Mick and Moyra among those ‘reaching out’ to music lovers
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Mick Foster is one of those stars reaching out to fans all over Ireland, as well as in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
“It’s a great help to the people that are hemmed in, and especially the older people,” said Mick, who explained that as Tony Allen lives in Lurgan, they each ring fans separately, while Mick’s wife Moyra Fraser joins him on the calls.
“We were talking to three lassies who have learning disabilities and followed up with their carer afterwards and she said all three of them had smiles from one ear to the other. They were delighted, and that kind of carry-on makes it all worthwhile,” said Mick.
“I was also talking to one nurse in Mullingar and the call took her completely by surprise. Usually she and her mother would come to our concerts, either in Mullingar or Tullamore, and of course that’s all gone by the wayside for the foreseeable.
“I think a call cheers someone up after a hard day at work.”
The phone calls are also benefiting Mick, who said that he and Tony haven’t played a concert since January 25 last year.
And while he admits he doesn’t miss the long hours of travelling to a show, he does miss the music.
“And I miss not having sessions or going to the fleadh cheoil and all that, but I’m not missing the actual travelling.
“Tony and I had decided after our last time in Australia, on our 20th tour, that we were getting a bit long in the tooth for it.
“We had decided to do a month in Ireland and a month in the UK, and we managed to get the Irish tour done, but we were about to go to England for our tour, which was to begging on March 18 last year, and sure by March 16 the lockdown came and we’ve been twiddling our thumbs ever since.”
Foster and Allen are 45 years on the road this year, and Mick has been playing music in public for 60 years.
“It’s a way of life. So it’s a bit of a shock to the system to have the stool kicked out from underneath you.
“When you’re in your 20s, 30s, and 40s, the travelling is a doddle, but the first time we noticed was in 2017 and we went to New Zealand. We went via Dubai, and it was 16 hours from Dubai to Auckland, and even though we were travelling business class, we were still stuck in an airplane for 16 hours.
“We had great success in all these places but every dog has its day.
“And then Trudi Lawlor came up with this plan, and she asked Myra and me if we’d do it, and if Tony would do it, but he’s in Lurgan, so there’s no chance of Tony and me doing it together, so Myra and I do it from here and Tony does it from Lurgan.
“Ted, who is my great grandson, keeps us busy, and I still have a few horses here that have to be looked after and fed. We have a horse in training with Adrian Murray in Longford, so she’s hopefully going to run within the next month.
“The beauty of living out in the country is that we can go for walks and you’re not hemmed in.
“The only thing that I miss really is going out to Gunning’s on a Friday night and having the craic with the lads out there. A lot of them would be lads that I went to the primary school with and we’d be reminiscing and talking all kinds of rubbish and, as I say, having a couple of pints.”
Returning to the Reach Out call,s Mick said: “Some people get a huge surprise and cheer, and others are in total shock, they’d be speechless. An odd one wouldn’t know why you were ringing them and you’d have to explain that they were nominated for a call.
“I was talking to a woman down near Mitchelstown last week and she chatted away as if she knew me as well as anyone in Rathconrath or in Walshestown would know me.
“We also ring people out in Australia, people that would have come to our first tour of Australia in 1984, and you’d bump into them on tours over the years. And there would be people from Westmeath living in Australia and New Zealand. We get young people coming to the shows, they’d come because you were a link with home.”
(Foster and Allen are appearing on Dáithí and Maura on RTÉ One this week.)