A Tribute To Singer, Songwriter "Mic Christopher"

OK, i want to do this right because it`s my first time dedicating a post to a person, especially a person i`ve never had the pleasure of meeting. So first i`m going to stick to the facts!

Mic Christopher was born in the Bronx, New York City on September 21st 1969. He only spent 3 years living in America. Mic`s parents are Irish so a move back to Ireland seemed like the right thing to do. They moved to Dublin and Mic was sent to an all Irish school " Colaiste Chilliain Clondalkin" where after a few years Mic`s interest in music took off. He started playing traditional Irish music with the school group and kept that up until he was about 15 years old, and then he started busking. Mic was busking in Dublin for about 5 years where he met a variety of talented musicians and artists that were also out busking on Grafton street and it was there where he met Karl Odlum and Glen Hansard who he became friends with.

In 1990 Mic formed the band "The Mary Janes" with former Kila bass player and fellow busker, Karl Odlum, with Simon Goode on guitar and also Steve Hogan on drums. Over the next 9 years the band played together a number of guises. Firstly with Hogan on drums and, after Hogan left the band, as a 3 piece without drums. It was at this time that the band recorded their first album " Bored Of Their Laughing".  

In 1994 the Mary Janes signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell and in ’96 the band acquired the drumming talents of Mark Stanley from Australia and went on to record their second album Sham in ’98. Over the years The Mary Janes played everywhere from Feile and the Fleadh in Ireland, to Glastonbury festival in England, to the CMJ in New York. Ultimately finishing with a six week stint in Bosnia with the WarChild charity organization. The Mary Janes finally split in 1999 after Mic realised the band went off the path he wanted to be on. So Mic deciced to embark on a 3 month solo tour in Victoria, Australia. 

After Mic returned he decided to settle for a 9 to 5 job as a delivery man, a job that he almost died doing. Mic decided he would make more money in the job if he had a motorbike, so off he went and got himself a scooter. One day while Mic was out delivering, a car pulled out in front of him and sent him and the bike flying breaking his neck in the proccess. He was rushed to hospital and spent weeks unable to move, but Mic being Mic joked about it saying "Ahh sure look how straight my posture will be".

In the Autumn of 2001 Mic, having fully recovered from the motorcycle accident that could have killed him, wrote and realeased his first real big hit "Heyday", and it was the realease of this song that got the ball rolling. Mic got an email from the lead singer of a band he admired for a long time (The Waterboys) asking him to support them on their next tour. This was it.... this would of being the way Mic`s music would of went global....this would have being what he deserved because of his immense talent.

But, tragically on 18 November 2001 in Groningen, the Netherlands, after he had finished his set, Mic was found on conscious, having struck his head on some steps following a fall. On arrival at a local hospital, he was found to have lapsed into a coma as a result of severe swelling to the brain. He never regained consciousness and died on 29 November 2001, aged 32.

Mic Christopher had been working on a solo album entitled Skylarkin' prior to his death. The album was incomplete but Mic had left instructions as to how the recordings could be improved. During November 2002, work from many of his friends and family resulted in the posthumous release of Mic`s first and only solo album. Skylarkin' later won Best Album at the 2003 Meteor Irish Music Awards. His family were present to collect the award on his behalf.

Since Mic Christopher's death, The Frames' frontman Glen Hansard has dedicated every one of their albums to him. They also dedicate their cover version of his hit Heyday to him when played live. The Damien Rice album, O, is also dedicated to Mic Christopher.

With Heyday being featured in an ad for Guinness in Ireland, and subsequently gaining considerable radio play, Christopher has gained a new generation of fans.

OK, so they are the facts but, i have to give a mention to Glen Hansard because he and Mic were best friends since they were kids, they done everything together. They went busking as a team and if you type Mic Christopher into youtube, almost every video that comes up is of Mic & Glen busking all over the world (seriously). I also want to say how much Mic`s music has being a huge part of my life since i first heard it, i love all sorts of music, Dylan, Marley, etc... but if i was offered a chance to listen to any album to ever make the shops shelves i`d choose Skylarkin` every single time. His album Skylarkin is the best album i have ever heard and i wish i had got to see himself and glen busking away on Grafton street in Dublin. I also think its so sad that he never got to see how well his music has done, and how much of an effect its had on so many people. 

Mic Christopher is without a doubt one of the best singer songwriters to come from this counry.

And i suppose i will have to admit that even the fact that i`m a 26 year old male, i get pretty emotional when i hear that album!!

So the reason i am dedcating a post to a person is, myself and all of Mic`s fans will know that on the 29th Mic will be gone 7 years, and i`m hoping that if someone sees this post, and this person never heard any of his music before, they will decide to look it up and become a fan and go out and buy his one and only album Skylarkin, and maybe some day love it as much as i do!  

I also want to say that anyone thats a fan of Mic should on the 29 November take out your Skylarkin and play it loud! Because Mic Christopher`s spirit is still alive and well in the music he made.

     

Glen Hansard`s Tribute To Mic Chistopher

Troubadour Mic Christopher died last week (December '01) in the AZG Hospital, Groningen. My best friend ... Three weeks ago tonight, he fell over and banged his head. It was as simple as that. In the past days, his family, friends and I have been through every single emotion. Panic gives way to sadness, gives way to anger, gives way to determination ... to hope... and back again. There were days when it looked like he was pulling through and others when it seemed hopeless. He has fought very hard in his silence to demonstrate the fighter, the lover of life that we knew so well, but for some unattainable reason, he didn't come back this time. "We are like flies on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, we have no idea of the angels and beauty that lay beneath our feet". Only through the distance that accompanies time, will we begin to see the patterns and reasons why things are as they are today. Suddenly everything is precious: the last time we spoke, the text message still on my phone ("Where's me mate?"), the photographs, the shared lyrics, the borrowed clothes, the plectrum in my pocket ... But much more than that.... much more.... the knowing that flowed between two friends, the understandings, the shared goals, the arguments and the resolve.

I've known Mic since I was fifteen. I'd been busking on Grafton St. for about a year and was beginning to become comfortable with the idea of becoming a street musician. The money was pretty spare but that was never why we did it. While busking one Saturday, I met this lad about my own age with a guitar. He was pretty cool and I was quite intimidated. He watched me for a while before coming to say hello. The next week we busked together for the first time. We were mates straight off. That was the year that changed our lives - 1985. I had come from living and attending school in Ballymun, moving in small circles of friends, that all lived on the same block as me to this... My new best friend from Clondalkin ("Where the fuck is that?). Our guardian and guru, Pete Short, who then sold "In Dublin", outside Bewleys, he was from Leeds and went to school with Brian Jones! Tom McGinty, (the Diceman), Patrick Healy, Kila, a bunch of kids from the southside who played amazing traditional music, Mark Dignam, our closest partner from Finglas, poetry readings, the Coffee Inn, Mannix Flynn, Pablo - suddenly our world was much bigger and full of a huge variety of characters.

We grew fast and absorbed the beauty of these unravelling circles all around us, not to mention the Krishna's, the Born-Again's, the mystics and witches. Our common sense and friendship were the buffer to their magnetism. So of course we moved in together. We rented a tiny two room in Harcourt St. above the Harcourt Hotel. The front door had no lock and everyday, all day, people moved through our place: leaving instruments off or just killing time. Tea, Songs, spliffs, songs, sleep, songs, golden days when romance was everything. Two kings stalling into town, giants, wide eyed and willing. We lived there for two years or so. Often, after a Saturday's busking, there could be up to fifty people, all up our stairs in our flat, playing songs, smoking, crashing out, and often myself and Mic would give each other the nod and quietly slip out, leaving the madness to go stay at a friend's house or sit in the Manhattan until the crowd dissipated. There are still four micro dots hidden in that flat somewhere, ( never hide it when your on it ) Mic fell in love with Sharon, a girl from Dundalk and told me he was going to live in London for a while. So we left the flat late one night to avoid outstanding rent. He jumped on a boat and I went my ma's.

I visited him on and off over the next year or so. In Mic's absence, the Frames was born and the big record deal, the Commitments etc. Things were good for me, but I was missing my mate. In a way this was good for us both. We needed to find our own way, apart, so that when we got together again, it would be even better than before. There was a tendency with us both to co-depend. When we were together, we wanted nothing but the moment and it was healthy to be apart for a while to address our own ambitions. When Mic finally returned to Dublin, things had moved on. I was making my first album, the singer in my own band and Mic had also been through so much. He'd been working as a chef in the Krishna temple in London and was a lay devotee. His heart had been broken and he needed to be home. All his songs addressed spiritual questions, set in Hindu beliefs. We had so much to talk about, so much to catch up on. Shortly after returning, Mic formed the Mary Janes, with old friend Karl Odlum and Simon Goode. This was an electric time for Mic. He was back in Dublin, doing his thing. We were mates again, although it wasn't the same as before. We were now in different bands and though we both agreed it was a good thing, we secretly planned to play together again (and we knew we would). The Mary Janes were going for it, as were the Frames. Both bands crossed paths and played on the same stages a hundred times or more; either us supporting them or them supporting us, it didn't matter.

This was the time I saw Mic least. With both bands playing all the time, we rarely got together, except for the odd chat or walk in Howth. Mic had always wanted to work with kids and when the Mary Janes had the opportunity to go to Bosnia during the troubles to work with WarChild, Mic got very excited. They spent about two months out there, in which time Mic worked along with other aid workers in the children's unit, doing Art Therapy. This was a joy to him and he was very sad to leave his little friends. When he returned, he was full of amazing stories and his heart was full of love for the kids he had worked with. I think he secretly longed to go back.

Some time passed.... We'd both been though the mill; the major labels hiring and firing. We'd made a few albums each and the struggle to fill gigs, to make it make sense and to carry on was getting harder. " The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side" (Hunter S. Thompson) . The Frames had managed somehow to sustain a healthy audience and were beginning to think more independently, striking out on our own and getting more comfortable with it and although the Mary Janes had been thinking this way for a long time already, the constant battling and highs and lows of D.I.Y eventually got to Mic and he called it a day in 1999. At this time, Mic also split with tish, his girlfriend of eight years. So Mic was heartbroken again; no band and no trust in the music industry. He was turning thirty and riding a motorcycle for a living, as a courier, not playing music and slowly giving up ... when the life-changer happened... An intersection, a car, a wrong reflex, and a miracle.... Mic broke his neck and survived. He was very lucky. He spent the next three months in traction, an unflattering cast that covered his whole head and shoulders. During this time, he was housebound and could hardly move. This was when everything changed.... Instead of giving in and lying down, Mic wrote his most powerful songs to date. His words were about living and the importance of positivity.

This was a Mic I'd never seen. He had always had a positive outlook, but this was shaman-like power. This accident had been a huge shot across the bow. It seems now, thinking back, that may have been his time to go, but somehow, he negotiated his way out of it, saying 'I have unfinished business I need to attend to - give me more time'. The reason I say this, is because in the last year of Mic's life, he had come full circle. He had dropped old hurts, contacted old friends, re-connected with those he had not spoken with in years. And then there was me and him, Mic and Glen. We were right back where we began, except now the world was smaller than ever. We spent most of the year touring Europe and the U.S. Just two lads and two guitars. It was what we'd always talked about; hitting the road, growing beards, drinking wine and kissing girls ... the troubadours.... This was better than anything else. This was bigger than the Frames, the Mary Janes. It felt so right. This year we had played in Ireland, England, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria and America. Recently, in Vienna, we had decided to make a record together. We had begun to write the bones of the ideas for this. All was good, we were best mates and that was that.

On our return from Austria, there was an e-mail in my computer form Mike Scott. I had sent him "Heyday", Mic's e.p., and he replied, raving about mic's songs and his voice. Mike offered Mic the Waterboys European tour. If anybody knew me and Mic, this was a very big deal. Of course, Mic was thrilled to be invited along. He was proud as could be about his big adventure and we talked for days about it until soon it came to the day Mic was leaving. We had re-pressed with a new sleeve design and Harry and Vaun, Mic's parent's had bought him a suitcase with wheels. He packed six hundred c.d.'s in there, a change of clothes, bought some credit for his phone and he was off. We hugged at his front door. I wished him luck and we promised to stay in touch by phone. He called every few days, raving down the phone at how much he was enjoying himself. He was sleeping on the crew bus and thought this was just great. I would get texts every day, like: "Brixton Academy- One, Mic- Ten! Or " How cool is this?!" and sometimes, " Vsetko je v poriabku!" (Slovak for 'it's all good'). Mic was out doing what he loved. His life was good. He would say, "Every day is a blessing" and he meant it.

Mic played in Groningen, Holland on November 16th. He had a great gig and sold more c.d.'s that night than any other night on the tour. He went for a few beers after the show and simply slipped on some steps. It could have happened anywhere, at any time. I'm just glad we got that week to sit with him, sing to him and say our goodbyes. I will never get over this and there's nothing that could have prepared me for the loss I feel, it's the simple things that will hurt most, like who to go for breakfast with, or who to talk to about the small things, our friendship will never die, or be replaced.. it will go on.. I remember sitting with Maureen, Harry, Vaun, milky and Donal, as the machines were turned off, and feeling an overwhelming sense of peace and resolve as my friend moved on to somewhere new.. the whole time we we're there it felt like we we're with him, and once he passed it then felt like he was with us.. and it's been that way since.. Mic died a handsome young rover, he left no debts and no anger, just a lot of great memories and beautiful songs and a friendship that will never diminish. He lived as a poet and died as one, and I will never fear death again because I know when it's my time, my friend will be waiting to show me around. We saw too much beauty to be cynical, felt too much joy to be dismissive, climbed too many mountains to be quitters, kissed too many girls to be deceivers, saw too many sunrises not to be believers, broke too many strings to be pro's and gave too much love to be concerned where it goes...."

by Glen Hansard

The Ruttting Season

Between October and early November the clatters of antlers and the roars of the stags can be heard for miles in the mountains all over the world. And the atmosphere in the mountains is totally different now than any other time. Not only has a hill walker got the normal dangers of climbing and scrambling up the mountains in the mist and rain and possibly snow, but he or she now has to deal with the fact that the deer are gone psycho! Its mating season!! The antlers are fully grown, they have being growing all year for the battles with other stags for stature and mating rights. And any person stupid enough to get too close to watch this show normally becomes part of it. If a stag sees you and with a female deer close by.... you become the competition! Its never happened to me yet and I hope it never does but it is something that is always a danger because you don`t know whats around the next corner or on the other side of the hill until you get there. But the rut is an amazing show... Its pure nature, its something everyone should try to witness first hand at least once. It can be a bit scary the first time, and you might think that they will automatically charge at the first person they see but as long as you are far enough away for them to realise that your not a threat.... you`ll be fine! It`s nature`s politics on show and you have to respect that.

Ard Breaccan, Navan.

Thylacine

This amazing looking animal was known as Thylacine, but some called them Tasmanian Tigers or Tasmanian Wolfs. They were only ever found in Western Australia and it was a very rare site if you did manage to see one. They looked part Tiger and part Dog (or Wolf), but they were actually marsupials. The first one was captured in 1808, five years after the first settlements in Tasmania. By 1820 only 4 had ever being caught. Its now known that few more than 3000 Thylacines were alive in the outback at that time. In 1888 the animals were considered as unwanted mainly because chickens and various other livestock seemed too easy a meal for the Thylacine to pass up, so a bounty of $1 was offered for each one killed. They were being hunted at a relentless pace by farmers and bounty hunters and as a result of the hunting, 3000 Thylacines were killed by 1900. Thylacines were now extremely rare. Population numbers had decreased to below the number required for survival of the species. The last Thylacine to be shot met its fate in 1930. And the last Thylacine to be captured was sold to Beaumauris Zoo in Hobart in 1933, where it died three years later on 7th of september 1936.

There are now 975 animals on the endangered speices list......this was just a reminder of one we lost.