Featuring Strength, Girls Names and Gatefolds, Mickey Rooney captures highlights from the Thursday of this year’s Music City in Derry.
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One of our ones to watch in 2016, Derry’s Strength have really made their mark on the live circuit throughout the country over the last few months. Set to continue in that fashion with a show alongside Temper Drone at Whelan’s in Dublin on May 20, the Rory Moore-fronted outfit are also one of several Irish acts set to feature on this year’s Record Store Gay compilation, which is set for release – as ever – via the mighty Little Gem tomorrow (Friday, May 20). And what a cover they opted for: a synth-pop rendering of Dave Berry’s ‘The Crying Game’. A handful…
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The latest showcase by Mirador, Beauty Sleep, Franklyn and Strength played Belfast’s Bar Sub at Queen’s Student University at the weekend. Photos by Liam Kielt.
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Having played our Independent Venue Week showcase at Belfast’s Oh Yeah Centre on Saturday night, Derry’s Strength are the latest Irish act we’ve handpicked as a “one to watch” throughout 2016 and beyond. Words by Brian Coney. Photos by James Cunningham. Arguably one of the bolder, more idiosyncratic propositions to emerge in the North over the last while, Derry’s Strength were formed from the smouldering embers of sadly-departed psychobilly art-rockers Red Organ Serpent Sound. With the release of the former’s bugged-out new single, ‘Northern Ireland Yes’ (their attempt to “embrace the cultural psyche of the North and send it back…
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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…
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Set to play our Independent Venue Week show at/with Belfast’s Oh Yeah Centre on Saturday, January 30, Derry band Strength are one of sixteen Irish acts we’ve handpicked for our current 16 For ’16 feature. Ahead of a string of shows to mark its 7″ release, we’re pleased to premiere the video for their positively singular new single, ‘Northern Ireland Yes’, along with a revealing Q+A with the band’s main man, Rory Moore. Dig in. Hi Rory. When and how did Strength come about? Strength came about at the tail end of Red Organ Serpent Sound. I felt we were losing a lot of the live, creative…
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Comprised of the likes of ex-Red Organ Serpent Sound member Rory Moore and Donegal producer Conor McNamee AKA Nyt Bloomer, Derry “pop” band Strength offer up a curious manifesto of sorts on their Facebook page: “I wanted to use pieces of dead machinery: an old drum machine: a broken bass: a vhs recorder. I wanted to use things that people had disregarded or forgotten about, I needed to find the light that was still flickering within these machines. My whole purpose was to create something that would sound good in a crap hi-fi.” An admirable approach for sure, the fruits of…