The Irish Rovers celebrating 60 years with cross-country tour, including Calgary stop
Posted Feb 18, 2025 12:20 pm.
They’re known as the international ambassadors of Irish music — 2025 marks 60 years since The Irish Rovers played an unprecedented 22 sold-out weeks at The Purple Onion in San Francisco.
That stint led to the first album “First of the Irish Rovers,” for the band who, like the iconic Rolling Stones, are marking six decades of music this year and celebrating with the 60 Years A-Roving Tour.
As George Millar, co-founder and lead singer of The Rovers says, the boys still have a few good years left in them.
“After all these years, we’re still saying, ‘Ah, we’ll give it one more year and see how it goes,'” he said.
According to Millar, the beginning of their careers was actually pretty humble.
“I’d just immigrated from northern Ireland to Toronto and I was playing guitar behind my sister at some Irish, Scotch type of weekend concert for people who had just immigrated and one of the singers one night got sick,” he said.
Millar says it was destiny that they chose this particular song.
“We both knew a song called ‘The Irish Rover’ and it sounds humble, but that’s exactly how it started,” he recalled.
Millar says the continued success of the band is all in the music.
“I always liken it to you might be near a polka band and you might not even like polka — but if you’re near it, your toe will starting tapping and you’ll start shouting ‘Yippee-le-dippally-yeah!'” he said. “Well, Irish music is like that and it’s just toe-tapping music. It’s not rocket science at all, it’s just having a good time with music, which has really kept the Irish going for centuries.”
The 60 Years A-Roving Tour continues with a stop in Calgary on March 15 at the Grey Eagle Resort and Casino.
Tickets for the show are still available.
More information can be found at theirishroversmusic.com/on-tour/
