• Open House Festival 2016

    August 1, 2016 - By 

    With a host of lovingly-compiled, brilliantly diverse outings behind them, Open House Festival will return to Bangor from August 1-30. With 125 events taking place in more than 40 venues in the Northern Irish seaside town, music, film, food & drink, theatre, literature, comedy, art, magic, mystery, dance and lectures is – as ever – the perfectly balanced order of the day for the annual Bangor festival. Amongst the highlights in this year’s programme are a 40th anniversary show by The Damned, Iron & Wine, a 70th birthday tribute to former AC/DC frontman Bon Scott, Ian Rankin, Tom Robinson and returning Bangor songstress…

  • Inbound: Franklyn

    July 30, 2016 - By 

    It seems like a case of twice bitten, thrice wise for Frankyln’s Owen Strathern. After initially finding some success with Magherafelt mods The Tides, Strathern’s growing indifference to the lad rock pedalled by his school friends lead to the bassist joining forces with his brother Enda and Tides newbie Stephen Leacock to explore poppier territories. General Fiasco, including Enda on guitar and Leacock on drums, seemed destined for big things: the band’s pop punk melodies, paired with Owen’s deceptively vulnerable lyrics, drew the attention of the British indie press, and the success of early singles ‘Sometime Sometime’ and ‘Ever So…

  • EP Stream: Remains of Youth – There is Hope Without Progress

    July 29, 2016 - By 

    Bringing together new material with complete re-workings of older songs, There is Hope With Progress is an EP that marks the return of rejuvenated Belfast post-hardcore/alternative quartet Remains of Youth. With key influences in the likes of Idlewild, At The Drive-In and Derry’s Jetplane Landing (acts always proudly worn on their sleeve without ever feeling overbearing) the Adam Shirlow fronted-band have forged a five-track release that, largely ruminating on the passing of time – often in relation to the band’s own extended hiatus – brims with carefully-considered musicianship, strong sense of urgency and deft vitality. Stream the EP – recorded by Rocky O’Reilly…

  • The Beatyard 2016

    July 29, 2016 - By 

    Featuring everyone from Parliament/Funkadelic legend George Clinton, Roy Ayers and Jape to Lee Scratch Perry, Rubberbandits and Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, The Beatyard will make a no doubt victorious return to Dublin’s Dun Laoghaire Harbour on Saturday July 30 and Sunday July 31. With tickets available to buy here, the August Bank Holiday weekender festival – presented by Beck’s – will also include The Eatyard (including Brewtonic Carinvale, Bread & Bones and The Big Blue Bus), Studioyard featuring The Bernard Shaw Flea, ADW Art, Tasty Threads and more, as well as Kidsyard, promising “imaginosity” (we like the sound of that…

  • Festival Mixtape: Stendhal 2016

    July 26, 2016 - By 

    Voted Ireland’s Best Small Festival for the last three years in a row, Stendhal Festival of Art returns to Ballymully Cottage Farm in Limavady on the weekend of August 12-13 with their strongest and most varied bill to date. Featuring the likes of alt-rock titans Therapy?, Lynched, Badly Drawn Boy, Derry’s Ryan Vail, Jealous of the Birds, PORTS and alt-folk five-piece Emerald Armada, the team have once more struck an impressive balance between weight and restraint over the line-up’s two days and nights. With tickets still available to buy for a mere £40 here, check out the full line-up and stream our fifteen-track track playlist, featuring our must-see…

  • Popicalia 22

    July 25, 2016 - By 

    Having declared back in January that they were “alive and well and making plans for 2016” Dublin’s self-proclaimed Bockety POP collective Popical Island will host their grand twenty-second Popicalia at Bello Bar on Saturday, July 30. Headlined by indie-rock trio Squarehead, the show – which also features fellow islanders Land Lovers and Ginnels – is an inestimable opportunity to (re-)acquaint oneself with said bocket. Admission is just €8 (or £300 according to the show’s Facebook event page. Man, Brexit has hit hard).

  • Ash To Be Awarded Oh Yeah Legend Award

    July 21, 2016 - By 

    With previous recipients including Therapy? and The Divine Comedy, it’s been revealed that Northern Irish alt-rock trio Ash will be awarded this year’s Oh Yeah Legend Award at a special presentation at Belfast’s Mandela Hall on November 11. Followed by a live performance of their classic debut album 1977, the event will be preceded by another award, the NI Music Prize, which aims to celebrate the very best Northern Irish album of the year previous, as selected by an academy of local media and music industry professionals. Charlotte Dryden, CEO the Oh Yeah Music Centre says: “Ash have played a major…

  • “If you aren’t catered for make it happen.” An Interview With All-Female Night GIRL

    July 21, 2016 - By 

    The brainchild of DJs Venus Dupree AKA Claire Hall and Marion Hawkes, Belfast’s The Pavilion will see the launch of all-female DJ night GIRL tomorrow night (Friday, July 22). With a vast musical back catalogue between them, the residents are promising a full-on musical assault spanning the gap between disco, Italo, house and techno. Brian Coney chats to Hawkes about why the time is right for the country’s first regular all-female night. GIRL is launching this weekend at the Pavilion in Belfast. When were the proverbial seeds for the project first sown? A few months after meeting Claire I guess.…