Derek Dempsey
Derek Dempsey, like Rockstar Phil Lynott, novelist’s Brendan Behan and Christy Brown and Hollywood actor, Gabriel Byrne, was born and raised in Crumlin, Dublin Ireland. Derek is a singer, songwriter, musician, producer, entertainer and budding novelist.
You can see Derek performing in New York City’s Time Square almost every night at one of the great venues visited by 480,000 people on a daily basis. You can also see him in Las Vegas and Washington D.C. in the coming months for special performances on New Years Eve and promotion for the new song Breathing Like An Alien. With countless performances in Las Vegas and Washington DC. and 18 years consisting of over 250 performances a year. Derek also composes and records original songs. Finally, and What’s the Color Of Poverty? are both available on iTunes and other downloadable sites and in hard copy CD on cdbaby.com
Raised in Crumlin, Dublin, Derek was asked by his uncle at a young age what he wanted to be when he grew up. Derek responded; “I’m going to be a singer.” His uncle insisted that he needed a trade job. Derek again responded; “I don’t need a trade. I’m going to be a singer, like Tom Jones in Las Vegas.” After receiving his first guitar at the age of fourteen, Derek began to play with other musicians, eventually forming a rock band called The Elite. With this band, he appeared on Irish national television several times, toured around the country, and released two EPs.
Soon after opening for popular Irish rock group Thin Lizzy’s drummer, Brian Downey pronounced Derek, “The best R n B singer in Ireland at the time”. The Elite started to perform Thin Lizzy’s Legendary ‘Live and Dangerous’ album, whilst in Spain, Joe Elliot of Def Leppard took a interest in their sound. Derek and Joe briefly became friends and still keep in contact.
The Elite brought their well honed act back to Dublin to great acclaim. For two years The Elite performed Live and Dangerous at the renowned bar, Slattery’s of Capel Street where they broke records previously set by Thin Lizzy, Horselips, Christy Moore, and U2.
In 1995 Derek Warfield of the Irish ballad band, The Wolfetones took The Elite under his wing and brought them to America. With a new name and sound, mixing rock instruments and traditional Irish songs. Hedgeschool was born. Their debut album was released on the Celtic Collections alongside highly respected Irish acts, The Wolftones, The Pogues, Clannad, The Chieftains, The Dubliners, and The Furey’s.
After touring with Hedgeschool up and down America’s east coast Derek left the band to pursue a solo career and returned to Ireland. Back in Dublin, he recorded and released his first solo EP Music For Chameleons under the name “Jesus Fever” at Cathedral Studio with Robbie Dunne. Although acclaimed by many as a great recording, Jim Lockhart of Horselips called it “A recording with really great pop-songs that should make Derek a name here in Ireland.” Larry Gogan played it on his RTE radio show several times and pronounced the lead track, Show Me “Wow, what a song there, what a sound.” Sadly Music for Chameleons was a commercial failure but became the catalyst that pushed Derek to pack his bags and move to America.
Derek committed one last act of art before leaving Ireland to realize his dreams. That act was his debut acting performance in the Arthur Deeney play The Mot and The Magician, which ran for seven straight days in The Ha’penny Bridge Bar in Dublin. Derek performed three separate roles in the play. One part was a homeless man who entered from the back of the room just as the curtain rose. An audience member who was a friend of Derek’s stood up and asked him to leave as he would ruin the entrance for the players. He left his parents home at 5.00 am on a typical dark wet Irish morning with $200 in his pocket given to him by his Father.