Tommy Fleming
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tommy Fleming was born in 1971 in Aclare, County Sligo, Ireland. From an early age Tommy's natural singing talent was on show in local talent competitions and concerts. After finishing secondary school in 1990, Tommy played the local scene with a couple of bands but it was his meeting with composer, Phil Coulter in Westport, County Mayo that changed his career. Within a few short months of this meeting, he'd appeared at the Cork Opera House, and The National Concert Hall in Dublin. He then went on a tour of the United States, which included appearances at Carnegie Hall and the Boston Symphony Hall.
After his return to Ireland, he joined the group De Dannan. (Mary Black, Maura O'Connell, and Dolores Keane had been previous lead vocalists of this group.) With De Dannan, Tommy's voice was brought to Australia, China, Hong Kong, and, once again, the United States.
Tommy left De Dannan in 1996 to pursue a solo career. His first solo effort, Different Side of Life, was released in 1996. In 1998, Tommy released Restless Spirit. In early 1998 while on the promotional tour for this album he was almost killed in an autowreck returning to his native Sligo. He escaped from the burning car with a broken neck, all of which put his career in jeopardy. He ended up wearing a cranial halo for three months.
Sand & Water and The Contender were the two albums that followed Restless Spirit. The Contender brought Tommy back to the roots of traditional Irish music. The continued successes of his albums throughout 2000 and 2001 would lead to his first tour of Japan.
[edit] Voice of Hope
On December 12, 2004, Tommy recorded a concert at Knock Shrine Basilica in Knock, County Mayo, This superb building has a capacity of 5,000 and had been host to Holy Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II on the pontif's visit to Ireland in September 1979. Tommy's was the first concert of its kind to be held there. PBS began broadcasting the recording of the concert under the title Voice of Hope in the United States in August 2005. The estimated North American viewing audience was 100,000,000.
