmy Connor’s" is here as "The Brosna Slide":
https://thesession.org/tunes/6983

Just for the record, the Seán Keane on this album is not the fiddler but the brother of singer Dolores (and, of course, he’s a more than decent singer in his own right).

Thanks, "Mac" - perhaps I should have pointed that out.
As well as providing the excellent singing on this recording, Sean plays a mean whistle, and also, I think a bit of mandolin. He is also, of course, an extremely capable flute-player, [ but John Skelton has that covered here ].

Track #11 on "Youtube" :
https://youtu.be/dRPybqRg6hg

play video

PS - I should point out perhaps that the final track [ see above ] was listed on the original LP as "Jimmy Finnegan’s". I think I’m right in remembering that Jimmy made a guest appearance playing Highland bagpipes on the last track, and he may have been the band’s "roadie" at one time.

Track #1 on "Youtube" :
https://youtu.be/LFDxOWhHBGE

play video

Jimmy Connors was more concerned with John McEnroe when the LP was released. As the LP notes, Shegui got the slide from Timmy Connors of Newmarket, a lovely guy I have had the pleasure of meeting.

Or more correctly Timmy O’Connor.