The commitments
In 1993, live touring began for The Commitments, featuring Dick Masse (Billy “The Animal” Mooney), Kenneth McCluskey (Derek “Meat Man” Scully), Michael Aherne (Steven" Surgeon" Clifford) and, on special occasion, Robert Arkins (Jimmy Rabbitte) and Johnny Murphy (Joey ‘the Lips’ Fagan). Initially, the band concentrated on the UK, with three sell-out tours performing over 100 shows. This was following by a highly successful trip to the Gulf. By 1994, the band was playing non-stop throughout Europe. Following shows in Luxembourg, a newspaper reported “Not since the end of the second World War had such huge crowds been seen on the streets of Luxembourg.”
Over the next few years, the Commitments continued to perform not stop, spending much of their time debuting in the US. They took the Canadian market by storm, playing the RPM in Toronto three nights in a row, selling out each evening. While continuing to break ground in the States, the band performed at Dan Ackroyd’s House of Blues in Los Angeles to a wild crowd of over 1,800. The show was recorded for radio and licensed to over 400 stations in the US, Europe, and Asia.
In June of 1996, the band debuted in South America where their shows were met with total sellouts, even outselling their movie hero, Wilson Pickett. In December, they returned to Brazil for a nine date tour, their last show co-starring the legendary blues guitarist BB King in San Paulo. Over 100,000 people were in attendance at this show.
After returning to the US and playing ski resorts throughout the winter of 1997-1998, the band headed back home and toured the United Kingdom, meanwhile recording their album with Steve Cropper (Blues Brothers), Clarence Clemons (Bruce Springsteen), Dennis Edwards (Temptations), and Sandy McDonald (San
The Commitments are on holding true to the title of the hardest working band from Dublin, having performed thousands of shows to millions of fans. Currently celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the hit film out on 20th Century Fox, the band is touring world wide and the film has, most recently, been named by Jameson Whiskey as the best Irish film of all time.
