The Story So Far...
Ray, Donal and Brenda in 1980. Joanne
would be born 2 years later.
would be born 2 years later.
Donal Henry Cox was born in Newry, County Down, N.Ireland in 1980 and grew up in the nearby seaside town of Warrenpoint. The second son (and third child) of Philip and Eileen who have 4 children in all. His father Philip, whoes main instrument was also the guitar, is a talented musician himself. Philip was brought up in a traditional musical background before moving into the rock and roll scene of the 60's. As a result the house in Warrenpoint had an array of musical instruments including an accordion, fiddles, a banjo, harmonicas and, of course, guitars. Donal recalls on a few occasions being woken up at night to the sound of a musical jamming session happening in the front room, and indeed when the family would visit his father's home house you could pretty much bet on it that a 'session' would happen later that night, and carry on well into the early hours of the next day. As his father was also a working musician his working instruments would remain under lock and key in the trailer in the garage, but occasionally the Fender Strat and Peavey 2x12 combo amplifier would find its way into the front room of the house. Maybe his father needed to work on a new song or maybe the guitar just needed a new set of strings! Either way it didn't matter as this would give Donal (and his other siblings for that matter) a chance to play on the fine electric!
Donal's interest in music and in particular the guitar was further elevated when at the age of 9 he was given the chance to enroll in guitar lessons at his primary school. The Saturday after signing up for the lessons, he went with his parents to the local music shop in Warrenpoint (McSweeneys. Don't look for it, it's not there anymore!), where a 'Hondo II' acoustic guitar priced at £65 was purchased for £60 with a fresh pack of strings thrown in for free! (His first guitar, which he still owns today). The lessons ended after 9 months with the end of the school year and unfortunately when the new school term began, the guitar lessons had been scraped completely. This deflated his interest in the instrument somewhat, but a year later something happened that would change all that. An album called 'NeverMind' by 'Nirvana' found its way into the house via his older sister Brenda. Indeed a lot of music would find its way to Donal through her! This album and band opened the door to many other bands of that time (the 'Grunge' era of the early 90's), and it was this interest in that music which saw his interest in the guitar revived. At the age of 11 he dusted off the guitar books and began to teach himself guitar chords once again. His interest in 'Grunge' music opened up his musical taste buds to bands of the late 60's and 70's such as 'Thin Lizzy' and 'Jimi Hendrix', with 'About a Girl' by 'Nirvana' and 'The Rocker' By 'Thin Lizzy' being the first songs he learned on the instrument.
 News Paper clipping of Java Shrine taking 3rd place at The Guinness Entertainer Of the Year 1997. Back Row L to R: Donal, Pete, Gary and Ciaran.  Recent shot of Gary and Donal at the Hammersmith Ram, London.  |
 Another Friend Chris Fearon and Donal
after a local talent competition. It wasn't long before Donal was jamming with like minded musicians in his area and over the years through these sessions a musical partnership was struck up with a best friend and musical maestro, Gary Day. Working together guitars in hand, the two would spend hours jamming out some of their favorite tunes. As you can imagine it wasn't long before they started writing their own songs and working out harmonies for each others tunes (something they'd become quite good at as a result of the cover songs they'd been playing). They'd record their own songs with a basic live recording set up and listen back to critique the work. As this partnership progressed, so too did their musical aspirations and some years later they went on to form 'Java Shrine' enrolling Gary's older brother Pete on drums and old school friend Ciaran Ryan on bass. A few years later they would also enroll the youngest of the Day brothers, Chris, on trombone and keys. And so was the beginning of their first semi-professional band. As they perfected their sound and found their feet so to speak, they grew on the local pub and club scene and it wasn't long before their name was associated with quality, for the songs they would play, and the musicianship they brought with them! It was only a matter of time before they would want their music to take them further and indeed this found the guys performing in the San Francisco area of California and one year later in New York City. Returning home they went about finishing their debut album which they called 'Nothing To Declare'. From here they organized European dates on the continent concentrating mainly on Germany, although they also touched on Scandinavia as well as playing all over Ireland and some parts of Britian. All this while still being unsigned! The Java Shrine Chapter (1997-2007) took Donal musically and personally from a boy to a man, a decade of development with the best musicians and friends he could have asked for!
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 The Drunken Poet,
Melbourne, Australia With this Java Shrine chapter coming to a close, Donal set out to record and produce his own record. Throughout 2007 he concentrated on new material while also perfecting one or two songs he had written nearer the end of 2006, while still performing and working in Java Shrine. His debut album 'In The Spotlight' finally came to fruition in early 2008 and was a mixture of acoustic and electric tunes. He was helped hugely by an awarded grant from The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and more importantly with a lot of help from some great friends. 'In The Spotlight' features a couple of Java Shrine members in the form of Gary and Chris Day as well as other local musicians: John Bird, Fergal Hughes and Jarlath Mulholland. After launching the album on the local scene it was time to hit the road once again. This time he had his eyes set on Australia, for a number of reasons. Firstly as they have a musical scene not so heavily 'umbrella-ed' by what happens in the UK or the USA for that matter. And secondly with an ever increasing emigrant Irish population settling there, it seemed like it would have a good safety net musically, because at that time he was an unsigned artist. In total he spent roughly two years in Australia performing in both Sydney and Melbourne as well as performing on local radio and having his tracks spun on Bondi FM. However, his time spent in rural Brisbane was the most productive particularly from a songwriting point of view. This crucial time allowed Donal to work on material for that ever important second album and indeed 60% of this album's material was written while there.
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  The Sly Fox, Sydney, Australia |
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 The Fiddlers Green Festrival, The Melting Pot. |
Returning home in April 2010, Donal once again got back into his local gigging scene and continued to write. Although the family business which he had to then look after took him away from his main goal, which was to get back into the studio and produce that ever important second album. That being said the next 15 months saw original performances in: Studio 2 @ Parr Street studios, Liverpool, performing live with Xander And The Peace Pirates, in The Cavern, Liverpool, performing a new original tune on balcony TV, Dublin, The Blues on the Bay Festival, Warrenpoint, The Fiddlers Green Festival, Rostrevor and The Tanglewood Music Festival. In June 2011 he signed with Front Shore Records, an independant label who have since been helping to open doors for him in the right directions, and put his music into the right places and hands. Donal is currently in his home recording studio (The Loftden) working on first cuts for the second album.
In The Spotlight Album Cover