Jenny Huston - 'In Bloom' Irish Bands Now

WITH a rush of books appearing for the saturated Christmas market, 2FM DJ Jenny Huston’s ‘In Bloom - Irish Bands Now’, stands out from the glut.

The Canadian-born music supremo has attempted to chronicle the heaving Irish music scene she has called home for 13 years, in her new book, and fares admirably well in this compelling and attractive tome.

Everything you ever wanted to know about your favourite Irish band - 15 in all - is included here, with all offering up an honest appraisal of their careers and where they see the industry going.

There is also a profile of up and coming bands, called the Hotlist, including a nod for Limerick’s own Giveamanakick, who sadly recently announced their intention to go their separate ways.

Huston explains that she got the idea for the book after being approached by the publishers, Currach Press, who wanted to do something about emerging Irish bands.

"They asked if I had considered writing a book on emerging Irish artists and the proposition of it excited me,” says the engaging Huston. “I'm not a journalist, I wasn't sure if I was the right person to do it, but more and more people kept saying to me, ‘what's happening with Bell X1’, to which I responded that they have just done four tours of North America and played Letterman twice.

"I realised that there just seemed to be a gap in information between the bands that are doing international work and for some reason no-one seems to know how well they are doing, so I felt the need to brag about them,” she laughs.

This is an admirably complete analysis of a well-stocked Irish music scene, from Bell X1 to Villagers, and while a couple of names are not included, there was simply no way Huston could have included all, a testament to the busy Irish scene.

Interestingly, most of the bands eschew their standard press interview-speak for an honest appraisal of themselves and their business, a fact Huston clearly feels proud of.

“What was nice about this was that there was a really relaxed atmosphere and they didn't have their press hats on - I think once they realised I wasn't doing a critique of their music and it wasn't going to be a critical piece on bands, that I really wanted to tell their story in their own words, then people were amazingly honest and forthcoming,” she says.

A brutal foreword from Glen Hansard sets the tone for the book, as he recounts his experiences with major labels and the pressure brought to bear in The Frames’ early career. Equally frank admissions follow from Richie Egan and Bell X1, and, for any younger bands out there, make for standard reading on what to avoid in their own careers.

“They pass on an awful lot of advice and certainly any band at any level would pick up an awful lot from them. The industry is changing so rapidly that it is interesting to hear how each band decides to approach it and everyone has revealed something different, and I have actually learnt a lot myself (from this),” she says.

As a knowledgeable DJ, Huston is well aware of the leading lights of the Limerick music scene, which she pays homage to as we speak. Chief among her favourites are rocking Giveamanakick duo Steve Ryan and Keith Lawler, who are unfortunately about to split up after a national tour.

“I was gutted to hear that because they have had an amazing start to 2009 and I am a big fan of the guys, I think they are amazing,” she glows. “They are proper rock and roll, their gigs are like a sonic assault and for them, it sounds like they left on a high and I'm happy they can do that.

"GAMAK were cool and they were so positive about the scene that they emerged from in Limerick and Limerick had such a healthy gig scene when they started out, it was amazing. Jamin (O’Donovan from Fred, who are also included) is from Limerick and so are We Should Be Dead, who are doing really well in the States as well, which is great.”

“That is the thing, and I realised it as soon as I started the book, that I didn't even know if I should do a Hotlist because there were so many bands to include, and we only had a finite number of pages - I'll have to get working on a follow-up,” she laughs.

‘In Bloom - Irish Bands Now” - is out now in all good bookshops. For further details see here.

Paul McCartney - Good Evening New York City

Paul McCartney
‘Good Evening New York City’
(Mercury Records)

PAUL MCCARTNEY is back with his sixth solo album - eighth if you include and “official” bootleg and Wings Over America - the first ever concert recorded in the brand new Citi Field stadium in Queens, New York, opposite Shea Stadium. The latter memorably played host to one of the most famous Beatles’ concerts of their day 44 years ago, when 55,000 fans broke attendance records of the day to see the Fab Four.
On that occasion, the Beatles played for just half an hour and couldn’t hear themselves over the screaming fans that eventually led them to lock themselves away for the latter stages of their career.
On this occasion however, McCartney played for well over two hours, clocking 33 tracks and, while the screams can be heard, so too can McCartney.
And that fact is the most immediately apparent about this live album; you can hear Macca sing, and boy can he still hold a note.
From the opening buzz of ‘Drive My Car’, it is clear that McCartney has still got it, and then some.
He delves into his own Wings/solo back catalogue more often than not on the first of this two CD collection; interestingly ‘Jet’, from the Wings’ Band on the Run album, takes track two in this set-list, as it did on McCartney’s 2003 ‘Back in the World’ live album.
But the sound is all important here, and drastically improves on that previous live album.
McCartney’s voice sounds warm and full, rarely if ever cracking, while his superb band easily recreate some of that old Beatles magic, which indeed makes up more than half of the tracks on offer here.
A soaring ‘Eleanor Rigby’ is the pick of the tracks on the first CD, while a thumping ‘Back in the USSR’ opens CD two.
In fact, track two of the second CD, ‘I’m Down’ - first released as a B-side to ‘Help’ - also formed part of the Beatles setlist in Shea Stadium in 1965. On that occasion, Lennon played the keyboard with his elbows while his bandmates laughed at the ridiculousness of not being able to hear a single note that they played.
A previously unresurrected ‘Day Tripper’ and McCartney singing both vocals on the seminal ‘Day in the Life’ are show stopping moments, as is a Billy Joel duet on the bouncy ‘I Saw Her Standing There’.
McCartney finishes with ‘Sgt Peppers/The End’, as he did on his previous live album, but there is an added poignancy to the screams that rapturously receive the closing tracks here.

RATING 4/5

Unwrap your 'Christmas Presence' in Daghdha in December

DECEMBER is to kick off with a weekend of superb live music and comedy in the atmospheric surroundings of Daghdha Space, St. John’s Church, as Eightball.ie present ‘Christmas Presence’. The local promoters have assembled an eclectic and exciting line-up for the first weekend in December, featuring high-profile comedian Andrew Maxwell, Irish troubadour Damien Dempsey and the Limerick-leg of Today FM DJ Donal Dineen’s ‘Fresh Air Festival’, featuring Katie Kim.

Mr Maxwell gets proceedings underway on Friday, December 4, with support from Limerick’s own Karl Spain, who recently hosted his own RTE tv show. Maxwell is best known in Ireland through his weekly appearances on ‘The Panel’, and now lives in London and is a regular on UK TV including guest slots on ‘Have I Got News For You’, ‘Argumental’ and ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks.’

On Saturday night, Dubliner Damien Dempsey comes to Limerick as part of his first solo Irish tour in six years to headline the Christmas Presence weekender. Dempsey, a two-time Meteor Award winner in recent years, is something of a beat poet for modern times, a social commentator chronicling life in his hometown, and more recently, putting his own slant on old traditional favourites on his ‘Rocky Road’ album. In a live setting the statuesque Dempsey is a sight to behold, and his recent live DVD went to the top of the charts in its first week of release.

Finally, DJ Donal Dineen returns to Limerick as part of his month long gig-series around Ireland - which only consists of three dates outside Dublin, and will conclude in Limerick on the Sunday night, December 6. Dineen has hosted a number of Irish and international musicians on his nightly radio show on Today FM, allowing them to curate and play their own music and their favourite tunes. Taking this show on the road, Dineen is joined by Waterford’s Katie Kim, who released critically acclaimed debut album ‘Twelve’ last year.

Joining Kim and Dineen on the night will be Scottish musician James Yorkston, making a rare Irish appearance.

Daghdha Space - St. John’s Church - has proved itself to be an exciting and versatile venue, playing host to Oscar winners The Swell Season and Lisa Hannigan in the last 12 months. A cosy but exceptional space with superb acoustics, the church seats in the region of 250 plus and is one of the best venues in the city. ‘Christmas Presence’ takes place on December 4,5,6. Tickets are on sale now and are available from the UCH box office on 061-331549 and from or www.uch.ie. Full information on www.eightball.ie.

Interview with Ardal O'Hanlon

TO ARDAL O’Hanlon, comedy is not just a job, it is a calling, more specifically, a vocation.

While familiar to millions as the rather dim-witted Fr Dougal McGuire from Channel 4 tv series Fr Ted, stand-up comedy has always been a secure base for the rather cerebral Carrickmacross man, despite his adventures in 'tellyland'.

He realised in his teens, as a rather withdrawn young man, that comedy and the expression of his humour was something he wanted to pursue, a goal that was realised in the late 80s when he set up the Comedy Cellar in the International Bar in Dublin with fellow comedians Barry Murphy and Kevin Gildea.

Since then he has consistently returned to the stage to challenge, one feels, both himself and his audience, to hone his craft to a fine edge.

“Absolutely, I do,” says O’Hanlon when asked if he still enjoys performing live stand-up.

“It is a thing I have always gone back to, even when you are off doing tv shows or other projects that take a lot of time - I always got back to stand-up as soon as I could really, because it is the day to day stuff, the stuff you think about every day,” he explains further.

Despite having a new RTE tv show to plug - Val Falvey TD, which started last Sunday night - O’Hanlon seems more keen to discuss the intricacies of his primary art, which will take him to the Last Laugh comedy series in Trinity Rooms this Thursday night.

“Stand-up is very personal, it is about yourself and it is egotistical whereas television is very collaborative (and) it is really enjoyable because it is very sociable, that is the main difference. I am delighted to have the opportunity to do both.”

He continues: “I suppose I have put together a sort of a state of the nation rant at the moment and it is all very well doing it at home and shouting at your children but you need to do it front of real people at some stage, so that is what I'm at.

My instinct would be to reduce everything to a joke, rather than waffle on about things, I do try and reduce things to a pithy one-liner.

Stand-up, if it is working correctly, is your version of events, it is your take on the world and the people around you - in the course of a full show you might go through hundreds of subjects but it mostly comes back to the same thing, the state we are in.

It is all very well pointing the finger at bankers and government, but what I think is funny and more timeless is to actually talk about our mentality - who we are and where are we going? I think that is useful and very promising material which I think people respond to and are interested in.”

Ardal has in the past expressed discomfort at those that appear at his shows expecting Fr Dougal, but several minutes in his company are enough to demonstrate that he is far removed from his more famous persona.

But he doesn’t shy away from the legacy, recognising that it kick-started his career.

“Oh definitely and it was great. Things were very grim in the late 80s when I started out in Dublin, you couldn't see any light at the end of the tunnel, it was something that was enjoyable and kept you busy from day to day, but there didn't seem to be any possibility of making a living from it or going anywhere.

So I went off to London and not too long after that I did get that fantastic break in Fr Ted, which did change everything over night, I suppose,” he says.

Expressing himself through his “rants” on stage is also crucial to his mental state, he explains to much laughter on both our parts.

“You see the world through this type of comic prism, and it is a way of staying sane, otherwise you would think about things too much and you'd go a little bit mad,” he says, adding: “This is not just a job, it is a type of vocation”.

Ardal O’Hanlon appears at the Last Laugh Comedy Club in Trinty Rooms nightclub this Thursday night, with Gearoid Farelly. Doors 7.30pm.

Robbed in Paris, who'd a thunk it?

Robbed. 'Nuff said..

Brainfeeder's first lady Tokimonsta in the Cuckoo Box this Saturday

THE LA-based Brainfeeder family's first lady Tokimonsta makes a very rare and special appearance in Limerick this Saturday night, as the guest of local crew's Cheebah/Kerrynini. Brainfeeder is also home to Daedelus, The Gaslamp Killer, Onra and more, so we expect Ms Tokimonsta to be something special..

Cheebah's Peter Curtin gave us the heads up on this one, in his words:
"Born and raised in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, TOKiMONSTA (Jennifer Lee) was an unfocused pupil of classical piano.
However, she has come to use this background to understand and create vast soundscapes and textures through the usage of live instruments, percussion, digital manipulation, and dusty vinyls.
Through the creation of beats, she is able to fuse the sounds of the past with her musical prowess into something avant garde—all while preserving old school vibes.
Yeah, and she's got mad dope records coming on All City and Brainfeeder, played the Low End Theory and just got selected for the Red Bull Music Academy 2010. Job."

For more see here and there's a podcast with the first lady herself here.

Tokimonsta plays in the Cuckoo Box this Saturday night, no doubt along with a few of the aforementioned crews. It is also FREE, so there is no excuse for going. Starts around 9pm..

Revenger's Tragedy in the Belltable

FANCY some blood and lust with a healthy dash of murder? No it’s not Quentin Tarantino, but you’re not far off.
Continuing this week in the Belltable is the Bottom Dog produced play, the Revenger’s Tragedy, the fourth play produced by the Limerick Theatre Hub.
Adapted from Thomas Middleton’s Jacobean classic text by local playwright Mike Finn, directed by Myles Breen and starring former Emmerdale actor Liam O’Brien, this piece is dripping with murder, a tragic comedy you can really get your teeth into.
The play deals with the return of ‘Vinnie’, hell bent on avenging the death of his girlfriend at the hands of the notorious Duke - played by Killinaskully’s Pascal Scott - and if it sounds like a Guy Ritchie movie, mixed with Shakespeare and moulded by Martin McDonagh, you are probably on the right track.
“I was attracted to the play originally because I just loved the title and when I read it I decided it would be fun to do an adaptation of it,” says Mike Finn.
“It is a good old fashioned play, a Jacobean revenge tragedy, and it is full of blood, lust, incest, murder - so I thought it would be interesting to do a modern take on it, because unfortunately those things are very close to us.
“One of the things we discovered about it as we went along is that it is a tragedy as the title would suggest, but we have realised that it is hilarious, sort of a black comedy. There are some real elements of farce - it is quite black, almost like a bedroom farce but with knives. It is quite mad.”
The cast is also made up of superb actress Gene Rooney, Aidan Crowe, Dorothy Cotter and Pat Ryan, with an original - and dark - score, written by Giveamanakick’s Steve Ryan.
The setting promises to be superb, utilising the versatile space of Red Cross Hall, and this play is ambitious in its scope - a fact not lost on Finn.
“It is big and ambitious and is the biggest one in terms of scale of the four, so if it fails it will be spectacular, but I would like to think the audience will come out and even if they don't think it is the greatest play in the world, they will know they have been spoken to.”
The Revenger’s Tragedy runs in the Belltable until November 24. For bookings contact 061-319866.