The programme for this year’s Sound of Belfast has been announced. Returning both live and online for 14 days across 4-18th November, this year’s outing will see 50 events take over 11 venues across the city. Organised by the Oh Yeah Music Centre as a means to turn up the spotlight on the city’s world-class talent, highlights from this year’s programme include Bicep at the Telegraph Building, new night No Photos featuring Marion Hawkes and more, Kneecap, Bangers N’ Mashups live with Mob Wife, F.R.U.I.T.Y., Sasha Samara and more. Go here to check out the full programme and to buy…
-
-
One of the highlights of this year’s Sound of Belfast is a special online event celebrating the life and legacy of much-missed Belfast artist manager, label boss and mentor Lyndon Stephens. Taking place on November 11th, Remembering Lyndon Stephens will pay tribute to an industry titan and gentleman who left an indelible imprint on the landscape of Northern Irish music. Available to watch via the Oh Yeah Music Centre’s official YouTube page from 9.30pm, the event will feature a special set by Malojian with Christopher Coll and more. Sound of Belfast 2020 concludes with the Northern Ireland Music Prize on Thursday, November 12. Photo…
-
This year’s Northern Ireland Music Prize will go ahead with an online broadcast on November 12. Due to covid-19, the annual award ceremony celebrating Northern Irish music will take place at Belfast’s Oh Yeah Music Centre and streamed live via their YouTube channel. As well as performances from shortlisted acts Arborist, Careerist, Joshua Burnside, Kitt Philippa, Phil Kieran and Sasha Samara, it will feature live announcements for four awards: Best Album, Best Single, Best Live Act and the Oh Yeah Contender Award. The event is scheduled to take place during the Sound of Belfast 2020 virtual festival, which runs November…
-
The programme for this year’s Sound of Belfast has been launched. Taking across November 1-10 in various Belfast venues, the ten-day celebration of local music was established by Belfast’s Oh Yeah Music Centre to promote and celebrate the musicians, bands, venues, promoters and music communities of Belfast. This year’s programme is its most extensive to date, with over 70 performances set for 18 participating venues. As well as live music from atists including Jordan Adetunji, Kitt Philippa, The Darkling Air, Wynona Bleach (pictured) and more, there will also be various workshops and conferences from the likes of PPL, Musicians Union…
-
Let’s face it: honorific nicknames in popular music don’t come any more clear-cut than Madonna and the Queen of Pop. The singer, songwriter, businesswoman, actress, producer, dancer, director, author and humanitarian born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 has ceaselessly shapeshifted and fearlessly reinvented like no other. Her musical output is but half the story. Naturally, such a towering legacy has attracted its fair share of filmed exposés and feature-length accounts over the years. None, however, even flirt with the sheer watchability of Alek Keshishian’s 1991 film Madonna: Truth or Dare (or In Bed with Madonna outside of North America). Filmed…
-
One of the programmes at the beating heart of Belfast music hub Oh Yeah Music Centre is their rolling Scratch My Progress scheme. A fully-funded career development accelerator programme designed to help new musicians break through in music industry, the initiative has seen the likes of Kitt Philippa, Sister Ghost, Wynona Bleach, Strange New Places and countless other acts pass through its ranks over the years. Once again, the programme – which we can only highly recommend for up-and-coming Northern Irish bands and artists – is now recruiting selected acts for the intensive talent development programme. Full details, guidelines and application…
-
With its inaugural outing last year proving a resounding success, Belfast’s Oh Yeah Music Centre has announced the programme for this year’s Women’s Work Festival. A unique festival for the city celebrating women in music, the purpose of Women’s Work is to raise the visibility of women who are generally in the minority in music, by hosting a range of activities that are open to all genders and include showcases, gigs, special events, panels, talks, and exhibitions. This year’s programme includes over 50 acts, creatives and DJs across 6 dedicated days, with additional content across the whole month of May. Up to…
-
Having been awarded to Foy Vance, Robyn G Shiels and SOAK in the last three years, the shortlist for this year’s Northern Ireland Music Prize has been revealed. With the overall winner set to be announced at a special event at Belfast’s Mandela Hall on Friday, November 11 – a night which will also feature live music from Girls Names, Jealous of the Birds and PORTS – the following shortlist was compiled via an academy of NI music industry and media. The Bonnevilles – Arrow Pierce My Heart Ciaran Lavery – Let Bad In David C Clements – The Longest Day…
-
When we launched our free physical magazine back in October of 2014 we did so with the boundless conviction that there’s still very much a market and audience for print music magazines. That uniquely fuzzy feeling one gets picking up a lovingly-compiled magazine upon entering a coffee shop or leaving a record store, eager to delve in and get discovering: that’s exactly – and purely – what drives us to produce our own zine, month in, month out. Working alongside Belfast freelance photographer Carrie Davenport – easily one of the leading lights in her field – last summer we were given the opportunity…
-
As part of Women’s Work NI, a week long festival based around International Women’s Day and highlighting the valuable work women contribute to the music industry, current editorial director of MTV Jessica Hopper gave a rousing keynote speech to a crowded Oh Yeah! Centre. The crux of the legendary journalist/editor’s speech was that the so far rather circuitous conversation around women in the industry had only gained momentum recently: we are finally being heard. She outlined how how she got started (a punk fanzine inspired by Babes In Toyland), which brought her neatly to her other point: why is ‘fangirl’…