Northern Ireland has so much home-grown musical talent that have achieved world-wide success. But what do the likes of Van Morrison and David Holmes get up to in their spare time?
Belfast born electronic artist and composer David Holmes one of Northern Ireland’s most successful musicians. He has created acclaimed soundtracks for the BBC series The Fall and the film Ocean’s Eleven and was even named one of “50 best Irish acts right now” in 2009 by the Irish Times. Holmes began DJing at the age of 15 around the Belfast pub and club scene and was heavily into punk rock before getting involved in the electronic music scene. Nowadays, Holmes speaks often of his daughter in interviews, who he brings up in Northern Ireland with his wife. He’s become very much a family man who spends his spare time raising his young child. Now 46, Holmes is years away from his youth and early days on the music scene and lives a much more family-orientated lifestyle.
One of Northern Ireland’s other musical stars is Van Morrison who is a very private man who lets very little about his personal life slip into the media. Morrison started performing in covers bands in the early 1950s playing a variety of instruments such as the saxophone and the guitar. Since then, the star has become one of the world’s most critically-acclaimed soul singers with many classic albums under his belt such as 1970’s iconic Moondance. However, in recent times the singer has revealed another side to his life by recently releasing a poker set to accompany his 2006 album Pay The Devil. Whether the highly traditional star will release his latest duets album with an updated gambling format that mirrors the rise of online casino sites such as The Official Agen Bola SBOBET Online Casino Slots Game remains to be seen, but with his name omnipresent in newspaper headlines, it looks like we haven’t seen the last of Van The Man just yet.
Other top Northern Irish talent have been using their spare time to increase their musical output in new and surprising ways. Ash‘s Tim Wheeler recently released a critically-acclaimed solo album, whereas Snow Patrol look set to increase their dominance over the guitar-driven music scene with an ever-increasing range of wild and wonderful side-projects including the country-influenced Tired Pony and the quietly explosive Little Matador.
