1. When did you think about music as a career and what were your first steps into it?
Around the age of 17, with my sister and brothers in The Sands Family, we entered an All Ireland competition for folk bands. We won the first prize which was three weeks of gigs in New York which gave me a lifelong taste for the combined excitement of travel and playing music.
2. Best gigs you’ve been to?
Planxty in Dundalk Town Hall in 1975, Mikis Theodorakis in Berlin in 1989 and Paul Simon in King’s Hall Belfast in 1990s are three of the many that come to mind.
3. Fantasy wedding/birthday party band?
I’d be wrecked with indecision on this one but if the venue stage was big enough, Flook for the tunes and some songs sprinkled in from The Voice Squad and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
4. The record you’d take to a desert island?
I think I’d go for the peace and quiet and just enjoy the sounds of nature.
5. And the book?
The Third Policeman.
6. Top three films?
The Artist, Amélie and Song of The Sea.
7. Worst film you’ve seen?
I’ve thought about this one for a while and drawn a blank… not because I haven't seen bad films but maybe because they tend to send me into a deep sleep and by the time I wake up I have forgotten all about them.
8. Favourite authors?
Rumi, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Patrick Kavanagh.
9. Sports you most enjoy?
Hurling and football to watch, tennis to play.
10. Ideal holiday destination?
Italy.
11. Pet hate?
Wobbly tables.
12. What’s your favourite:
Dinner? Baked salmon and fresh vegetables and (new) potatoes with butter.
Dessert? Tiramisu.
Drink? Almost anything if it’s shared in good company.
13. Who is your best friend and how do you know each other?
Barbara Wendel. We met on an island off the coast of Brittany, we got married on an island in the Rhine and we live by the shores of Carlingford Lough on one of my favourite islands in the world.
14. Is there a God?
I’m sure that the human mind is better equipped to ask that question than to answer it so I’ll move from mind to instinct and say yes.
:: Colum Sands plays Craigavon Civic Centre tonight, Derry's Verbal Arts Centre on November 12, Antrim's Old Court House on November 16 and Belfast's Linehall Library on November 17 in a special event, Colum Sands – Songs of a Storyteller. For details visit Columsands.com
