On the road with Daniel

In April 2009, drummer and singer Nigel Connell received a phone call that was to transform his career. He was in Australia and he could have been forgiven if he thought it was a wind-up. Daniel O'Donnell wanted him to join his band. But it turned out it was no wind-up. 'Wee Daniel' did indeed want to sign him up. A year down the road, Connell is loving every minute of being part of what is a genuine musical phenomenon. Sometimes mocked for his accent, mammy's boy image and alleged penchant for cups of tea, O'Donnell has built up a huge following at home and abroad and is the envy of many aspiring performers. Connell, who is from Athboy, was touring with an Irish band in Australia when the call came through from the Emerald Isle. The position with O'Donnell's band was full-time and permanent; it represented an opportunity to work with one of the best-selling artists in showbusiness. He quickly decided to accept the offer and it was the start of a roller-coaster ride that is going on to this day. "I just flew home from Australia, came straight off the flight and drove up to Donegal to do a gig, without any sleep. They were two church gigs Daniel was doing. Then after that, we had about three weeks of rehearsals and my first tour with Daniel was in England. We did a month in England," he recalled last week as he took time out to talk to the Meath Chronicle, along with his German girlfriend, Nadine. "We then headed to America. We were in Branson, Missouri - we did the one venue there for a month, the Tri Lake Theatre. Daniel has a two o'clock show there and he's on every day, five days a week. There's 2.500 people there every day." The O'Donnell's roadshow eventually returned home for a series of gigs towards the end of last year. There was a short break and now the bandwagon is about to get rolling again. Last Thursday, Connell, who still lives in Athboy, set out for England for the start of yet another O'Donnell tour. After England, it's on to America once more, only this time it's a little different. This time, Connell is scheduled to appear with O'Donnell at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville., Tennessee. The Donegal singer is shooting a DVD there. Connell reckons he will be the first Meathman to take part in a gig at the most famous country and western venue in the world. He has pencilled the date in, Thursday 24th June. Then it's back to Ireland for a few shows, including one at Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim, in July. In the autumn, it's onto Australia, New Zealand and back to the US again. Connell has worked in various projects since he was youngster. He started out with his family's band which gigged in the 1970s and '80s. He left school at 15 to work in the family furniture business and play music. The then principal of Athboy's Convent of Mercy secondary school, Sr Evangelist, had sought to get him back to the books as he had showed plenty of academic potential. But, there was no turning him as he was already set on his own career path. Connell's talent as a drummer was apparent and he was asked to join The Cotton Mill Boys a month after finishing school. Gradually, his horizons broadened. He has since worked with the likes of Mary Duff, Matt Leavy, Sean O'Farrell, Linda Martin, TR Dallas, Liam Lawton and Rebecca Storm. There were bad times when the endless circle of gigs became a drudgery or when bands found it difficult to get paid for shows. These days, though, sometimes he has to pinch himself that he, a lad from Athboy, is playing before audiences of 8,000 people a night. While Connell is a professional drummer, he is also a noted singer and took part in the Irish competition for the Eurosong Contest in 1999. He didn't win, although he has no regrets. He has sung in numerous TV shows and at many big venues, including Carnegie Hall with Lawton. He has also just released his own CD - 'Nothing Left to Say' - produced by Mark Cahill from Navan who has worked with the Irish Tenors. Drummers are not noted composers, yet Connell says that music is rarely far from his thoughts. Chords and lyrics cascade from some source deep within his consciousness and he can be anywhere - sitting watching TV, waiting in an airport - when the muse will strike. Recently, he was sitting in the American embassy waiting for a visa for the forthcoming US tour when some words of a song came to him. He ended up frantically scribbling them down on the back of an envelope. His album contains 12 tracks and "has a classical feel" to it. Some of the tracks were written by Connell, two songs were penned by Lawton. A few others are cover versions. It is while travelling through the highways and byways of the States that Connell does a lot of his composing. He normally has plenty of time to get some work done as the Daniel O'Donnell tour bus flashes through the nondescript towns of midwest America. The O'Donnell entourage, he says, travels in style, on a large, luxury coach. It's part of touring that is greatly appreciated by the musicians and crew; a trip from one gig to the next can often take up to six or eight hours. O'Donnell insists that there is at least a day between gigs to allow for travel. The touring entourage is 30-strong and exclusively Irish, apart from one Russian woman who looks after the lighting. Ahead of the musicians are the crew who roll into a town to set up the gear in advance. The concert venues include ice hockey arenas that can hold close to 10,000 spectators. They are usually full. Some of the arenas are regularly used by other big bands. "On our tour last year, AC/DC were one night ahead of us all the time. We were rolling into town and they were just after leaving. To think that this is Daniel O'Donnell from Donegal and, next week, we could be back playing in Knightsbrook. Then we go to do the O2 in Dublin and London and they sell out in 30 minutes, it's crazy," he adds with a laugh. Working with O'Donnell, says Connell, is "great" and, generally, he is as easy-going as his appearance suggests. He says the Donegal singer just laughs at attempts by various comedians to mimic him. He seems impervious to the 'mammy' jibes and even laughs at them himself. He asserts that the whole O'Donnell enterprise is well-grounded, efficiently run. There's no place for egos. While there are laughs, it's also about hard graft and putting on the best show possible. It's business, after all. "The guy I replaced was there for 23 years and the trust that Daniel showed in me was absolutley amazing because I went for the job and I didn't have to audition for it. Daniel had heard me drum with other acts such as Matt Leavy and he knew I could do the job," Connell recalls. The Athboy man receives plenty of backing in his career from his home county. Kieran Mitchell from the Music Store in Navan has sponsored Connell with a full drum set. This summer's gig in the Grand Ole Opry is a "big deal" for Nigel Connell, yet he has never mapped out a plan with a list of objectives to achieve. More by accident than design he has ended up touring America with one of Ireland's biggest showbiz acts. "I wrote a letter to Daniel recently, he prefers to see something written down in black and white, he's not into emails or laptops. I wrote to him to say that you have helped to make two of my dreams come through, one of them was to play in the O2 in Dublin and one of them was to see Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. OK, I had to go to Graceland myself, but he made it possible; only for him, I wouldn't have been there. I've played at the O2 in Dublin and London, Carnegie Hall and now we're lined up for the Grand Ole Opry. It's amazing but I've looked for none of those things." Along with a colleague, Connell also owns a promotion company. He sometimes feels that maybe some day, when he gets tired of jetting around the world, he will focus solely on that side of the business, In the meantime, he has a tight schedule to meet as the Daniel O'Donnell extravaganza rolls around the world once more. It can be stressful and exhausting. It also can be huge fun. But he certainly has no regrets he took that call a year ago.