The Road to Riverdance HB

Riverdance exploded onto the stage at Dublin's Point Theatre in 1994, marking a significant moment in Ireland's cultural history. Composer Bill Whelan's memoir, "The Road to Riverdance," explores his life and career, from his childhood in Limerick to his breakthrough with Richard Harris in London. Whelan pays tribute to the people who shaped his world, including his parents, collaborators, and musicians. The book is written with wry Irish humor and insight, revealing the nuts, bolts, and serendipities that led to the creation of Riverdance. It was honored with a Grammy Award in 1997.

Format: Hardback
Length: 384 pages
Publication date: 27 October 2022
Publisher: The Lilliput Press Ltd

Riverdance burst onto the stage at Dublin's Point Theatre during a seven-minute interval of the Eurovision Song Contest hosted by Ireland in the spring of 1994. It was a watershed moment in the cultural history of a country embracing the future, a confident leap into world music grounded in the footfall of the choreographed kick-line. For its composer, it was a moment forty-five years in the making. In this tenderly unfurled memoir, Bill Whelan revisits his past, from his Barrington Street home in 1950s Limerick to the forcing ground of University College Dublin and the Law Library during the 1960s, to his attic studio in Ranelagh. Along the way, the reader is introduced to people and places in the immersive world of fellow musicians, artists, and producers, friends, and collaborators, embracing the spectrum of Irish music as it broke boundaries and entered the global slipstream of the 1980s and 1990s. As art and commerce fused, dramas and contending personalities come to view behind the arras of stage, screen, and recording desk. Whelan pays tribute to a parade of those who formed his world, describing the warmth and sustenance of his Limerick childhood, his parents and Denise Quinn, won through assiduous courtship; the McCourts and Jesuit fathers of his early days; the breakthrough with a tempestuous Richard Harris who summoned him to London; Danny Doyle, Shay Healy, Dickie Rock, Planxty, The Dubliners, and Stocktons Wing; Noel Pearson, Seán Ó Riada; working with Jimmy Webb, Leon Uris, The Corrs, Paul McGuinness, Moya Doherty, John McColgan, Jean Butler, and Michael Flatley. Written with wry, inimitable Irish humor and insight, Bill Whelan's self-deprecation allows us to see the players in all their glory.

Weight: 500g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781843518600