G D Sweeney (Gavin David Sweeney) Comedy occupies every feature of Northern Irish life. It’s our idea of alternative medicine. It’s the antidote to ‘the troubles’, religious intolerance, out-dated thinking, homophobia, the 50 shades of grey, the constant rain, and the Daniel O’Donnell back catalogue. Laughter is our inherent coping mec... Read More

G D Sweeney (Gavin David Sweeney) Comedy occupies every feature of Northern Irish life. It’s our idea of alternative medicine. It’s the antidote to ‘the troubles’, religious intolerance, out-dated thinking, homophobia, the 50 shades of grey, the constant rain, and the Daniel O’Donnell back catalogue. Laughter is our inherent coping mechanism. We are the heroes in our own wonderfully exaggerated stories, the stars in the urban myths that we eulogize. The rules are very simple; in honour of the Celtic folklore tradition - we never let the truth get in the way of a good story! Northern Irish born and bred, G D Sweeney heralds from a culture of poetry, music and hugely embellished storytelling. If you shook his family tree, you could expect a cacophony of musicians, folklorists, writers, poets, artists and larger than life characters to shower down upon you. Such a cultural rainstorm provides us with the ideal conditions for any blooming musician, or budding comic with a hard hat and plenty of ambition to flourish! Sweeney dreams in melodies, and often wakes up humming the beginnings of a new musical creation...the lyrics and ideas forming before you can say “gypsy jazz odyssey”. He finds inspiration for his songs and ideas in the everyday conversations and observations of the folks around him.... throwaway quips, old Irish sayings - nothing gets away! This fascination is accompanied by his love affair with bluegrass, classic country sounds and his penchant for the truly absurd. A lifetime of education and learning has provided the necessary platform for different creative pursuits – with a degree in Graphic Design, a diploma in Advertising Copywriting, as well as a short career as a secondary school design teacher. More importantly, these experiences have contributed to his overriding realisation.... that anything has got to be better than a real job! Gavin had an unorthodox journey into music. Starting out in his late teens; with his hard earned pocket money in his hand, he entered a Belfast music store to buy a saxophone, but walked out the door with a bluegrass banjo. Life looked less like a box of chocolates, and more like a banjo in a sea of saxophones and much to the dread of his neighbours - he’s been banjo-curious ever since.He’s a keen poet and an ideas man, with songwriting the staple of his creative labours. His repertoire is prolific and varies in genre and style, covering every topic under the sun - from Indie rock to bluegrass, ragtime to comedy. In recent years he has focused his musical talents on recording and producing material for Music publishers and Media productions for TV and Film around the world. With a wealth of musical and songwriting experience and a litany of fondly remembered comical encounters whilst growing up in Northern Ireland to call upon – Sweeney has now turned his hand at combining music with comedy, creating original modern characters and narratives to exist within the unique parallel-country music universe that he has dreamed up. His self-written/recorded comedy performance of Alter-Ego ‘Dusty Sweeney’ combines all the skills and experiences of his past - into a 6-part Radio Show - containing comedy songs, outlandish country characters, bizarre adverts, a leftfield view of contemporary themes, Irish humour, and country music. The Dusty Sweeney Country Show - entitled ‘For Bling And Country’ was originally intended as a situation comedy and also as a podcast series. The main characters backstory, the additional figures, and the other comedic elements within the show certainly lends itself to further development of written work, TV ideas and online content, with a view to merchandising all aspects of the production. As Dusty Sweeney said to his awaiting fans upon returning to Earth from his Alien Abduction Tour..... “Watch This Space!” Read Less