Oh sh*t. He was frail last year or so, but still didn't expect it.
Although he was never the frontman, he was (IMHO) the most influential person in Irish trad/folk music since the 1960s

Bands like Planxty and Moving Hearts, as a companion to Christy Moore...]
And Sweeney's men, Emmet Spiceland, the Bothy Band, Mozaik, etc.
A classic memory from 1973...https://youtu.be/JyP407UnUWw?is=vN_DFDUtM4FePAUc - see his big grin after the switch at 2.35ish,

RIP

I don’t get to many gigs now, since I can’t do 3 hours standing any more, but we are off to the Opera house in Manchester to see Dexys on Sunday night.  Meeting Dad Volt for a Guinness testing session beforehandi

Donal Lunny 😞
The mainstay of a huge amount of Irish folk music for the past 60 years after his work as a musician in bands like Planxty and moving hearts, as an accompanist with the likes of Christy Moore and a producer for umpteen artists and acts

Tony Iommi's new album From the Dark.  It's extraordinarily strong.

If you're even remotely attracted to metal, especially Dio era Sabs and early Bruce Maiden, do give it a listen.  Highly recommended.

According to a couple of things I have seen on Facebook, Donal Lunny has left us.  

Edit: Here's an article from The Irish Times:
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/2026/10/23/tributes-paid-to-musician-donal-lunny-after-his-death-aged-79/

Isn't it just? It's an absolute belter  

Thank you Colin.

Strawbs  :  Grave New World Live   ( Witchwood Records LP,  red vinyl,  2026).  


500 of these and no mention of a CD release at the moment.

It was recorded before an audience, who were  requested  not to applaud, a few years ago.

The sound is good and the music faithful to the original album,  which imo  represents the band at their musical  and creative  peak.   Some people  may not like the spoken word links between tracks, which  are new.  These are delivered by a songwriter who went by the name  John Wesley Harding, and who  I saw play some years ago,  supporting someone - don't recall who.

TAW is written in PHP, but is very old code that will only run on old PHP.

So a patch would probably kill TAW. Then again the vulnerability might only be on new versions. Whatever, if it gets hacked no new version is available.

I saw Brian Maxine when he joined Swarb, Peggy & Simon for a few numbers, at Dingwalls in '74. DM was in the audience calling for Matty Groves. Ho, ho.