The Original Rudeboys Tickets at 3Olympia Theatre

Picture the scene: The year is 2011, a wave of Topman chinos is sweeping across the nation like a virus, you wake up at around 12:35pm on a Tuesday afternoon because the odds are you don’t have a job due to the post Celtic tiger economic downturn so you log onto your new Facebook account since all your mates have finally decided it’s time to move on from Bebo to a more mature social network. Your Auntie hasn’t added you on it yet, she isn’t screaming into the right wing void that is Twitter, in fact she doesn’t even own a smartphone yet, you’re just scrolling through a feed full of dodgy nightclub digital camera photographs hoping to spot you and your mates €2 Monday night vodka & red bull escapades when all of a sudden someone you added after a 3 minute conversation over a curry chip butty has shared a black and white video of 3 Dublin townies singing and rapping over a guitar and a ukulele!? The video is entitled ‘Stars In My Eyes’, the band is called ‘The Original Rudeboys’, the lads are called Neddy, Rob and Walshy and what’s even more confusing is that you actually kind of like it?

Fast forward to 2024, that same video has over a million views. Those townies are now platinum selling artists who have toured all over the world and have eventually called it a day but what’s that? You’ve opened a new tik tok account, your Auntie has followed you (she’s sharing videos of how ‘baking soda in hot water cures foot issues’), and while you’re probably now employed but scrolling on a Monday morning after Sundays air fryer lunches have been put in the canteen fridge you see a profile of someone you followed because they made a witty comment once about the ‘5 best ways to fold your luggage for a weekend flight’ has shared a video entitled ‘Guess who’s back?’ from a band called ‘The Original Rudeboys’, the lads are still called Neddy, Rob and Walshy.