New Kid in Town
Remember Mickey Joe Harte? Course you do. He won the first series of You're a Star in 2003 before representing Ireland at the Eurovision that year (finishing a not amazing and not disastrous 11th). As I recall, he was a singer-songwriter who had grafted away for years to little acclaim before surrendering himself to the star-making process in a bid for glory. It almost worked too - for a while he was kind of a big deal before drifting away again. I've no beef with Micky Joe Harte - he took his shot at it and I hope he's still making a living doing what he loves.
I've got a 10-year-old nephew. He joins me at weekends when I take the dog for a walk and while we're driving to parks or the beach or wherever he likes to listen to his favourite songs. He loves music. Specifically, he likes the good music. I mean, he doesn't like the music I like – that's the bad music. The good music, by the way, is Coldplay, Bruno Mars, Niall Horan and Shawn Mendes. Oh - and anything from the film Sing Street. Anyway, thanks to him I got to see Coldplay last year which was one of the most enjoyable, gloriously anthemic stadium shows I've ever seen. It certainly put a lot of those old stadium rockers to shame for pure entertainment (yes, Bruce, I'm including you in that too).
So, yeah, Niall Horan. Andrew loves Niall Horan. That Slow Hands song? Loves it. This Town? Can't get enough of it. Flicker? Actually, he doesn't care about that one so much but you can't have everything, Niall Horan. Anyway, to answer a question I've fielded a bit over the last few weeks, that's why I was at the 3Arena the other week to say the One Directioner's first Dublin show of his current globe-conquering world tour.
If you've been paying attention, you'll know that all the One Directioners are doing solo things at the moment. I'm not going to pretend to know what they're all doing but I do know that one of them did something with Rita Ora at an awards show recently. And Harry Styles' brilliant Sign of the Times last year was a very exciting thing that made me, and lots of other people, reach for comparisons to early Bowie. No, really, it did. And then there's lovely Niall who seems to be trying to reinvent himself as a 1970s soft-rock practitioner. Sort of like The Eagles without the cocaine and conflict. Not so much Hotel California as Guesthouse Mullingar: "You can check out anytime you like, sure you can even have a late check-out if you want. You're grand, so you are."
He's supported in Dublin by Julia Michaels who, it says here, has written hit songs for Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Fifth Harmony, Hailee Steinfeld and Gwen Stefani and whose brilliant song Issues, was one of my favourite songs of last year. Then Niall arrives on stage to full-on Beatlesque screams. Mayhem. I spend most of my gig life standing with old duffers like me with our arms folded in Whelans so it's always fun to go to something where the audience is fully committed to their hero on stage. Standing in front of an enormous N and H (by the way, is there a less rock and roll combination of letters imaginable than NH?) he starts with She's on the Loose, the crowd's Dublin accent making it sound more like She's on the Luas, which is a song that needs to be written.
Anyway, he finishes and, again, mayhem. Then Niall tells us how good it is to be home, how great it is to be in the 3Arena (he genuinely does seem to have an affinity with the place, talking about the nights he sat out in the seats with his family at concerts), and how blown away he is by the crowd. This seems a little less sincere - surely he's become accustomed to screaming kids at his concerts. Then we plod on. And it really is a bit plodding. The kids probably don't notice - they're too busy enjoying themselves than sitting there taking mental notes about what does and doesn't work. But from my seat, where all around me people are singing along to Paper Houses, The Tide and You and Me, it all seemed a strange fit. The songs are unquestionably of a singer-songwritery nature but the audience is there for a pop concert. As things progress you get a sense of excitement dropping at times as another Fleetwood Mac-ish song rolls on. It's odd. And then he drops in a couple of cover versions of Dancing in the Dark and Dancing in the Moonlight and it kind of made sense.
If you go into any pub on a Friday or Saturday night, there's a lad in the corner singing covers. You'll get the old Irish standards, the Wild Rover, Town I Loved So Well, and all that. And then the songs everyone knows and loves. Like Take it Easy and Wonderwall and Dancing in the Dark and Dancing in the Moonlight. And I realised that's who Niall Horan is. Or at last Niall Horan in a parallel universe. The one that didn't audition for X Factor in 2010 but stayed in Mullingar writing songs in his bedroom, grafting away trying to get discovered. The one that didn't get wildly lucky by being square-pegged into the round hole that is/was One Direction. Someone like Mickey Joe Harte, in other words.
The show went on and it was more of the same sub-Eagles material. There was a couple of songs that were kinda country and a couple of One Direction songs (apparently) along the way. A cover of Camilla Cabello's Crying in the Club too which was pretty good. Better than Dancing in the Dark anyway. But it didn't really add up to very much. Another thing that surprised me was how little stage presence he has. I'd have thought a guy that's been performing before huge crowds for years would move about a bit but, apart from straying to the piano at one point, he stuck mostly to standing at the microphone with his guitar for protection. He didn't really engage very much with his band - and apart from mentioning his Santry-born guitarist (cue: cheers), didn't introduce them at all.
I know Niall Horan isn't meant to be for me. But, at the same time, the music he's playing should be somewhere in or around the vicinity of my wheelhouse. And yet it didn't ring true. Maybe he's finding his feet, trying to find a true voice. Perhaps he'll develop into something special and the people who love him now will be with him for the long haul. But he might have to stop looking to people that our 40 years older than him to figure it out or he might find himself genuinely surprised by the number of people that come out to see him. And not in a good way!
But then again, what do I know about anything. He'll probably be fine. Good luck to him.
