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In the last month or so I was lucky enough to see The Frank and Walters play twice.  The first was at a wedding in London, and the second was at the Spiegeltent here in
Cork on the last night of the Cork Midsummer Festival.   

The wedding gig was a bit unusual in that it wasn’t the usual crowd of lads jumping around like mad who were there but that didn’t deter the band.  I must say, it was an odd sight to see flower girls dancing to The Franks!  After a while it felt like a usual Frank and Walters gig as there was a big group of Corkonians at the wedding but people who were new to the band were also getting into the swing of things.  It gave the lads an opportunity to try out some new songs from their forthcoming album “Renewed Interest In Happiness” which is due out in September according to their website.   

The Spiegeltent gig was class, pure and simple class!  I was really looking forward to seeing them there after seeing Fred not so long before. 

Revere (see above) played support and as is customary, at Irish gigs anyway, everybody crammed into the aisles at the side not wanting to get out onto the main floor.  It must be fairly disconcerting to the band to play to an audience like that.  The lead singer, Jon Carroll, played guitar but was really excellent on the piano.  There was a touch of Ben Folds in their style of music I thought.   

Finally the Franks came on stage and people started to shift forward.  Again, they tried out some of the new material which went down pretty well, I’m looking forward to the release of that album.  It’s been a while since they released a new album, notwithstanding “Souvenirs”, a best of album.   

Next gig is in Mitchelstown at the Mitchelstown Festival, on Sunday August 6th.  That will be some feast of Irish bands with the The Chalets supporting The Franks and the Sultans of Ping playing earlier that day.  As I’ve already mentioned Roesy is also playing down there that weekend.  This will certainly be one of the best Mitchelstown Festivals ever. 

Full set of photos from the Franks gigs can be found here but one last pic for fans of Funky Cold Medina :).