To trace the origins of Slide we must go back to 1999, to southwest Ireland, to a town called Bandon. It was here that the organizers of a local festival invited three Dublin- based musicians to play sessions in various pubs over the weekend. Such was the inherent connection of musical approach, style, and mindset that the idea of forming some kind of group was born.

A month later, and after much thought and consideration, the three-piece became four and the cozy confines of a basement in Monkstown was turned from sitting room to rehearsal room. Following months of forging of individual minds into one collective unit Aogán, Daire, Éamonn and Mick felt the time was right to try out their new sound. On a cold December night, The Cobblestone, on the outer edge of Dublin's inner city, was shaken from rock to rafter, a gig that has since become known as "The Wobble in The Cobble".

Soon afterwards, Slide made their first release with "‘The Flying Pig" which brought them to many of the main stages & festivals at home and abroad; from the National Concert Hall to the Cambridge Festival, England, and from the headline act of the German Folk Festival Tour to the Inerceltic Festival of L'Orient, France.

In the years that followed, Slide continued to grow and develop. Unable to rid themselves of a feeling that the tradition was beginning to repeat itself, together with a keen desire for self-exploration and collective innovation, a second album, "Harmonic Motion", was recorded. This encapsulated not only a continuation of self-penned words and music but a heightened maturity in their content and delivery. So much so, that names such as Bill Whelan, Damian Dempsey, Hazel O'Connor, John Spillane, Stockton's Wing, Danú, Niamh Parsons & The Black Family called the artists in on some musical projects of their own.

No strangers to picking up awards for individual musicianship, Slide has continued in a similar vein as a band with recent winning of the Young Musicwide Award 2006, selected from all competing young bands by a panel of judges including Donal Lunny. This, coupled with the addition of new lead vocalist Andrew Murray, Slide is looking forward to revealing the latest chapter of one of the most interesting Irish traditional bands of modern times.

Photos above (l to r): Tannahill Weavers, Slide, Beoga