Singer Nathan Carter reflects on the Leeds Irish Centre ahead of his return

National World - LocalTV

Ahead of his performance on Friday 15th September, Country Singer Nathan Carter reflects on the Leeds Irish Centre which helped kick-start his career, and there’s a special message from venue manager Tommy McLoughlin.

Transcript

00:00 Delighted to say I'm going to be coming back to Leeds Irish Centre on Friday the 15th of September.

00:05 It's a venue that I've played since I was 17 years old and since I moved to Ireland when I was like 18.

00:12 I've gone back nearly every other year to do a gig and it's a place that I have great fond memories

00:19 of growing up. They kind of gave me some of my first ever gigs when I was starting out still in

00:24 school and obviously involved in traditional Irish music since I was a kid so would have spent many

00:30 a summer going up and playing in the traditional music sessions and become a lot of these staff

00:36 have become friends through the years so it's always lovely to go back and see everyone and

00:41 see the old faces that you don't get to see throughout the year. I first started playing

00:46 in the members bar which is a small bar here at the centre and it was absolutely brilliant.

00:52 You could be sure any night that he was on it was going to be busy and as I said he proved himself

00:59 as he got older and he's you know what it was his grandmother used to come with him

01:03 every time and he never ever forgot and even when he made it big he never forgot his grandmother and

01:11 it wouldn't be the same without his grandmother being there she was really a really nice person.

01:16 I'd heard of Tommy growing up because the Leeds Irish Centre would have been one of the main stays

01:20 of gigs because they used to run a Friday night in the bar and then they'd do a dance on the

01:25 Saturday or a Sunday and a friend of mine Nicky James who sadly passed away a few years ago he

01:29 used to play there all the time and he rang Tommy and asked would he possibly give me a couple of

01:34 gigs I was only 16 17 and he said yeah and I'd done one gig there and then he used to play there

01:40 once a month every month for about two years so became really good friends with them. Tommy

01:48 was kind of like a bit of a mentor I suppose he was one that was kind of championing me all around

01:52 the country in the different Irish centres and telling them you've got to get this young lad

01:56 he's gonna you know be doing big things up ahead so he was championing me for a long long time.

02:02 I remember him coming into the office with me and telling me that he was planning to go to Ireland

02:07 and I just sat him down and we just had a kind of a serious chat if one could I was trying to advise

02:14 him be careful because you know this business the showbiz business is is very very difficult

02:21 and you can meet some people that maybe wouldn't always want to do the things that you would want

02:26 and I said I hope that you meet the right people and I'm sure you will. Fair play to him he he

02:32 worked hard and the proof of the pudding as they say is there today. It's been a really busy year

02:38 still managing to catch up on gigs that didn't happen in Covid we're eventually getting doing

02:42 them now we released a new single there called Dance With Everybody which has got a lot of radio

02:48 play. Nathan we're looking forward to seeing you back here in the Irish Centre we love you here

02:53 and we have many people here that went over to Ireland to see you and you know who they are

02:58 and we wish you the best and we look forward to a really really good night all the best Nathan.

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