‘He had the funniest notion’: well, we all do sometimes including Ollie Purcell, who arrived on a shamrock from Dublin (Ireland) to Munich in September 2003, with the intention of discovering the local indie music scene, hoping to find a place to base his music aspirations. By November of that year, he had met the same madly minded musicians and formed the band celest. Within a month the band had played their first gig with a set-list of songs enough to play a weekender. Over the next year or so many concerts and festivals were played to the delight of their german speaking fans. From Vienna to Emden, Hamburg to Annaberg, their white Mercedes bus bore the marks of a hard working class indie band. With sounds hailing from guitar rifts of melodious chords, rock solid percussion and catchy persistent songs, singing lyrics of joy and hate, celest were making a name for themselves fast.
‘Take it in your stride’ (Little Teddy 2005), the title of their debut album, went platinum in the hearts of both local and national press (see press reviews). But not only in Germany and Austria were people enjoying celest. Ireland was staged for a mini-tour, which proved very successful indeed.
Having received so much positive reactions about their songs, and many fantastic electrifying live shows in so little time, celest would have been nuts not to continue in the direction they were heading. So back to studio in 2008 to record a new album. Celest released their second album in 2009 titled ‘Eyes to the floor, near to door’, accompanied by a tour of Germany. Fans of independent music, from Munich to Kilkenny Ireland, just can’t wait to hear – see celest again!! Funny notions? Hell yeah…these kind we love.