Forty years ago, next month, a fire that broke out during a Valentine’s weekend disco at The Stardust nightclub in Artane, on the northside of Dublin, resulted in the deaths of 48 young women and men. As Kathy Sheridan reminded Irish Times readers in a 2006 feature piece, ‘of the 48 who died, half were aged 18... Continue Reading →
EMPEROR OF ICECREAM: HAIL TO THE CHIEF
One of the few positive aspects to the last six months has been the melding of the creative arts and music with science, technology and opportunity. I’m not equipped to capture this in a mathematical formula but, were it not for the spaces and gaps opened by the lockdown, and the ready availability of personal... Continue Reading →
ON AN EVENING IN ROMA: SERENGETI LONG WALK AND HOW AN OLD BAND CAME GOOD
Guest post by Mick Duggan, keyboard player, Serengeti Long Walk Every band, large or small, famous or otherwise, has its own geography, a little network of places in which they came to be, that is theirs and theirs alone, for the rest of time. This occurred to me recently when I was reading Nileism, Allan... Continue Reading →
CITIZENS OF BOOMTOWN: THE RATS v IRELAND’S SHOWBANDS
Billy McGrath’s excellent film about The Boomtown Rats, ‘Citizens Of Boomtown’, premiered recently at the Dublin International Film Festival and was broadcast subsequently on RTÉ Television in two parts. Its dedicated to the memory of Nigel Grainge, the London-born A and R man with the golden touch who, in 1977, signed the South Dublin outfit... Continue Reading →
AN EMOTIONAL FISH: A STRANGE KIND OF GLORY
Has any Irish band announced itself as spectacularly as An Emotional Fish ? The Dublin four-piece were, I’d argue, the last of the great major label indulgences in emerging Irish music, the poster child’s poster children for that mad, unprecedented decade from 1985 onwards. Rarely has so much coin been invested in any Irish band for so little commercial... Continue Reading →
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