The Summer Experiment play Auntie Annies on Wednesday 27th August. Then disappear into the night. Never to be seen again.
They said it better than I could
What happens when a band is faced with its own end before it even gets off its feet? Would this knowledge change their plan of action? Could it change the band’s dynamic? Could it even change the music? The Experiment is exactly this: a ‘band’ in its dying days from before you had even heard of them….it is what it is…no strings attached…just creativity. Doing what you can while you can. This is what we decided to make of Summer 2008 and we hope to remind everyone of the amazing things that happen when artists just allow themselves to create.”
The Summer Experiment taking place in Auntie Annies,...
Still racing of adrenaline from her solo performance at the 20/20 photographic exhibition, Amy McGarrigle will join her band-mates at the Empire Music Hall, Belfast, for the launch of their E.P. ‘What I Remember’.
The band, Boathouse, were formed in 2006 and through progressively gigging, their music as gotten better and fanbase, bigger. The EP contains 5 tracks of the highest quality music, my favourite track changes with each time I see them play.
1. Tinderbox West
2. It Was A River
3. The Johnnny & Ruth Story
4. Don’t Knock
5. What I Remember
I asked drummer Keir Hurley how it feels to finally release this long awaited CD.
“Finally having the recordings completed is great. I think after ‘Trail of Ghosts’ [the first E.P. recorded in 2006], a lot...
Tonight Kitty and the Can Openers subtly relaunch their self-titled EP at the Empire Music Hall, Belfast.
Recorded in Dec 07/Jan 08, the finely produced CD contains five superb tracks, which often find themselves slipped into the the set list whenever they grace the stage.
When the EP was first printed the band were unhappy with the album sleeve and so it was back to the drawing board. Now, 2 months later the newly printed sleeve and CD are ready for general sale at various gigs and events, and soon to be available from their website, which is in production.
So if you are free tonight get down to the Empire and get yourself a CD!...
This week went quite quickly, coming to an end that was well worth the wait.
After work on Friday I purchased a 15-inch Macbook Pro from the Apple Store. This I am very excited about. It will be an interesting transition period from XP to Mac though hopefully it will go smoothly. I have lots of questions, which Andy has answered for me recently, and I’m sure I will have many more when it arrives. So more on this then.
Later than evening I headed to the City Church hall above Common Grounds Café for an evening of Bollywood fund raising for a trip to India. On the bill were some Bollywood dancers, whose dancing skills were quite mesmerising, Kitty and the Can Openers and Captain Kennedy.
Kitty and the Can Openers
Captain Kennedy...
That time of year once more. Lets ignore it.
Thankfully there is plenty going on in Belfast this evening to keep me occupied.
The Knights of the Round Table are holding their usual jam packed night of fun with music from Kitty and the Can Openers, Serpentine Smile and Autorun plus plenty of extras including light electronica, poetry, “groovy” art displays, a local film and rice krispie valentines delights for the first fifty people through the door.
The Winding Stair are headlining Gifted at the Empire along with Eoghan Colgan, Ursula Burns and Dolbro Dan. A great acoustic lineup..
If you head a little further into town Olympic Lifts are releasing their new single ‘I Am Cursed’ which is available now to download. Well worth checking out.
With a lot of choice of...
I haven’t seen the limelight as packed for a local band as it was on Thursday night. 360 325 paying punters. Although I did hear the turnout with similar at Kowalski/And So I watch You From Afar/Cutaways gig in December. The lineup this time around was A Plastic Rose, Panama Kings and Fighting With Wire. The entire venue was filled with lots of kids screaming at each band out shear love and devotion.
At 22:05 A plastic Rose made their way to the stage. Gerry Norman began by calling everyone close to the stage - and they did. Filling every space. By 22:30 the venue was already full.
Singing/shouting along the crowd joined in in the ways the knew how, even shouting requests for the ‘classics’. This band know how to rock and rock they did. They have gone up 100 times in my...
So. It’s here. Christmas. You may be reading this on Christmas day. What are you doing on the Internet on Christmas day? Family sucks? Guess its the problem a lot of people have. Understandable. Boxing day? Again, why aren’t you opening all those boxes? Not believe in Christmas? Again, Family suck? It’s okay, I understand.
Yeah Christmas has come once again. It always comes quicker than expected. It’s really only in the last two or three years that I have begun to realise the real meaning of Christmas - though I can’t help but put a pause in that sentence and ask for a hands-up for all those who really celebrate Christmas today? Very few of you, I’m not entirely surprised. I’m not big fan of the real meaning behind Christmas, though I am a fan of...
Do not get me wrong, I am all in favour of a thriving local music scene, I believe that is certainly got on our hands. There are so many great bands, and I’m not just saying that, but when a good handful of bands have gigs I would go out of my way to see then, telling everyone about them along the way - hoping that I will be presented with a CD of their finest tracks when I arrive so that I can listen to them to my heart’s content.
Alas some of these great bands have yet to record these great works, let alone to be heard by the rest of the population.
Lately it seems that most days of the week there will be one of these bands/artists playing their music for the general public to hear in the live music venues dotted around Belfast. My week is usually planned around the gigs...
It was to be a rather calm, relaxing weekend. The only thing planned was a dinner on Friday evening. That happened. There were two, we headed to Scalini’s on Botanic Ave. I love that restaurant. The food is excellent.
There was only one other plan. To see Black Eye Friday at the Errigle bar.
But the night turned out to be much bigger than we had thought. The headline act was NI Soul Troop, led by Donal Scullion, there was a lot of energy in the room, with many people dancing and, the oddly mixed crowd for a local gig, really enjoying themselves. Of course I didn’t go straight home afterwards.
Only a few hours prior to sleeping I had no plans for Saturday, though of course this changed, and I found something to keep me from sitting in (and doing work).
Oppenheimer, not long...
of…
two female drummers in one night
two quite attractive drummers at that.
Copyright Phil O’Kane © 2006-2007This feed is indended for personal use only. If you are not reading it in your feed reader please let me know....
Why does life have to be so hard. when we’re younger we want the days to be shorter, when we’re older we want them to be so so, so much longer so that we have time to actually do the things we want to do outside the hours spent doing the stuff we wish we didn’t have to do. Then when we get sick, to the point were we can barely talk, or what does come out is a mere croak rather than words, we have to spend time on the sofa watching Working Lunch, which I love.
…Though who really watches that stuff? If you’re into business you surely don’t get your info from a show aimed at housewives and stay-at-home dads, and you would be far too busy with “meetings” to waste time watching tv around lunch time. Its for the man who wants to think they know...
This morning I woke up with the most painful throat ever. That and a killer headache. I need throat lozenges desperately. I’ve done all that I can, which isn’t a lot. I had some soup. I turned the heating on. I dressed warmly. I just wanted to go back to bed. And so I did. From 2pm to 6pm. It felt good, in that I-still-feel-like-complete-crap sort of way.
I have a feeling someone might have the words “I told you so” on the tip of their tongue if they knew how I was feeling right now. Maybe I should have worn a coat on that miserable wet day yesterday.
It started off well, 10am, non-hungover 10am. After some breakfast, a bus and a walk back to my own house, I headed out in the rain to the Safehouse Gallery for a book reading by Camel Hartley from her first book of...
I’ve found that the only way to possibly get an early night on a Sunday is by not going to sleep on Saturday night. A little Tony Hawk’s Underground, some crap late night tv, then the whole of Weeds season one (great show!), some photo editing, an episode of Robot Chicken, and finally an episode of The Shield which I haven’t seen since I bought season one on dvd about three years ago. That just about took me through the night, with plenty of coffee of course - coffee makers rule!
The reason for this seemingly weekly lapse of insanit is quite logical really. On a Friday and Saturday night I rarely go to sleep at a time that would be deemed reasonable for most days of the week, this brings disastrous results. Namely, that I rarely get out of bed before 12 noon or 1pm on a...
News has reached the TPO camp that Italian folk-punks “Martino Vergano and the Rosenkrantz” are to record a cover of Blackeye.
The Rosenkrantz are great guys who we’ve had the pleasure of sharing a stage with in Belfast and Derry and it’s great news that they are planning to cover our track. Word is it will be a very different version to the current single release (available on itunes dontcha know) but we’re busting to hear the results.
Should be a cracker.
In other gig news the TPO will be playing support to the Brian James Gang (Ex The Damned) in an early gig at Lavery’s Bunker on Friday 26th October. Hope to see you there.
Martino Vergnano and The Rosenkrantz Myspace...
Sorry if you’re just here for the wild sex, as promised yesterday. Just one more day to wait.
I am in no way sick of my photos of the US and trying to relive in my mind the experiences and get them down on paper (virtual paper). Though it has meant that I have slightly neglected other photographs and projects I have been working on since my return. This entry will be as a brief overview of what i’ve been up to the last 2 or so weeks since my return.
The first few days were spent at my parent’s house as I tried to overcome the jet lag and get at least one decent nights sleep. Then I lost my sought-after BT9 postcode as I to my wonderful new house with my wonderful house-mates, who had been residing here for 3 weeks before my arrival and made things look pretty
It...
We have a gig in the You.Know.Where this saturday (you know the First Saturday of the Month)
Tickets from the usual spot, not many left though…....
Admittedly it does feel a little odd to be sober after waking up on a Saturday. Though it ain’t morning. its 13:30. Afternoon. I didn’t have one drop of alcohol yesterday and when I got home I watched 5 episodes of the amazing and truely addictive Heros.
Last night I was at the Island Arts Centre in Lisburn for a panel discussion entitled ‘What It Takes‘. The panel, fronted by Ross Graham, head honcho of NIMIC (Northern Ireland Music Industry Commission), included a few of the regulars on the music scene, who dished out their opinions of what it takes to make it in the industry. This is the third event I have been to where I have been informed about how the music industry works, and each time I learn so much more than the last.
The first was the screening of the...
I do hate when I end up writing about things that happened so long ago - well only last week, but still. I’ve had quite a busy week; meeting new people, taking photographs, working on photographs, and of course that thing that I hate, work. On Tuesday I went to see The Simpsons Movie. It was good, of course. I mean, its still The simpsons we’re talking about here. On the other hand, it was pretty much just an extended episode. A very good, extra long episode.
I do hope they continue to make it though, it doesn’t ever seem to be losing its humour and ability to be so current.
So back to Derry, not literally; but in photographic form. On Saturday I awoke at about 12 noon, wondering how I was going to survive the day without any money…
Much of the early afternoon was...
Just another fantastic weekend to make the week days appear so extremely dull - even though they aren’t that bad.
The decision was made last Thursday to accept a kind offer to stay with someone I hadn’t met in a city I hadn’t been to in 19 months, even though my funds where very low. I’m very glad I went.
For a week, the Féile ‘07 festival had been running in Derry city with a million different activities each day. Ending on Sunday evening, there was a lot going on all weekend.
Straight from work on Friday afternoon I got the bus to Derry, arriving at close to 7pm, I quickly made my way to Masons to catch the last song of Triggerman’s set. It was at this point that I met the man who would be guiding me around the city and its weekend events over the...
Aye so it didn’t all go according to plan, does it ever? Brian’s mum took ill so we had to head home 2 days early, still got to play at the brilliant Bateau Ivre in Rouen and Le Klub (last minute venue switch from Les Mechaniques caused by a raid by the Cops - Les Peeleurs)
A full blog/diary will be stuck together over the next week - loads of class pics of Paris and Chaos and Misery and Elation - in equal measure. Just need to pull everything together from the cameras and phones.
A short summary is reflected by these key phrases.
“C’est possible, recharger mon telephone ici?”
“Here Fair Play to ye Shane, you are a class bastard”
“Bonjour”
“Deux Bieres Elephants s’il vous plait”
“It’s the Fucking...
More photographs from Glasgowbury 2007!
Duke Special (waiting to go on stage)
Duke Special
Triggerman
Desert Hearts
Swanee River
The Beat Poets
And So I Watch You From Afar
Skruff
The Black Tokens
Shauna and Grace
more port-a-loos next year?
All the photographs can be seen on my Flickr account.
Copyright Phil O’Kane © 2006-2007This feed is indended for personal use only. If you are not reading it in your feed reader please let me know....
Girls give me spots. Fact! Over the weekend a grew two new spots on my chin. I think it happened a few weeks ago too… to a slightly lesser degree. I didn’t have a spot on my left arm either which, if its actually a a spot rather than a pink mark that fades them pressed, is spot number 5. So nothing major, but spots all the same. Worse than the spots, is my lack of judging the right moment for, just about anything. But lets not go into that.
Almost worse than all that is the simple rule; never cry infront of a girl - holy shit why did I think Garden State would be a good idea. Thankfully my rubbing my eyes was taken as me being tired. It was 3am so that was believable. Maybe Good Will Hunting isn’t such a good choice for a future similar situation, I think it’ll be...
This year, bigger than ever, the Glasgowbury Festival is being held at Eagles Rock in Draperstown, Co. Derry. Now with 3 stages and 40 bands and an ever bigger attendance than last years 1000 (unconfirmed). Having been told by a few people that last Glasgowbury was one of the best festivals ever I have been looking forward to it for a whole year.
With two of the biggest bands from NI right now Duke Special and Oppenheimer headling, there is a multitude of great up-coming talent in the form of In Case of Fire, MojoFury, Robyn G Shiels, The Delawares, And So I Watch You From Afar, Cat Malojian, The Beat Poets and shit loads more!
For those who don’t know, the Glasgowbury Festival was started seven years ago by Paddy Glasgow as a showcase for local acts. Since then it has just kept...
What craziness. An awesomely fun-filled birthday weekend that was.
Saturday night was spent in Lavery’s Bunker enjoying the music as part of the Curfew Festival which ran from Friday until Sunday.
It was after this that the fun really started. Having slept on a friend’s sofa, I awoke and left the house at 6:30am. On my walk home I met a girl who was locked out of her house, she asked to borrow my phone to insert her sim card so that she could call the people in the house to get inside. There was a party going on. I was invited in and led towards the whiskey.
After 2 hrs two police officers came into the room (for the second time that night as I discovered). as we were calmly watching Smallville (which I don’t like). One of these police officers was very mean and was...
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Here we go again. Another fantabulous week of mild arty-fartyness mixed with lots of alcohol and a few too many cigarettes…
I hate to have any mention of them here, and I would love for it to be the last (though I fear they will just do a lot of stupid stuff in the next few years that will warrant a good rant). Yes, the Spice Girls (arrgh it pains me to say it) have got back together. Take That was bad enough, even though their new songs are (barely) tolerable. This of course means they are gonna start playing old Spice Girls songs on the radio! Like they did today. Help me!
This post is a little later than planned. Down to a little mid-week drinking. Lets get started.
Tuesday kicked it all off with a gig in Auntie Annies featuring Boathouse and Cars in Walls (what a name!)...
Here now we can present the tour dates through the medium of this lovingly crafter flyer designed by Romain from I LOVE UFO.
Big love to Romain!!!...
So the gig up in Coleraine was cancelled by the venue at the last minute, so it never happened. Which is a shame cause someone sent me this nice gig preview in the Belfast Tele by Patrick Baird, which is really sound…
Belfast-based four-piece Tin Pot Operation a (loosely labelled) indie/post-punk/new wave outfit with a healthy respect for crafting socially-relevent lyrics. In an era when a lot of songwriters are still obsessed with penning songs about their new haircut or their last argument with their girlfriend, this lot take on politics, the media, racism, the government and war. Not surprisingly, they’re been influenced by The Clash, The Jam and The Specials and have been described as sounding like both The Levellers and Crass - they certainly have the angst, the edge and...
I took today off work ‘cos (a) it sucks and (b) I have lots of photographs to organise and edit. It has been a very productive day!
I had another jolly good weekend on this the 26th weekend so far this year. Friday consisted of alcohol, though thanks to my wonderful friends, I got some free alcohol. Then rum…
Saturday, was spent chillin’ in front of a big flatscreen TV watching You’ve Been Framed, (which I’m surprised is still going but I suppose that’s besides the point).
That night the Oh Yeah Building was opened for a special Super Sweet Sixteen birthday party, and I was there to capture it. What I wasn’t expecting however was so many scantily dressed girls, making me feel weird taking photographs, though someone made a good point, that it...
The longest day of the year, and indeed the brightest and warmest of this week. Coincidence? I call conspiracy. Global warming, daylight savings time? Its the government trying to make us think they’re smart by making up these crazy ideas that no one really understands. I mean, does anyone really understand the whole daylight savings time stuff, GMT, British Summer Time. NO! So stop confusing me. One minute we are four hours ahead of NYC, the next its 5… or is it. I don’t know!
The fact that I think outside of the country I live in should be good enough for anyone. I know very few Americans (if you actually know me, don’t be offended, if you don’t know me, I don’t really care) who know how many hours difference it is in Ireland/UK at any given time....
In a sick sort of way I really like the rain. I love the sun, don’t get me wrong, but I like the rain too. The main reason is that when it rains I get more work done. Disgusting isn’t it.
I always say that if I lived in a hot country I wouldn’t use a computer, or at least a very minimal amount. Of course I wish it was generally warmer here, and more often though I’m all for a bit of rain after a period of sun.
Thanks to the great weather over the last week - rain - I got work done without all the sunny temptation of sun and stuff.
Secondly, I enjoy a bit of rain. Walking slowly in the rain - unless its torrential hail, then I’ll walk fast - is something I enjoy. Almost like walking when its not raining. Rain is a part of our climate. Why hide from it. We...