Mickey Joe Harte
Cyprus Avenue
Thu 13 May 2004
Doors: 9:00 pm
€10
Mickey Harte is a singer songwriter from Donegal in Ireland. He has been a mainstay of the Irish acoustic circuit over the past 10years. From his formative years as a musician, playing in local bands he was always well regarded as an exceptional songwriter. Noted several times by national press and media for his capability, in RTE Television's song writing contests in the early 1990's and by Ireland's largest music magazine 'Hotpress' in the later 90's. In 2003 Mickey Harte signed a major record deal with Sony Music UK Ltd., it also saw Mickey Harte being rewarded with having the biggest selling single of the year. In April 2003 "We've got the world" Mickey’s debut single shot straight into the No. 1 spot in the Irish charts and it remained there for 7 weeks going quadruple Platinum with sales of over 60,000 units. Mickey Harte's debut album entitled 'Sometimes Right Sometimes Wrong' was recorded in April of 2003 in London and was released in July. Working on the album was well known producer Jon Kelly who had produced the likes of Paul McCartney, Prefab Sprout, Chris Rea, Kate Bush and The Beautiful South to name but a few. This resulted in a unique blend of Mickey and Jon's ideas. Time would later show how well this blend would pay off. The album includes 6 of Mickey's tracks and 4 other tracks written by Josh Ritter, The Undertones, Paul Brady and Martin Brannigan and Keith Molloy. 'Sometimes Right Sometimes Wrong' also hit the No.1 spot for three weeks, hitting double platinum figures after only 5 weeks of its release. Mickey's debut album has been played off the air in Ireland and will soon make its way across Europe. Mickey Harte's second single 'Never Wanna Let You Down' was more of a country roots affair. It entered the charts at No.2 remaining there for 3 weeks being denied the No.1 spot by the world success of Beyonces hit single " Crazy in love". Mickey paid tribute to this by covering Beyonce’s track and including it on Ray Darcy of Today FM album entitled "Even Better Than The Real Thing" which peaked in the Irish charts at No.2. Mickey Hartes third single released in November 2003 entitled "There must be love" entered into the charts at No.8 adding to another top 10 success story to have in his collection. Other highlights for Mickey was being voted the best thing to happen to music in Ireland by the public in a survey ran by Irelands national TV broadcasters R.T.E. in December and also being voted the 3rd best overall thing that happened in 2003. In April Mickey Harte also represented Ireland in the 2003 Eurovision singing live to over 40,000,000 million viewers across the globe. In June Mickey took to the stage along with Westlife, LibertyX, Blue and Busted amongst others in front of a live audience of 85,000 people at the closing of the Special Olympics in Croke Park in Dublin. Mickey performed over 140 shows in 2003 to promote his debut album in Ireland including performing at the O2 in the Park to over 80,000 people. In 2004 Mickey is traveling to Europe to perform some shows in Germany, France and Holland and he also travels with his band to the US in March 2003 to perform at the SXSW festival in Texas as well as some shows in New York, LA and San Diego. Mickey will also be recording his 2nd album, which will be released in May 2004. Presently Mickey is writing with Irish songwriters Kieran Goss (Mary and Frances Black), Brendan Murphy (The 4 of Us), Billy Farrell (The Corrs) as well as writers from Sweden, Urban Robertsson, Fredrik Norberg and Ulf Turesson.
