Cara Cleibh
Possibly the most over rehearsed band in the history of music, Cara Cleibh
(pronounced Cara Clave) fell together after Seamus Hussey fled to Thorndon
after his style of drumming was adjudged to be “agricultural”. Here, he met the serendipitously-named Fiddly Richard (otherwise known as “Bob” after he narrowly lost out to a badly behaved man called Neil Morrisey in his
bid to secure the voice-over gig of all time), who only came round to Seamus’s house to measure up for some new windows. However, when Fiddly found out that
Seamus (98.7% chimp, 1.3% chump) was a tea swilling tub-thumper, with a Martin
Newell-inspired weakness for custard creams, he lured him into his woodshed and
nothing’s been the same since.
Cara Cleibh means “good friends” in Gaelic: A strange name for a group of people who, like Soul superstars Sam ’n’ Dave, always travel to gigs separately, never stay in the same hotel and
communicate only through their respective legal advisers.
Their set of songs has been described as “Ramshackle” by Sheds R Us, “Rough round the edges” in Carpentry Today, “A collection of songs” by Stating the Obvious Magazine and “A disturbance of the peace” by Thorndon’s newsletter, Village Life. They prefer to think of the set as an eclectic mix
of folksy toons with the homespun charm of your auntie’s knitted antimacassars.