Tony McManus

Big thanks to Göran Berg for inviting me to see one of the most fascinating gigs of my life by a man widely acclaimed as one of the worlds best Celtic acoustic guitarists .. Tony McManus.

Click on the picture above to check him out.

When you find yourself pointing and laughing at a performance you know it's just ridiculous and something special! I seen Joe Bonnamassa last year and yes he plays really fast, incredibly fast and is really amazing ... Tony is like Joe Bonnamassa but with 5 times more musicality ....

Had a good chat with him afterwards and he has played several times with Tommy Peoples (on my Dad's side, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hebBrG8cLbs) and says Tommy is his hero ... small world.

So I told him I worked with LINN & it turns out he has played as a session guitarist on many of LINN's recordings for Calum Malcolm but a long time ago. We talked about what LINN are doing with studio master music, how LINN won Record label of the Year, a Brit Award and their impact on the majors like Atlantic Records. Tony was very interested and told me about a classical piece he has recorded ''Bach Chaccone in d-minor''. Going to ring Gilad this morning ... this has to go out on LINNrecords ... I mean he is from Glasgow and is a musical genius ... of course he should go out on LINNrecords!

You can check out Tony for yourself this weekend as he is special guest for 'Majornas 3DJE ROTE' that will play their album release event in one of my favourite venues in Gothenburg, Nefertitti. (http://www.nefertiti.se/program/?view=1422). Turns out they are also inspired of Tommy Peoples and some of the band members are in a local band called 'tommy's people' ... this is a very small world!

Joe (Joe Peoples) runs the best bar in Ireland ... unchanged ... well since I remember and I was in there first when I was about 4 years old ... there is still is no sign on the wall to say it's a pub, just a half open door ... funny place but anyway it will be interesting to tell Joe how famous his Brother is 'abroad'!