QuoFest 10 (Ireland) this weekend

For myself this would be an instant and double reason not to attend: Richie and Rhino , heavens above, the worse of all worlds and things in the non Quo world!

theres some ed sheeran gigs in Ireland...

It was a long trip from Melbourne to Portlaoise to attend the 10th QuoFest, but thankfully it was an awesome experience!

The Saturday afternoon saw Quo fans gathering outside Kavanagh's to bask in the glorious warm sunshine with the Quo music blasting out for the whole town to enjoy. It was great to catch up with friends there as well as making some new ones, the warm Irish welcome and great craic were both in evidence all day.

Saturday evening's entertainment with The Matchstick Men, an Irish Quo tribute who banged out an impressive set drawn from all parts of Quo's long back catalogue. The packed house gave them plenty of encouragement and this was a strong performance. It was then the turn of Rhino to take the stage as a three-piece version of Rhino's Revenge, with late replacement guitarist Russell Taylor joining Richard Newman (of Paul Rodgers' band). Russell did an incredible job considering he was drafted in at very short notice (on recommendation from Richie) following Craig Joiner's heart attack - he played confidently and accurately throughout, great work. Later in the set, Richie Malone joined the band and had a great time working alongside Rhino and rocking out the popular Quo tunes as part of the RR set. "Two Way Traffic" was a highlight of this part of the set for me. A very enjoyable performance and nice to see Rhino and Richie performing together outside of Quo. The late night finish at Kavanagh's was just the start for many who joined Rhino and Richie back in our hotel (The Midlands, where Quo have themselves played!) until the sun came up on Sunday morning...

It was a more subdued Sunday afternoon session around Kavanagh's but a decent crowd of Quo fans gathered to party on once more and, by the time the official "doors open" arrived, the bar was rammed. Kicking off a little later than scheduled, we were "treated" to Southern Feud who screamed at us for an hour before The Matchstick Men took over at 10.30pm. They played an almost completely different set than the night before and gave us two hours of fine entertainment, again drawing from Quo's back catalogue in impressive style - from the late 60s with "The Price of Love" to more recent material such as "The Oriental". If anything, they played better and received a better reception on this second night, even with a slightly smaller crowd, another top notch performance from this impressive Irish tribute.

Thanks to Colm for organizing the event again and for bringing the Quo fans together for a great weekend. We had a fantastic time in the company of good friends enjoying Quo music, nuff said.