Girlfriend - Whelan's Ones to Watch 2018
Photos: Remy Connolly, Sarah Ryan and Niall O'Kelly
Info: Another year, another blitz. My favourite annual post on the blog begins and ends with huge optimism for 2019 with regard to the independent Irish music arena, and also contains some special moments courtesy of acts I was lucky to see play in Ireland from abroad. I managed 28 live shows, 4 festivals, and in excess of 100 acts, I didn't leave one show disappointed. I'm happier attending a live show than writing about music, which I love, but when you attend a performance by a band or act, the connection is naturally more lucid than listening through a set of headphones in a room. It was also the first full year working with the incredibly gifted photographers Sarah Ryan and Niall O'Kelly, kindred spirits when it comes to passion about music, and both of whom were most generous with their time, I'm indebted to them both.
The following is Part 1 from January to July 2018 of what happened beyond the keyboard on REMY, shows, music, shows, music and in between, it was (is) a lovely journey.
For the 3rd year on the bounce my year began at Whelan's Ones To Watch, the annual showcase of up and coming Irish acts, and a festival I always enjoy immensely, it shakes off those January blues and sets you up for the year ahead. Among the acts I caught for the first time were Silverbacks, Little One, Lowli, SYLK, JYellowL, Dowry, and Eve Belle, another chance to catch Alien She, Molly Sterling, Munky, EHCO, For Foresters, Joey Gavin, The Clockworks, Oh Joy and the always anarchic The Wood Burning Savages, who would end 2018 as the Northern Irish Music Award winners for their debut album Stability (and the Best Live Act gong).
The following is Part 1 from January to July 2018 of what happened beyond the keyboard on REMY, shows, music, shows, music and in between, it was (is) a lovely journey.
For the 3rd year on the bounce my year began at Whelan's Ones To Watch, the annual showcase of up and coming Irish acts, and a festival I always enjoy immensely, it shakes off those January blues and sets you up for the year ahead. Among the acts I caught for the first time were Silverbacks, Little One, Lowli, SYLK, JYellowL, Dowry, and Eve Belle, another chance to catch Alien She, Molly Sterling, Munky, EHCO, For Foresters, Joey Gavin, The Clockworks, Oh Joy and the always anarchic The Wood Burning Savages, who would end 2018 as the Northern Irish Music Award winners for their debut album Stability (and the Best Live Act gong).
LITTLE ONE - Photo: Sarah Ryan
Up next, a trip to The Academy to see London's Public Service Broadcasting, support coming from Belfast native Pat Dam Smyth. It was a special gig for me, after seeing PSB in The Button Factory in 2015, I found myself in the pit at The Academy for the first time. It was also my second time seeing Pat Dam Smyth in the space of a few months, now London-based himself, he's a musician whose song-writing appeals to my tastes so much, blues-rock crooning at its best.
February saw my now traditional trip to Gigonometry at The Workman's Club, run by the ever affable Dave Conway and team, the line-up included The Felonies, one of the word of mouth hits who I missed at WOTW unfortunately. The rumours were true, they tore up the stage and their performance would resonate with me long afterwards. It was also a first chance to see two acts whose music I am a big fan of, Emma Langford and The Elephant Room.
An interview over a pint of plain with Hatchlings came next before their headline show Upstairs in Whelan's, a nicer bunch of chaps you'll struggle to find. One line in particular stood out for me from our interview when I asked about which local acts had a particular impact on them; "The list is endless...the bottom line for influence is going to gigs, seeing how great acts are on stage and being inspired by how good everyone is." For me this is a very interesting consequence of the sheer volume of quality artists over the last few years, in an indirect way they are all making each other more creative and better, a rising tide and all that.
Roll on to March and I had the great pleasure of attending Dundalk band Third Smoke's main stage headline show at Whelan's, it was one of the gigs of 2018 for me by a country mile, and also the first time I ever got onto the main stage myself at a venue I've been attending for 20 years now, an honour! Support on the night came from Oh Joy and Nix Moon. Wonderful video to capture the night below by film-maker Greg Corcoran, and a fleeting appearance of me with camera stuck to face at 0:42!
On the same night on the 15th March, Sarah was at The Grand Social for Old Hannah's single launch for 'Follow' with support from Robert John Ardiff (first 3 photos below), whilst I was back in Whelan's again for an epic and mind-blowing performance from Bicurious at their I'm So Confused EP launch with support from Tribal Dance.
At the start of every year I'll set myself a small goal, something that I've always wanted to do, not necessarily a New Year's resolution, but something good and positive. For 2018 my one aim was to photograph in the pit at The Olympia, Dublin, and thankfully it happened sooner than expected with the visit of the iconic Gary Numan on his Savage (Songs From a Broken World) tour. Was I out of my depth? Yes! A staple on Top of the Pops when I was a kid, in later years I'd fully appreciate the majesty of his album with Tubeway Army Replicas, and also his solo LP The Pleasure Principle. The show was majesty and manic, and Numan himself seems ageless, an incredible performer and band. Thanks to Michelle and Tim for making it happen.
The following night I had the pleasure of heading to Whelan's on Good Friday, the first time the historic venue was ever open on the holiest of days. I was here for the launch of K-Fest, the popular arts & music festival which takes place annually in Killorglin, Co. Kerry run by Tim Clifford and Co.. I arrived quite early, and thankfully had my favourite garage-punk duo Kaz and Molly Vulpyne take me under their wing so I wasn't a total gooseberry. There were performances from Vulpynes (obvs), Cinema, JYellowL and one of my favourite artists of 2018, Derry's ROE, a photo of whom which I took ending up in the Irish Daily Star, alongside long-time inspirations for me, Wayne Rooney and Vogue Williams.
April was a relatively quiet month compared to the rest of the year, a headline show by Columbia Mills with support from Orchid Collective was followed by a trip to the intimate environs of The Cobblestone in Smithfield for Lemoncello's debut EP launch, Stuck Upon the Staircase, support coming from Junior Brother. Those of you who read regularly know my deep love of strings, but this was the first time, since perhaps I was a child up in Leo's in Donegal, that I got to see the beautiful harp (an chláirseach) on stage via Alannah Thornburgh who regularly joins duo Laura Quirke and Claire Kinsella on stage. This was one of those warm and humbling nights of music, Junior Brother, in one fell swoop scooped up a load of new fans that night, whilst Lemoncello dove deep inside us with the sheer beauty and tenderness of their music.
April was a relatively quiet month compared to the rest of the year, a headline show by Columbia Mills with support from Orchid Collective was followed by a trip to the intimate environs of The Cobblestone in Smithfield for Lemoncello's debut EP launch, Stuck Upon the Staircase, support coming from Junior Brother. Those of you who read regularly know my deep love of strings, but this was the first time, since perhaps I was a child up in Leo's in Donegal, that I got to see the beautiful harp (an chláirseach) on stage via Alannah Thornburgh who regularly joins duo Laura Quirke and Claire Kinsella on stage. This was one of those warm and humbling nights of music, Junior Brother, in one fell swoop scooped up a load of new fans that night, whilst Lemoncello dove deep inside us with the sheer beauty and tenderness of their music.
In mid-May myself and Niall had the extreme pleasure of visiting Herbert Place Studios for a tour and an interview with producer and electronic musician James Darkin (Hozier, The Funeral Suits, The Murder Capital, Bitch Falcon) which he runs with Marc Carolan (Muse, The Cure, Snow Patrol) and John Hanley. We got the warmest of welcomes from James and Patrick who is also part of the team, this reflected the accounts I'd heard over a long period of time from bands who had used the studio. Darkin showed us in the greatest of detail how the entire set up worked from start to finish, the equipment, how old techniques are still relevant at times when reaching for the best results, and how the final mixing process operates, it was an education and then some. The only dampener was Niall getting clamped even though he paid for parking, a poorly painted 'Loading bay' at the weekend, "shit happens" was Niall's reaction, be more like Niall.
Even though I was away in France for half of the month of June it was a great month on the blog in a live sense. Starting with Just Mustard in The Bello Bar (love this venue so much) with support from the immense Hot Cops, and a first taste of an equally immense L'arry, Sarah was snapping while Niall and I imbibed just a little! It was the Dundalk quintet's Dublin leg of their Wednesday album tour, released on Pizza Pizza Records. Wednesday was easily one of the key Irish albums released this year, and while I'd heard songs live previously in isolation and indeed together, I'd never heard the whole thing performed in one set.
Four of the tracks from this album were in my Top 50 most played in 2018 on Spotify, 'Deaf' (No.2), 'Tainted', 'Curtains' and 'Pigs', all being my favourite track on the album as some point. Right now it's opener 'Boo', which ended up in the Top 100, to put it into context, no other band appeared more than three times in that list, I say this not in a 'you should listen to me' manner, very off-putting, but just highlighting what I was continuously drawn back to personally this year.
Music fans like me need bands like Just Mustard, who are rare as hen's teeth, they can rely purely on their song-writing, knowledge of music production, the influence of various art forms on their creations, their mind-blowing live performances, mind-blowing. They have achieved their status in 2018, a word that might niggle with them, without a 'brand' conscious social media campaign, without blabbing on about what their music means, being naturally cool, friendly and receptive to fans, without putting on some bullshit austere and mysterious cloak. If you are looking for musical purity in Ireland today, you won't find anything better than Just Mustard, Wednesday is an album that will forever be etched into Irish music history, in theory enough to make me stop blogging.
Whilst I was off in the south of France eating cheese, drinking red wine, watching Atlanta whilst it rained persistently outdoors, Sarah and Niall were busily working their way around the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham for Forbidden Fruit. Over the 3 days of the festival we communicated quite well considering I had no 'wiffy' as the French say. The guys got the snaps up on the blog from Dublin and from there I was able to post on the auld socials. The results were more than I could have hoped for, but not entirely surprising, the photos they took of Irish acts Ailbhe Reddy, David Kitt, and AE Mak, and international groups Glass Animals, Superorganism, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Warpaint, The War on Drugs and Vince Staples were / are stunning, peruse below!
Photos: Sarah Ryan & Niall O'Kelly, Forbidden Fruit Festival 2018.
To wrap up Part One here, an absolute highlight of 2018 came towards the middle of July. At the February Gigonometry (mentioned earlier) Dave suggested a joint-curated night between Gigo and REMY later in the year, I hadn't been involved in putting on a live show in a while so I was snapping at the idea. Over the course of the next few months, plans thankfully fell pretty easily into place. I wanted a line-up that was all brash, all noise, all soul-rattling, from start to finish. No soft build-up, just smack-bang-whallop from the first wobbling tremor of a guitar chord. What bands had I seen over the last few years who could make a stranger to their music turn up on the night and be blown away by their live performance, and in turn, become a fan?
Gigo February band The Felonies blew me away on that occasion, Just Mustard, well, I've seen them quite a few times now, and they are my favourite live band, and what about Belfast's Robocobra Quartet? I'd only seen them once live before but they were the best live performance I saw in 2016, and a new album is out, just like JM? Thanks be to the baby Jesus, all three acts were happy to perform on the night of 13th July in The Workman's Club. Outrageous bias all hanging out in the open for all to see, all three bands played out of their fucking skin that night, it was an experience I'll never forget, and my gig of the year, and we even got a mention in The Irish Times beforehand, in the Jazz concerts section!
Photos: Sarah Ryan
Remy with Robocobra Quartet post-show
Part 2 coming soon!
