Celebrating Arthur

Last Thursday, the good people from WHPR were nice enough to give me and few bloggers access to the Guinness 250 festivities in Dublin. As you well know at this stage, there were a wealth of gigs going on across the city on the 24th. Myself, Christian Hughes and Damien Mulley were in Bruxelles as the clock rounded to 17:59. As we toasted Arthur and Christian grabbed this video:

The pub itself was jammed with all venues selling out for the day. Looking out onto the street, where crowds seemed to overflow from each and every pub, there was a jovial atmosphere which almost looked exactly like the television ad. The one name on everyone’s lips was Tom Jones and specifically where he was doing his second gig of the evening. When you have a media access lanyard on, people tend to assume you know the whole lineup. After watching Maria Doyle warm up the crowd in Bruxelles, I headed on to Tripod with the intention of coming back to Bruxelles later.

Tripod’s lineup featured performances by Republic of Loose, Jamie Cullum and Calvin Harris amongst others so I was eager to catch some of the evening. Unfortunately, Jamie Cullum was on early but I arrived just as Kelly Rowland was finishing her suprise set. Up next on the bill, after grabbing a quick pint of course, were Republic of Loose. The crowd were that loud singing along to ‘Comeback Girl’ that Mick Pyro didn’t need to sing it himself through sections. Quality. After that, Roots Manuva was up but I missed most of his set while I chatted to a few other people at the bar. :/

Calvin Harris hit the stage around 10.30 and got the place hopping straight away with signature hit Acceptable in the 80s. The pace didn’t let up with as he banged out tunes like Ready For The Weekend and I’m Not Alone. A great way to end an evening toasting Arthur. Here’s to the next 250 years.