DESPITE touring the world many times over in his long and illustrious career, Canadian rock legend Neil Young has yet to play in Northern Ireland – something he'll finally rectify on Tuesday at Belfast's SSE Arena.
Born in Toronto in 1945, Young began his career covering songs by Sir Cliff Richard Richard's sometime backing band The Shadows.
Things took off in earnest when he moved to California in 1966 and co-founded Buffalo Springfield with Texan Stephen Stills (the two went on to collaborate in long-running folk-rock super group Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young).
A multi-instrumentalist with a distinctive electric guitar style and unmistakeable alto-tenor singing voice, he released his eponymous debut solo LP in 1968, going on to notch up an impressive 36 studio albums – and counting (his latest, The Monsanto Years, came out this time last year).
Despite being known as the 'Godfather of Grunge' – though, at 70, the grandfather of grunge might be more applicable – and being cited as an influence on performers from Kurt Cobain and Pearl Jam to Nick Cave and the Pixies, most of Young's best-known music is folk-rock, or country-rock, his albums Harvest (reprised in 1992's Harvest Moon), After the Gold Rush and Rust Never Sleeps considered definitive of that musical style.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and in 2000 Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him 34th in its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
And though his first calling is undoubtedly music, Young – also a sometime film director and screenwriter – has always been outspoken politically and is known to have been supportive of Republican former US presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
He became embroiled in the current US presidential race when Donald Trump used his song Rockin’ in the Free World to soundtrack his campaign. Young – a self-confessed Bernie Sanders supporter said: "Had I been asked to allow my music to be used for a candidate, I would have said no.”
Trump hit back on Twitter, calling the Canadian a "total hypocrite" and tweeting that Young had approached him about funding for an audio deal, and had invited him to one of his concerts.
“Rockin’ In The Free World was just one of 10 songs used as background music. Didn’t love it anyway,” The Donald tweeted, along with a picture of the pair shaking hands.
In 1989 – the year of Rockin' In The Free World's release, as it happens – Young told an interviewer: "I don't have a [political] view – I have an opinion that changes because every day is a different day. I'm not a liberal or a conservative."
Last week he said of the Trump controversy: “[Trump] actually got a licence to use it. I mean, he said he did and I believe him. So I got nothing against him. You know, once the music goes out, everybody can use it for anything.”
An environmental campaigner, Young is also a champion of small-farmers’ rights, having co-founded, along with Willie Nelson, the support organisation Farm Aid, which continues to raise funds for small family farms three decades after it began as a benefit concert in 1985.
Although he has played shows in Dublin, Cork and Slane down the years – not all of them to critical acclaim, it has to be said – next week's gig will be his first foray north of the border.
Supporting him and his current touring band, Promise Of The Real, will be English folk singer-songwriter Laura Marling. Now on her sixth studio album, 26-year-old Marling has been consistently releasing quality music since her late teens; she won a Brit Award for Best British Female in 2011 and has been nominated for several Brit awards.
:: Neil Young and Promise Of The Real, support by Laura Marling, SSE Arena, Belfast, Tuesday June 7, 8pm; 3Arena, Dublin, Wednesday June 8, 8pm. For tickets see ticketmaster.ie.
