GIGS
Leaving Certificate results day. For some its a day of terror, and not just those getting the results. So, how about a leaving cert festival? (And why hasn’t anyone thought of this before). The first Leaving Cert Celebrations is the Summer Blowout 2010 Festival on Wednesday 18 August. About 10,000 leaving certers as will be in Donnybrook Stadium, Dublin for a day MC’d by Lottie Ryan from 4pm to 11pm. The line up includes the Indie band, Skully & Carl from Razorlight playing an exclusive Razorlight DJ Set. Alexandra Burke ( presumably in an outfit, that will make it a day to remember). Hip hop act NDUBZ fly in from London and from Italy comes Alex Gaudino. Katie and Thomas from the Bafta winning Skins will be lending their DJ talents to the night and jetting in from, er, Malahide is Director. Lee Ryan (the ex Blue member) is doing his new tracks and in the midst of this is Eoin Glackin and the home grown Ruth Anne Cunningham, better know as a song writer rather than a performer. Also in the mix is the Battle of the Bands winners Fitzafrenic who fought off stiff competition to win the chance to play at this one day festival. Unfortunately, Summer Blowout has been cancelled with the party now moved to Dandelion, Button Factory and Club 92.
Not exactly a gig, but this week Saturday 14 August until Sunday 22 August is the Irish Hackerspaces Week. Soldering, electronic textiles, photography and 3d printing (make your own toys) are just some of the exciting topics for the first annual Irish Hackerspaces Week. These events are being hosted by hackerspace groups all over Ireland to highlight the talents creativity, innovation and opportunity of modern hacker culture in Ireland. There is also such a thing as a culture hacker (looks around nervously).
Planned events include tlaks, presentations, meet-ups and social events. Events are being hosted and organised locally by each hackerspace group (TOG in Dublin, 091Labs in Galway, Hack NI in Belfast, Limerick Hackerspace and Cork Hackerspace which is still setting up in the chambers part of the Camden Palace Hotel), highlighting their facilities and areas of interests. Streamed collaborative events are also planned to showcase the shared identity between hackerspace groups. Irish hackerspaces also form part of a growing international community of about 450 international hackerspaces.
TICKETS
“The Nameless” is Cathy Davey’s third album and she is promoting it with an Irish wide tour. First signed by Parlophone’s Regal Recordings after a batch of home-recorded demos caused a bit of a stir, and played her first live date shortly thereafter. With time, as Cathy managed to wriggle out of the indie-rock role that Parlophone had given her. The Nameless has more of Cathy’s personality in it than any of her previous work. There’s a darkness here that is more prominent than before, but it’s coupled with songs as fine as anything she’s ever written. Lead single Little Red is the kind of song that could be adopted as a new national anthem. She’s brought back members of her band too: Conor J. O’Brien has returned to play some guitar and some drums, taking a break from recording his début album as Villagers (but no word yet if he’s on tour with her). The line up is:
Saturday 2 October Glor, Ennis
Monday 4 October, Town Hall, Galway
Wednesday 6 October, The Academy, Dublin
Thursday 7 October Royal, Castlebar
Friday 8 October INEC Killarney
Saturday 9 October Set, Kilkenny
Wednesday 13 October Savoy , Cork
Thursday 14 October Riverbank, Wexford
Friday 15 October Dolan’s, Limerick
Saturday 16 October Forum, Waterford
Tickets on sale now.
Ryan Sheridan launches his début single Jigsaw at the Sugar Club on Thursday 9th September. Hailing from County Monaghan, as a teenager, the singer and guitarist made his tentative first steps onstage in the pubs and clubs of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. An intimidating environment where he was old enough to play but not to drink, the competitive nature of the scene and the city meant he had to get good quick or go home. From there throw in Glasgow and the Scottish circuit then back to Ireland. Cut to Dublin in 2009 when he joins forces with Polish percussionist Artur Graczykand the pair hit the streets of Dublin to perform. He plays The Sugar Club, on 9 September after hitting Spain’s Benicassim Festival and Ireland’s own Oxegen festival. Ryan Sheridan’s début single ‘Jigsaw’ will be released on 10th September.
Local Natives have November tour includes a date at Whelan’s in Dublin on Monday 15 November. It was in December 2008 that the band decamped to Silver Lake, where they all live in the same house. But the Silver Lake digs isn’t the first house the band have shared. They lived together in Orange County too, in a place affectionately known as Gorilla Manor. “It was insanely messy and there were always friends over knocking around on guitars or our thrift store piano,” says Ryan, “it was an incredible experience and I’ll never forget that time.” The original Gorilla Manor, where the band wrote the majority of their record, had such an impact that the band has paid tribute to the house by naming their debut album in its honour. The self-funded ‘Gorilla Manor’ was recorded by Raymond Richards in West Los Angeles. Chosen because he was “super talented and super affordable,” Richards co-produced the record with Local Natives in his own Red Rockets Glare studio. ‘Gorilla Manor’ is out now through Infectious Music. Tickets are on sale now.
