Dermot Kennedy, The Staves, Ólafur Arnalds and more paid tribute to Talos on an Irish chat show over the weekend – watch the video below.
Talos – whose real name was Eoin French – died last August after a short illness. He was 36 years old. The musician, who was from Cork, Ireland, was described as “a beautiful soul, a true artist, a son, a husband, a father, and a friend” in a statement from his team.
During the season premiere of The Tommy Tiernan Show last Saturday night (January 4), a group of Talos’ past collaborators played a moving rendition of ‘We Didn’t Know We Were Ready’.
The song was originally written by French along with Arnalds, Niamh Regan and Ye Vagabonds for the 2023 Sounds From A Safe Harbour festival in Cork, according to The Line Of Best Fit.
Joining Kennedy, The Staves, Arnalds, Ye Vagabonds for the tribute performance on the RTÉ One talk show were Jófríður Ákadóttir, Kate Ellis, Sandrayati Fay, Steph French, Laoise Leahy, Memorial, and Christof van der Ven.
“A breathtaking tribute to a talent lost far too soon,” wrote one viewer on Instagram. Another said: “Wow, that was a stunning performance & a beautiful song. Incredibly moving.”
A third person commented: “This could arguably be RTE’s greatest musical moment in a decade or more.”
Talos’ vocals played out in the emotional, piano-led performance while a photograph of him was projected onto a curtain behind the stage.
Sharing a series of images of clips from the show, Arnalds reflected on the “honour” of putting together the TV tribute with an “amazing group of people”. The Icelandic multi-instrumentalist and producer went on to call Talos a “great friend and soul-brother”.
“This song is an expression of community and creativity that has now taken on meanings we could never have imagined back when we wrote it,” he continued.
“Barely a day goes by where I don’t think about how fortunate we are to have this platform to channel our grief into.” See the post and watch the full performance above.
The statement confirming Talos’ death last summer read: “Eoin passed peacefully in his sleep early on the morning of Sunday August 11 2024 in his native Cork, surrounded by his loved ones.
He released his debut studio album ‘Wild Alee’ in 2017, and followed that up with ‘Far Out Dust’ in 2019. His third and final full-length record, ‘Dear Chaos’, arrived in 2022.
