Harlequin moves to Hideout

Local musician Shane McGrath and his Harlequin band have taken over the Sunday night music slot in The Hideout after some three years of gigging in O'Connells.



"Harlequin is a sort of a jam band, where different musicians can be invited to take part," Shane told the Diary. "Nothing is rehearsed, and the challenge is for us to make it sound professional even if we're doing songs that some of the visiting musicians might not have heard before."

Core members of Harlequin with Shane are Eric Yore from Dunshaughlin on drums and Robin Hurt from Scotland on guitar. "Robin is nicknamed 'The Hurt', and Eric wanted to call the band 'Days of Yore'," Shane quips, "but we didn't let that happen."

On their opening Hideout gig the band played an eclectic mix of standard rock and ballads as well as some of Shane's own work. "That's where we get the real buzz, for our original music," he muses, then, with a lopsided grin to indicate he's joking, "but there's not a huge market out there for people who aren't talented enough to get record deals ..."

In fact, a record company was interested a while back, when Harlequin had done some playing in France. "But it would have meant us spending a lot of time abroad, and all three of us had young families. We just decided we couldn't do it ... you have to prioritise."

In addition to Harlequin, the trio are also members of three other bands. One of which, Burnish, plays the Killarney Summerfest.

"We have an agency called Limelight Entertainment, with a lot of different bands signed up. It's a kind of a cooperative, and we can guarantee that any one of them will be absolutely fantastic -- they're all professional musicians."

Shane's 'day job' is managing the entertainment for Jim Mansfield's City West hotel complex, and looking after that has meant he's had to pull back somewhat on his own performing during the last year. "I've really only been doing the ones I really want to, but we've a lot of corporate work on at the moment, and there's also wedding bookings."

Last Sunday's gig in The Hideout wasn't to a full house, but Shane is philosophical about small audiences. "It's not discouraging, it's our first night here, and as long as those who are here enjoy it, it's fine. We have a good following and when they hear that we're here every Sunday, it will build up."

It surely will. Good music will always get them.

Brian Byrne.