Everyone has a story from the Jazz. For Joe Kelly, who has been booking gigs and running events in Cork for 34 of those years, one of his stand-out memories is the time that Sinéad O’Connor showed up to perform guest vocals with a UK dub soundsystem. “On-U Soundsystem were coming in, founded by legendary dub producer Adrian Sherwood,” Mr Kelly recalls.
“A couple of days before the festival I get a call, saying, any chance of a couple more flights. I said ‘Jesus, we’re really pretty maxed out,’ and he said, ‘It’s for Sinéad O’Connor.’ She hadn’t played in Ireland in years.
” One of Mr Kelly’s colleagues went to pick up the diminutive star from Cork Airport, only for his car to break down, with O’Connor and her eldest son aboard, at the Kinsale Road Roundabout. “But she was really cool and really nice about it, very quiet and unassuming, and she came and did four songs on the night, and it was just fantastic,” he says. Having run club nights, gigs and events in Cork in venues including the Pavilion, the Savoy, and Sir Henry’s, these days, Mr Kelly is one half of music events company The Good Room, who run the Live at St Luke’s gig series in a former church in St Luke’s Cross on Cork’s Northside.
The Live at St Luke’s line-up for the rest of the jazz weekend includes Yankari Afrobeat Collective, Les Amazones D’Afrique, and the Staples Singers, but Mr Kelly is also eagerly anticipating the festival appearance of a couple of homegro.
