Pride of Place

It would take a paragraph bursting with adjectives to do justice to describing Tadhg Williams, but suffice to say he is a man of many talents – singer, songwriter, poet, DJ, fundraiser, organiser, marketer, friend and massive fan of his local football club too, of course. He is now home in Waterford city with its “open mind and open heart”, as he wrote in The Village, and has a major free gig in Geoff’s tonight to celebrate the end of his nationwide tour.

So, let’s start with the football. When did he fall in love? “My Dad (John) had been a groundsman in the RSC in the ‘90s. He remembers going to The Pulpit with Matt Le Tissier and the Southampton team after a friendly. So it was always in the family growing up in Ferrybank. My first Blues game was in 2007 – the last season in the Premier Division before that long stretch out of it. We played Bohs and drew nil-nil. The new stand wasn’t built then so I remember being in the middle of the old stand with Bohs on one side in Block A and then Block E on the other side. The noise was a bit too much for me, but I still wanted to go again.”

The Blues even gave the renowned musician his first taste of fame. “I was a mascot against Kildare County in 2009 and the team photo was made into a poster that was sold to fans so I had sneaked into that. I was going around signing autographs on them!” As the years went by, he was a regular on supporters buses to away games and, when he moved to the big smoke, he had a readymade community in the Dublin Blues.

 

 

The Williams family are remarkable for their talents and drive and, while Tadhg was making his early strides in music, ‘little sister’ Maeve was setting out on a career as one of the best goalkeepers in the country. The number one for Waterford’s new women’s team, she is a figurehead for the team and works relentlessly to promote football here. 

Big brother is proud and tells me about her early days in nets. “Maeve played in the Gaynor Cup and then moved to Wexford. Her first game for them, she was on the bench for a Champions League match against Linfield in Belfast. Then, when she was 16, she made her first start away to Cork. Wexford won and she made a couple of incredible saves.” But this is a family for whom local identity is at their core so this year has been special. “I was very proud to see my sister being the first woman signed by Waterford FC. It was genuinely one of the happiest days of my life.” Many more to come. 

Football is a passion for Tadhg, but music is his gift. “When I was 14 or 15, I picked up Dad’s second-hand guitar and searched for how to play a G chord. I was excited then that I made that sound come out of it.” He credits the wonderfully-named Miss Tammy Lapthorne with giving him so much encouragement and confidence through music lessons in the Abbey Community College. “I started writing songs while I was doing the Leaving Cert. I was really influenced at that stage by Glen Hansard, Damien Dempsey and that real troubadour style. I was busking every weekend from 16 and then, by 18, I had my first gig in Uisce Beatha and got a few quid and a few pints for it.”

 

 

In the run-up to Christmas 2016, Tadhg and friends founded BuskAid – a charity appeal in which buskers raised funds and awareness for those affected by homelessness in Waterford. It grew into a major annual event which is now an integral part of the Winterval festival. It was an incredible achievement for an 18-year-old to establish what is now a very special tradition in the city’s Christmas festivities and the money raised has had a powerful effect. That social conscience can be heard in Tadhg’s lyrics and is central to his character in day-to-day life.

He moved to Dublin for college and it was there that he says he “really began learning the art of songwriting”. The capital gave him opportunities to “gig, gig, gig” and really hone his style. He supported musicians like Danny O’Reilly, Hermitage Green, Kingfishr and Mary Black, played Vicar Street and even Glastonbury.

Recording his own music was the next step. Tadhg released his first single ‘My Father’s Clouds’ in February 2020. It was really well-received and got plenty of radio play. But, of course, that was right before the world shut down that Spring. Lockdown took some of his gathering momentum away. No gigs, no sessions or chances to meet other musicians. Williams, like his goalkeeping younger sister, isn’t one to stay down for long and he went on to release further singles ‘The Hope Song’ and its answer ‘The Summer Song’.

 

 

Last year, he worked with producer Geoff Warner-Clayton (from Gavin James’s band) on his most ambitious project to date. This was the ‘Nixer’ EP which was a roaring success and has become an anthem among his fans. A combination of social commentary and an upbeat, naggingly-catchy melody made the lead song a standout. Tadhg says “the Nixer EP has been great. It’s been a brilliant reason to put myself out there and gig more. We recorded it with bazouki, strings, piano….all acoustic” and that sound gave prominence to the message in the songs of life as a twenty-something in the Ireland of the 2020s. It’s no wonder that HotPress magazine have called him “one of the most compelling lyricists and promising singer-songwriters in the country”.

Having moved back to his beloved Waterford for now, he tells me (appropriately in Geoff’s for lunch) that “I’m keen to build more of a base following locally now. That’s why I wanted a big free gig for everyone I know to have the craic, hear the tunes and have a few pints.” That sounds like an offer not to miss as Williams and his band perform a repertoire of personal, yet particularly relatable songs with humour, insight and cracking tunes. 

The Geoff’s gig will see a full band with Tadhg on electric guitar, Dylan Bailey (bass) and Ryan O’Neill (drums). There’s support from Kilkenny band Novatone and Patrick Dowling from Slieverue with the first act at 8.30 with the headliner taking the stage around 10pm. It’s a chance to welcome one of our own home and catch him before the rest of the world gets him again. This is a man with big plans, but always grounded in a love of his city and county.