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March 29, 2024, 02:33:41 AM

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"Big tom dead"

Started by magval, April 17, 2018, 10:34:16 AM

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magval

Have just received an email from my wife:

"Big tom dead".

Though she generally communicates with this purity of brutal efficiency, I suspect in this case it is because she is emotionally devastated.

Big Tom is dead. Discuss here your memories of your father's memories of Big Tom and share pictures of how many battered LPs sat obsolete in your kitchen cabinets since the Technics packed in after Y2K.

R.I.P. Tom "Big Tom" McBride.

Shaky

You sure she wasn't just talking about a massive male cat?

magval

I've had the long-dreaded misfortune of actually seeing it reported on the BBC website. It's definitely him.

There's also a bottled drink available for purchase in Sainsbury's, probably, named Big Tom. I'll be sinking a bottle or two tonight in Tam's honour.

Kane Jones

Never heard of him. Sorry.

Dr Syntax Head


DukeDeMondo

Ach no. Big Tom away, next, is it? I woke up to a sort of a hush that had fallen over everything. That'll be why. 81. Sure it's nothing.

I'll have a listen to Old Log Cabin For Sale or something like this. "A log on the fire and a light burning bright in the dell."

I remember first hearing Rock And Roll Paddy by Shane MacGowan And The Popes when I was a teenager, and hearing about how "Big Tom is still the king," and seeing the Big Tom poster on the wall of the pub on the back of the album, and thinking then that maybe there was something to them after all, if Shane says so, those records in the attic with all folk leaning against tour buses on. There was, too, something to them.

Big Tom, boys.

jobotic

Big Tom's wikipedia entry is in bulletpoint form.

QuoteIn 2000, Big Tom underwent a nodule operation on his throat. In September 2004, Big Tom was reported to have been in a list of Irish tax evaders.[2]

8 July 2005 – A plaque[3] was erected by the local community in Big Tom's home village.
November 2006 – Big Tom suffered a sudden heart attack at the age of 70,[4] which had put doubt into whether he would ever tour again with his band.
1 February 2008 – Big Tom began a 12-date tour of Ireland.[5] after doctors gave him the all clear.
24 March 2008 – Big Tom performed at Castlebar's TF Ballroom's final farewell night (in its current guise) but he was reported to have taken ill on stage[6] during the performance.
25 May 2008 – Big Tom performed for the closure night of the Galtymore dance hall in Cricklewood, London.[7]
27 July 2008 – Big Tom was the headline act at London's Irish Festival.[8]
23 November 2008 – Big Tom headlined the Claremorris Dance Festival weekend.
July 2009 – K-MAC Records announced more dates in Ireland for Big Tom and the Mainliners which commenced August 2009.
14 August to 13 September 2009 – Successful tour of Ireland with large attendances[clarification needed] to venues. The highlight was the Glencarn Hotel in Tom's home town Castleblayney where the concert was packed to capacity. The tour ended in Ennis with fans travelling many miles to see Tom and the band. Two days after the end of the tour the band's trombone player and vocalist Cyril McKevitt died of a heart attack.
8 November 2009 – Big Tom was back in Claremorris to headline the Michael Commins' Dance weekend.
2010 – Big Tom announced an extensive series of tour dates.
2011–2018 – Tom and the band continued to perform with sporadic appearances.
2016 – Tom and the original Mainliners went on tour to mark 50 years since the release of their most enduring hit "Gentle Mother"
June 2016 – Big Tom became the first artist to be inducted into the Irish Country Music Hall of Fame.
May–September 2016 – Big Tom and the Mainliners continued their summer tour to celebrate 50 years of "Gentle Mother"
April 2018 – Big Tom dies at the age of 81.

magval

There's a collage of famous ones behind reception in Carrickmore town hall, and Tom occupies the top left square, ahead of Seamus Heaney, Liam Neeson and Roy Orbison, with pride. He's the only man on the wall to have his full name listed, too.

Sure 'Liam' could be anybody (who looks like Liam Neeson).


alan nagsworth

Ground Control to Big Tom:

You are dead.