• The Liberation of Loss: An Interview with Guy Garvey

    April 18, 2016 - By 

    The rest of 2016 is shaping up to be very busy for Guy Garvey. In between winding down his sojourn in support of solo debut Courting The Squall, the Elbow front-man is curating this year’s Meltdown Festival at the Barbican before rejoining his band mates to write a follow-up to 2014’s The Take Off And Landing Of Everything. Jonny Currie chats to Guy about cathedrals, etymology, and being a bit of a community freak. You’ve played Belfast a number of times over the years. Do you have any particular memories that stick out? I love Belfast! One memory that sticks in…

  • Sleaford Mods @ Black Box, Belfast

    September 21, 2015 - By 

    Culture Night has been washed away.  The Cathedral Quarter’s cobbled streets that welcomed all ages two nights ago are now a soaking slip hazard on a subdued Sunday evening. You’ve no chance of taking shelter from the rain in the Black Box without a ticket either as tonight’s Sleaford Mods gig is a sell-out. In the words of ‘Bronx in a Six’ – “What culture? Fuck culture.” The mood in the venue is chilled but expectant. One half of the duo Andrew Fearn can be found casually chatting to people in the crowd before setting up on stage. This venue…

  • Parquet Courts w/ Cian Nugent & The Cosmos @ Limelight, Belfast

    September 6, 2015 - By 

    It would be a surprise if Parquet Courts play a gig of this size in Belfast again. The Brooklyn-via-Texas quartet are squeezing in this trip up north after gigs in Galway and Limerick, and before an appearance down at Electric Picnic the next night. Not very practical perhaps, but for a band in thrall to the pre-internet era of following your own muse free from promotional “practicalities,” it makes perfect sense. This is an early show at the Limelight. Good news for Parquet Courts fans who want an early night, bad news for any staff with the difficult task of…

  • Hozier w/ Little Green Cars @ Belsonic, Belfast

    August 25, 2015 - By 

    A sell-out crowd at Belsonic witnesses a solid performance from an artist who has transcended initial industry buzz to become a genuine star. This is the world we live in now. Once the final support act Little Green Cars (frontwoman Faye O’Rourke pictured below) finishes their set it becomes “selfie-stick” time in the crowd. Andrew Hozier expressed dismay in an interview earlier this year at, “the very fact that an instrument (the selfie-stick) exists at a music festival so that you can take pictures of just yourself … the whole point of live music is to enjoy the experience and you take…

  • Q+A: Idlewild

    December 8, 2014 - By 

    Jonny Currie talks to Idlewild guitarist Rod Jones about recording their new album, memories of Belfast, and preparing for the upcoming tour. It’s been five years since the band’s last album Post-Electric Blues – was it easy to pick up where you left off in terms of writing and recording for Idlewild again? Surprisingly so. From about the age of eighteen it’s all we’d ever really known. It never felt like a living because we were so caught up in what we were doing. Although towards the end of the process with the last record it felt like it was like…

  • Steve Earle @ Open House Festival

    August 6, 2014 - By 

    With an image of the ascending Christ as a backdrop, the sanctuary of Bangor Abbey would be an imposing stage for many lesser artists than Steve Earle, who, from the opening unnamed new song to the closing favourite ‘Copperhead Road’, ensures the sold-out Bangor crowd’s attention remains on the music rather than on the discomfort of the church pews. The absence of a merchandise stall, café and bar facilities, or a support act does not detract from an intense yet entertaining set from the Texan, who admits between songs, “It’s not the first time that I’ve played in a church,…