County: Donegal

Decades Active: 2000s, 2010s, 2020s

About Seán Needham

With a music style that has been compared to Ben Harper and Paul Weller, Seán released his debut album entitled Loosely Based On A True Story in Ireland in April 2004.

Seán has scored innumerable tour support slots with major artists. Tracy Chapman asked him to open for her in Belfast. Following his performance that night, she invited him to support her on her three Dublin shows at the Olympia.

Ladsysmith Black Mambazo founder and lead man Joseph Shabalala blessed Seán before the first of the four gigs he supported them on and then invited Seán to join them on stage for some Zulu warrior dancing!

The Hot House Flowers asked Seán on-stage to perform on Don't Go. During Seán's support slots, Liam joined in on-stage to play bodhran and sing backing vocals on one of Seán's tracks.

Seán has also guested with Diana Krall, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Huey Lewis and the News and the legendary Bo Diddley, who bragged to Seán that he was the original rap star and that he had been playing rock and roll long before Elvis. His advice to Seán was to keep on doing what he was doing and most of all to continue to be himself!

Hailing from Donegal, Seán and a band of musicians got together with producer Dave Molloy in 2003, to create the album Loosely Based On A True Story. The other members of the band are Satya Darcy on drums, Farid Basir on electric guitar, Darren Bowler on bass and Esther Kjaer Nielsen on percussion and backing vocals.

Seán has also made musical contributions to two films: Bang Bang a murder mystery set in the west of Ireland and Eve a short film on Christmas through the eyes of a child by Declan Hannigan.

Needham relocated to Denmark in 2000s and there he recorded his second album Time Is A Friend which was released in 2009. In Denmark he formed Sean Needham and the Red Lake Band who have released albums in 2014 and 2022.