Near the top of Bold Street as you amble uphill toward the bombed out church; beyond the spot where less intrepid travellers pause, is a place of rest and recuperation; a place of beauty, chocolate wonderment, amazing brews and some of the finest music in the City. A tea room in the 20’s, a cinema in the 60’s and home of the original Microzine clothes shop in the 00’s, LEAF stands proudly in this beautiful art deco building. It is fortunate to have maintained above its main tea emporium a triple height acoustically beautiful performance space, filled with an impressive…
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Small in physical stature but massive in national and international impact, Bridie Monds-Watson, the artist otherwise known as SOAK, has established herself as a confident and chameleonic performer – casually costumed yet commanding, modestly mannered yet musically masterful. These are not words one uses lightly, but they are well earned in the Derry chanteuse’s case; her meteoric rise and the reception of debut album Before We Forgot How To Dream are testament to this. And she expectedly, deservedly returns to loud applause at a packed out homecoming gig in Derry’s Playhouse Theatre, accompanied by a worthy pair of support acts…
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While people will continue to argue tirelessly about whether the internet has been a good or a bad thing for music, here comes another argument for ‘good’. Derry minimal electronic musician Ryan Vail and Aghagallon alt-folkster Ciaran Lavery first became friends online before finally meeting up at a festival they were both appearing at and decided to collaborate on this mini-album. Regardless of whether or not you think streaming music is as bad as killing elephants like Tom DeLonge claims, the sense of community that the internet affords to bring together musicians from different musical backgrounds to try out collaborations…