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The Lion King Is Coming!

  By Micheál Murphy | December 10, 2012 - 4:45 pm | Featured Post, Performance Art, The Culch, Theatre
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Whether it’s Disney’s animated blockbuster or the world-renowned stage musical, everyone is familiar with the story and characters of The Lion King, as well as Elton John’s soundtrack with such memorable songs as ‘Circle of Life’, and ‘Can You feel the Love tonight’. The success story is such that 15 years later the stage musical is still running on both Broadway and the West End, and boasts being the highest grossing Broadway show of all time. AND IT’S COMING TO DUBLIN! Being a lover of musicals, I’ve tried to get tickets whenever I’m in London but it’s always sold out, which is a testament to its success and popularity. So when the tour comes to the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre you can expect to find me begging, borrowing or stealing (albeit unlikely) a ticket from whatever source I can manage. If worst comes to worst, I might even buy one. … There’s more →

Spirit of Folk Festival 2012

  By Culch.ie | December 7, 2012 - 2:00 pm | Festivals, Music, The Culch
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As we come to the cold end of a very hectic year, a few of us are looking back over the highlight of our Summer season - anyone who has read culch regularly will know how much we loved Spirit of Folk. It’s a small festival with a big heart and, this year they managed to keep the same atmosphere and sense of community amongst the festival goers. Anto, Peter and Brian, who were there last year, were joined by Blots, Darren, Elly, Phillip and Sarah so this post will contain contributions from a few of us. A SOFF megapost if you will. Anto: I’d been in two minds about attending SOF last year. I didn’t know a lot about it and I wasn’t really up for a weekend of camping. In hindsight, I’m so glad I went and I’d been looking forward to the second year for months. This … There’s more →

Christmas FM 2012 is here

  By niallok | December 7, 2012 - 1:24 pm | Featured Post, Music, Music Videos, Radio
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It’s that time of year again… Christmas FM, the hugely popular Christmas music themed radio station which raises thousands of euros for charity every year is returning for another run this year – and this year they’re covering more of the country than ever before! New Culch.ie writer Niall O’Keeffe (that’s me!) will be presenting on the station (starting tonight!), which is based in the O’Callaghan Alexander Hotel in Dublin city centre and can be heard on FM in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Kildare and the South-East region as well as online via the web site & smartphone apps. This year, it’s sponsored by the EBS and Clothing.ie and will feature over 60 radio stars who are once again giving their time for free in order to help out a great cause - ISPCC Childline. Those presenting shows include old favourites such as Mike Moloney and Gerry Wilson, Keith Shanley and … There’s more →

Stars Come Out for Medal of Honor Launch

  By David Sheehan | November 28, 2012 - 3:30 pm | Games, The Culch
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Neil and Eamon McGee

The worlds of GAA and rugby collided in the Sky Suite on the seventh floor of the Radisson Blu in Dublin as one set of sporting brothers pitted their wits against another. All-Ireland winners Neil and Eamon McGee went head-to-head with Rob and Dave Kearney at the launch of EA’s Medal of Honor Warfighter. With all four men being keen gamers, testing out the latest addition to the Medal of Honor family was something they were only two happy to do. “Part of our job is that you’ve a lot of downtime, you can’t be out every night. There’s a lot of time spent on the couch resting up and just looking after yourself, so what better way to spend it than playing some EA games” said Rob Kearney. The McGee’s for their part also admitted a liking for the games. “Eamon would be more into the war games than … There’s more →

Competition Closed: Jack L and The 27 Club

  By Darren Byrne | November 28, 2012 - 12:53 pm | Competitions, Featured Post, Gigs, Music, Site News
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*** Congratualtions to Laura Carroll *** *** who has won a pair of tickets to tonight’s show *** I‘ve said it many times before and I’m sure I’ll repeat it again and again - Jack L is incredible. He is my favourite Irish singer and I could listen to him forever. In his latest show, The 27 Club, the work of iconic artists such as Janis Joplin, The Doors, Robert Johnson, The Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse, Echo & The Bunnymen, Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana are interpreted. Few musicians set out to become legends, even fewer succeed. Yet by any standard musicians like Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain are legendary. Each left behind a lasting musical legacy, with songs that freeze forever a moment in time, speak for a generation, or simply give voice to the grief and grace of the human heart. In so many ways … There’s more →

Royseven talk Need for Speed Most Wanted, Nerds and X-Factor.

  By David Sheehan | November 28, 2012 - 10:50 am | Celebs, Featured Post, Music, The Culch
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Need for Speed Most Wanted

It was in the plush surrounds of the Radisson Hotel Golden Lane that I caught up with the golden boys of the Irish rock scene – Royseven. Still fresh from the success of their album ‘You Say, We Say’, the likeable Dubliners had been invited along to sample EA’s latest release – Need for Speed Most Wanted. Keen gamers, it was something they were only too happy to do, and Culch.ie was only too happy to sit in on some inter-band sparring as lads discussed their console fetishes and plans for the future. Culch: So who is the best gamer? Paul: It’s probably Sam….well, Sam’s probably the most dedicated gamer in that he’s constantly online playing games! Sam: I grew up playing games, I had every console going from C64 to Amiga 500 then on to NES… Lego: My first was an Amstrad and you had to load it up … There’s more →

The Sodshow wins Best Podcast 2012

  By Anto | November 23, 2012 - 11:01 am | Podcasts, The Culch
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You’ll forgive us if this entry isn’t an album or event review but we had to mark a big achievement by one of our contributors. The Sodshow, Ireland’s garden radio show and podcast, airs live every Friday at 3pm on Dublin City 103.2 Fm and is available around tea-time that evening in podcast. Winning the Best Irish Podcast at the Blog Awards Ireland 2012 recently, Peter Donegan had this to say: It’s great for Irish gardening and horticulture. The Sodshow is a great Irish-born and bred radio show and podcast for those that are serious about their horticulture as much as it is for those that simply like to sit on their garden bench. Gardening and gardens in whatever format you enjoy them should at a very minimum make you smile. The Sodshow very simply retells that story. We owe a massive note of thanks to The Sodshow sponsors Greensax.ie … There’s more →

My Time At A Festival: Spirit of Folk 2012

  By Peter | November 6, 2012 - 11:55 am | Festivals
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I’m gonna have to start my look back on Spirit of Folk 2012 with this piece of audio that was a #soff12 Sodshow special. Textually, it really does save about 4 gizillion paragraphs of what if’s and Aimsir Modh Coinníollach‘s that we who were there in year one wondered about….. pre us getting there. Scroll to 5 mins 52 seconds: listen to ‘A Spirit of Folk Festival 2012 Special ’ on Audioboo Of the gig, the festival, my time there it’s tough to pick highlights. There were gigs and bands and people I heard talk; things I saw and people I met and by the time I realised that I should have recorded that in audio or in picture, that moment was gone and passed. It was that good and so very easy to simply get lost in time. Class example: Bunoscionn doing Trad Side of the Moon - yup, … There’s more →

Album Review: Bat For Lashes - The Haunted Man

  By David Sheehan | October 23, 2012 - 10:00 am | Featured Post, Music, The Culch
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Generally in life, the things that we least understand are the things that intrigue us the most - some of us anyway. David Lynch’s films, Lee Evans’ popularity, Paul Galvin’s dress-sense. I came upon Bat For Lashes – aka Natasha Khan - after the release of her second album, Two Suns. Lead single Daniel received some airplay on Irish commercial radio, providing some welcome respite from hearing Sex On Fire fifty times a day. So, having never been one to ‘wait til I hear the next single’ before deciding to buy an album – a policy which has seen me amass quite a number of duds over the years (The Hives, I’m looking at you) – I rushed out and bought Two Suns, along with its fellow Mercury-nominated predecessor, Fur And Gold. I wasn’t disappointed. Of the above, Two Suns was far more accessible and several tracks (Pearl’s Dream, Daniel, … There’s more →

Album Review: Cat Power’s Sun

  By David Sheehan | October 5, 2012 - 12:00 pm | Featured Post, Music, The Culch
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We live in a world where even the most minor celebrity ‘crisis’ is blown up out of all proportion. I recently spotted the cover of Heat, or some similar publication, fretting about Cheryl (Cole or Tweedy, whatever you’re having yourself) and her 3am dash to McDonalds. Viewed through any prism, Chan Marshall’s story is one of bona fide tragedy and turmoil. Marshall - Cat Power to you and me - has endured a tumultuous life for almost all of her forty years. She grew up with a family heavily immersed in alcoholism, while still living in her native Atlanta in the mid-1990s, her then-boyfriend died. This was the first of a number of setbacks for the some-time actress, model and charity worker. Drug and alcohol addiction and on-stage meltdowns followed. An achingly honest 2006 interview with Spin, done just after Marshall had emerged from a spell in a psychiatric ward, … There’s more →

Games Review: FIFA 13 (Xbox 360)

  By Anto | October 1, 2012 - 9:36 pm | Featured Post, Games, The Culch
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“Predictable unpredictability”. That’s what FIFA Lead Producer, David Rutter, picked out as the defining feature of FIFA 13 when we interviewed him back in May. It’s got to be difficult for the EA teams working on annual titles like FIFA to give punters something to justify the yearly outlay but, whilst 13 may not be as big a step on as 12 was, the unpredictability and realism is a key strength here. Gameplay There’s been a number of game engine improvements. First up is the revised First Touch mechanic, which is significantly different to previous titles. This means that even particularly talented players are no longer guaranteed to control the ball upon receiving it as it may be a bad pass or they may be under pressure. The attacking AI has also been revised in that players will bend and delay runs to ensure they get the best opportunity to … There’s more →

Games Review: Rocksmith (on XBox 360)

  By JustGeorge | September 29, 2012 - 2:59 pm | Featured Post, Games, Music
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Rocksmith

My first draft of this review was a huge long post giving details of all the features, what I liked and what I didn’t. But really it boils down to this…. If you want to learn to play guitar, go buy yourself a basic electric guitar and a copy of Rocksmith on Xbox 360, it’s cheaper than most guitar lessons and you’ll be playing tunes in no time. If you want to pretend to play a guitar then grab yourself a copy of Guitar Hero or Rockband, but why go to the effort of learning to play a plastic guitar when Rocksmith makes learning real guitar as easy and fun? Yeah I could pick holes in the included tracklist, it’s easy when there’s no Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher, Metallica, Satriani, Vai, ZZ TOP or Guns ‘n’ Roses included. Yup, the “No Stairway” rule is very much … There’s more →

After hours at Dublin Zoo

  By Anto | September 18, 2012 - 10:30 am | Events, Featured Post
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Myself, Darren, Micheál and a few other selected Internet types got the opportunity to tour Dublin Zoo after hours last week. Led by Ciaran MacMahon, Dublin Zoo’s head keeper, we kicked off the tour by visiting the Asian lions, Suri and Sita. Suri took a particular interest in Darren and he probably would have been on the menu but for the glass separating them. Asian lions are critically endangered with only 400 remaining in the wild and entire population can be found in one place - the Gir Forest in India. From there we wandered over to the sea lion enclosure where the keepers introduced us to Flo. They described how the zoo’s harem are Californian Sea Lions whose main predator is the killer whale. We had been briefed at the start of the tour that the planned trip to see the elephants couldn’t go ahead as mating was in … There’s more →

Festival: We’re almost ready for Spirit of Folk 2012

  By Anto | September 17, 2012 - 11:40 am | Festivals, Music, The Culch
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We’ve been gearing up for this for months and it’s only a few days to go now. Spirit of Folk, shortlisted in 2011 for ‘Best New Festival’ in the European Festival awards, returns this weekend (September 21st-23rd). Festival Organisers are eager to stress that the event is much more than your average music festival with an eccentric array of activities on offer all weekend to delight and entertain audiences. With Traditional Storytelling from Ireland’s best Seanachaí, Eddie Lenihan and Pat Speight, interactive Viking re-enactments, Falconry displays, Archery lessons, Battle Re-enactments and Wildlife Walks ran by the Wildlife Trust, Spirit of Folk promises to deliver to those seeking an alternative family weekend. Culch.ie’s own Peter Donegan will be giving a gardening talk on Saturday at 1.45pm so make sure to get along to that. Folk music enthusiasts will not be disappointed either, with Irish folk legends John Spillane, Tír na nÓg … There’s more →

New Irish Music EP: Wicker Bones - Concatenation

  By Peter | September 14, 2012 - 12:54 am | The Culch
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Last year when The Martry Sessions EP came through my door, I did kind of have a ‘what the fook’ moment. Eh… actually it was a bit more than that. Warranted it was and I wasn’t alone. You’ll have to read that review to understand what I mean… A few weeks either side of a year later and the most rugged talented bunch of Irish Jimi Hendrix [what's the plural of Hendrix ?] musical relations come knocking. Guess what ? The nice guys of Irish music are on EP number frickin two - 6 tracks, in each, fresh out of Electric Picnic and now headed to The Spirit of Folk Festival 2012. How many can say that in the one swift breath of tradtional Irish air ? So what of The Wicker Bones latest beau ? Here’s a bit of what they have to say…. …It represents our strongest expression … There’s more →