Gerry O'Kane Live at the Wellington
A special treat for Gerry O'Kane fans!!I've had a number of people contact me who were also looking for Gerry -- all of them reminiscing about nights at the Wellington and singing along with him. While I still haven't been able to track him down, I did manage to find an old cassette he gave me.
With a little fiddling, I converted it to an MP3.
The quality isn't great...
BUT!
I think it's the only place anyone can find a
LIVE
recording of Mr O'Kane
and the bunch of drunken louts who frequented the best damned pub in Kingston.
The recording is from 1992.
If you were a regular then, you're probably in the crowd.
I've only converted one side of the tape -- here is the set list:
The Irish Ballad
The Black Velvet Band
And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Mary's Wedding
The Mary Ellen Carter
Farewell to Nova Scotia
Seven Drunken Nights
The Old Dunn Cow
The Ballad of Willie McBride (only the last few verses)
Dirty Old Town
The Wild Rover
The track is 44 minutes long and includes all of Gerry's banter with the crowd in the pub, as well as their shouts in all the right places:
"HEY WIFE!!" -- seven drunken nights
"MACINTYRE!!!" -- the old dunn cow
"RIGHT UP YER KILT!!" -- the wild rover
"AND SHE WAS!!" -- the black velvet band
I am going to ask some pals of mine with audio recording experience -- and ProTools set-ups to do a proper conversion of the entire tape. I'll put up a link to it when it's done. You won't want to miss the other side -- it has Finnegan's Wake, The Rocky Road To Dublin, Johnny Be Fair, and the crowd favourite, Barrett's Privateers.
In the mean time -- to download the 5 meg file
and "save target as"
I hope you all enjoy it!
posted by Thorny at Sunday, August 06, 2006
23 Comments:
This is great! Thanks for the first side! I'm really looking forward to your full-tape conversion. Hopefully your friend will be able to clean it up a little. I may check around Kingston and see if they have the CD anywhere (though I doubt it... would be long gobbled up by now).
I would surmise that Gerry has gone back to Ireland... I know he had family there still.
Hello there Gerry Fans;
This is Eugene Cornacchia at RANKIN SOUND, 75 Queen St.Kingston, Ont Canada K7K 1A5 Our studio is within sight of the old Welly, and we just happen to have the authorized re-issue cd "Gerry O'Kane Live" that Gerry and i re-mixed & mastered a while back. Contact us for availability. It should be available shortly for down-load also. When that happens, we will post the site's addie. Soon we will be releasing the origional "Rakish Paddy" albums (circa 1978)on cd also.
I can be contacted at
rankin@cogeco.ca
or at (613) 453-0512
Eugene Cornacchia
RANKIN SOUND
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Hey THANK YOU! I remember going to see Gerry every Sunday at the old Dockyards before the Welli and many a time there as well.
I was about to go out and convert my old cassette tape to CD and make Mp3's but, I see that won't be necessary now! Thanks a million.
Gerry, if you ever DO get online and by chance see this, I hope all is well, and thanks for many a good time AND for causing me to be addicted to Tom Waits!
You're missed.
Ruth Anne Freeborn
ruthannefreeborn@gmail.com
thanks for posting the tunes. I've never been to Kingston, but some of my buddies used to go to the wellington every weekend. They brought home a casette that Gerry made himself of a live show. It had great versions of traditional songs. I've been looking for a copy ever since but they are impossible to find. If anybody knows where to buy the official copy of Gerry O'Kane Live at the Wellington, please let me know.(it had his picture on the cover too)
C.
Thanks so much for sharing this!! Is it possible that this is the same Gerry O'Kane I listened to at the Harp & Thistle in St. Petersburg, Florida in the 1980s, or am I lost in a haze of wishful thinking.
(If it is the same Gerry O'Kane, I am incredibly indebted to you for posting the MP3, which I haven't had a chance to listen to yet.)
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The Wellington was without a doubt the best Irish Pub of all time, and I feel lucky to have found it and spent so many nights there listening and singling along with Jerry. Jerry was selling his CD from behind the bar for $10 but unfortunately I was in college at the time and $10 seemed like a lot - besides - I could just go there and listen to him live whenever I wanted. If anyone reading this has his original live CD, I'm definately in the market for one, and a very motivated buyer...
Thanks so much for the site. Jerry is a big part of my life. Just like all of you, who lined up in the cold every weekend in Kingston. Miss his voice and his smile.
Gerry, you bring back many fond memories of great times in Kingston.
We miss you, and wish you all the luck! Has anyone ever come accross someone like Gerry that had a way of bringing out the crowd to join in and really have a blast! What was that song he sang where everyone stood up, sat down, stood half way up, and the song kept going faster and faster and faster... Anyone?
I too have many awesome memories of Friday nights at the Wellington Many a freezing cold night we showed up early to make sure we had a great table! It was the first place my husband asked me to go with him - in 1994...guess it worked out well! I would love to know what happened to Gerry - for now I will enjoy this music! Thank you!!!
I just did a random search for Gerry after hearing "Rocky Rod to Dublin" on the Sherlock Holmes soundtrack. I used to see him every night that he played at Kathleen Ni Houlihan's in Nashua , NH in the 1980's! A wonderful talent and a really nice guy too.
I just did a random search for Gerry after hearing "Rocky Rod to Dublin" on the Sherlock Holmes soundtrack. I used to see him every night that he played at Kathleen Ni Houlihan's in Nashua , NH in the 1980's! A wonderful talent and a really nice guy too.
Thanks for the file!!
Wow. I wonder what year these comments were posted. Here it is 2011,march 18th and I guess you never got side two up. I loved seeing Gerry play, and still wonder where he's making people smile and sing today.
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Good news for the people here.
Gerry is alive(very), and doing well.
He plans to release some new music soon.
There is a plan to set up a website, but that is for the future.
He was amazed when told about the following he had (on the web).
I will post with more information when I here more.
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Gerry has just launched his website and a CD of all new, original material...check it out
www.gerryokane.com
Gerry is coming back to Canada to play shows in March 2014 in Toronto, Kingston and Ottawa. Tickets are available through eventbrite - seehttp://www.eventbrite.ca/o/martha-turner-5747369926. You can get further details by checking out Gerry's artist page on Facebook including how to get tickets for some dates/venues where tickets are purchased through the venue instead of eventbrite.
Almost worth flying in from California for that, but I found out about it too late. Ah well.
Gerry's going to return for a summer 2014 tour (Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Arnprior) - you can see the dates, venues and get tickets at: http://www.eventbrite.ca/o/martha-turner-5747369926
Gerry's going to return for a summer 2014 tour (Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Arnprior) - you can see the dates, venues and get tickets at: http://www.eventbrite.ca/o/martha-turner-5747369926
In toronto and kingston 2016
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/gerry-okane-tickets-21171044163
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