Flook With Brian Finnegan, Sarah Allen, Ed Boyd, John Jo Kelly Plus Seán Lyons & Eva Carroll
Thu 02 Oct 2025
8pm
€25/€23
Celebrating their landmark 30th Anniversary in 2025 and their TG4 Gradam Ceoil for the Best Group of 2025, Flook are on tour throughout the year – and while they plan to pay homage to all their albums in their live shows, they will very much have an eye on the future. Exciting new music is taking shape and the fearless freedom in their music is ever evolving. Thirty years later, these four friends are still loving playing together – at the top of their game – with no less fire or drive, but from more lived-in hearts and souls. Holding fast to their reputation as major musical innovators, Flook have an enviable trademark sound; the whistles and flutes of Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen, the guitar of Ed Boyd and the bodhrán of John Joe Kelly weave and spin traditionally rooted tunes over precise acoustic grooves, with a rare blend of fiery technical brilliance, delicate ensemble interaction and a bold, adventurous musical imagination. There is no shortage of virtuosity amongst the members of Flook, but the unique impact of this iconic
Anglo-Irish band stems from the wholly intuitive, almost symbiotic, exchange between the various flutes, frets and skins. When Flook were formed back in 1995 there was nothing to compare them to; they were a flute driven phenomenon, not Irish nor English, perfectly comfortable in their own musical skin and free to go as the wind goes. So boldly go they did. If their music was a challenging brew to label for the trad cognoscenti, to many it made heart strings quiver. The musical freedom of having no fixed abode, married with the obvious joy they were creating onstage saw new fans flock to their shows in droves. One third of their flute front line would leave in 1997 and ever since they have remained unchanged, their formidable musical prowess marked through the years with a quartet of acclaimed studio albums; Flatfish (1999), Rubai (2002), Haven (2005) and Ancora (2019). 'Tour de force return after decade and a half – a luminous reunion ****’ The Irish Times
‘Four brilliant musicians. Four times as much brilliant music’ Time Out
‘Sheer musical magic...Stunning technique, impossibly agile rhythm work and virtuoso flights of jazzy improvisation add up to one of the most enthralling sounds around’ The Scotsman
Seán Lyons is a singer-songwriter and uilleann piper born and bred in County Clare. Having won Clare’s Got Talent in 2017, he has gone on to perform at venues and festivals across Ireland. Seán is also a member of the group Merfolk. Eva Carroll comes from Feakle and learnt the concertina from Mary McNamara and picked up her typical laidback and swing style of East Clare. She has toured abroad and performed at Glenntown Festival in Sweden and Bégles Cod Festival in France.
