Festival in honour of musician Conway Savage to take place in Dundalk

Culture Club said it is proud to present ‘These Are the Waves: A celebration of the music of Conway Savage’, a series of events dedicated to the life, music, and legacy of Conway Savage, and his unique connection to Dundalk and Ireland.

The centrepiece will be a concert of his music at the Spirit Store on Friday September 12th, featuring a stellar line-up of musicians who worked closely with Conway throughout his career.

Among those confirmed to perform his songs are Mick Harvey (Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), Suzie Higgie (Falling Joys), Terry Edwards (PJ Harvey), Jim Yamouridis, Robert Tickner (Conway’s band) and more special guests to be announced. This promises to be a very special show.

Conway Savage was the pianist/keyboard player and backing vocalist with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds from 1990 until his untimely death in 2018.

He contributed to so many acclaimed studio albums including Henry’s Dream, Let Love In, Murder Ballads, The Boatman’s Call, No More Shall We Part, and created memorable vocals on tracks such as ‘When I first Came to Town’, ‘The Willow Garden’ and ‘Right Out of Your Hand’.

Beyond his work with the Bad Seeds, Conway was a fiercely independent and highly regarded solo artist. He released eight records on his own label, Beheaded Communications.

This year sees the long overdue release of his back catalogue on streaming services and an anthology collection on vinyl. The time has come for his work to be rediscovered and re-appraised.

Conway’s relationship with Dundalk began back in September 2000, when he performed at the newly opened Spirit Store, alongside fellow Australian musician Suzie Higgie, playing songs from their recent collaboration ‘Soon Will Be Tomorrow’.

This concert marked the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with Mark Corcoran and Dundalk. Over the next decade, Mark released Conway’s back catalogue in Ireland via Country Gent Records, organised numerous tours nationwide, and brought Conway’s music to new audiences. Conway loved playing here and loved Dundalk.

He recorded many times at Derek Turner’s Tumbleweed Studios, where with Derek, he mixed his live album appropriately titled, Live in Ireland in 2008, producing Mark’s second album, The Moon is X-raying the Earth and where he made his final record, Pussy’s Bow in 2009. It is fitting, then, that Dundalk and the Spirit Store, should now host this long-overdue celebration, honouring Conway and his extraordinary musical legacy.

Tickets: €28 (plus booking fee €2)

This celebration of Conway continues with the following events:

Mick Harvey: In Conversation. A career spanning conversation with Mick Harvey on Saturday, September 13th at 1pm in An Táin Arts Centre.

Suzie Higgie performs ‘Soon Will Be Tomorrow’.
Suzie Higgie will perform the album she made with Conway Savage in its entirety.

Described by Peter Murphy in Hot Press as “was one of the most overlooked albums of the late 90s, a deft and delicate weaving of folk, country and pop.”

The performance will take place on Saturday, September 13th. at 7.30pm in Roe River Books.

Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo

Mick Harvey and Mexican artist Amanda Acevedo will perform a set of their recent collaborations: ‘Golden Mirrors: The Uncovered Sessions Vol. 1’ and the 2023 release ‘Phantasmagoria in Blue’ along with selections from Harvey’s considerable back catalogue including the 2024 solo outing ‘Five Ways to Say Goodbye’.

This will take place on Sunday, September 14th at 8pm in the Spirit Store.

This project is supported by the Arts Office of Louth County Council.

Book tickets for all shows on https://linktr.ee/thesearethewaves

Discover Conway’s music: Music | Conway Savage

Special Guests

Culture Club said they are honoured to have such a stellar line up for this show:

Mick Harvey is a founder member of two of the most extraordinary bands of the past forty years; The Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Mick has released 10 solo albums, including a series of English translations of the work of Serge Gainsbourg beginning with Intoxicated Man (1998).

He’s a major collaborator working with PJ Harvey, Robert Forster, Anita Lane. His work with soundtracks includes Ghosts of the Civil Dead, Chopper and recently with Waves of Anzac/The Journey. In 2011, he won British Producer of the Year for his (co)production on PJ Harvey's 'Let England Shake'. 

Suzie Higgie was the driving force of the legendary Australian band the Falling Joys. She was the main songwriter/singer and instrumentalist in the group, and during the 1990's released three albums, which all went to Number #1 on the Australian Independent Charts.

They toured extensively in the US and Europe to great acclaim. Along with ‘Soon’, she released a solo album ‘Songs of Habit’ in 2005 and collaborated with folk legend Tim Rose on the 2003 release ‘Snowed In: The Last Recordings’.

Terry Edwards began his career in 1982 with the post-funk band The Higsons, formed while studying music under Denis Smalley at University in Norwich.

Edwards has gone onto lead world class groups of musicians in major venues including London’s Barbican, The NCH Dublin, and Adelaide Town Hall.

Equally at home playing sideman to PJ Harvey, Bowie collaborators Woody Woodmansey, Tony Visconti and Mike Garson. Bertholt Brecht specialists Ute Lemper and Blixa Bargeld, Edwards has also performed with an exhaustive roster of rockers and rollers including Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Lisa O'Neill, Yoko Ono, Madness, Jerry Dammers and Franz Ferdinand.

Jim Yamouridis began his music career with Melbourne band The Stream in 1994, with Robert Tickner and Amanda Fox releasing two albums produced by Conway Savage. P.J. Harvey with John Parish covered one of Jim’s songs, “The Rider”.
After moving to France, he released five solo records, collaborating with artists including, Seb Martell and Warren Ellis (Bad Seeds/Dirty Three).

His last record ‘The Other Side’, is influenced by Rembetiko music or Greek Blues, as Jim explains “This is my contribution to the form of the Rembetiko song. It is by no means revivalist, or nostalgic. The album is a modern poem rising from the ancient dust”.

For more about this music see James Sclavunos’ Guardian article in 2004. His song ‘The Cross’ was covered by Conway on the Wrong Man’s Hands album.

Robert Tickner was part of Conway Savage’s band from 2002 until 2018. He played guitar on albums Wrong Man’s Hands through to the final EP ‘Pussy’s Bow’ recorded in Tumbleweed Studios.

Amanda Acevedo

Mexican artist Amanda Acevedo’s collaboration with Mick Harvey has produced two acclaimed albums.

After spending 2020/21 studying film in her home town of San Luis Potisí, Acevedo teamed up with one of her heroes to create a thematically rich collection of duets and continues that work into 2025 with this new release.

She is currently studying and working in Melbourne, Australia