Hothouse Flowers are an Irish rock band who combine traditional Irish music with influences from soul, gospel, and rock. Formed in 1985 in Dublin, they started as street performers. Their first album, People (1988), was the most successful debut album in Irish history, reaching No. 1 in Ireland and No. 2 in the UK. After two more albums and extensive touring, the group separated in 1994. Since getting back together in 1998, the band members have been sporadically issuing new songs and touring, but also pursuing solo careers.
The group first formed in 1985 when Liam Ó Maonlaí and Fiachna Ó Braonáin, who had known each other as children in an Irish-speaking school, Coláiste Eoin in Booterstown, Dublin, began performing as street musicians, busking, on the streets of Dublin as The Incomparable Benzini Brothers. They were soon joined by Peter O’Toole and had won a street-entertainer award within a year. They renamed the group Hothouse Flowers (the name was suggested by singer Maria Doyle Kennedy during a brain-storming by band members and friends in the Trinity College Arts Block cafe) and began writing songs and performing throughout Ireland. Rolling Stone magazine called them ‘the best-unsigned band in Europe.’
Skip forward 40-odd years from the streets of Dublin, and Hothouse Flowers are returning to the warm heart of Byron Bay!
Catch them live from 8pm at The Northern on Saturday for an evening of wild emotion, soulful melody, and joy-filled rhythm. Tickets $89.90 from Moshtix.
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