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Taking their name from the Gaelic
language of their native Donegal - an abbreviation of "an clann
as Dobhar," meaning "a family from the town land of Dore" - Clannad
have woven a unique and timeless sound from the various strands
of music which surrounded them as they grew up in the remote coastal
region of Gweedore.
Clannad's musical promise was confirmed when, in 1970, they entered
and won the local Letterkenny Folk Festival - first prize being
a recording contract with Philips Records.
The group toured extensively, sometimes playing three times a
day - at colleges, convents, or anywhere there was a willing audience.
The line-up at that time comprised Máire on lead vocals and Irish
harp, with Ciarán on double bass and vocals, brother Paul on tin
whistles, flute, and vocals, and twins Noel and Padraig on guitar
and mandolin/harmonica. In 1980, Enya Brennan joined the band,
singing and playing keyboards on "CRAN ULL" and "FUAIM" before
leaving to pursue her own successful solo career.
In 1982 Yorkshire television asked the band to write an original
theme for Harry's Game, a Northern Ireland-based thriller by Gerald
Seymour. The million-selling "The Theme From Harry's Game," was
the first Gaelic lyric ever to chart in Britain. It entered the
top five and won the band a British Academy of Film and Television
Arts award nomination and an Ivor Novello award in the best television
soundtrack category.
In 1984 they wrote the music for another TV series "Robin
of Sherwood", which also introduced Clannad to American audiences
through continuous domestic broadcasts, and it earned the band
the esteemed British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award.
Clannad's debut Atlantic album, "ANAM," was released in 1992 and
became an enormous American success helped by extensive video
exposure on VH1. Clannad's Grammy-nominated 1993 album, "BANBA,"
which took the group to #1 on the nation's World Music chart,
garnered considerable radio airplay with "I Will Find You: The
Love Theme From Last Of The Mohicans" (the track was also included
on the movie soundtrack).
Coinciding with the release of "BANBA," Clannad embarked on their
first U.S. tour in five years, a series of concerts which won
critical raves and audience ovations across the country. In support
of the "LORE" album, Clannad stepped out in 1996 on ambitious,
SRO tours of Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
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