John McNicholl relishes his return to Tullyglass

And the county Derry singer will have a treat in store for dancers there. His new CD ‘John’s Jive Medley’ will be played for the first time in Ulster and John is looking forward to gauging reaction to it.

The CD is the product of a lot of hard work and John is keeping his fingers crossed that it will provide his band with a boost as he targets a busy summer that will take him all over Ireland as well as to venues in Scotland and England.

“We are doing a lot of travelling at the moment but we’re not complaining,” says John, “It’s great to be going back to the Tullyglass Hotel where we were made more than welcome on our last visit and where we have many friends.”

Having tweaked their dancing programme, John and his band are eliciting much favourable interest because of their lively repertoire.

“We made a conscious decision to play plenty of music to which people can jive and we certainly appear to be onto a winner in this respect,” explains John, “More and more people are telling us that they want to be out on the floor jiving rather than sitting and merely watching the band. That encourages us greatly.”

John, who has had big hits with numbers like ‘You are no angel’ and ‘Dance on’ in the past, is enjoying something of a renaissance at the present time and is keen to explore further possibilities in the concert market as well as the dancing sphere.

“We have to try and keep our options open but for the moment we are just focussed on the Tullyglass this Saturday night. We aim to send the dancers home sweating!” smiles John.