• Obituary: Luke Gleeson

    May 8, 2020 - By 

    The country lost one of its most ardent supporters of music this week. A vital force in Dublin’s live circuit, and a tireless advocate of up-and-coming artists of every ilk and sound, Luke Gleeson dedicated a sizable part of his time and efforts promoting shows in The Grand Social, Whelan’s, Sweeney’s, Drop Dead Twice and, more recently, Bloody Marys. In terms of sheer passion and incentive, he will be remembered by many as a one-off; a zealous live music fan who, in heeding the abundance of talent around him, played his part in making it known to others. As the Dublin underground scene comes to terms…

  • For The Love of Music: An Interview with Andrew Weatherall

    February 17, 2020 - By 

    There simply was no one quite like Andrew Weatherall. One of the most respected selectors, prolific producers and legendary gentlemen in the game, the announcement of his death at the age of 56 has ruptured the music world. Capturing the very essence of the man – his abundant charm and unending devotion for music – we’re pleased (and yet, of course, sad) to share this previously unpublished interview with the man himself from 2015. In it, you can trace the makings of someone who, more than most, could always effortlessly transform a potentially great night into something positively unforgettable. Words by Chris Jones How…

  • The Story Of An Artist: In Memory Of Daniel Johnson

    September 13, 2019 - By 

    On Tuesday, 10th September, 2019, cult singer songwriter and outsider art iconoclast Daniel Johnston passed away at the age of 58 due to a heart attack at his home in Waller, Texas. The singer was best known for his 1983 album Hi, How Are You?, which he recorded alone, on a cassette recorder. The album has gained cult status since it’s release and has been cited by many important musicians (perhaps most notably Kurt Cobain) as being of major influence. In fact, Daniel Johnston has been a major influence on many different people. To some he was something of a…

  • Avenues For Belonging: David Berman soundtracked the strangest and saddest parts of life, but also the most beautiful

    August 8, 2019 - By 

    Songwriter and The Thin Air contributor Maija Sofia reflects on the profound and unwavering influence of  late Silver Jews frontman David Berman, and remembers a peerless, uncompromising artist who not only comforted the lonely and lost, but brought them together. I remember very clearly the first night I ever heard Silver Jews, I was sprawled out on the carpet in a big curved room in North London, lying on my stomach with my laptop open and a bottle of Sainsburys’ wine half-finished beside me. It was early summer and I had the window open to the hot dust and the sound…

  • Runnin’ Down A Dream: Remembering Tom Petty

    October 3, 2017 - By 

    Rock and roll is built on shifting sands. What reinvents the wheel one day, is old hat the next. One minute you’re the Great White Hope, the next you’re Yesterday’s News. And in a world of ‘nearly was’, ‘has beens’, and ‘never were’, Tom Petty was a survivor. With his wide grin, sardonic expression, and electric guitar, he rocked his way through decades worth of pretenders to the throne, seeing them all off, without even seeming to break a sweat. Cool as the proverbial cucumber, Petty didn’t exactly blaze a trail, instead preferring to stand to the side, observing with…

  • The Fifth Beatle: Sir George Martin (1926-2016)

    March 9, 2016 - By 

    Like them or loathe them, The Beatles are the bedrock of popular culture. No other band has exerted the kind of influence and hold over music, and as avatars of cultural change in the decade where everything changed, they led the charge. But would any of it have happened if it wasn’t for Sir George Martin? Unlikely. The Fab Four had the talent, the ideas, and the drive, but it was George Martin who honed them into the force they became. Think of him as like a sculptor, with Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr as the raw material from which…

  • Terry Pratchett (1948-2015)

    March 16, 2015 - By 

    “It is often said that before one dies your life flashes before your eyes. This is in fact true. It is called living.” – Sir Terry Pratchett Terry Pratchett’s last book, a paperback copy, sits on my shelf, pristine and unread since receiving it for Christmas and I find myself both cherishing and dreading the opportunity for one final visit to the most significant of the worlds he created, The Discworld. I can honestly say that I had no idea how important the writer of these books was to me until I read he’d died. Sitting in my workplace looking…

  • “He’s Really Not Dead, As Long As We Remember Him.” Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015)

    February 27, 2015 - By 

    Leonard Nimoy’s first autobiography, published in 1975, was titled I am Not Spock, the actor having been pigeonholed to some extent as the Vulcan scientist from Star Trek. His follow up, published 20 years later, was called I am Spock. In those intervening years, the man himself had come to realise what a potent cultural symbol he had become, and seemed to have reconciled himself to it. As we look back in the aftermath of his passing, it’s certainly apparent that being Spock was no bad thing.The Boston born actor had a long, if unspectacular career in television and film before his…

  • Obituary: Seamus Heaney

    September 2, 2013 - By 

    ‘Earth receive an honoured guest..’ The opening of Auden’s famous tribute to Yeats, with its distinctive rhythm which Heaney dubbed ‘Wystan Auden’s metric feet’ seems appropriate as the poet makes his final journey back into the landscape that inspired so much of his best work. For Heaney was a poet formed out of the claggy clay of his home, not just an Irish poet, or a Belfast poet, but a mid-Ulster poet. In his work I recognise the expressions and above all the accent that I grew up with, its mix of the clumsy and the lyrical, ‘demesnes stalked out in consonants’, flooded by…

  • Death Of The Naturalist: Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

    August 30, 2013 - By 

    How do you write words for the master? Is it possible to pay tribute in language to a man whose legacy is to have captured the very essence of our soul in words? Perhaps not, but for all the words that Seamus Heaney put to paper, it’s a safe bet that over ten times that will be written about him in the years to come. The Castledawson born poet has been hailed as the greatest Irish poet since William Butler Yeats, an iconic figure, sitting comfortably in a pantheon of great Irish voices alongside Beckett, Joyce, Behan, Shaw, Wilde, and…