• Vault Lines: Ciaran Lavery

    December 19, 2016 - By 

    Ahead of playing a special one-off show with strings at Belfast’s The MAC tonight (Monday, December 19), Aghagallon singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery waxes lyrical on his love of a lesser-known Luke Kelly gem, ‘The Sun Is Burning’. I’m somewhere between 14-16 years old and I’m standing in the kitchen of my house. Luke Kelly is playing. We grew up with some version of Luke Kelly and The Dubliners’ Greatest Hits or collection of songs to as far back as I can remember.  I’m not sure if I understood the depth of the music or lyrics but I do know that I…

  • Vault Lines: The Evangelists

    October 5, 2015 - By 

    ‘Jesus Is Dead, Long Live… The Evangelists’, so says the sticker on my old record box. It has been there for 13 years or more, and every time I look at it still evokes feelings of nostalgia for both the band and for the time when I first came across them. It was back in 2002, and my friend Cathy Wright and I had just started doing a weekly radio show and website, both called Alternative Ulster. The whole show and site were dedicated to covering nothing but Northern Irish music. At this time the local music scene was still…