+ guests
“..one of the most highly regarded psychedelic-pop songwriters around.” – Tony Clayton-Lea, Heineken Music
“The Olympus Sound is the best Irish album of the year to date” – The Irish Times
Thomas Walsh is a Choice Music Prize, Meteor and Ivor Novello nominated songwriter having been the driving force behind his cult powerpop outfit PUGWASH for ten years and recently being one half of the cricket loving pop duo ‘THE DUCKWORTH LEWIS METHOD’ with musical partner Neil Hannon.
Thomas was born in his parents house in Drimnagh in 1969. “Lazy bugger even then I was, not wanting to go to the hospital to be born”. As men landed on the moon and the sixties were officially coming to a grand musical close at Woodstock, Thomas set about listening to all the classic pop music that was streaming forth literally every week from his parents TV, radio and stereo. “My brothers started to bring Al Stewart, Mike Oldfield, Queen and E.L.O records into the house along with Roy Wood, Slade and Gilbert O’Sullivan ones that my Mam and Dad already had there…..you can see why I’m steeped in a love of great pop!”.
Thomas, in his guise as PUGWASH has released 7 albums in ten years and been given numerous accolades..one of which is still a ‘goosepimple’ moment for him. “Back in 2006 Brian Wilson’s manager David Leaf obtained my e-mail through an acquaintance and sent me a mail saying that Brian loved my track ‘It’s nice to be nice’ and as he was coming to Dublin to play in Vicar Street he’d love to meet me. MEET ME!!?? He came, I met Brian, he said ‘Hey! You’re the nice to be nice guy’, I said ‘Yes’ and he said ‘Great song’…..I still think it was all a fantastic dream to be honest”.
After years of artistic success it was time to get something more out of the music game, so OF COURSE an album all about cricket was the obvious step towards that..??!! No? Well 50,000 sales in the U.K, a Top 40 U.K debut chart placing, numerous award nominations, famous fans (Stephen Fry, Simon le Bon and Noel Gallagher to name but a small few) and sell out shows in London (Queen Elizabeth Hall) and Dublin (Olympia) all within a year of the release of ‘THE DUCKWORTH LEWIS METHOD’ certainly adds up to a resounding YES!!
In 2010 Thomas & Pugwash were snapped up by the renowned AMA – Music Agency and Thomas has just secured a worldwide publishing deal with SONY/ATV. August 2011 saw Pugwash release their 5th album “THE OLYMPUS SOUND” on none other than the venerable E.M.I., the bands new home and includes stellar guest appearances from the likes of Ben Folds, Neil Hannon and XTC’s Andy Partridge .
whelanslive.com presents
