• Preview: RTÉ Choice Music Prize, Irish Album of the Year 2017

    February 4, 2018 - By 

    Since the inception of The Choice Music Prize – now in partnership with national broadcaster RTÉ – in 2005, the list of victors has been exceptionally varied making it close to impossible to cast a definitive answer on who will claim the bountiful cash prize and honour of releasing the best Irish album of the year. Over the last thirteen years, artists as diverse as Julie Feeney to Rusangano Family and The Gloaming to Villagers have won for their outstanding musical output. On paper, the ten albums nominated for 2017 can be broken down into as the following; seven hours…

  • Preview & Festival Mixtape: Le Guess Who? 2017

    October 25, 2017 - By 

    Laying comfortably in the shadow of Amsterdam is the chilled-out university town of Utrecht, where the red light district is gladly a distant memory, and typically Dutch architecture and culture are in great supply. While this particularly from of citywide festival can be tough to pull off, Le Guess Who? has developed and diversified every year, offering something for everyone. A holiday-planner’s dream, it boasts the artistic ambition with none of the associated pretentiousness. Many of the performances take place in the impressive TivoliVredenburg or multitude of other venues within walking distance. Most music starts after 5pm, offering the chance to visit the Rietveld Schröder House, tour the…

  • Preview: Atlantic Sessions 2017

    October 23, 2017 - By 

    Atlantic Sessions returns across November 16-19 with over 60 acts performing in Portstewart, Portrush  and Portballintrae. If 2016 is anything to go by this will be a glorious return. Flogging a festival is hard work, ask anyone daft enough to think they can get away with it. There is a collection of calamities for every Castlepalooza, a box of bankruptcies for every Belsonic and many a chain-smoking, sweary booker languishing in a post-summer lull promising to never, ever, do it again. Let’s face it: there is no shortage of the things as any regular reader of The Thin Air probably knows. Given…

  • Preview: Women’s Work 2017 with Oh Yeah Music Centre’s Charlotte Dryden

    May 24, 2017 - By 

    Ahead of its second annual return this weekend, Brian Coney chats to Charlotte Dryden, CEO of Belfast’s Oh Yeah Music Centre and founder of Women’s Work NI to discuss what’s in store for the latter this year. Go here for the programme for Women’s Work 2017. Hi, Charlotte. Last year’s inaugural Women’s Work seemed like huge success. How was it from a personal point of view? Oh I was immensely proud and very moved by the support. The line-up for both last year and this year’s forthcoming second outing have been first-rate. But how did the festival bloom from discussion into…

  • Preview: Across The Line at 30

    December 10, 2016 - By 

    Long a bastion of promoting the very best in Irish music, North and South, weekly BBC Radio Ulster programme Across The Line celebrated its 30th birthday in style with a special live show at Belfast’s Ulster Hall back in September. Featuring performances from The Divine Comedy, SOAK, Therapy?, Villagers, R51 and Saint Sister, the event was both broadcast live on the long-running BBC Radio Ulster show on the night. Now, three months later, a 70-minute celebration of ATL, Across The Line at 30, will air on BBC One Northern Ireland on Monday, December 12 at 10.40pm. Presented by Colin Murray…

  • Preview: The Undertones @ The BBC

    May 27, 2016 - By 

    Having formed in Derry in 1976, it’s a fact universally acknowledged that The Undertones have spent the last 40 years establishing and re-establishing themselves as one of the country’s most treasured acts. With their equally enduring legacy, back catalogue and inimitable charm, the band have just marked the milestone by recording a special live show for BBC Radio Ulster in front of a live studio audience at Blackstaff in Belfast. Hosted by Stephen McCauley, the resulting one-hour programme – set to broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster and Foyle at 3pm on Monday afternoon – is a perfect distillation of why the band are still a homegrown live proposition at the peak of…

  • Preview: Cirque Berserk

    January 26, 2016 - By 

    A large-scale international troupe comprised of jugglers, acrobats, aerialists, dancers, musicians and stuntmen, Cirque Berserk has beyond established its reputation for bringing contemporary cirque-style artistry and daredevilry to the theatre. Ahead of two shows at Belfast’s Grand Opera House on Friday and Saturday (January 29/30) our photographer Sara Marsden gets exclusive access to their current show, shooting and reporting back from Glasgow’s iconic King’s Theatre. See below for VIP competition. Two weeks ago I had a mere hope of being allowed in to photograph the performers of Cirque Berserk on their stopover in Belfast, but here I find myself standing outside…

  • Preview: Outloud @ Outburst 2015

    November 12, 2015 - By 

    As part of this year’s Outburst Arts Festival, the inaugural Outburst: Outloud this Saturday (November 14) will be a day long event of stalls, talks, workshops and music all with a feminist/trans/queer slant. On the day there will be stalls, talks and workshops from Belfast Feminist Network, Hollaback, Sail, GenderJam, Anchor, Reclaim the Night, The Belfast City Rockets and more. There will also be zine-making and lyric-writing workshops, and a discussion based around the play Scorch (which is showing at the Mac). As well as all that there will be loads of bands playing throughout the day with headliners in Edinburgh’s…

  • Preview: Feminist Film Festival

    September 30, 2015 - By 

    That there is such a thing as a Feminist Film Festival in Dublin, and that that festival is celebrating its second year will be both a surprise and an annoyance to some people. Probably the same people who ask why BBC Radio 4 still has a daily programme called Woman’s Hour. But to those people I say, consider this: currently there are 22 female presidents, prime ministers, and other heads of state in the world. That compares to 174 male world leaders. Odd that, considering that men only make up 50.4% of the planet’s population. Odder still is the fact…

  • Track-by-track preview: Ed Zealous – Wired

    December 17, 2013 - By 

    In advance of its release on February 3, we have the honour to bestow upon your lovely eyes a track-by-track preview of Wired, the momentously-anticipated debut album by Belfast-based indie/electro-pop quartet Ed Zealous. Having released ‘Thanks A Million’, ‘Telepaths’ and ‘Medicines’ from the ten-track release, over the last couple of years the band have given us a steady taste of what their full-length debut album has in store. Let’s just say: if you enjoyed any of the aforementioned singles to date, there’s a very good chance Wired will leave you intent upon an immediate second listen. Check out the artwork and our track-by-track preview…