Pat O'May (born 1961) is a French musician who blends rock music with elements of world music.[1] He originally worked with the heavy metal band Marienthal, and also produced several solo albums. He has written over 100 tracks for the TV show European coast seen from the sky. He participated in Alan Simon's rock operas Anne de Bretagne, Excalibur: The Celtic Rock Opera and started working with Martin Barre touring and recording with him.
O'May was born in Rouen, France. As a teenager, he was a fan of rock music and R&B from the Osmond Brothers, but the album Machine Head by Deep Purple inspired him to become a hard rock guitarist. He joined the heavy metal band Marienthal about 1982.[2] He gave guitar lessons and took them himself from Patrick Duplan, which made him explore classical music, blues, and bossa nova. Marienthal toured France, England, and Algeria, and opened for acts such as Girlschool, Alvin Lee, and Chariot. After conflicts with their manager, the band split in 1987.[2] O'May continued touring with the group Road 66 across France but playing in bars led to excesses. O'May decided to put an end to this during a tour in Belfort.[3] He stayed in Belfort where he met the band Ange and as drummer Peter Hartmann and bassist Alain De Bernardi, with whom he refounded the group Road 66.[3]
O'May moved to Brittany in 1989. After a third group experience with Road 66 and the sound of Breton concerts and bals, he released his first solo album, Bob Up, in 1994, with Breton musicians Alain Genty, Michel Aumont, Fred Guichen and Stéphane De Vito.
Godin, a French guitar distributor, chose him as its spokesperson. In 1995, he was invited by the Festival "Cannes Passion Music" in Cannes for master classes. In 1996, he released the album Kids & the War, with Celtic instruments: Scottish Snare drum and uilleann pipes).
He recorded his third album, Breizh – Amerika, in which he continued to fuse rock and traditional sounds, adding Celtic music, and involving French guitarist Norbert Krief.[4] He had the album mixed by Guns N' Roses guitarist Ron Thal in New York City, and released it in 1999.
In 2002, O'May produced the album Un Souffle Pour la Vie (Breath for Life) with many artists. He donated the profits to cystic fibrosis research. That year, he also released his fourth album, Anakoustik, and followed it with a tour with pianist Philippe Turbin. In 2003, he created a show with the Breton singer Gilles Servat.
O'May has composed over 100 tracks for the TV serial European coast seen from the sky, which has been distributed to 15 countries. Breton musician Alan Stivell had him play on his album Explore, which released in 2006. O'May also participated in "Brittany celebrates St. Patrick's day" at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, and played as a guest musician on Johnny Hallyday's "Flashback Tour". In 2007, he signed with Milan Music/Universal label for his fifth studio album, Omega. It was released on 8 July, and he played at the "Festival des Terre Neuvas" in France in front of 47,000 people.[5] In 2008, O'May toured in France and Europe.
Alan Simon invited O'May to participate in the rock opera Anne de Bretagne. O'May also participated in Simon's second project, Excalibur, a Celtic rock opera.[6] Excalibur toured in Germany and Switzerland in 2010.
O'May released his sixth album, In Live We Trust, with ten tracks and a horn section. His concert producer describes his style as "exploring new territory with an original blend of his own well-known guitar approach and world music elements using among others Celtic, Arabian and Chinese sounds".[1] He participated in the 2010 Bercy for St Patrick's Day, and recorded for Excalibur III, which was the third album from the Excalibur rock opera. He continued touring for both of Simon's projects through 2011 and 2012, visiting Switzerland, France, and Germany. He developed a friendship with Martin Barre, and later toured with him in October 2011. In 2012, Barre invited him to join his new group for several tours in Britain, Germany, Italy, USA.[7] O'May appeared in 2012 as guest on Alan Stivell concerts, in earlier parts of several concerts of Uli Jon Roth (ex-Scorpions guitarist) and played in NancyZénith including Scorpions, Pat McManus, Gamma Ray, Karelia and Koritni.[8]
O'May released his seventh album, Celtic Wings, drawing for writing it in his musical (metal), genetic (Ireland) and emotional (Brittany) roots.[clarification needed] It gives rise to a Celtic rock and metal album, between new compositions and covers (Alan Stivell medley, Over the Hills and Far Away, Whiskey in the Jar), with the participation of Martin Barre, Alan Stivell, Jonathan Noyce (Gary Moore, Archive), Moya Brennan (Clannad), James Wood, Christophe Peloil (Tri Yann). The album, which he began writing six months before the release in November, is recorded in Britain, Ireland, England and mastered at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London.[9]
Since the early 1970s, Brittany has experienced a tremendous revival of its folk music. Along with flourishing traditional forms such as the bombard-biniou pair and fest-noz ensembles incorporating other additional instruments, it has also branched out into numerous subgenres.
Martin Lancelot Barre is an English guitarist best known for his longtime role as lead guitarist of British rock band Jethro Tull, with whom he recorded and toured from 1968 until the band's initial dissolution in 2011. Barre played on all of Jethro Tull's studio albums from their 1969 album Stand Up to their 2003 album The Jethro Tull Christmas Album. In the early 1990s he began a solo career, and he has recorded several albums as well as touring with his own live band.
Alan Stivell is a Breton and Celtic musician and singer, songwriter, recording artist, and master of the Celtic harp. From the early 1970s, he revived global interest in the Celtic harp and Celtic music as part of world music. As a bagpiper and bombard player, he modernized traditional Breton music and singing in the Breton language. A precursor of Celtic rock, he is inspired by the union of the Celtic cultures and is a keeper of the Breton culture.
Daniel Le Bras, known by his stage name Dan Ar Braz, is a Breton guitarist-singer-composer and the founder of L'Héritage des Celtes, a 50-piece Pan-Celt band. As a leading guitarist in Celtic music band, he recorded as a soloist with Celtic harp player Alan Stivell. He also represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996.
In Dublin is a folk/rock album by Alan Stivell, recorded live at the National Stadium, Dublin, on 26 and 27 November 1974, and originally released in 1975.
Excalibur is a three-part "Celtic rock opera" written and directed by Breton folk-rock musician Alan Simon, the first part of which premiered in 1998, and was released as an album in the following year under the French title Excalibur, La légende des Celtes. Its success in France led to two more albums and two novels. In 2009 a spectacular adaptation combining material from the first two albums was performed in Germany under the English title Excalibur: the Celtic Rock Opera, with great success. It was extended with material from the third album in 2011.
Alan Simon is a French folk-rock musician and composer, best known for his rock operas performed with noted rock musicians guesting. Simon is associated with Breton Celticism, and his most ambitious works are typically on themes linked to Celtic myth and history. Simon has also branched out into film-making.
Cécile Corbel is a French and Breton singer, harpist, and composer. She has released five albums of original music and worked for Studio Ghibli as a composer for its 2010 film, The Borrower Arrietty. Corbel sings in many languages including French, Italian, Breton, and English and has done songs in Spanish, German, Japanese, Irish, and Turkish. Her lifelong partner is songwriter Simon Caby, who is also her co-composer.
Red Cardell is a French, Breton rock band, that mixes Breton music with rock, folk, blues, world music and chanson réaliste.
Dominique Le Duff is a Breton singer-songwriter.
À l'Olympia was Stivell's first live album, recording at L'Olympia. It was released by Fontana in 1972.
Suite Sud-Armoricaine is a bawdy Breton song in Breton, popularized by Alan Stivell in the 1970s. It is the only song in Breton ever to make the number one chart spot on French radio Europe 1. The lyrics are from the Pardon Speied date from 1950s and they are in the public domain because the author is unknown. The song is originally a traditional Breton musical air.
Pop-Plinn is a traditional air of a Breton dance transformed into pop music by Alan Stivell. The "Dañs Plinn" is a fast and physical dance where the dancer makes two small jumps by holding the arm of his neighbors.
The Festival de Cornouaille is an annual festival taking place in Quimper, a city in the south-west of Brittany, a western region of France. The festival begins on the third Sunday of July and lasts for one week. It has been held since 1923 and is one of the biggest cultural events in Brittany.
Keltia Musique is a French independent record label and distribution company specializing in Celtic music. It was founded in 1978 in Quimper, Brittany, by Hervé Le Meur.
Again is the Alan Stivell's seventeenth album released in 1993 under the Keltia III label by Disques Dreyfus and Sony Music in France. He registers again his greatest successes of the seventies with updated arrangements and help of prestigious guests : Kate Bush, Shane MacGowan from the Irish group The Pogues, the Senegal singer Doudou Ndiaye Rose, the French singers Laurent Voulzy and Breton singers Gilles Servat and Yann-Fañch Kemener.
AMzer – Seasons is the 24th album by Breton musician Alan Stivell, released on 2 October 2015 through WorldVillage in France and other countries. "NEw' AMzer" was the first single to be released from it. This track was also released as a promotional video.
Emerald is the 23rd album by Breton musician Alan Stivell, released in 2009. The album celebrates Stivell's 40-year career since 1970's Reflets (Reflections), his first album as a singer. It's a return to the roots, a return to the violin and to folk-rock, and both an ever innovative approach, playing on electric harp and bagpipes prototypes and in musical arrangements that are as eclectic as they are original.
Al Liamm is a bimonthly magazine of culture and literature in the Breton language.
Andrée Le Gouil, known by her stage name Andrea Ar Gouilh, is a French singer.
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