Brush Shiels
Acting
Biography
Brendan Francis "Brush" Shiels (born 24 October 1945, Phibsborough, Dublin, Ireland) is a musician best known for being the frontman of Gary Moore's first rock band, Skid Row. He had a show on RTÉ Television called Off yer Brush and was twice managed by boyband mentor Louis Walsh. He appears regularly, providing musical accompaniment, on the Joe Duffy Liveline radio programme on RTÉ and still performs live in Ireland. Shiels played football for Bohemian Football Club in the 1960s. He has helped Bohemians by making appearances at fundraising events to try and ensure the survival of his former club. In 1971, Billboard praised Shiels, Bridgeman, and Moore for their album 34 Hours suggesting the "lads will travel far". Shiels has played at such American music venues as Fillmore West in San Francisco and Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, and in 1986 he played at the Self Aid benefit concert for unemployed people in Ireland. In October 2012, he suffered heart failure caused by a viral infection and was admitted to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, Dublin for two weeks. In 2013, he was one of the legends from the Irish entertainment business to perform at the Philip Chevron testimonial.
Known For
A feature documentary on the life and music of Phil Lynott, telling the story of how a young black boy from working class 1950s Dublin became Ireland’s greatest Rock Star. As lead singer of Thin Lizzy, Phil Lynott was a songwriter, a poet, a dreamer, a wild man. Told extensively through the words of Lynott himself and focusing on some of his iconic songs, the film gets to the heart of Philip, the father, the husband, the friend, the son, the rock icon, the poet and the dreamer.
Phil Lynott: Songs for While I'm Away
A look at the life of Phil Lynott, lead singer of the band; a man whose talent was known worldwide, but whose early life was less well documented. This includes interviews with his mother, band members, and a lot of footage of the music.
Thin Lizzy: Outlawed - The Real Phil Lynott
When Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott died on 4 January 1986, he was 36 years old. His early death from a drug-related illness placed him in the same rock 'n' roll league as his idols Elvis and Jimi Hendrix. This documentary looks behind the image to reveal the strains of life in the fast lane. It also focuses on Lynott as family man, writer, and black Irishman with a Brazilian father. Includes contributions from Bono, Van Morrison, Mark Knopfler, Scott Gorham, and Lynott's wife Caroline Crowther, who speaks publicly for the first time. (Radio Times)
The Rocker: A Portrait of Phil Lynott
Seamus Murphy’s documentary examines Irish writer Pat Ingoldsby’s unique world. Ingoldsby’s poems and candid anecdotes bear witness to a visceral relationship with his beloved Dublin, fellow Dubliners and anything that catches his interest. Personal challenges, a sensitive humanity and a lifetime as a maverick have taught him to harness reality and reach well beyond it to avenge the banal with absurd magic. It heals him as it does us.