• Years & Years @ Mandela Hall, Belfast

    Having released their debut record, Communion, at the end of June this year, it was only a matter of time before Years & Years graced our shores for a headline show. With tickets flying out upon release, the band added a second show at Dublin’s Academy due to demand. The popularity of the electronic pop trio has soared throughout the year, having won BBC’s Sound of 2015 award, alongside frequent radio airtime with singles ‘King’ and ‘Shine’. The sold-out show has been highly anticipated by the Irish fans, many determined to see their first Irish show since Longitude Festival, that…

  • Primer: Alexander Reilly

    In this installment of Primer, Alexander Reilly invites us over to his studio to give us some insight into how his colourful character laden work comes to life through his applications of paint. Photos and interview by Mark Earley. Hi Alex! When did you first realise were an artist and in turn, that your career would be in art? I remember in my first year of school when I was four or five, all the kids in my class wanting me to draw them dinosaurs. I was never very academic or good at sports, so being the best at drawing became…

  • Bookmark: Caitriona Lally

    In this installment of Bookmark, we head over to the cosy home of Irish writer Caitriona Lally, author of Eggshells which was chosen by The Irish Times Book Club as their book of the month for October. She has just been shortlisted by the Irish Book Awards 2015 for the Newcomer of the Year award. Photos by Melanie Mullan. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller For his fearlessness and honesty and rawness and laugh-out-loud sentences. The kind of book that changes the way you think about fiction, that makes you think a more powerful, more real kind of writing is possible. Oranges Are…

  • Deathcrusher Tour 2015

    Deathcrusher tour 2015 took place at the Limelight in Belfast and Vicar Street in Dublin featuring Carcass, Obituary, Napalm Death, Voivod and Herod. Photos by Brian Revels and Isabel Thomas. Limelight, Belfast by Brian Revels Vicar Street, Dublin by Isabel Thomas

  • Irish Tour: Father John Misty

    Father John Misty’s sold out show in Galway’s Roisín Dubh on Thursday the 22nd of October fell during the same week as the city’s Comedy Festival. This proved interesting for two reasons; the first of which being that none of the venue’s bigger, alternative buildings were available for the show, resulting in a perhaps uncharacteristically intimate gig for Josh Tillman’s self-defining moniker. Secondly, it made for a curious observation as to what people really get out of watching a performance of any kind. When watching a comedy show people obviously are out to laugh until their cheeks hurt, to be…