The Fureys and Davey Arthur
The band was formed in 1978 literally by accident. George, Paul and Davey were playing in Denmark with their own band called the Buskers and Eddie and Finbar, while touring in Germany were involved in a road accident. When George, Paul and Davey got news of the accident they immediately travelled to Germany to be with their brothers. They then decided that they should all be playing together and this was the start of the Fureys and Davey Arthur.
The oldest of the brothers, Eddie Furey left home in 1966 and travelled to Scotland at the time of the great folk revival where he met and shared accommodation in Edinburgh with then unknown folk singers Billy Connolly, Gerry Rafferty and Alex Campbell, now all famous in their own right. In 1969 with his brother Finbar, he was the special guest for the Clancys Brothers and Tommy Makem throughout the USA and Canada. In 1971 he moved to mainland Europe where he toured for seven years with Finbar, building up a huge following - particularly in Germany. Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics has credited Eddie as teaching him his first chords on guitar when they met up in the North East of England while Dave was still a teenager. The band became an instant success and had a string of hits including When you were Sweet Sixteen, The Green Fields of France, Red Rose Café, The Old Man, Steal Away, Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway, Clare to Here and Leaving Nancy.