Evergreen Irish duo at home away from home

The 60-track, three CD offering goes back into Foster and Allen’s deep and rich catalogue, delivering some of those long-forgotten recordings that made them such household names during the 1980s and 1990s.

It includes their recent single “Mrs. Brown’s Boys” and their duet with Coronation Street favourite Shayne Ward, along with more than twenty songs and medleys that have not been available for at least a dozen years; some of them much longer.

The boys themselves admitted that “The Gold Collection”, out on March 3, was “close enough” to a definitive collection of their work. Mick Foster declared himself “delighted with the choice for the new album” and Tony Allen said: “We have recorded over 1300 songs in 42 years and we never record any song that we don’t like. Some are more popular than others. So we had a list and the record company had a list, so between everybody we decided on this list.”

Having sold almost 20 million albums worldwide, Foster and Allen will be supporting the album with an 11-date Scottish tour this Spring, as Scotland is one of their strongest selling and performing regions.

After touring the country so regularly, it has begun to feel a bit like a “home from home” for the duo. Mick Foster explained: “Scotland is as near to being home as I could get, as my partner Moyra Fraser is from Aberdeen, so we have lots of friends there and we visit quite regularly to Aberdeen, Inverness and the Edinburgh area.”

Foster and Allen will be bringing their unique brand of Irish charm and timeless style to Motherwell, Glenrothes, Paisley, Arbroath, Livingston, Aberdeen, Perth, Kilmarnock, Falkirk, Ayr and Inverness in a 16-day period over March and April. Asked if the audiences vary up and down the country, Tony Allen replied: “Scottish people are very like the Irish. When they are out for the night they will enjoy themselves!”

Mick added: “The Scottish audiences are brilliant everywhere, although we find some of them a bit more conservative than other places but when we go out and meet the audience after the show, they are all great craic.”

Admitting they were very much looking forward to the tour, Tony revealed: “It’s our first trip away from Ireland this year, so it will be good fun for us all. Scotland is always good to us.”

Mick agreed, saying: “I’m looking forward to this year’s Scottish tour because we will be playing in some new venues and towns that we’ve never visited before and, of course, we will meet up with all our old friends and I’m sure make some new ones.”

After such sustained success over a long period, Mick and Tony still have plenty of motivation to keep getting out on the road. Tony said: “We love playing music live on stage - that is what we do best. We have no problem getting out on tour - but not for too long - age is starting to decide the length of our trips now!”

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