• Sea Legs w/ Little Rivers @ LEAF Cafe, Liverpool

    Near the top of Bold Street as you amble uphill toward the bombed out church; beyond the spot where less intrepid travellers pause, is a place of rest and recuperation; a place of beauty, chocolate wonderment, amazing brews and some of the finest music in the City.  A tea room in the 20’s, a cinema in the 60’s and home of the original Microzine clothes shop in the 00’s, LEAF stands proudly in this beautiful art deco building.  It is fortunate to have maintained above its main tea emporium a triple height acoustically beautiful performance space, filled with an impressive…

  • Watch: Ciaran Lavery – Shame

    Having originally featured on his 2013 debut album, Not Nearly Dark, ‘Shame’ by Ciaran Lavery is on the verge of hitting 10 million streams on Spotify – a pretty mindblowing and fully deserved feat for one of the country’s hardest working and most naturally gifted artists. Shot in Dublin by ROC (also responsible for this wondrous thing) the song now has a suitably simple yet perfectly poignant video, once more managing to strike a faultless balance between heartfelt sentiment and droll humour. Ciaran Lavery plays the following UK shows in October. 16 Glasgow Nice N Sleazy 17 Newcastle Upon Tyne The Cluny 2 18 Leeds Games Room, Brudenell Social…

  • Watch: Ciaran Lavery & Ryan Vail – The Sea At Night (Live)

    Taken from their exceptional collaborative album, Sea Legs, ‘The Sea at Night’ by Ciaran Lavery and Ryan Vail is right up with our favourite Irish tracks of the year so far. Two months on from performing it at a decidedly intimate show at Derry’s Smalltown America records, the Northern Irish musicians pair have unveiled a wonderfully-shot video of the track by Paul Martin Brown, one that goes some distance in capturing the evocative, subtle and perfectle pensive light and shade of the song. Watch it below and buy the live version here.

  • Ciaran Lavery & Ryan Vail – Sea Legs

    While people will continue to argue tirelessly about whether the internet has been a good or a bad thing for music, here comes another argument for ‘good’. Derry minimal electronic musician Ryan Vail and Aghagallon alt-folkster Ciaran Lavery first became friends online before finally meeting up at a festival they were both appearing at and decided to collaborate on this mini-album. Regardless of whether or not you think streaming music is as bad as killing elephants like Tom DeLonge claims, the sense of community that the internet affords to bring together musicians from different musical backgrounds to try out collaborations…

  • TTA Session #007: Ciaran Lavery

    We’ve said it a few times before but some things just need repeating: Ciaran Lavery is easily one of the most naturally gifted Irish singer-songwriters of his or any other generation. With an extraordinary voice schooled in heartache and experience, Lavery’s restrained yet fevered acoustic tales harbour some truly wonderful turns of phrase and gently-strummed songwriting brilliance. Filmed/edited by Colm Laverty, and featuring sound by Chris Ryan, we recently captured Lavery performing two of his very best songs – ‘Shame’ and ‘Left For America’ – early in the morning outside Belfast’s iconic Duke of York on Corporation Street. As well delivering two superb renditions of both songs, Lavery…

  • Tour Diary: Ciaran Lavery in Kansas

    Head of Belfast-based imprints Champion Sound and Quiet Arch, Lyndon Stephens reports back from Northern Irish singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery’s recent industry festival jaunt in Kansas Thursday Accompanied by yours truly, Ciaran Lavery flew to Folk Alliance festival in Kansas City, Missouri last week four days of intense industry showcase gigs. Famous for Dorothy, Toto, Union Station, The Liberty Memorial, BBQ and as the State where the Civil War started, Kansas hosts this industry event with a difference. Everything takes place over four days in two interconnected hotels. Labels, management companies, agents, magazines and government agencies rent rooms or suites (depending…

  • Monday Mixtape: Ciaran Lavery

    Tipped by many – including yours truly – to do incredible things in 2015, Aghagallon singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery selects and talks about ten of his all-time favourite songs for this week’s Monday Mixtape. Missed last week’s with And So I Watch You From Afar guitarist/A Bad Cavalier main man Niall Kennedy? Check that out here. “I had a lot of fun compiling this list.  Growing up I was a huge hip-hop enthusiast, which isn’t easy for a scrawny ginger kid from the country. Aghagallon was never a hot bed of gangsterism (that’s a word, right?) but I’ve been drawn to and always have…

  • Watch: Ciaran Lavery – Orphan

    Having played a triumphant set at Dublin’s Grand Social as part of Hard Working Class Heroes festival at the weekend, Aghagallon singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery has unveiled the decidedly cathartic video for his new single, ‘Orphan’. Created by ROC, the minimalist visual accompaniment features a few anonymous individuals baring themselves to the camera, a theme introduced in Lavery’s video for ‘Left For America’. Propelled by the Northern Irish songsmith’s instantly-recognisable husky vocals and progressively experimental alt-folk approach, ‘Orphan’ is the closing song on Kosher, Lavery’s latest EP. Stream/buy that here. Watch the video for ‘Orphan’ below.

  • Line-up announced for inaugural Output showcase

    With just over a fortnight to wait, the line-up for the inaugural Output have been announced. Northern Ireland’s largest ever one-day conference and showcasing event, taking place throughout Belfast’s city centre and Cathedral Quarter on Thursday, October 16, it will see a series of free talks, workshops and pop-up gigs, attending by around 350 artists, businesses and creative students. We’re very happy to be involved, too. Teaming up with tastemaker par excellence Niall Byrne AKA Nialler9, we will host a most awesome showcase in the Black Box main room with Cork psych rock five-piece Altered Hours (pictured), Dublin electronic duo Contour, Derry…