• Joshua Burnside Scoops Northern Ireland Music Prize 2017

    November 13, 2017 - By 

    With last year’s prize won by Quiet Arch-signed songsmith Ciaran Lavery, Belfast-based experimental folk singer-songwriter Joshua Burnside has been awarded this year’s Northern Ireland Music Prize. The news was announced as part of this year’s event at Belfast’s Mandela on Saturday night. Burnside – whose debut album Ephrata took the prize – saw off competition from a strong cast of competitors in the shortlist, including Our Krypton Son, Gross Net, Malojian and more. Speaking at the event, which also saw Vivian Campbell awarded the Oh Yeah Legend Award, Charlotte Dryden, CEO of Oh Yeah said,  “It’s brilliant that a debut…

  • Jeff Lynne’s ELO To Play Dublin and Belfast

    November 13, 2017 - By 

    Having last stopped off on these shores last year, Jeff Lynne’s downright legendary ELO have announced two Irish arena shows for October next year Rounding out a string of European dates, the band will play Dublin’s 3Arena and Belfast’s SSE Arena on Thursday, October 25 and Friday, October 26 respectively. Speaking about the tour, Lynne said, “Our audiences are amazing. It’s like they’re in the group. We can’t wait to play for them again.” Tickets for the shows – priced £68 for Belfast and €80.50 for Dublin, both including booking fees – go on sale this Friday, November 17 at…

  • The Streets Set For Two Dublin Shows

    November 13, 2017 - By 

    Last month, Mike Skinner announced the Streets would reform for a six-date UK greatest hits tour. The good news? The run, named The Darker the Shadow the Brighter The Light tour, will now also take in Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on April 16 and 17. Tickets for the show are €49.50 and go on sale on Wednesday, November 15 at 9am.

  • First Wave of Acts Announced for Quarter Block Party 2018

    November 9, 2017 - By 

    Promising yet another weekend-long blitz of “pop-up concerts and performances in various different shops and outdoors spaces between Barrack Street and Shandon Street, presented by some of the most exciting and essential artists in music, theatre and dance” the first acts have been revealed to perform at Cork’s Quarter Block Party next year. Returning to various venues in North and South Main Street for its fourth outing across Friday, February 2 to Sunday, February 4, TTA favourites Dublin three-piece Percolator (below), Waterford five-pice O Emperor and comedian Alison Spittle are amongst the first names confirmed to make an appearance. With many more…

  • Premiere: Nocturnes – Humans

    November 8, 2017 - By 

    Conjuring Villagers and the emotive pulse of The Postal Service, ‘Humans’ by Sligo singer-songwriter Pearse McGloughlin AKA Nocturnes is a song that confronts “seeing out the tough times”. The project’s first release since last year’s The Soft Animal – a full-length that yielded the likes of the sublime ‘Whale Song‘ – the song strikes a subtly-affecting midpoint between balmy electronica and somnambulant ambience over four minutes. Better still, the single – which is released via Sligo imprint Bluestack Records on November 16 and launched that night alongside Aural Air and Arch Motors at Dublin’s Workman’s Club – has been released in both English and Irish language versions. A…

  • Watch: Rory Nellis – Wild

    November 6, 2017 - By 

    Unless you’ve been residing under a fairly sizable rock over the last few months, you’ll be aware that Belfast’s Rory Nellis has been releasing a series of singles from his forthcoming second album, There Are Enough Songs In The World. A brave move by anyone’s standards, but Nellis is far from your average songsmith. The final single and closing track from the album – which is launched at Belfast’s The MAC this Saturday, November 11 – ‘Wild’ feels like a fitting, deceptively ambitious crowning touch. Clocking in at just under seven minutes, it’s a masterfully unravelling tale that bursts into glorious, full-band swansonging…

  • And So I Watch You From Afar Announce Belfast Show

    November 6, 2017 - By 

    Currently zig-zagging around European on tour off the back of the release of their new album, The Endless Shimmering, North Coast post-rock heroes And So I Watch You From Afar have announced details of a homecoming show in Belfast on December 16. Supported by Calling All Horses (a band comprised of ex-Alloy Mental, LaFaro and General Fiasco members), CATALAN! and Touts, the globetrotting four-piece will headline the newly-opened Telegraph Building on Royal Avenue on the night. The show will be the band’s first Belfast headline show since June 2015. In a Facebook post, the band said: “On Saturday 16th Dec, returning…

  • Lisa Hannigan @ The Duncairn, Belfast

    November 6, 2017 - By 

    Lisa Hannigan and her band have just edged into the first verse of their fifth song at Belfast’s Duncairn Centre for Culture & Arts. I’ve quickly nipped to the bathroom, where I overhear this brief tête-à-tête between two gentlemen: “Some gig, isn’t it?” “I’ve only just arrived. Stuck in traffic.” “Oh, Jesus.” As I leap up the stairwell back into the venue space, it suddenly hits me: the “Oh, Jesus” immediately (and very tellingly) severed the exchange between the two strangers. When it comes to a Lisa Hannigan show, it really is in your best interests to be present from the very first note…

  • Interview: Rory Nellis

    November 2, 2017 - By 

    Ahead of launching his stellar new album, There Are Enough Songs In The World, at Belfast’s The MAC on Saturday, November 11, we catch up with Belfast’s Rory Nellis to talk momentum, collaboration, the craft of carefully-considered songwriting and more. Go here to buy tickets to Rory Nellis at The MAC Hi, Rory. You release your new album There Are Enough Songs In The World in just under two weeks. How are you feeling ahead of getting it out there? The final mastered track just came through today so I’m extremely excited and unbelievably relieved that it’s all done. Tell us about the…

  • Premiere: CATALAN! – Alive

    November 1, 2017 - By 

    Back in July we presented a first look and listen to ‘OKA’, the debut solo single from CATALAN! AKA Ewen Friers of North Coast alt-punk three-piece Axis Of. What we said of that track (“whilst certainly redolent of the subtly anthemic and nicely bombastic alt-punk of the aforementioned North Coast outfit, explores new, socially-conscious territory) could be directly applied to new single, ‘Alive’. Featuring some great visuals courtesy of Tristan Crowe and Chrissie McGlinchy, it’s a fuzzed-out and perfectly trouncing effort that will almost certainly become something of a live favourite for the project in the coming months.