Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Forbidden Fruit festival this Saturday and Sunday to feature Aphex Twin

Aphex Twin, playing at Forbidden Fruit on Sunday
ONE of the most intriguing new music festivals of recent years kicks off this June Bank Holiday weekend, featuring headliners The Flaming Lips and Aphex Twin - the latter described as “the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music” - who grew up in England but was born in Limerick, a little known fact of musical lore.

The ‘Forbidden Fruit’ festival takes place this coming Saturday and Sunday, June 4 and 5, on the grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, in Dublin, the first multi staged music festival to take place in the capital city.
 
Sponsored by Bulmers and run by POD, the site for the gig is to be set up in the shape of an apple and is billed as a “collaborative fusion of music, art and fashion”. Also featuring on the eclectic and exciting line-up are Battles, Wild Beats, Erol Alkan, Jape, Caribou, Jamie XX, Ham Sandwich and many more.
 
Full line-up:
 
Saturday:

The Flaming Lips

Yo La Tengo

Wild Beasts

Bombay Bicycle Club

The Phoenix Foundation

Erol Alkan

Beardyman

The Subs

Rory Philips

Jape

Aeroplane

Ham Sandwich

Colourmusic

Bitches With Wolves

Kid Karate

Bipolar Empire

Spies
 
Sunday:
 
Aphex Twin

Battles

Caribou

Jamie XX

Carte Blanche

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip

Spank Rock

Logo

Kormac’s Band

Solar Bears

Favourite Sons

Trinity Orchestra

Cast Of Cheers

Not Squares

Bats

Enemies

Squarehead

Tera Melos
 
Tickets remain on sale and are available from Ticketmaster. See here for more and full day to day breakdown.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Imelda May announced for Dolan's 'Big Top' in the Milk Market - June 5

DUBLIN'S rockabilly queen Imelda May has just been confirmed for the Dolan's Presents 'Live At The Big Top' show in Limerick's Milk Market for Sunday, June 5.

May will be joined by a full band in the multi-use venue, and follows quickly on the heels of The Coronas, who played a storming show in the venue on the May Bank Holiday weekend recently.

That was something of a test outing for Dolan's, who have an agreement with the venue to stage live shows there, and the venue proudly claimed a crowd of 1,500 for that gig - which ran off without any problems, and showed that the market venue is more than capable of hosting a live gig. In fact, the venue proved to be a top class one, with the large, canopied roof keeping the sound in and adding to the atmosphere. On the Beat understands that this will be the first of many gigs in the venue, presuming their continued success.

Gates for the June 5 gig will open at 7.30pm - and food stalls and bars will be open. It is an over 18s show and tickets priced at  €30 including booking will go on sale on Friday morning - or Thursday for members of the music lovers club.

Cold Pro Surf and Music Festival is cancelled - announcement

THE Cold Pro Surf and Music Festival which was due to take place near White Strand beach - between Spanish Point and Miltown Malbay - and was to feature Peter Hook and Jamie XX , has been cancelled, On the Beat can reveal.

The festival, which had the support of Heineken and Hot Press among others, and featured a strong line-up of acts set to appear on three stages, has been pulled just over a week before it was due to take place, owing to "factors outside the organisers control", according to a statement.

Imelda May, Ben Howard, The Nextmen, Electric Wire Hustle and a multitude of others were due to play at the two day festival, set to take place Saturday and Sunday, May 4 and 5 and which was to also feature a surf contest with "featuring some of Europe's best riders battling it out for €20,000".

The organisers released the below statement just a short while ago:

"This morning, due to factors outside of the organizers control, Cold Pro festival has been forced to postpone our collective celebration of surf, sounds and soul until a later date.

Events that have transpired during the last 72 hours have made it impossible for the festival to go ahead as planned on the June bank holiday weekend.

The ‘Powers that be’ have unfortunately and sadly decided that County Clare and indeed Ireland will have to wait much longer for a festival like this to be able to function as we envision it.

All of us at Cold Pro festival have put our hearts and souls into creating an independent event run by the people for the people, and we would like to sincerely apologize to every person that has come on board or was as excited as us, and thank all that were aspiring to help out or come and party with us.

We are aiming to come back stronger than ever to run the festival in 2012, possibly in a different part of Ireland, but still with the same ideals and creative vision as the driving force behind it.

All ticket holders will be refunded in full ASAP via ticketmaster."

For more see here.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

And So I Watch You From Afar for Dolan's this Wednesday

Watch from Afar as band take over
TONY Wright, of Belfast rockers And So I Watch You From Afar, has managed to avoid carrying his band’s amps and equipment into a gig venue in Manchester on account of our phone conversation.

Needless to say he is pleased. The guitarist with the gargantuan instrumental rock outfit is equally chipper to discover that band’s new album, Gangs, has just entered the Irish charts at number 28.

“We just found that out, it is really nice,” he beams. “Who would have thought that a bunch of noisy country bumpkins would ever get into the charts - I suppose it is better than Crystal Swing anyway, not to mention Jedward. If we can do it, there is hope for music after all,” he adds with a laugh.

The achievement is warranted, the follow-up to their acclaimed, Choice Music Prize nominated self-titled debut album, a cracker - throbbing with their own brand of joyous post-rock instrumentalism.

But where ASIWYFA’s debut was slightly edgy, on the raw side, Gangs is a more cohesive offering, certainly more celebratory in mood, a tribute to their many fans included among its many fruits.

It is surprising, then, to learn that four piece band - made up of Wright, fellow guitarist Rory Friers, bassist Johnny Adger and drummer Chris Wee - completely scrapped the 20-plus songs they had written for the follow-up, so-called “difficult” second album.

“We had written about 20-25 songs and I think through all of the touring, they just kind of lost their sparkle a little bit, we weren’t quite as enthused about them, they felt a bit rushed and we just decided to start again,” says Tony.

“So we did, I think it was six weeks before we went into the studio - we nearly gave our manager our heart attack, but we didn’t like the songs any more and wanted to start again. I think the songs were written in such a confined space of time that they have a really unique feeling to them - they sound like a body of work rather than just a catalogue of songs,” he adds.

It is a wonder they managed any time to record at all, not to mind scrapping songs and starting all over again, given that the hard-rocking outfit are among that rare breed of band that is willing to tour, tour and tour again - almost to the point of exhaustion. Known for their unrelenting appetite for playing live that has seen them play over 300 gigs since the start of 2009, the band are rightly acclaimed for their high-energy shows.

“Sometimes you do get it into your head, worrying about not getting time (to record), but you just make time, you have to. I won’t lie and say it has been completely stress free, there has been a lot of stress involved, but it is a nice problem to have,” he says.

“I would feel like an utter bastard complaining about it. I’m getting to go around the world and play music - I might be half broke, but I am getting to play music,” he laughs.

The result is an eight song tribute the band’s last two years playing together all over the world, with their typical monster riffage and pounding drums thrown into the mix. There is a mite more introspection in evidence.

“We just wanted to reflect the madness we have experienced over the past couple of years, travelling around, meeting all of these gangs of people. I think we have done it, I hope so,” adds Tony.

ASIWYFA play in Dolan’s Warehouse this Wednesday, May 18. Gangs is out now.