Author: Breffni Banks

New Year’s Festival Dublin have announced the line up for their free event ‘New Year’s Afternoon In The Castle’ taking place in exquisite grounds of the iconic Dublin Castle on New Year’s Day.

Enjoy a fabulous Afternoon in The Castle with entertainment for all the family, soak up the festive atmosphere and enjoy from Kila, Beoga, Cairde and special guests The Scratch & friends. This is a FREE, non-ticketed event taking place from 2pm until 5pm.

Ring in 2022 in style with New Year’s Festival Dublin, Ireland’s biggest New Year Celebration. Now in its tenth year, New Year’s Festival Dublin is bigger and better than ever with 4 spectacular events set to take place over 2 days in Dublin Castle, the heart of the city, on 31 December 2021 and 1 January 2022.

New Year’s Festival Dublin presents 2 countdown events on 31 December 2021. Get ready for a New Year’s Eve night to remember and ring in 2022 in true celebratory style. Share a spectacular midnight moment with critically acclaimed Irish international phenomenon Picture This who are set to headline this year’s Countdown Concert at Dublin Castle with very special guests Lyra and Ryan Sheridan. Share a magical moment with family and friends at the family friendly New Year’s Matinee Show, a very special earlier countdown event in the stunning surroundings of Dublin Castle with live performances from Hudson Taylor, Róisín O and Fia Moon.

Keep celebrating at 2 stunning New Year’s Day events with New Year’s Festival Dublin. Multi platinum Irish & international selling Gavin James will take to the stage for a spectacular show in Dublin Castle for the New Year’s Day Concert joined by special guests True Tides,  Erica Cody and Brad Heidi – making it a New Year’s Day to remember. Enjoy a fabulous New Year’s Afternoon in The Castle with Kila, Beoga, Cairde and special guests The Scratch & friends.

Ciara Sugrue, Head of Festivals at Fáilte Ireland, said: “It is fantastic to see New Year’s Festival Dublin return this year with an amazing line up featuring some of Ireland’s finest musical talent and entertainment for the whole family to enjoy. Festivals and events like this are crucial as we work towards the recovery of the tourism sector and the New Year’s Festival Dublin will give visitors the opportunity to experience the very best of our capital city while providing a boost for tourism businesses at an off-peak time of the year.”

New Year’s Festival Dublin – Programme of Events 

1) New Year’s Matinee  // Dublin Castle // 31 December 2021 

Share a magical moment on New Year’s Eve together with family and friends at the very special Family New Year’s Eve Matinee show, a very special earlier countdown event with live performances from Hudson Taylor, Róisín O and Fia Moon.Children will be enchanted as they ring in the new year in the stunning surroundings of Dublin Castle with some of Ireland’s best musicians. Entertainment for this FREE event will start at 5pm leading to the earlier countdown spectacle at 7pm.  This is a FREE event but tickets will need to be booked in advance from Ticketmaster.ie.

2) Countdown Concert with the Midnight Moment  // Dublin Castle  // 31 December 2021 

Get  ready for a New Year’s Eve night to remember!  Critically acclaimed Irish international phenomenon Picture This will headline this year’s Countdown Concert at Dublin Castle with very special guests Lyra and Ryan Sheridan. The Countdown Concert starts at 8pm with excitement building to a crescendo as the clock strikes 12. Welcome in 2022 in spectacular fashion and share a stunning memorable Midnight Moment with Picture This. Tickets priced €37.90 including booking fee are on sale now from ticketmaster.ie. subject to license. (OVER 18s EVENT)

3) New Year’s Day Concert // Dublin Castle  // 1 January 2022  

On 1 January, Gavin James will take to the stage for a spectacular show in Dublin Castle for the New Year’s Day Concert. Gavin James will be joined by special guests True Tides, Erica Cody and Brad Heidi. Come and see some of Ireland’s best musicians with your family and friends for a New Year’s Day to remember. Tickets priced €27.90 including booking fee on sale now from ticketmaster.ie .subject to license.

4) New Year’s Afternoon In The Castle // Dublin Castle //  1 January 2022 Free, Family Friendly Event

New Year’s Festival Dublin  invites you to experience New Year’s Afternoon in The Castle in the exquisite grounds of the iconic Dublin Castle . Soak up the festive atmosphere and enjoy performances for all the family from Kila, Beoga, Cairde and special guests The Scratch & friends. This is a FREE, non-ticketed event. From 2pm – 5pm

Visit www.NYFDublin.com for more and keep up to date with news about all upcoming events by using the hashtag #NYFDublin and following @NYFDublin on Twitter and Instagram.

The New Year’s Festival Dublin is a Fáilte Ireland and Dublin City Council initiative, produced and promoted by MCD Productions. With thanks to the OPW and Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government.

Photo: Ruth Medjber

After creating an enormous buzz with her previously shared singles ‘Hypnotized’, ‘Believe It’, ‘Summer Lovin’ and the Louis III collaboration ‘Ur So Cool’ last year, Irish pop starlet KEHLI has now made her long-awaited return as she delivers the vibrant new single ‘Not OK’.

Known for her warm and inviting approach to the alt-pop sound, ‘Not OK’ sees her deliver a comeback filled with bold and euphoric textures. With its crisp and glossy production layered effortlessly with her own powerful voice, she feels totally at ease as she breaks free from her formative shackles and delivers the first dose of a more reassured artist at the helm.

 Speaking about her new offering, KEHLI said, “‘Not OK’ was a song I felt a lot of release from! It’s about the very moment you realise someone is falling out of love with you or your reality is falling apart and that is one of the worst feelings I’ve ever felt! Putting that concept into a song was hard, but I’m so excited for everyone to hear it as it’s my first release after the worst part of the COVID pandemic is hopefully over. Hoping people can generally relate to it as well.”

Hailing from Dublin, 20-year old KEHLI is a vocalist and performer with a soulful, passionate and unique interpretation of contemporary pop music.

Her evolving passion for music and performance encouraged a 14 year old KEHLI to try her hands on a couple of TV music shows (usual suspects The Voice/X Factor etc.) which at such a tender age, provided invaluable experience and gained her a small cult online following. Rehearsal footage of KEHLI singing Jorja Smith’s ‘Let me down’ made its way onto Instagram and was met by an extremely positive response with over 22K views in its first 48hrs.  This encouraged KEHLI to continue to pursue her passion for music.

It was this experience that led to an intro to producer/songwriter MSRD – now Ireland/London based, who’s worked closely with KEHLI to help hone her sound.  Other collaborators include the likes of London based Cameron Gower-Poole (Anne-Marie, Raye, RAY BLK) who has worked closely on KEHLI’s forthcoming debut, a soulful, edgy, pop infused EP.

Since her debut release, Kehli has gone on to achieve many early career milestones.  Her TV debut last year was on the Late Late show with Ryan Turbidy following a year where she amassed over 13 million national radio impressions in Ireland with support from the likes of RTE 2 FM, 98 FM, Spin1038, iRadio, BBC R1 and Kiss FM.  She was also noted to be the only female singer in the Irish Top 20 charts at the time.

Other career highlights include reaching top #5 position in three key UK club charts including Commercial Pop Charts(#4), Upfront Club Charts(#3) and Urban Charts (#3) on her debut release (One Last Kiss) as reported by Music Week.

The Official Charts UK named her ‘One To Watch’ and she has also received support from industry tastemakers like Record of the Day, EARMILK, Clash, Wonderland, Nialler 9, Irish Times and others as well as DSP support from Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and Filtr with editorial playlisting.  New Music Friday, New Pop UK, Pop remix are some of her Spotify playlist achievements with over 1.1Million cumulative streams across Spotify alone.

Her latest song ‘Summer Lovin’ was a hit on the Irish airwaves and a DSP favourite landing New Music Friday and 14 other spotify editorial playlists on release day as well as charting #15 on the TikTok Music Charts on release week garnering significant major label interest in the UK and US.

KEHLI is currently putting finishing touches on her debut EP, 2022 is on track to be an exciting one for this young Irish talent and her music.

DISCOVER KEHLI

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | SOUNDCLOUD | YOUTUBE | SPOTIFY

The album ‘Skara Brae’ was released fifty years ago this month, in December 1971, and on Friday 17 December Barrscéalta on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta will mark the occasion with a special programme about that seminal album with members of the group in studio.

Maighreád and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, their brother Mícheál, and their friend Dáithí Sproule recorded the album ‘Skara Brae’ in one afternoon in 1971 and it was released on the Gael Linn label.

The Ó Domhnaill family grew up in Co. Meath, but spent a lot of time in their father’s homeplace of Rann na Feirste, Co. Donegal. Their father, Hiúdaí Mhicí Hiúdaí, was a musician, a singer and collector of songs, and they grew up immersed in the language and the culture of the area, with their aunt Neilí imparting much of her huge store of songs to them.

They met up with Dáithí Sproule, a young musician from Derry, during his many summers in the Gaeltacht in Rann na Feirste, and together, they became Skara Brae and recorded their one, exceptional album in 1971.

The album presented the traditional songs of the Donegal Gaeltacht in a new and contemporary way, with guitar accompaniment and vocal harmonies, and paved the way for many more bands who followed.

The band was young, they were all in their mid to late teens/early twenties, and their own musical influences at the time, such as The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, and Pentangle, played a part in what would become their unique style and sound.

The album was a great success, and continues to be sought after, with sales of approximately 10,000 copies to date.

On Barrscéalta on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta on Friday 17 December at 11 am, Michelle Nic Grianna will be joined by sister Maighréad and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, by Dáithí Sproule on the line from the US, by Jim McCloskey who also played with the band, and by Antoine Ó Coileáin, CEO of the Gael Linn music label, to discuss that ground-breaking album, and all that has happened since.

Tune in live or listen back at www.rte.ie/rnag

Photo: Gael Linn

‘At The Christmas Ball’ was first recorded by the Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith in the 1920’s.

A century later, Mary Stokes and harmonica player Brian Palm decided to record the song with a gentle, festive arrangement.

Mary and guitarist Sarah Michelle worked out bright, warm harmony vocals complimented by evocative guitar and harmonica playing.

Renowned Irish multi-instrumentalist Liam O’Maonlai joined the session and added cheerful piano.

‘At The Christmas Ball’ was recorded by Tom Lee & Darren Roe in Displace Studios, with additional recordings by Joe McGrath in Loscann Studios.

The song was mixed by Brian Palm and Joe McGrath and mastered by Joe Chester. The Mary Stokes Band present this seasonal blues song to enjoy at Christmas.

Wicklow based singer-songwriter and producer David Boland brings through a short, sweet & somber folk tune with his latest single “I was just thinking of you”.

The song explores love, purpose and existentialism.

“A friend had sent me some photos of a book she was reading via text a few years ago. We’re not in touch these days, but I was scrolling through our message history to try find the book pages to re-read them one day… it brought up a lot of stuff for me, and so this is a song about it”.

This is the artist’s follow up single to “Traveller Song” and “6 string” which were both released earlier this year.

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedavidbol…

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedavidboland/

West Co. Sligo native, BRÍDÍN, carries on the traditions of unique skills and talents passed down through her family.

She is the fourth generation of her family to play Irish music and plays harp, flute, piano, and dances sean nós.

She has developed her own style influenced by her natural surroundings and rooted in her background in traditional Irish music, and was recently nominated as ‘Best Emerging Artist’ at the RTE Radio 1 Folk Awards.

In February of 2021, Brídín released her debut EP ‘Ocean of Stars’ – a collection of five contemporary folks songs, ‘Wysteria’, ‘Floating’, ‘North West’, ‘Ocean of Stars’ and ‘The Salmon’s Tale, featuring Colm Mac Con Iomaire’.

Brídín was not able to have a normal launch this year, so instead she has pulled out all of the stops out with this virtual EP launch, filmed in the cockpit of the Boeing 767 airplane in Enniscrone, Co. Sligo.

Speaking about how the launch came together, Brídín says

“Dad came up with the idea of having this transport themed glamping village in Enniscrone, which then escalated to him buying the decommissioned airplane. He had to bring it from Shannon Airport up along the west coast of Ireland to Sligo by tug and barge. Thanks to an amazing team of engineers and his determination, the mission was successful and more importantly, he put Sligo on a global platform. I wanted to make the most of our unique venue and decided I wanted to launch my debut EP from the cockpit of this special Boeing 767. This launch is officially the first ever event to take place on our site, which makes us so excited for what’s to come.

It took some time to clean it up and get it ready for the launch, with Ray Forde from EAV Ireland as sound and light engineer, filmed and edited by Ciarán Harte and Stephen Hallinan and my family and friends helping out, it looked really cool and so surreal. We actually would like to use it as a venue again as the sound was so good! My amazing band that performed my set with me on the night; Clare Sands on fiddle, Brian Dillon on keys and Paul Leonard on Drums.

Myself and Clare were writing a track the week before doing up the plane (Iontach a Bheith Beo – Good to be Alive), so she hung around to help me, and she was such a great help scrubbing it up. I was taking videos the whole time we were doing up the plane, just for memories, but decided to include them in ‘Airplane Mode’ for people to really understand the work that was put into this launch and to get a close up look at our amazing stage.

My mam (Aileen), dad (David), Martina, Clare, Eoghan, Matty Tuffy and Sandra Beardshall helped me pull it all together, Matty Tuffy made sure we had electricity in the plane and Ray made it look and feel like a real gig.

My mam is such a talented dress maker, she made me my ‘fairy princess’ jumpsuit that I wore on the night, which will always be so special to me.”

To mark the launch, Brídín has printed a limited number of CD’s of ‘Ocean of Stars’ EP, available to purchase on Bandcamp: https://bridin.bandcamp.com/album/ocean-of-stars-ep

www.bridinmusic.com

Twitter: @bridin_music

Facebook: @BridinMusic | Instagram: @BridinMusic

Stephanie Rainey plans to mark the end of this year on a high as her cover of ‘Last Christmas’ is on the brink of a quarter of a million streams on Spotify.

It’s been a year of metamorphosis for the Irish singer. As she watched her first new music in several years be embraced by a new generation of Irish fans, she has been planning the release of a new collection of songs that speak of her transformation from emerging pop star to established artist.

Recent singles from Stephanie Rainey ‘No Cowboy’, ‘Ross & Rachel’ and ‘13’ dealt with topics such as redemption, the sparks that fly between two people who are made for each other and finding your place in the world.

Her eagerly awaited new EP is due out in 2022 and after selling out O’Mahony’s in Watergrasshill and Autumn Air in minutes Stephanie is excited to get back on the road in 2022.

Originally marked for November 2021 her nationwide tour will now take place April 2022 with four new dates confirmed. Stephanie will also reunite with her Irish Women In Harmony ensemble for a nationwide tour in May 2022.

Stephanie is thrilled with the reaction to her new music which saw her singles break the Top 10 with ‘Ross & Rachel’ reaching #4 and ‘No Cowboy’ reaching #6 on the Irish Breakers Radio Chart.

She has also been playlisted on 2FM, RTE Radio 1, iRadio, Beat 102-103, Cork’s 96FM, Today FM and Cool FM. Currently, ‘No Cowboy’ is about to break through 130,000  streams on Spotify while ‘Ross & Rachel’ has been streamed almost 84,000 times. The popularity of the singles saw both being Shazamed 4,500 times. ‘Ross & Rachel’ also has 140,000 streams on Soundcloud.

Live Dates:

April 14 – Roisin Dubh, Galway

April 15 – Whelan’s, Dublin

April 23 – Dolans, Limerick

April 29 / 30 – Live at St Luke’s, Cork

Instagram: @stephanieraineymusic

YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/stephanieraineymusic

Facebook: www.facebook.com/stephanieraineyband

Website: www.stephanierainey.com

Twitter: @stephanierainey

Award-winning songwriters Niall Teague and Padraic Joyce will release their new single ‘West for Christmas’ on all digital platforms this Friday 10th of December.

Fresh from gigs supporting Sharon Shannon and John Spillane Niall and Padraic were recently announced as winners of the Oireachtas Irish language song-writing contest.

This festive season sees them turn their storytelling skills to the tale of a man trying to make it home to his family in Galway on Christmas Eve after a long absence on the streets of a faraway city.

The song was inspired by a chance meeting with an Irishman in Manchester who hadn’t been home in over forty years, yet still wondered about his family at home in the West of Ireland. The song imagines him finally making the journey home.

Niall States…“West for Christmas was sitting on the shelf for the last three years, it wasn’t until Padraic disclosed to me that he had told radio presenters we had a new song to release and send them that we really had to get our skates on!”

The song features Lazslo Pastor on double bass and Paul McClure on bodhrán and was recorded at Paddy Jordan’s Recording Studio, Labane, County Galway. The song will be released in both Irish and English.

Website

https://www.niallteagueandpadraicjoycemusic.com/

Social Media

https://www.facebook.com/Niall-Teague-and-Padraic-Joyce-11251939

With music, collaboration, and artistic expression at its core, one of Ireland’s newest music initiatives, The X Collective, has been going from strength to strength since its launch in May 2020. Founded by Emily Shaw (Oíche Events) and Ele Breslin (Zapho), the collective hosts many talented Irish artists both at home and abroad, and has grown from hosting 70 artists and creatives, to over 100 in the last year.

They now have recorded a mass-collaborative album including over 35 contributors due for release in 2022, and shared the second taste of it with a new energetic anthem, ‘Ascension’.

The live video, created by Mango Media, is out now.

Ascension is the collaborative brainchild of three of the Collective’s members, powerhouse vocalists Jess Kav (prev. BARQ), Senita (God Knows, prev. Shookrah) and Toshín, and produced by one of Ireland’s most exciting new composers and singer-songwriter, Liam Geddes. Together they have birthed an industrial, RnB-rock belter giving you three minutes of pure energy, in which they infuse topics of empowerment, self-love, spirituality, and emotional release.

The first single from the collective, released in 2020, was ‘Collide ft Jenny Browne’ by ZAPHO & Tolü Makay, followed by 90’s banger ‘WB’ performed by members Chloë Agnew, Zapho, Senita, Toshín, and Gemma Bradley.

SEE THE X COLLECTIVE LIVE:

Before the arrival of The X Collective’s album, which will be released in 2022, this dynamic collective of neo-soul, hip hop, jazz and pop artists will perform and showcase these new songs at a venue near you.

The X Collective have a number of headline events and festivals in the coming months across Ireland. In essence, the collective are a supergroup of individually practicing artists who collaborate together across the same hour set, in an array of genres; jazz, soul, rnb, hip-hop, pop, electro etc. The group is interchangeable from show to show with artists showcasing original songs written at the songwriting camp earlier this summer.

Each set has approx 18 performers, and with over 100 creatives in the collective, there’s always a different combination of collaborators, artists, musicians and songs, so you will never see the same show twice!

Since the return of gigs this September, TXC have performed on a number of notable partnerships including Heineken (for Island’s Edge Launch), The Sugar Club, Guinness Cork Jazz Festival to a sold-out crowd at The Everyman, Beatyard, Nialler9 at The Cellar venue launch.

‘Ascension’ the second song from The X Collective’s forthcoming album, performed by collective members Jess Kav, Senita and Toshín, is out on all platforms now.

Oíche Events- Instagram | Oíche Events  -Twitter | Oíche Events – Facebook |www.oicheevents.com

Senita – Facebook | Senita – Twitter | Senita – Instagram | Senita Spotify

Toshín – Facebook | Toshín- Twitter | Toshín – Instagram | Toshín – Spotify

Jess Kav – Facebook | Jess Kav – Twitter | Jess Kav – Instagram | Jess Kav – Spotify