When The Unknown Hozier Rocked Greystones

So young, so full of chart potential

n truth, pretty much everyone there had come to see Kilcoole’s mighty Meakins rip it up as 2011 became 2012.

Even when it came to the handful of support acts, the idea that the gangly lad from Bray was the one to watch didn’t enter into it.

The original Hot Spot HQ

Thankfully, the bould Ailbhe Skay had long been recording the gigs at her Hot Spot down on Mill Road, mainly to show the rest of the town – and de world – what a rockin’ good place it was. So, when the future platinum-selling, stadium-filling Hozier made his live debut at The Hot Spot in September of 2011, Ailbhe caught his performance of Blood on video.

Young Andrew impressed the crowd enough to be invited back for The Hot Spot’s New Year’s Eve hootenanny, his opening line at that September debut, “Nobody has actually heard of me…“, now ringing out across the years like a wry in-joke.

With his second album, Wasteland, Baby, having just debuted at no.1 in the US, today, pretty much everyone on the planet has heard of Hozier.

Nestled away in Newcastle these days, Hozier clearly got a kick out of playing Greystones, recording another of his songs, Cherry Wine, on the rooftop balcony of the decaying La Touche Hotel in July, 2013.

So, feast your eyes, and ears, on a wide-eyed yet already fully-formed Hozier as, safe in the bosom of The Hot Spot, he takes one of his very first tentative steps to world domination…

Thanks to young Rachel Kerrigan for the blue shots of the boy. You can find out more about Hozier here, and about The Hot Spot here.