I’m aware that we’ve covered Arthur’s Day quite a bit on Culch (check out Sean’s interview with The Script) but we wanted to show you some of the photos we captured on the night from The Hop Store in St. Jame’s Gate. We joined the red carpet around 4pm to shoot the stars arriving for both the Hop Store gig and the pubs and venues across Dublin. As the 17:59 moment approached, Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, led the toast before the rest of the band joined him on stage for their acoustic set. Playing hits like ‘Take Back the City’ and ‘Chocolate’ the lads were great and even dueted with Maud in Cahoots for ‘Set the Fire to the Third Bar’. The aforementioned winners of the Our Thursdays competition, Maud in Cahoots, followed Snow Patrol with a great set which kept the crowd reveling. A change of pace came next, but one which pleased a lot of the ladies present as Westlife took the stage to belt out some ballads. I’m no major fan of them myself but they put on a good show and weren’t put off by a minor technical hitch half way through their set.
The Manic Street Preachers are a band I’ve only seen once before but they stormed the Hop Store with the crowd belting the lyrics back to them. They probably received the best reception, bar Westlife, and finished off their set with the peerless ‘Design for Life’. We were firmly on the rock end of the night with Scotland’s Biffy Clyro taking to the stage. It’s hard to imagine a front man with more energy than Simon Neil and the band treated us to tracks from their 2009 album ‘Only Revolutions’. Money generated from the ticket sales of all venues went to the Arthur Guinness Fund which funds valuable projects both in Ireland and abroad.
The surprise acts:
Imelda May performed a secret lunchtime set in The Old Oak (Cork)
Paolo Nutini performed in Crane Lane (Cork)
David Gray performed in The Róisín Dubh (Galway)
Snow Patrol performed in The Odeon (Dublin)
Brandon Flowers performed in Whelans (Dublin)
The Script performed at Bruxelles (Dublin)
Manic Street Preachers performed in Sinnotts (Dublin)
Cathy Davey performed in The Stags Head (Dublin)
Westlife performed in The Bank (Dublin)
Tim Robbins performed in Oliver St John Gogarty’s
Kelis performed in Dakota, Dublin
Er thanks for not putting up the ‘other’ photo.