Author: Breffni Banks

The live final of the 2012 IMRO Christie Hennessy Song Competition takes place this Saturday, 17^th November at The Brandon Hotel, Tralee. Ten finalists selected from over 200 entries will compete for this prestigious prize and a cheque for €1,000 courtesy of Tralee Chamber Alliance.

To celebrate the final, IMRO will be featuring two finalists in our Member News section each day this week. Today we feature Rachel Barror and Colin Fahy….

Rachel Barror

Song: “Fake Luv”

Originally from Dublin and born into a family of actors and singers, Rachel studied musical theatre and learned her way around the keys of a piano from the tender age of six. With an ear for sound and a passion for music, she launched herself as a professional vocalist from the age of 16. Since her teens, Rachel’s singing career has blossomed with highlights that include lead vocalist in Acid Jazz band around some of Ireland’s biggest and most influential music venues, appearing in a leading Irish Soap and writing two fantastically different sounding albums after moving to London. 

Rachel has also performed to audiences in Switzerland, Austria and Germany touring for six months with a covers band as lead vocalist, performed as singer during a two month residency  in Beijing and has toured Bali, Japan and India performing in some of the biggest clubs.  Rachel is also a session singer for some truly established record labels and is currently writing, co-writing and producing new material.

“Music for me has always been about self discovery and constant reinvention. People always feel the need to box you off as an individual but this will never be possible as long as I’m creating music as it’s an ever changing process. It’s life!” 

www.scarletlane.co.uk 
www.twitter.com/scarletlane2

Colin Fahy

Song: “We’ve Come A Long Way”

Colin Fahy is based in Athlone and originally from Portumna, Co. Galway. He has been songwriting for over 10 years and performing for most of his life. As a teenager he formed a three piece called Croi Óg with two friends from his native Portumna and the group built up a loyal following touring the west and midlands throughout their college years and beyond.

When Croi Óg parted ways, Colin decided to go it alone and has since performed in venues and at festivals all over the country and further afield. Throughout this time, Colin has picked up various songwriting awards at competitions such as An Tostal, The Clonmel National Song Writing Contest and the Sean McCarthy Traditional Irish Song Contest.

Colin released a solo album in 2006 and recently he has been co-writing with Charlie McGettigan. One of those co-writes, ‘Take a Second Look’, features on Charlie’s new album ‘Man from 20’

www.colinfahy.com

www.twitter.com/colinfahy11

Entry to the live final is free of charge, but due to limited capacity, booking is advised. To reserve a place in the audience, email IMRO at membership@nullimro.ie or phone 01 661 4844. Doors open at 8:30pm.

The Christie Hennessy Song Contest is supported by IMRO, Tralee Chamber Alliance, Radio Kerry, Tralee Town Council, Kerry’s Eye, Tralee Advertiser, The Troubadour Club & Brandon Hotel.

Songwriter, Charlie McGettigan, and writer and campaigner, John Mulligan, have just released a single to raise awareness of the ongoing issue of children growing to adulthood in institutions in Romania and other parts of Eastern Europe.

“Who Will Take Care of the Children?” is a haunting song telling the story of children, many of whom we saw on our TV screens in the mid-1990’s, who have grown up in these institutions and are still living there now as adults.

The United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities states that everybody has the right to live in society, and nobody should be excluded from enjoying this basic human right because they have a disability. However, in many countries, this basic right is still being denied.

“Who Will Take Care of the Children?” is now available for download from iTunes, Amazon and other online retailers with all proceeds going to Romanian charities.

To celebrate the live final of the 2012 IMRO Christie Hennessy Song Competition which takes place this Saturday, 17^th November at The Brandon Hotel, Tralee, IMRO will feature two of the ten finalists in our Member News section each day this week. First up, Eli Spring and Stu Daly….

Eli Spring

Song: “Make a Wish”

Surrounded by a musical family, Eli taught himself to play guitar in his home town of Navan Co. Meath and from there grew his love of writing his own music. Eli was the lead singer in local band Hunters Edge for two years which had great success in his hometown of Navan. With Hunters Edge, Eli played local festivals such as Navan Live, Le Chéile & Wilkfest as well as acoustic stages and venues. Eli is now out on his own solo musical adventure and his future is looking very positive and exciting.

A review from @itsatangent wrote,
“A fairly polished act that could probably be dropped straight on to radio and do quite well for himself. Acoustic rock with a kind of country American rock sound, if you like the Coronas or The Script you will probably like this guys’ style”

www.breakingtunes.com/elispring
www.facebook.com/elispringofficial
www.twitter.com/eli_spring

Stu Daly

Song: “The Landing Light”

Stu Daly is a twenty five year old folk artist from Tallaght, Dublin. Since his late teens he has toured Ireland, the UK, France and the US in ska/punk band, Chewing on Tinfoil, including a live session for BBC Radio 1 in the legendary Maida Vale Studios. As he ventures out as a solo artist he retains the same energy and passion but this time he’s taking influence from the likes of Billy Bragg, Woody Guthrie and Otis Redding. In January of this year Stu recorded a two song single and has started to book live shows as he works on his debut EP.

www.facebook.com/studalymusic
www.soundcloud.com/studaly
www.twitter.com/studaly

Entry to the live final is free of charge, but due to limited capacity, booking is advised. To reserve a place in the audience, email IMRO at membership@nullimro.ie or phone 01 661 4844. Doors open at 8:30pm.

The Christie Hennessy Song Contest is supported by IMRO, Tralee Chamber Alliance, Radio Kerry, Tralee Town Council, Kerry’s Eye, Tralee Advertiser, The Troubadour Club & Brandon Hotel.

 Julie Feeney’s highly anticipated third album, “Clocks”, will be launched later this month at performances taking place in Druid Theatre, Galway on 19th November, White Horse, Ballincollig on 29th November and Dublin’s Pepper Canister Church on 7th December. The album, which was helped to fruition by a successful FundIt campaign run by Julie last year, is now available for pre-order on the iTunes Irish store and will go on full release in Ireland on 16th November.

Julie, who won the inaugural Choice Music Prize Irish Album of the Year for her 2005 debut, “13 Songs”, has designed a tour around the release of “Clocks” where she will perform her music with a different choir every night over 10 nights in 10 different towns in Ireland. She has arranged choral scores for 10 of her songs and the choirs will perform a selection from: ‘Love is A Tricky Thing’, ‘Impossibly Beautiful’, ‘Grace’, ‘Life’s Nudge’, ‘Stay’, ‘Mr Roving Eye Guy’, ‘Myth’, Knock Knock’, One More Tune’ and ‘Fictitious Richard’.

#10Nights10Choirs Tour

16/11/12 The Source Arts Centre, Thurles, Co Tipperary

17/11/12 The Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Co Meath

18/11/12 The Hawkswell Theatre, Sligo

20/11/12 Siamsa Tire, Tralee, Co Kerry

21/11/12 The Belltable, Limerick 8pm

22/11/12 The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny

23/11/12 The George Bernard Shaw Theatre, Carlow

24/11/12 The Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Co Kildare

25/11/12 Draiocht Arts Centre, Blanchardstown, Dublin

10/12/12 The Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Co Mayo

For more see www.juliefeeney.com.

Dermot Lambert, front man and songwriter with seminal Irish band Blink, has announced the release of “Twinkle Twinkle Satellite”, his first solo single on November 16^th.

Mixed by the legendary Howie Beno of MINISTRY fame, the single is the first offering from the much anticipated album “Tiny” which will be released on February 8^th with a launch party in Whelan’s, Dublin.

During his ten years with Blink, Lambert enjoyed great success both at home and abroad, with three platinum selling albums, and numerous hit singles, including Cello, It’s Not My Fault, Going to Nepal and Happy Day. Blink also enjoyed numerous award nominations, and critical acclaim from The Irish Times to Hotpress to Billboard Magazine.

Whilst blazing a trail for Irish musicians with his Garageland Project in recent years, Dermot has had significant successes, including bringing the likes of The Script, Ryan Sheridan, Royseven, Delorentos, & Ham Sandwich to their first ever live shows – while at the same time, always putting this work together in his own ‘garage’.

Having explored the ‘band’ format for some time, Dermot’s curiosity led to his taking a new approach to find something fresh, the idea that emerged was to bring an album of material together, through the engagement of people who had never seen the inside of a recording studio before.

This led to recording sessions which frequently saw family members and friends, along with the occasional ‘pro’ just getting stuck in, making it up as they went, drinking tea, and figuring stuff out –  the final result is beyond what Dermot had hoped for, where inexperience and zero expectation would wield magic around a gorgeous set of songs.

To hear “Twinkle Twinkle Satellite” Please visit http://www.dermotlambert.com/twinkle

“Twinkle Twinkle Satellite” Will be released digitally on November 16^th 2012.

For more information: www.dermotlambert.com

Róisín O have been in touch with fans around the world to help them with the video for their track ‘Tea Song’, which is taken from their debut album ‘The Secret Life of Blue’. Irish expats have sent footage of themselves from the country they’re currently living in drinking a cup of tea for the video; now called the Irish #teaspora!

The band are encouraging their fans to share the Irish #teaspora video with any friends and family they have living abroad.

Róisín explains her thoughts behind the unique video:

“It’s crazy to think that, after growing up in the Celtic Tiger, so many of our close friends are now living and working abroad. That’s why we felt this idea for Tea Song could be cool and a nice way to get back in touch with friends and family we haven’t seen in a while, and at the same time get in touch with fans abroad. And also share our mutual love for tea; it brings us closer as a nation!”

Upcoming shows

Róisín O, now the name of both the band and its frontwoman, also have some very exciting shows coming up. A week after supporting both Lionel Richie (The O2 – 10th Dec, The Odyssey – 11th Dec) & The Coronas (The O2 – 14th Dec), the band will perform an intimate Christmas show for a very limited audience in the Unitarian Church on St. Stephen’s Green on Thursday, December 20th. They’ll be performing a unique arrangement of the tracks from their debut album, along with a few Christmas classics too.

This will be a once-off performance to celebrate the end of a very enjoyable & busy 2012 with some of their fans.

Róisín O are encouraging their fans to help with putting the show on by selling tickets through the Irish-owned start-up company Gigstarter, self-described as “a revolutionary way to connect artists and audiences. Better deals for fans, higher returns for musicians and a ground breaking way to gauge demand.”

December support slots with Lionel Richie & The Coronas

Band also to perform special Christmas show in Unitarian Church on Thursday, December 20th

Tickets will go on sale next week, full info from http://www.roisino.com/

OrphanCode, an alternative 3-piece from Dublin, have just completed their second album ‘I Am a Country,’ with long-time producer and engineer Ger McDonnell.  Described by critics as “Slowdive with a hint of Spiritualised” and exhibiting “grit and punch” and “earworm melodies” the first single ‘Friendly Fire’ is currently receiving airplay across the country and the album is released on November 9^th.

You can catch the band upstairs in Whelan’s on Saturday November 24^th

http://www.whelanslive.com/index.php/archives/15671

http://www.facebook.com/orphanCode