• Joshua Burnside w/ Ports & Little Rivers @ Studio2, Liverpool

    October 6, 2017 - By 

    Liverpool’s Studio2 is an odd sort of a place. It’s on the backstreet of a backstreet, far away from Concert Square, the main strip and the horror of the bottled Beatles, 80s bars and fake paddywhackery of Matthew St. For the non-scousers among you, don’t Google Concert Square – it’s not what you think it is. In fact, if you ever get to Liverpool avoid the place like the bloody plague. And yet here we are, among the carparks, mechanics and those kinds of places that can just afford the rent around here. This little oasis in the middle of…

  • Video Premiere: PORTS – The Few and Far Between

    February 7, 2017 - By 

    Having been busy in the studio recording new material, PORTS are currently gearing up for a trip to Kansas to showcase at the prestigious Folk Alliance International festival. A soaring peak from the Derry band’s debut album, The Devil Is a Songbird, ‘The Few and Far Between’ is a song that precisely distils the Derry band’s anthemic alt-pop craft. Marrying soaring crescendos with finely-woven instrumentation and sublime harmonies, it’s become something of a highlight from the Steven McCool-fronted band’s live shows as of late. Released as a single at the tail-end of last year, the song now comes accompanied with…

  • Stendhal Festival of Art 2016 (Day One)

    August 15, 2016 - By 

    Growing stronger each year, there’s a pretence-dodging spirit about Stendhal Festival of Art that always puts creating experiences worth remembering firmly centre-stage. Tucked away in the beautiful, barley-bordered Ballymully Cottage Farm – a heart-skippingly scenic hideaway on the outskirts of Limavady – organisers have lovingly honed the many magical elements that collide to make it Northern Ireland’s most unmissable summer festival. Priding itself as much on its intimate rural setting as it does its family-friendly atmosphere – which is unparalleled – the many hidden corners of enchantment that hem the festival’s two large areas of stages, stalls and curious spaces ensures no creative stone feels left unturned. “We’re a punk band.…

  • PORTS – The Devil is a Songbird

    May 26, 2016 - By 

    ‘Luck’ is a funny old thing, especially in the often unforgiving world of music, although at the start of 2013, Derry’s Little Bear seemed to very much have it on their side. A bout of acute laryngitis in Two Door Cinema Club’s Alex Trimble saw Little Bear step in at the eleventh hour to replace the Bangor indie-poppers at 2013’s Other Voice’s Festival, and their show-stealing set paved the way for massive critical acclaim and a set of huge shows in Belfast’s Limelight and their home town’s Nerve Centre. Luck seemed to turn the other way fairly promptly though, as the band watched the support act…

  • Watch: PORTS – The Devil Is A Songbird

    May 12, 2016 - By 

    A perfectly-paced masterstroke of subtle, emotive power, ‘The Devil is a Songbird’ is arguably the strongest single to date from Derry’s PORTS. Accompanied by a superb video directed by the band and Paul Martin Brown, it aims straight for the jugular, confirming the band’s ever-growing standing as one of the country’s finest acts of their inspirited ilk. Speaking to us about the track, Steven McCool from the band said, “Like most of the songs I write it starts off with imagery, daydreaming. I could picture a woman in an old dark candle lit room staring blankly to the side. It looked like…

  • Independent Venue Week: PORTS, Robyn G Shiels, Strength and DANI @ Oh Yeah Music Centre, Belfast

    January 25, 2016 - By 

    Along with Belfast’s Oh Yeah Music Centre and Independent Venue Week, we’ll co-host a genre-spanning showcase as part of this year’s Out To Lunch Festival at the Oh Yeah Centre on Saturday, January 30. Derry act PORTS are preparing for the release of their debut album, Devil Is A Songbird. Expect harmonies that are full of glory and songs that drill into the chambers of the heart. Robyn G Shiels is ready to unwrap the follow-up to his award-winning album Blood Of The Innocents. His line is intensity, terse yarns plus banjo. Strength have a lineage back to Derry’s Red Organ Serpent Sound…

  • Watch: PORTS – Gameplay

    September 8, 2015 - By 

    It feels like a lifetime ago that Derry band PORTS went under the moniker Little Bear. Having very much underlined that interim period in the sublime evolution of their rousing indie rock sound, the quartet’s latest single ‘Gameplay’ is a wistful and cunningly layered mini masterstroke, with a perfectly balanced ratio of sleep and release. Check out the band’s forthcoming tour dates and video for the aforementioned single below. September 25: Whelan’s, Dublin September 26: EchoEcho, Derry September 27:  Monroe’s, Galway October 2: Black Box, Belfast October 3: HWCH, Dublin October 4: Cyprus Avenue, Cork

  • Line-up announced for inaugural Output showcase

    September 30, 2014 - By 

    With just over a fortnight to wait, the line-up for the inaugural Output have been announced. Northern Ireland’s largest ever one-day conference and showcasing event, taking place throughout Belfast’s city centre and Cathedral Quarter on Thursday, October 16, it will see a series of free talks, workshops and pop-up gigs, attending by around 350 artists, businesses and creative students. We’re very happy to be involved, too. Teaming up with tastemaker par excellence Niall Byrne AKA Nialler9, we will host a most awesome showcase in the Black Box main room with Cork psych rock five-piece Altered Hours (pictured), Dublin electronic duo Contour, Derry…