This tribute to Irish singer-songwriter Fergus O’Farrell is done with love and skill, but to be honest it’s a bit of a nap, abundantly sprinkled with platitude and piety. O’Farrell, who died in 2016 of muscular dystrophy (which he was diagnosed with as a child), had been the lead singer of a cult band called Interference, which never really did well in the late 1980s. / early 90s.

There were all kinds of reasons that could be put forward for his lack of success, such as the fact that the record companies were reluctant to sign a number with the frontman in a wheelchair, or that there was simply too much competition in the music scene of Dublin at one time, when everyone thought they might be the next U2. Or maybe – whisper it – it’s because the music isn’t that great. O’Farrell certainly had a louder voice, and it’s touching to see him perform in his prime when he was a strikingly good looking guy with a hideous mullet. But there were loads of bands back then that could perform and sing just as well, and O’Farrell’s songwriting was, to be generous, kind of hit or miss. O’Farrell was also apparently a perfectionist who could never quite finish things off, a point illustrated in the footage here of him polishing the same songs over and over again with friends and bandmates in his home studio for a second. album he is never satisfied with.

Nonetheless, he had huge success with Gold, a tune he wrote in the 1990s but sings beautifully in a touching scene from the 2007 film Once. The romantic drama starred O’s old friend. ‘Farrell, Glen Hansard, as a struggling Dublin musician who meets a Czech flower merchant (Markéta Irglová); the film went on to become a worldwide hit, resulting in a live musical and numerous live performances, most notably for O’Farrell, who traveled to Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan to perform for a career moment .