Photos: K-Fest Launch @ Whelan's feat. ROE, Vulpynes, Cinema, JyellowL & Cathal Dowd

All photos: Remy Connolly

Info: Whelan's opened its main stage for the first time ever on a Good Friday last night with the launch and showcase of acts for K-Fest Arts & Music Festival, 2018. The Killorglin festival will take place over the June Bank Holiday weekend in Co. Kerry with a wide array of spoken word, drama, comedy, short films, and of course, a solid line-up of musicians. In addition to the performers last night, Vulpynes, Cathal Dowd, JYellowL, ROE and Cinema, this summer's roster includes Fangclub, LE BOOM, Katie Laffan, Vernon Jane, Alien She, Junior Brother, Emma Langford and many more.

Kerry native Cathal Dowd opened proceedings and humorously announced that he was the first musician ever to play the main stage at Whelan's on a Good Friday. The singer-songwriter set the mood nicely and interspersed songs with quick-witted anecdotes, he also raised the tempo of his set with a rousing finale using loop pedals, incorporating some quick-fire rn'b vocals, and even throwing the chorus for Blackstreet's 'No Diggity' into the mix with the audience willingly joining in.

It was interesting to note the different genres on show last night, no two acts coming from the same background, with singer-songwriter, punk rock, rap, electronic and experimental alt-pop. Vulpynes were up next and they gave the public what the public wanted to paraphrase Paul Weller's 'That's Entertainment', playing all the hits from their first ever single (and big favourite of mine) 'Terry Said' to 'Silica' and, via a request from the crowd, 'OCD'. New material from their latest EP was also on display and it sounded amazing, it looked effortless but the duo have become such a tight unit at this stage.

It was my first time, and such a treat, to see Derry multi-instrumentalist and electro-pop act ROE perform, multi in every sense of the word, drum pad, guitar, synths and vocals, she had it all in check. The lasting memory for me will be the times she drove a full soul vocal home that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, ROE's singing is equal measures vulnerable but brave and somehow always directed to the centre of the heart. 

Another act cutting his way through the scene at the moment is Dublin's JYellowL, proclaimed as one to watch by respected music websites such as The Thin Air and GoldenPlec for 2018, his position of strength comes from the fact that he can easily appeal to hardcore Irish hip-hop fans as well as those with a casual interest in the genre. 

A great night was brought to a close by Kildare electronic artist Peter Fleming, aka Cinema. After seeing him perform a while back in The Bello Bar and highly enjoying his set back then I was looking forward to his performance very much. Once again he moulded a dream-like and escapist atmosphere carefully from the very beginning, as the set progressed you were more and more submerged in the alternate state his music aims for.

Additional photos: 

Tim Clifford of K-Fest 

News: 'The New Music' - A Film About Young Onset Parkinson's

Info: 'The New Music' follows the struggles of Adrian, a young classical musician with extraordinary talent, who discovers he has Young Onset Parkinson's, a rare form of Parkinson's Disease affecting sufferers under fifty. Despite this debilitating condition, Adrian( played by Dublin actor Cilléin Mc Evoy) joins a punk band as a keyboard player and rediscovers his life through music and love. 

Filming was completed at the end of 2017 and the production team have launched a crowd-funding campaign to reach out to the public to donate what they can in order to raise money for the post production expenses of the film- editing, sound, music, marketing and festival entries. 20% of all funds raised will go directly to Young Parkinson's Ireland in addition to all future income from the film. Young Parkinson's Ireland is heavily involved with the film itself, having consulted on the initial script and they will also have the opportunity to approve the final cut of the film.

Italian writer/director Chiara Viale was inspired to write the story after her father passed away having suffering from Multiple System Atrophy, a rare degenerative neurological disorder with symptoms similar to Parkinson's.

It is her aim that The New Music will help to dispel the stigma around Young Onset Parkinson's. It is believed that there may be as many as five hundred unaccounted for sufferers in Ireland.

Donations can be made here on Gofundme: www.gofundme.com/thenewmusic  and regular updates will be posted on the following social platforms.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thenewmusicfeature/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/thenewmusicfeaturefilm/
Twitter: twitter.com/thenewmusicfilm
YouTube: The New Music on You Tube

Photos: Gary Numan @ The Olympia Theatre, Dublin

All Photos: Remy Connolly

Info: Electronic icon Gary Numan closed off his European Tour for latest album Savage (Songs From a Broken World) last night in a fitting venue, The Olympia Theatre in Dublin. As always, the display, performance and vibrancy of Numan and bands set reflected the theme of the current tour, the album is his post-apocalyptic vision of a world devastated by human excesses, climate change, a lost and collapsed world society. In Numan's own words; "The songs are about the things that people do in such a harsh and terrifying environment. It's about a desperate need to survive and they do awful things in order to do so, and some are haunted by what they've done. That desire to be forgiven, along with some discovered remnants of an old religious book, ultimately encourages religion to resurface, and it really goes downhill from there."

The thought did cross my mind during the performance, that in this glimpse of a not so unrealistic future, there would be no gathering of people to witness any type of artistic performance under the same conditions as we take for granted like last nights setting. For now we can just continue to enjoy Numanoids assembling and taking in the new music that is being created by Gary Numan. Support on the night came from the excellent Los Angeles trio Nightmare Air, do check them out, I became an instant fan after the first song.

(REMY would like to note a very special thanks to Michelle Griffin and Tim Muddiman).