Brad Spurgeon's Blog

BUDAPEST – All right, all right. My worldwide open mic musical adventure is not supposed to be the worldwide Irish pub tour. But when all else fails in a city where there seems to be no open mic, open jam scene, sniff out an Irish pub. On Thursday I played in one as mentioned in the previous post, and last night, thanks to my friend John Murphy (guess what, he’s Irish), I played on the neat stage at Becketts Irish Pub, named after the Irish playwright Samuel….

I first discovered Becketts and met John Murphy in 2009 on my first year of travelling the world and playing in open mics, and we have met up every year but one – I think – since then. And each time, John has offered me the stage for a few songs, despite Becketts not really being an open mic.

John himself, and sometimes in duet, and sometimes with his band, plays Becketts, entertaining with his powerful voice, his emotional renditions of all the popular modern hits, and a few Irish songs thrown in for good measure. Last night, with just his guitar and vocals, he really got the crowd moving at Becketts – despite the horrendous heat that has descended upon the city.

I took to the stage during his break – after his first set of more than an hour – and I did four or five songs. It’s a pleasure to play in Becketts, with its high ceilings, vast windows onto the boulevard, and receptive crowd mixing expats and locals in an Irish pub atmosphere. In fact, it turned out there was a couple visiting from Ireland for a few days in the table next to mine, and we spoke much of the evening.

Tomorrow I hope to put a break on this Irish pub stranglehold of my visit to Budapest, performing in a Hungarian jam. But for the moment, the Irish pub is always a great old friend wherever I go in the world….