Late Late date for Garth Brooks tribute band

The Garth Brooks mania which has resurfaced over the past couple of weeks has led to a huge increase in interest for an already popular Meath-based tribute band to the American country legend.
Ballivor’s Trevor Smith, star of Ireland’s best known Garth Brooks tribute show ‘Friends In Low Places’ was understandably delighted with the phenomenal response when tickets for the singer’s summer Croke Park concerts went on sale last week. Brooks sold out three concerts, one more than scheduled, and a fourth concert was added this week.And now, Trevor and his band are due to appear on RTE's Late Late Show tonight, Friday.
Ticketmaster outlets, including Joe Tierney’s newsagency in Navan, saw hundreds queue outside their premises when the tickets went on sale, with many queueing from the day before. By Thursday morning in Navan, the queue had extended to almost half way down the street, and Tierney’s had employed a security officer on the door.
Brooks has been quoted many times as stating that Ireland holds a very special place in his heart, and it appears Garth holds a special place in the heart of the Irish people too. This has been especially evident to Trevor Smith and his ‘Friends In Low Places’ show who have been keeping Garth’s music alive as they toured Ireland the past number of years. Trevor who has been a massive Brooks fan all of his life was encouraged to start up the tribute show four years ago with his best friend and gigging partner Ken Gillic. They played hotel rooms and clubs for a year or so before the show was picked up by well known music manager and agent Conor Mulhall of Savee Entertainment. Mulhall developed the show into a world class stage production featuring moving platforms, large screens, pyrotechnics and a live eight piece band. In recent years the show has sold out venues across the country including Dublin’s Bord Gais Energy Theatre, Belfast Waterfront Theatre, the INEC in Killarney and Cork Opera House.
This summer they are set to headline the Rose Of Tralee festival among many others, and their upcoming Dublin show at Vicar Street on 22nd February is already sold out, and tickets are flying out the door for all of their summer gigs.
Trevor says he never had any doubt that when Garth returned it would be phenomenal, but never expected it to be this big. The revival of Garth’s music has meant a huge spike in interest for Trevor and his show,
“It’s been crazy the past few weeks,” he says. “Conor has been inundated with gig offers over the past few weeks as well as media requests. He already had a very busy year planned for us, but a lot of those shows were for the UK and Europe. Now we will be doing a lot more in Ireland this year than we expected, but I’m certainly not complaining, it’s great! Conor was lucky enough to secure tickets for all of the band to go see Garth at Croker, so that’s one night we’ll certainly be taking off. I’m really looking forward to seeing the man himself live in concert again, you’d never know, we might just get to meet him too which would be really nice!”.
Trevor and the band are in huge demand both at home, and internationally with news this week that they will be touring the US and Australia at end of this year into early 2015. They play a special homecoming gig at the Headfort Arms Hotel Saturday 19th April, and return to the TLT Concert Hall in Drogheda on Saturday 17th May.