Being one of Ireland’s most successful female artists of all time, Sharon Shannon has seen and done it all. Today marks the release of her new single Top Dog Gaffo from her most recent record ‘Flying Circus’.

I managed to catch up with Sharon and discuss the new single and some of the wonderful plans she has for it as well as a few other things.

Hey Sharon, how are ya?

Great, thanks!

Your new single Top Dog Gaffo is out on Friday, what’s the story behind the title?

Gaffo was one of my dogs. Gaffo had a great personality and loved the craic. He even barked on a few of my recordings.  Sadly he died last year, so this is a great tribute.  He’s even in the video!

The video is absolutely brilliant. Were you involved in its filming?

I worked very closely with the film maker James Clenaghan on all aspects of the video. We  have been working on this since last April, and has really good fun making it. James is really nice and very talented.

We hear that all proceeds from the sale of the single will go to charity?

Yes, all proceeds will go MADRA, my local animal rescue in Galway. But the bigger idea is to promote the idea of getting a pet from your local animal rescue .  ADOPT – DON’T BUY is the message we are trying to help get across.

What inspired you to get involved with animal rescue charities?

 I grew up around animals in the countryside,  and have always loved animals and saw the great work that animal rescues do on very limited resources. So I decided to get actively involved. I’m very proud to have been a patron of Madra in Galway for over 10 years now.

 Your most recent recording, ‘Flying Circus’ came out earlier this year. Were you happy with how it was received?

This took 5 years to make. 90 per cent of the material was newly written and arranged for orchestra;  I did some shows this year with orchestra and loved them. It’s a whole other world from sitting in on a session! Difficult to organise but well worth it.

 You have quite an extensive tour coming up, taking in the UK and Australia. Are you looking forward to it?

I hate leaving home (and my pets) but look forward to the tour…once I have walked out the door!

 I hear you had a residency in Lanzarote not too long ago? How did that differ from your average gig?

 That was great fun. There was a brilliant house band made up of some Irish lads, Spanish and Italian. They are great musicians and learned all my tunes. So spend the day on the beach and work an hour at night was like combining work and holidays.

 You won the Meteor Lifetime Achievement Award a few years ago, as well as having a number one hit with your version of Galway Girl with Mundy, that’s a pretty successful career, but what’s next for Sharon Shannon?

The only thing on my mind at the moment is this single, we’ve not released many singles, but this one is important, because of the animal rescues I suppose … so I can’t see beyond this at the moment. But there’s always something around the corner.

 And finally, are there any up and coming Irish acts that our readers here at Goldenplec, should be listening out for?

Hmmm, can’t think, but there is a great single coming out called Top Dog Gaffo and … can’t remember who by …

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Top Dog Gaffo is out now. You can get it on iTunes by clicking on this link.