Band

After having met coincidently for the first time at an open mic session in an Irish pub in 1996 Ole Peters (vocals, bass, guitar) and Marc Hoper (vocals, guitar, bass) would never have thought that this encounter could ever turn out to create one of the best booked Irish Folk bands in Western Germany.

They spontaneously "founded" the two-piece band "The Plästik Päddies" in 1997 and were soon promoted as an insider tip in the local acoustic music scene.

In 2001 Thorsten Kahlert (Uilleann pipes, whistles), a previous member of the well-acclaimed German Ska band "The Frits" joined them and the band was renamed to An Spiorad. From this time their musical style turned into a more traditional Irish direction which made them play numberous gigs at folk music festivals and as supporting act for a couple of well-known bands in the scene.

As a three-piece An Spiorad started playing several tours throughout Ireland and made their mark in the local traditional music scene. Amongst others, they made friends with the popular trad. band Dervish. The Irish daily newspaper "The Meath Chronicle" once even stated

"An Spiorad - Irish like the Irish".

After several crew changes regarding the melodic fraction, Henning Nugel (fiddle, whistles, flutes), Pascal Junker (vocals, Irish bouzouki, banjo) and Jens Okrent (drums, percussions, vocals) joined the band and mark the long-desired completion of the An Spiorad line-up ever since. In June 2023 the band got boosted with another additional musician. Dennis Roßmann has since been responsible for the deep tones. Playing the upright bass the virtuoso adds this edgy kind of sound and is a new eye-cacther on stage, too.

Sound... since 2016 An Spiorad is privileged to have Tony Maurer as a fixed band member taking responsibility as an accomplished technical engineer. Tony not only brings his own high standard equipment but is a multi-instrumentalist musician himself who does not only know what he is doing at the FOH and knows what An Spiorad needs to sound like but from time to time accomodates as a musician he is if the worst might come to the worst.

In September 2018 An Spiorad released another full-length album called "Dord na Mara", a concept album dealing with the topics sea-faring, wanderlust and piracy. For the first time, the band almost exclusively presents originals, topped with two traditional Irish songs and one cover. The album eventually appears to adhere more elements of rock music than its prequels, but retains the band's famous all-acoustic sound.

"Dord na Mara" was written, recorded and produced in less than 6 months and got its mastering by legendary Pete Maher who already collaborated with international super stars like The Rolling Stones, U2, Shane MacGowan, the Gallagher brothers, just to name a few.

An Spiorad is well-established for their enormous scope of musical styles spreading from Irish/Celtic songs including emotional folk ballads to folk rock. The likable lads display a congenial delight of playing their music that is instantly transferred to their audience. They thrill with vocal and instrumental harmonies that bring goose bumps to every particular listener. Their interpretation of Celtic music is unbelievably authentic and delivers the Irish spirit into each and every concert hall.