Author: Breffni Banks

Award winning international singer-songwriter Don Mescall will release his latest single ‘Love Me Right Now’ featuring Nashville legend Stella Parton on 12th Oct 2018. This is the first release from Don Mescall’s upcoming album, ‘Lighthouse Keeper’ – available everywhere from 2nd Nov 2018.

Don is joined on the track by Stella Parton, hot-on-the-heels of her appearance on BBC’s Celebrity Master Chef. The younger sister of the iconic Dolly Parton, Stella has paved a successful career in her own right following her hit song ‘Danger Of A Stranger’, having worked with some of the biggest names in Nashville and touring throughout the world.

Don Mescall’s recent collaborations with Geri Halliwell on ‘Angels In Chains’ in 2017 hitting number spots in 5 different countries worldwide and then this side of the Atlantic with Nathan Carter adding another 3 Number 1 singles. Another of his tracks, ‘There’s One’ is featured on Sir Cliff Richard’s forthcoming new studio album ‘Rise Up’ out in October 2018.

Don Mescall’s new studio album, ‘Lighthouse Keeper’ will be the first studio album in twelve years, following his debut album ‘Innocent Run’. The new album will be released both digitally and in hard copy on 2nd November, in the run-up to Christmas.

Anticipating the release of the new single, Don Mescall said: “Even though it’s been almost twelve years since my first album, “Innocent Run”, I feel (for me, at least) it was worth the wait… and hope you do too!

I am very grateful that Paul Brady, Sharon Corr, Brian Kennedy, Frances Black, Christy Dignam, Nathan Carter, Lisa McHugh, Maura O’Connell, Stephanie Urbina Jones and the wonderful Stella Parton all agreed, and brought their own unique little piece of magic to the songs.”

Live:

6th Nov, Limerick, University Concert Hall 

25 year old Robert Grace, a cat from Kilkenny, is one of Ireland’s most exciting up and coming performers, songwriters and producers. It’s a bold statement to make but when you hear his new single ‘Boomerang’, you will find it hard to disagree! ‘Boomerang’ follows his previous airplay hits ‘Wanna Love’ & ‘Golden’ which clocked up national airplay on Today FM, RTÉ 2fm, Beat, iRadio and many other stations across the country.

In recent years Robert has developed into a songwriter/producer/performer of note. Robert wrote three and co-produced four tracks on Hometown’s recent chart-topping album released on Sony Music. He has also co-written with some of the best-known songwriters in the UK including Dan McDougall (The Wanted, The Shires) // Blair MacKichan (Paloma Faith/Sia/Lily Allen) // Phil Thornalley (Natalie Imbruglia/Pixie Lott) // Josh Wilkinson (One Direction / 5 seconds of Summer) //David Munday (Tina Turner/Pixie Lott/Belinda Carlisle). In his capacity as writer and producer, Robert has helped other artist’s music achieve chart success.

Robert is a great live performer and has previously appeared at Electric Picnic and at Cork’s Indiependence festival.

Robert grew up in a house immersed by traditional Irish music; his father plays in well-known local trad band ‘Keltic Cats’. Before long Robert was learning the guitar and wrote his first song aged 12.  By aged 18 Robert had won a number of national & International songwriting awards including the Glinsk International Songwriting Award.

Find Robert online:

Facebook.com/RobertGraceMusic
Twitter.com/robert_grace
Instagram.com/RobertGraceMusic

Pale Rivers have revealed ‘Caught In It’, the fourth and final track from their self-titled EP out this Friday.  After performances this summer at Indiependence and Electric Picnic, the band will have tour dates in October and November.

Following on from the atmospheric ‘Montparnasse’ and the more immediate sound of ‘Don’t Worry About Me’,  ‘Icefield’ was released in August. ‘Caught In It’ completes the debut EP.

Based out of Cork and Tipperary, the band began playing their first shows around the country including slots at Hard Working Class Heroes and Whelans One’s To Watch, as well as some high profile supports for acts such as Teleman, British Sea Power and The Wedding Present.

EP Tracklist

1. Monparnasse   – https://youtu.be/Qx2YV8NTMcA
2. Don’t Worry About Me – https://youtu.be/zEdZYesf58o
3. Icefield  – https://youtu.be/Fftq1iD6Z98
4. Caught In It – https://soundcloud.com/pale-rivers/caught-in-it-v2-2-mix-eq16wav

Tour Dates

Oct 18th – East Side Tavern, Dublin
Nov 3rd – Cyprus Avenue, Cork
Nov 16th – Mike the Pies Listowel (supporting Columbia Mills)

“We are Pale Rivers, a five-sided case study, sound vehicle. To speak of the past is, often times, erroneous at best. But to not share some details of how things came to pass would be wasteful, un-opportunistic and questionable”.

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October is a very interesting month for IMRO member, composer and conductor Vincent Kennedy. At a public lunchtime concert at 1.05pm on the 9th October  in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, the Lithuanian violinist Justina Auskelyte will give the Irish premiere of Vincent’s  Violin work ‘Dreams’ with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gavin Maloney.  ‘Dreams’ has been performed many times in the USA and Europe and this performance marks its homecoming ten years after it was composed. 

On the 16th and 18th of October The Galan Trio performs Vincent’s trio “…spaces in your togetherness…” from their Album ‘Switch’ in two concerts in Armenia. The concert on 16th October is in the Eduard Kzrtmyan Music School in Vanadzor. On the 18th October the Galan Trio perform the music in the National Chamber Music Hall in Yerevan

On Monday the 29th October De Ann Letourneau, Concertmaster of the Las Vegas Philharmonic will give the USA premiere of  Vincent’s violin work Dóchas, Grá agus Suaimhneas, Saoirse with the Nevada School of the Arts at the Starbright Theatre, Las Vegas.

During the month of October Vincent will continue to work on composing his new suite for Symphonic Band which is made possible by his recent Creative Ireland Award through South Dublin County Council. https://creative.ireland.ie/en/south-dublin/project-award-composer-vincent-kennedy

Vincent will also complete work on his music commission from Dún Laoghaire – Rathdown County Council for the Orchestral Ages project. The first part of this new music was premiered at the LexIcon Library in Dún Laoghaire on Culture Night. https://www.dlrcoco.ie/en/arts/music/orchestral-ages

‘Rise’ is the debut single from Dundalk’s indie songstress, Alice Robinson. It is filled with eloquent melancholic lyrical undertones which explore themes relating to inequality in modern society.  Bringing to mind the beguiling musicality of the likes of Tori Amos or PJ Harvey, ‘Rise’ is an epic, and truly immersive, debut from the Irish songwriter.

Alice Robinson is a Louth based alternative singer-songwriter that creates  musical and lyrical vocabularies that are unique and deserve our critical attention. Having already charmed crowds at a number of Irish festivals including Carrickmacross Arts Festival and Gothic Species Festival,  Alice Robinson is now ready to share her spellbinding debut single.  

Upcoming Shows

Jimmy’s Bar, Dundalk| October 19
Fibber Magees, Dublin | November 29

Alice Online:
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Singer/songwriters Karen Cross & Rob Martin have won the Tipperary International Song of Peace with their song titled ‘Oceans of Peace’. In front of a packed house in the Tipperary Excel Centre on Saturday night (October 6th), the duo picked up 28 marks from a possible 30 to make them clear winners of the Contest for 2018. As overall winners they received a cheque for €1,500 and the Tipperary Song of Peace Crystal Award.

Karen is a singer songwriter from Galway and Rob is a singer songwriter from Dublin. They are regular performers at open mic nights in Waterford. They met at a songwriters workshop in Tramore in May 2018 where they collaborated on their song ‘Oceans of Peace’. The winning song got its first outing after the event when it was performed by the duo at the 11am Mass in St. Michael’s Church Tipperary on Sunday morning.

The joint runners-up in the Contest were Liverpudlian Joe Topping with his song ‘More Love’ and the Welsh brother and sister Daniel & Bianca Taylor with their song titled ‘Stick Together’.
The best Irish entry award of the Mick Tuohy Perpetual Cup went to a young Tipperary duo, Sophie Bartlett & Ciarán Coffey with their entry ‘Doesn’t Have To Be A Dream’.

For the first time ever there was a School Peace Choir section and to great excitement the Monastery Senior Boy’s primary school from Tipperary Town were declared the winners. There were 6 schools in the contest from across Tipperary along with a school from Kildare. The winning choir received the Danny Ryan Perpetual Cup, presented by the Ryan Family in memory of Danny who was a gifted musician and music teacher. The Ryan Family also made individual presentations to the 5 other schools.

This was the first time that the Monastery boys performed in a choral event and the choir was formed in recent weeks by teachers Ms. Sinead Ní Choiligh (Choirmistress) and Ms. Mary Long, especially for the Peace event. There were 45 boys in the choir. The songs they performed were; ‘The Peace Song’ and ‘I’d like to teach the world to Sing’ and they were accompanied on keyboards by Ms. Helen Culbert.

Speaking after the event the Hon. Secretary of Tipperary Peace Convention, Martin Quinn, said that it was a hugely successful event. “The addition of the school choirs added a whole new dimension to the Contest and it was wonderful to see their excitement in being part of this event. I want to thanks the schools that participated and who travelled long journeys for the event and my special thanks to the songwriters in the Song of Peace Final who came at their own expense from Ireland, England, Wales, USA and Australia”.

The winning school choir from the Monastery will now be invited to perform at the presentation of the Tipperary International Peace Award to the recently retired President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, when he visits Tipperary in November.

There are few better than Dublin’s C.C. Cooper at conveying a sense of pathos and heartbreak as a performer, having shared the Grand Ole Opry stage in Nashville with the likes of George Hamilton IV and Georgette Jones (Tammy Wynette’s daughter), not to mention releasing a raft of top quality country records, touring extensively solo, brushing shoulders with the likes of Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Alan Jackson and Colin Rae while VIP’ing at the CMA awards in Nashville, and touring with renowned female trio, the Honky Tonk Angels (with Bernie Heaney and Lorraine McDonald).

Now teaming up with prolific and celebrated Irish songwriter Sean Silke, and production team Beardfire Music, C.C. is back with a brand new single, ‘He Wants Me Back’!

A classic country/pop tearjerker with a great back story, ‘He Wants Me Back’ tells the true tale of an American lady who has been married for 25 years. Her husband goes through a mid-life crisis (no other woman involved) and looks for a divorce. It’s two years later, the divorce is in place, the house is sold, and he wants her back! The song describes the emotional trauma and intense heartbreak of the dilemma which the divorced woman now faces. It is not a story with a happy ending; it is about the agony before whatever resolution may or may not occur.

Between them, Rohan Healy, David Virgin and Al Quiff of Beardfire studio – the production team behind ‘He Wants Me Back’ – have shared the stage with or produced the likes of Nick Cave, INXS, Gretchen Peters, Mary Black, Cat Power, Sherbet, Jim Lauderdale, John Cooper Clarke, Lloyd Cole, Leslie Dowdall (In Tua Nua), Mundy, Billy Bragg, Mark Olson (The Jayhawks) and more.

Brothers Rohan and Al (Quiff) Healy played to a television audience of 7 million on The Voice UK Season 5, performed for President Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin and had countless adventures over their more than 1,000 shows with The Dublin City Rounders. Their father, David Virgin, renowned songwriter and producer of 5 No1’s in the Australian charts with Sekret Sekret, was also the visionary behind the sound of early industrial noise group SPK, a cited influence on the likes of Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers.

‘He Wants Me Back’ is out now and is available on all major streaming and download platforms. The official music video is to be released in the coming weeks.

With the release of singles ‘Desire’ and ‘This City’s at War’ DEEP SKY OBJECTS showcased their proficiency at referencing the wide spectrum of rock music and combining this with hookworm melodies crafted something thoroughly modern and contagious. Pulling another rock rabbit out of their hat the newest single ‘It’s Your Ghost’ is a seductive piece of progressive rock about lost connections. In reminiscing lead vocalist Kevin O‘Brien intones “‘Talk to me like you used to/Talk to me like you want to’. Sometimes we look to the past to reconnect, when all we want to do is reconnect with you in the present.” ‘It’s Your Ghost’ is out November 2.

Over the past year Cork band DEEP SKY OBJECTS have become one of the most exciting rock bands to emerge in Ireland. Cleaving together grooves and melodies from classic and 90’s rock combined with an enthralling live show the trio have become ones to watch.

With ‘It’s Your Ghost’ Deep Sky Objects wanted to introduce a more melody focused single finding a middle ground between The National and Royal Blood with inflections of The Cure. Let yourself be seduced and get ready for a band renowned for their big riffs and dirty bass lines that have kicked things up a gear and are getting ready to show you exactly what they are made of in 2019.

Deep Sky Objects are a three-piece alternative-rock band. The band members include brothers Kevin O’Brien (lead vocals, guitar), Thomas O’Brien (drums and backing vocals) and DD Foley (bass guitar and backing vocals).

Tour Dates
The Grand Social, Dublin – October 3
Kelly’s Bar, Cavan – October 5
The Underground, Dublin – October 26
Sean Og’s, Donegal – October 27
Foxford, Mayo – October 28
Coughlans, Cork – November 9 (Double headliner w/ Orchid Collective)
INEC Killarney, Kerry – November 10

Following a busy few months of collaborations, Paul Noonan releases a new song on his own, ‘Moth to Your Flame’. It is produced by the Gloaming’s Thomas Bartlett and will be available digitally on 5^th October.

Paul says of the song –

“’Moth to Your Flame’ was made by myself and Thomas Bartlett of New York City, like Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins in 84 Charing Cross Road, trading musical parts over the Atlantic on t’internet.  It was the first tune finished of an ongoing collaboration, and I’m delighted to finally show it off…”

Earlier this year the Side 4 Collective released ‘The Flood’, a song penned by Paul and more recently he teamed up with Daithi on the atmospheric ‘Jesus, Take The Wheel’.  One of Ireland’s most respected songwriters, Paul has also released music under the Printer Clips handle as well as curating shows such as Starboard Home at the NCH.

Paul will be playing some solo shows in October…

Live

19^th October – Galway Spiegeltent Sessions
20^th October – Wexford Spiegeltent Festival

On Saturday, 20th October, Ollie Murphy Presents, in association with IMRO and GoldenPlec.com, will showcase a stellar line-up of musicians at the home of new music in Dublin, Whelan’s of Wexford Street.

Munky, Third Smoke, Bodies and Skywriter will all play at the first showcase to be staged by Ollie Murphy, the HamsandwicH drummer whose love of live music and has seen him assume a management and mentoring role to rising bands in recent years.

Ollie says: “It’s great to have the opportunity to showcase these talented musicians in the that venue I cut my own musical teeth in. Having IMRO and Golden Plec on board this initiative is brilliant; spreading the word to a wider audience is why I established Ollie Murphy Presents. Ireland has a wealth of amazing bands and that’s what the night is all about.”

Tickets are priced at €10 and are available from www.wavtickets.ie and on the door, subject to availability.

MUNKY

MUNKY are an alternative rock band mixing disco grooves with grungy psych guitars. Their music is funky and furious, drawing influences from 70s disco and funk, 90s alt-rock and modern day psychedelia to produce their distinct sound. Their live shows have created a word of mouth buzz for their energy and quality.

In less than a year they have played Whelan’s Ones To Watch twice, opened for Le Galaxie, The Hot Sprockets and Raglans, been picked by Hot Press as one of the must see BIMM acts, played in Aviva Stadium and at festivals including Longitude festival, YS festival & Electric Picnic. Their first headline show sold out the main room of Whelan’s and garnered high praise in reviews.

THIRD SMOKE

Third Smoke are an Irish indie rock band that build performances around a mixture of raucous gang vocals, dynamic harmonies and the chaotic swapping of instruments by five seamlessly synchronised multi-instrumentalists.

Musical influences range from the likes of the Dandy Warhols, Arcade Fire, Talking Heads, Glass Animals and Fleet Foxes and through years of dedicated writing, exploration, format changing and continuous touring they have established a live show that channels a blend of anthemic melody driven indie rock together with powerful vocal interplay above a wall of crafted sound.

BODIES

Originally the solo project of multi-instrumentalist David Anthony McGeown, BODIES now play as a four-piece live band with the addition of Nathan Maher (guitar), Danilo Ward (bass) and Scott Johnson (drums). The band has been busy all summer earning a name for themselves as a raucous live band with energetic performances at the likes of Castlepalooza, Electric Picnic and Groove Festival. BODIES were also one of the undisputed highlights of the Whelan’s Ones to Watch summer showcase festival in 2018. At this gig, having broken his wrist two days previously, David managed the first two songs with his hospital wrist brace, but was feeling restricted as the audience swelled. Never one to compromise, David ripped off the brace halfway through the gig so that he could play unrestrained – albeit with a broken wrist. This ‘all or nothing’ approach is typical of the Dubliner who has cultivated a signature sound that draws influence from the likes of Radiohead, Muse, Manchester Orchestra & Sigur Ros.

Having released an EP, ‘Soak’, in November 2017 to critical acclaim, BODIES upcoming debut album ‘Drench’ is one of the most anticipated studio albums from an Irish artist this year. It features collaborations with members of some of Ireland’s most prominent bands such as Squarehead, Kid Karate, Blooms, Kodaline and Overhead the Albatross.

SKYWRITER

Hailing from Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Amy Quirke started out as a drummer in a local band. Gigging at every opportunity across the length and breadth of Ireland, not only cemented her reputation as a multi-instrumentalist but also sowed the seeds for her own solo material.

Taking leave of the stage to focus on writing, Amy moved to London and then Melbourne, Australia. Combining the energy of both cities with her own real life experiences, she has developed her own brand of honest song writing both on solo and collaborative levels, and after a stint in Los Angeles, California, Skywriter was born.

Taking a from working with Shane MacGowan amongst others, Cronin brothers Mick and Johnny welcomed Skywriter to Live Transmission Studios to record her self titled debut EP. Amy collaborated with some of the midland’s finest musicians including Dec Murphy of The Blizzards on drums.

Facebook Event Page: https://bit.ly/2yblT6x