What the reviewers said

...a unique, invigorating performance. This band doesn't just play music, it quivers nerves and orchestrates emotions.
CORK EXAMINER Louise Cahill 25 JUNE 1993

...lofty musicianship and cosy camaraderie.
COURIER JOURNAL, Louisville, KY 12 MARCH 1994

...there are still very few bands who play unadorned traditional music with the combination of authority and sheer pleasure which this group provides. They play the reels, jigs, polkas, strathspeys and waltzes of the Celtic tradition with a beautifully judged mixture of seemingly effortless virtuosity and a lovely organic feel to the music-making which that virtuosity is never allowed to cloud. Their real strength though is collective and is manifest in the sheer undemonstrative musicality of their playing.
SCOTSMAN Kenny Mathieson 21 AUGUST 1995

....perhaps the greatest contemporary Irish folk music ensemble.
ST.LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Steve Pick 18 SEPTEMBER 1996

Five thousand crammed in to see their favourite artists for the last time. The Boys of the Lough closed the show with a set of Shetland jigs that brought people stamping and cheering to their feet.
SUNDAY TIMES Christopher Somerville 25 FEBRUARY 1996

..... hard-core folk appeal ....the most rhythmically bracing of the traditional music bands
TIME MAGAZINE 11 MARCH 1996

...truly Celtic: Boys of the Lough showed fine musicianship with rich humour.
EASTERN DAILY PRESS, Norwich, Ken Hurst 21 October 1996

...traditional heroes...played a moving set, putting people to their feet and making them dance the night away.
IRISH WORLD 11 JULY 1997

...authority was stamped on every bar. The applause was tumultous. It was a grand evening."
THE LIVING TRADITION JUNE 1996

...All their recordings have taken a fresh approach to bringing together the various strands of Irish-Scottish dance music and traditional ballads. ..the Boys were the first real Celtic folk group.
THE IRISH NEWS Michael O'Hanlon 18 October 1996

".........another magical evening spent in the company of fine musicians and genuinely nice people........the virtuoso performances, particularly from the faultless fiddle of Shetlander Aly Bain, were outstanding......... earning rapturous applause."
EASTERN DAILY PRESS Ken Hurst 11 Oct 1997

The Boys display a deep confidence in the music itself and the courage to aim for intimacy in a vast space...the Boys have all the qualities needed to be still playing long after other groups have faded into distant memory.
SCOTSMAN James MacDonald Reid 19 January 1998

.......warm, highly enjoyable concert.......drawing a full house for the occasion..........few play it (Celtic music) with their combination of authority and enjoyment even now, and they have earned their longevity where it counts, in the loving performance of the music.
THE HERALD Kenny Mathieson 19 January 1998

....the Boys sound stronger than ever with a new line-up
BELFAST TELEGRAPH January 1999

....the album really is a cracker and you should get it!
BBC RADIO 2 Mike Harding 20 January 1999

"There are some wonderful songs and tunes, the County Fermanagh lilt is as delightful as ever, and all the arrangements are crisply inventive and make excellent use of guests............... the whole album has a wonderful sparkle and joie de vivre about it. ............even after 30 years the Boys can still manage to pull something utterly magical out of the bag."
FOLK ROOTS June 1999

"...all musicians of exceptional calibre. In fact, Mr Bain's performance on the violin and Mr McConnell's wizardry on the flute and the penny-whistle was nothing short of virtuosity."
INDIAN EXPRESS 1984

"The Boys performed Irish and Scottish folk music with joy and warmth ... A memorable concert and one that must be repeated soon."
THE DAILY, BOMBAY 1984

"... so splendidly alive ... this music has a tremendous and meaningful vitality."
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST 1984

"... even richer and more resourceful in colour and texture than ever."
DAILY TELEGRAPH, LONDON 1985

"... a delightful and richly diverse collection of jigs, hornpipes, reels and songs ... an evening of alternately spirited and entrancing music."
WASHINGTON POST 1985

"This was a classy concert on all counts".
THE DOMINION, WELLINGTON, NZ 1986

"... always fresh, spirited, tuneful and somewhat irresistible".
IRISH PRESS

"A capacity audience clapped themselves silly at the Queen's Hall on Saturday night and with absolute reason".
THE SCOTSMAN 1987

"It was the Boys of the Lough's show through and through. Their virtuosity was utterly enthralling."
THE HERALD, SEATTLE 1987

"... they built a more sophisticated, subtly coloured ensemble style on a traditional base. Aly Bain, the quintet's virtuosic fiddler, offered exuberant shining solos in a programme whose arrangements also allowed the other players to exhibit highly developed individual skills."
NEW YORK TIMES 1988

"...a benchmark of authenticity...brimming with ferocious artistry...one of the most powerful tonics going."
BOSTON PHOENIX 1989

"...stylish, imposing and highly enjoyable"
THE SCOTSMAN 1992

"...fresh and spontaneous"
FOLK ROOTS 1992

.....it is their ability to keep their material fresh and to radiate regard for it that keeps this band well beyond the ordinary and continues to pack in the audiences.
SCOTSMAN Jim Gilchrist AUGUST 1992

...highly skilled and responsive musicians proving that this music is a living, breathing entity.
MID-OCEAN NEWS, BDA 21 MAY 1993

Boys of the Lough only had to set one foot on the stage to conquer the whole audience. Their stage prescence radiates an incomparable enchantment. Their songs sound fresh and contagious and it is almost impossible not to be trapped by the magic of a music with several centuries behind it but which rings with power and contemporary qualities. ....as full of enthusiasm as when they first started. Instrumentally, the quintet is irreproachable; the flute, tin-whistle and a capella voice of McConnell and Bain's fiddle are in the highest ranks of their speciality on account of their virtuosity and feeling, and the global sound of the group is simply overwhelming.
EL PAIS Miquel Jurado 10 JUNE 1993

..their vitality shows no sign of waning. A beautifully balanced set of mainly Scots and Irish material displayed freshness and maturity in equal measure, the instrumental strands entwining smoothly and easily in the ensemble numbers, interspersed with some compelling solos, particularly from flautist Cathal McConnell and Aly Bain on fiddle.
SCOTSMAN 1993

SOME COMMENTS FROM THE PRESS - EARLY DAYS!

"...And a quartet of young British instrumentalists and singers set the Saturday night crowd howling and dancing in the full fury of an August thunderstorm with Gaelic tunes played on fiddle, guitar, flute and bodhran."
ROLLING STONE OCTOBER 1972

"...The crowd really got behind them......they got the biggest hand of the festival."
SING OUT Philadelphia Folk Festival 1973

"...My other personal favorites were the Boys of the Lough. The group draws from a very large repertoire in spite of (or perhaps because of) their different backgrounds. The high point of the festival, to my mind, was when legendary French-Canadian fiddler Jean Carignan and the Boys of the Lough played together on Sunday evening."
SING OUT Mariposa Folk Festival 1973

"...certainly one of the most talented traditional groups playing folk music today...."
GUARDIAN December 1973

"...Overall this was a Boys of the Lough with the full power of a group. Many of our aspiring Celtic rock bands would do well to tune in and learn from the purity and depth of their sound."
DUBLIN EVENING PRESS January 1974

"...On the eve of their tour of America they reaffirmed their position as the leading acoustic folk band in Britain. Their concert in the Shaw Theatre, London, was like a monarch presiding over a gathering of subjects before launching an onslaught on pastures new."
MELODY MAKER March 1974

"...staked their claim as one of the finest exponents of traditional music in a joyous concert."
MICHIGAN STATE NEWS April 1974

"...To congregate four musicians and have them mix the musical traditions of Scotland, Ireland, Shetland and Northumbria could in theory prove a musical disaster. In practice the formula has produced a brand of music that is full of guts and technical brilliance."
IRISH TIMES July 1974

"...No small part of the enjoyment came from the genuine simplicity and informality with which they presented themselves and their music."
IRISH TIMES December 1974

"...House full notices and a straggling queue of hopefuls waiting for cancellations have become a customary sight at the George Square Theatre, Edinburgh, when the Boys of the Lough are there."
SCOTSMAN April 1975

"...A gutty, natural sound....they play with a lightness and virtuosity that would make them welcome anywhere."
VIRGINIA PILOT August 1975

SOME UK APPEARANCES

Hogmanay Festival, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh International Festival Fringe, Edinburgh - 16years Bristol 96 International Festival of the Sea WOMAD Reading and WOMAD Morecambe Perranporth Festival Newbury Arts Festival Snape Maltings Summer Proms, Aldeburgh Bournemouth Arts Festival Exeter Arts Festival Belfast Arts Festival Salisbury Arts Festival Weston-super-Mare Arts Festival Canterbury Arts Festival Norwich Arts Festival Greenwich Arts Festival Dundee Arts Festival Bradford Arts Festival Bath Arts Festival Sevenoaks Arts Festival Andover Arts Festival Solihull Arts Festival Irish Arts Festival, London Battersea Irish Festival, London Portsmouth Arts Festival Islay Arts Festival Pitlochry Arts Festival Ballymena Arts festival Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival Fochabers Interceltic Festival Celtic Connections, Glasgow Redcar Folk Festival Penzance Galowan Festival Inverlochy Celtic Festival, Lochaber, Scotland Fleadh 92, Glasgow Sidmouth Folk Festival Chatham Folk Day Cambridge Folk Festival Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-on-Avon Framlingham Castle, Suffolk The Maltings, Farnham New Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent Eden Court Theatre, Inverness Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester Warwick Arts Centre Queen's Theatre, Barnstaple Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham Barbican Theatre, London Piece Hall, Halifax Mercury Theatre, Colchester

SELECTED RECENT APPEARANCES OVERSEAS

EUROPE
Viljandi Festival, Estonia Kaustinen Festival, Finland Falun Festival, Sweden Skinneskatteberg Festival, Sweden Forde Festival, Norway Bo I Telemark Festival, Norway Skagen Festival, Denmark Tonder Festival, Denmark Copenhagen Irish Festival Brosella Festival, Belgium Dranouter Festival, Belgium International Maritime Festival, Brest, France Lorient Interceltic Festival, Brittany, France Festival d'Arts et de Traditions, Mayenne, France Douarnenez Festival, Brittany, France St. Chartier Festival, France Festival d'Ete, Nantes, France Festival Internacional de Ainsa, Aragon, Spain Festival de Musica Celta, Barcelona, Spain Ikerfolk, San Sebastian, Spain Vilanova i la Geltru Festival, Catalunia, Spain Cobreces Festival, Cantabria, Spain Encuentro de Musica Popular, Canary Islands Oporto Interceltic Festival, Portugal Aula Magna de Universidade, Lisbon, Portugal Folk Festival Tejo, Lisbon, Portugal Guigno in Cascina, Torino, Italy Villa Arconati Summer Festival, Bollate, Milano, Italy Folkest, Arena Romana, Padova, Italy Assisi Musicae, Giardini della Fortezza, Assisi, Italy Re Appennino Celtic Folk Festival, Castelnovo ne'Monti, Italy Fleadh, Milano, Italy Foro Italico, Roma, Italy

USA
Fifty-one tours, hundreds of venues in forty four states.

AUSTRALIA
Four independent tours, major arts festivals and venues.

ASIA
Polyplaza International Theatre, Beijing, People's Republic of China Haidian Theatre, Beijing, People's Republic of China Tata Theatre, Bombay, India Arts Festival, Hong Kong Seed Hall, Tokyo, Japan Kyoto Takutaku, Kyoto, Japan