Review: Seven Drunken Nights at the Usher Hall

I was relatively sober for Seven Drunken Nights at the Usher Hall but did succumb to both a whisky (Scottish, not Irish) and a beer (local, not global) at the interval.

Seven Drunken Nights is the story of the Dubliners, an Irish band with global success from the 60s and 70s.

Do you have to be a superfan to enjoy the show? No. I can attest to that. In fact, I worried that I knew too little about the group and would be out of my depth. I wasn’t. Good music is good music, and this is some cracking Irish folk. I was also surprised by how much of the tunes I already knew.

It was just the lack of beards that surprised me. The posters, the one short trailer I watched, are heavy on the beard.

Therefore, when Aidan Burke, Aidan Keene, Luc Power, Peet Jackson and Conner Kenny took the stage – all young people, I was momentarily taken back. Then the star of the show, Ged Graham, arrived, and expectations were met! Ged has an angelic Irish voice, a cap on his head, a big beard and personal connections to The Dubliners. It’s his show.

Not only is the music great, but there’s history, too. I actually had no idea that the song “Seven Drunken Nights” was banned in Ireland.

I had a great time, and I suspect my Spotify history will be rich with Dubliner songs in the coming weeks!

Seven Drunken Nights’ vibe

I think Ged Graham and crew do a good-as-can-be-expected job at transforming Edinburgh’s mighty Usher Hall into an Irish pub.

There are times when the performers are lined up on stage and in the spotlight. There’s even a song or two when they are dancing around. I even saw Ged kick his heels once, which is not a physical feat I could do.

For the most part, though, the Seven Drunken Nights singers have retreated to one or two mini-stages, and the pub is the main one. There’s even Dlyan Graham acting as a barman in the background, cleaning an old counter and cracking open cans of Guinness, decanting them into glasses and carefully keeping the performers supplied with the black stuff.

The other mini-stage is a recording studio success because in real life the Dubliners did make it out of the backroom of pubs and all the way to Top of the Pops.

It’s a good vibe. The audience was singing along from the very first song. There were no rowdy teenagers, but the silver-haired audience generated plenty of buzz. The Drunken Nights held people’s attention through except for the final few minutes. The Usher Hall website had said the show finishes at 9:40p (before the end of alcohol licensing hours), but Seven Drunken Nights went on until past 10pm (too late to buy drinks on the way home), and so I had some sympathy for couples trying to check glowing mobile phone screens for alternative busses or Waverley Station reassurance. If you’re going to watch this elsewhere, I suggest assuming it’s a three-hour show.

The performance

I was worried at the start. I don’t think The Usher Hall had the volume levels quite right – I couldn’t make out the words of the announcement and then the singers of the opening song seemed to be competing with their instruments on volume.

Whether it was my nerves, my ears taking an old person’s minute to settle in, or some quick fixing by the audio technicians, the sound levels for Seven Drunken Nights ultimately were not a problem.

We got a light history lesson – how unusual it was for songs to be sung in Irish pubs in the early 60s, how the Dubliners got together (and what the band was called at first), line-up changes, ill-health and success.

More importantly, we got some great folk songs. No wonder the Beetles, Bob Dylon and Jimi Hendrix were all known to be fans. The Dublins took classic Irish songs and worked their magic with them. We’ve already had sea shanties go viral through TikTok; I’m certain the Dubliners are a candidate for a future wave of interest and attention.

The cast kept a busy Usher Hall enthralled with singing and music. It was a good night, and it was bliss to relax into my chair for the second half of the performance with a whisky in my hand.

Overall

If you are a fan of the Dubliners, then you should try and make Seven Drunken Nights. I think it’s worth travelling to.

If you’re probably a fan, or like me, knew and liked some songs and wondered about the rest, then I’d still encourage you to go. Just be prepared to be one of the few audience members who can’t sing along.

In fact, I suspect if you’re folk-curious then this is a good night out for you. I can only imagine people who have already decided they don’t like Irish folk music not enjoying the show!

Disclaimer: I was kindly given a complimentary ticket for review.