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Vince Power was described at his funeral mass as a man who rose from poverty in London to become a successful music entrepreneur and businessman who “kept working”. He passed away two weeks ago at the age of 76.
Power turned down the chance to attend Mountbellew Agricultural College and left his hometown of Waterford as a teenager, moving to London in the early 1960s.
He made his fortune through a chain of second-hand furniture stores, and in the 1980s founded the Mean Fiddler Group, a small music venue in Harlesden, north London.
Mr Power founded London Freed in the 1990s to bring Irish music to a wider audience, and in 1993 Freed took Ray Charles, Van Morrison and the Pogues to Tramore Racecourse.・Established a mall. He was also responsible for the Reading Festival, Hop Farm Music Festival and Benicassim Festival.
Daughter Sharon, one of Power’s eight children, said her father started with a two-up, two-down house in south London that didn’t even have a kitchen sink, and gradually built a three-quarter house in Stonebridge for the growing family. I remembered how I came to be able to buy a bedroom house. .
“Dad built his life by working hard. Every day, little by little, he worked his way out of Irish poverty, going to church on Sundays, then Sunday school, and then being drummed into being Irish,” she said. said.
In his early days operating out of Kilburn High Road he was known as ‘the man in the van’.
Another daughter, Nell Power, spoke about her father’s love and passion for music. “He was an extraordinary man. To say he was strong-willed and independent feels like an understatement,” she said. “He didn’t have much to fear.”
Much of his fighting spirit came from his mother, Bridget. Nell said she knew her father to be resilient and a fighter, adding that his father woke up every day and faced the day with optimism, positivity and faith.
“Anything is available to you. You just want it enough and want to keep moving forward. He had this way of getting things instinctively and effortlessly. “He never ran out of ideas. He wanted everyone to have a good time,” she said.
His friend and Mass co-celebrant Father Brendan Crowley described Power as “Newtown’s most famous son.” Both were in London in what is today the early 1960s.
The world Power entered into in 1947 was very different from the one he left, Father Crowley said. When a person is born, he has only two things to do in life. It’s about making the world a better place and keeping good company.
[ Vince Power: Waterford-born ‘Godfather of Gigs’ who rocked the UK music scene ]
Looking back on Power’s life, the priest said there is no dispute that Power accomplished both. He approached his life with “great kindness, empathy, and enthusiasm” and cared for the people of Ireland who had fallen on hard times.
Power’s wicker coffin was carried into All Saints Church in Newtown, Co. Waterford, to the music of Ray Charles’ “I Can’t Stop Lovin’ You.” The funeral ended with a performance of “The Farewell Glass” by singer Mary Colan.
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