Op zijn website http://www.patsy-watchorn.com maakte de Ierse muzikant Patsy Watchorn eind april bekend dat hij een tijd uit de muziek stapt. Hij zal de rest van 2014 dan ook niet meer touren met de Dublin Legends, waarmee hij als oud-lid van The Dubliners meespeelde. Watchorn, die al 52 jaar als muzikant door het leven gaat meldt dat hij nu wil gaan genieten van andere dingen en tijd door wil brengen met zijn familie.
In 2005 volgde Patsy Watchorn zanger-gitarist Paddy Reilly op bij The Dubliners. Daarvoor had hij jarenlang deel uitgemaakt van de Dublin City Ramblers die hij begin jaren '70 van de vorige eeuw mee oprichtte en waarmee hij tientallen albums uitbracht. Na het overlijden van Barney McKenna, de laatste van de oorspronkelijke leden van de Dubliners, in 2012 werd besloten om de groep op te heffen. Vervolgens gingen enkele oud-leden van de groep, waaronder Watchorn, verder onder de naam Dublin Legends, die vorig jaar nog langs diverse Nederlandse theaters getourd hebben.
Patsy Watchorn neemt afscheid van zijn muziekvrienden met de volgende brief:
Dear Friends,
I want to share a few words all of you today and there is no easy way to say it, so here goes.
I have decided to take a break from the music business for a while. When I made the decision I just thought sooner rather than later, as from now I wont be touring the rest of 2014 with the Dublin Legends
After 52 years it was a terribly tough decision to make as music has been my life, and always will be, but the time has come to take time out and enjoy the other side of life, & spending time with my family, all of whom have been so supportive of my decision, and I look forward to spending lots of time with them.
A break from the industry for a while is exactly what I see in my near future.
There are so many people I would like to thank, too numerous to mention but I have to name a few, I'd like to stress how wonderful it was to work with Sean, Eamonn, Gerry and recently Paul these last couple of years, I wish them only the very best & a brilliant future for TDL ahead.
Thank you to Tom and Pat O'Brien and all their Crew, Brian Hand at Pat Egan management, the promoters across Europe, my good friend Rainer Burzler for driving thousands of miles, keeping me in beer and taking care of my instruments & to Manula for letting Rainer away to do this.
A huge thank you to Peter Schittler for been a true friend and for making that phone call 15 years ago, when we decided to put this website together, good job one of us knew what he was talking about, and Peter has very kindly offered to continue to maintain the website which will remain online as it is now for everyone to look back at the craic we had, with a promise for the future.
Last but not least, my deepest appreciation goes to all the followers and friends around the globe.
I'll raise a glass tonight and I'll toast especially to all of you,
Patsy Watchorn