Photo: Ray Kennerney
Info: Listening to music you like is the most pleasurable thing in the world to me, you are doing it by choice, and as I get older I realise that music is one of the very few joys in life that doesn't let you down, or disappoint you. Listening to it live however is a much more heightened and rewarding experience, I'm addicted to live music, the entire process from looking forward to something, arriving, and watching it unfolding before you, no two gigs are ever the same. Add to that the endless amount of pleasant surprises, the first support act of a four act roster who you'd never heard before blowing your mind and leaving a lasting impression on you, or someone you'd heard before but never seen live sounding ten times better up there on a stage.
2016 was an immense experience for me personally, and although I went to a lot of live shows, I constantly feel regret that I didn't get to more, I suppose there's plenty of time for that next year, and the year after, and I hope to catch the bands I wanted to go to but missed in 2017, but also equally look forward to those magic brand new experiences, of which I had many this year. Below is a (not so!) whistle-stop tour of my 2016 in photos and some notes, starting with Whelan's Ones To Watch in January, which is just around the corner again and I can't wait for it! Also a few odd snaps of the wonderful musicians we had into The Sound Feed studio over the last few months, musically, 2016 was a hell of a ride.
All photos Remy Connolly, unless otherwise specified.
January:
Whelan's Ones To Watch
Bitch Falcon
Too Fools
Wood Burning Savages
Rachael Lavelle
Silences
Oh Joy!
Stephen White (The Last Mixed Tape), Noël Duplaa (Not Monsters / CFIT) & Hazel Lake (The Noisey Plug / King Kong Club)
Niamh Crowther
Half Of Me
Damsel
Gráinne Hunt & David Judge @ Abner Brown's Barbershop
Dan (Crimes Against) & Teddy (God Creative) @ Darkland's Studio
Photos: Ray Kennerney
My first Sound Feed interview of 2016 with these two wonderful chaps, also my first visit to The Chocolate Factory, but not my last.....
February:
Interview with Frank Kearns @ The Rockschool, Sutton
Photo: Ray Kennerney
Myself and Ray headed out to Frank Kearns' Rockschool studio on the Dublin Road in Sutton on a pretty chilly Saturday morning in February. I'd interviewed Frank on the blog last year on the phone, and it was one of the most enjoyable interviews I'd ever done. Frank was in Mount Temple with the U2 chaps and used to sit in on their practice sessions in the secondary school when they were all in their teens. His band, Cactus World News, supported U2 on their first Irish tour, and the legendary Phil Lynott co-produced one of his early singles. It was a great day, and after the interview Frank drove us around the north Dublin strand and gave us the historical tour of the area.
March:
Aoife Scott album launch @ The Workman's Club
Segrasso @ The Workman's Club
One of my favourite photos of 2016, Segrasso front-man Jake Dylan Regan doing his Bod Dylan 'Saved' album cover moment, more from them later!
Red Moon Bayonets and Brass Phantoms @ The Workman's Club
April:
The Sound Feed Presents @ Abner Brown's Barbershop
Post-gig with Stephen James Smith, Enda Reilly and Fiach Moriarty
Photo: Ger Holland
Photo: Ger Holland
Interviewing Damien Dempsey
Photos: Ray Kennerney
A couple of months before this interview happened, Ray told me there was a very slim and outside chance we'd have an opportunity to interview Damien Dempsey. I was a bit beside myself at the idea, without doing the whole 'I've been a big fan since whenever', I had been. I'd seen Damien live in Vicar Street about 10 years before this interview for the first time, was in love with 'Seize The Day', and 'Shots', his song 'Colony' (from the latter) made me more than emotional on many an occasion. And there were other little things, like seeing the photo of him and Christy Moore playing together at the front bar in Whelan's, but only in a photo, hanging on the wall in that fine establishment.
Thankfully, and though I don't endorse such behaviour, I was quite hungover on the Saturday we went out to see Damo in his house, Ray picked me outside the apartment, and we stopped on the way at a petrol station and I got a really shitty coffee, one of those Tim Horton's jobbies. We pulled up outside his house and he was bigger than he is on stage, a towering giant, he offered us tea or coffee and we both declined (Damo doesn't make us coffee, come on). I had a weird and sudden whirling feeling then, 'I'm in Damien Dempsey's living room and I'm about to interview him, shit'.
Thankfully everything ran smoothly, knowing he had just released a commemorative album coming up to the centenary of 1916, I gave him a book on 'Great Irish Speeches' and we discussed the album and what the centenary meant to him. He was an absolute gentleman and it was a massive privilege for me and a definite highlight of the year needless to say.
May:
RUTH @ Anseo, Camden Street
Mother Mooch @ The Workman's Club
CC Brez @ The Academy
Not Monsters @ The Grand Social
Me and my boy Noël after his Not Monsters single launch
Jerry Fish Interview @ Abner Brown's Barbershop
At the end of May, The Sound Feed had the great pleasure of interviewing the legendary Jerry Fish in Abner Brown's Barbershop in Rathmines, our Aoife had a wonderful chat with Jerry, who gave us the low down on his live shows, his music career and upcoming bits and bobs.
Photos: Ray Kennerney
June:
Trick Mist & Video Blue with Participant @ Whelan's
Gavin Murray (Trick Mist) and Jim O'Donoghue Martin (Video Blue) are very close friends of Remy's Music & Film, the pair were in Dundalk band Bold Things, the first ever band to send a review submission to the blog here a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. After both emigrated to the UK (Manchester and London respectively), they began to dabble in the dark electronic arts as solo projects, with great success. The two boys came back to Ireland in the summer for a mini-tour to promote their split 7" vinyl double A-Side single, 'Crumbs Abound / Disco Nap', with support from the wonderful Participant.
Pre-show we shared a jar or two and then did a quick interview out at the back of Whelan's, where Jim gave us a few bars on the piano....much love to these two boys.
Part 2, featuring more photos and stories to follow soon!
