Promotional Rescue

Friday night and Duke Special was live on the Late Late Show in Dublin, romping along to 'Sweet Sweet Kisses' in the company of the Specular Choir. On Saturday morning, the entire posse marched along Grafton Street and took a steer into the HMV shop where they performed a bunch of songs from the new album. Then they hopped onto a big old bus and headed for Belfast in the company of 40 fans.

This time, they trooped along High Street for another HMV appearance, where quite a throng of people waited afterwards to get their albums signed. Some admirers were buying in bulk, standing in line with maybe five albums in all. It was a delight to watch and the onstage fun was filled out by The Lowly Knights, also blamming away with intense smiles.

Finally, the piano was lifted out and transported around the corner to a location on Gordon street, where the third concert of the day was staged. There were no microphones and the only amplification was Paul Pilot's semi acoustic guitar. The choir were dressed as pirates, Duke was in dressed like an Eighteenth Century ether drinker and the music ranged from the plainly entertaining ('Down At The Old Bull And Bush') to the tear-loosening ('Why Does Anybody Love'). The choir performed a manic rendition of 'Watching The Detectives', we heard a daft lyric called 'Paul Pilot I Like Your Bones' while the Lowly Knights hollered through 'Devotion'.

It was lit by simple candles, the music was unaffected and the emotional impact was huge. The boy is still playing a blinder.