On The Record

  • Top of the plugs

    November 20, 2009 @ 5:51 am | by Jim Carroll

    In The Ticket today, the Coen brothers talk about their new film A Serious Man, The XX mark the spot, we deconstruct the fine art of the encore and look at how Paranormal Activity became the the most profitable film ever at the world box-office.

    In New Music, there are rounds of applause for The Middle East, Planet Parade, Muchuu, Sleigh Bells and David Ronan, plus there are Music News stories on the Galway Jazz Festival, the Bottlenote festival, the Trans Musicales festival in France and how we owe the PiL reunion to Country Life butter.

    Album of the Week comes from Rihanna and there are also reviews of releases from Tom Waits, The Brothers Movement, Luke Haines, House of Cosy Cushions & Katie Kim, Efterklang & the Danish National Orchestra, Susan Boyle, Horslips, Dublin Gospel Choir, Harry Manx, Janet Jackson and many more. Plus Eoin Butler rounds up the singles and downloads in Shuffle.

    New films for your viewing pleasure this week are A Serious Man, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Informant! and The first day of the rest of your life. Plus film news, the weekly movie quiz and Donald Clarke’s Screenwriter column.

    The Ticket: putting on the ritz.

    The OTR community noticeboard is now open for business. Plug and recommend away to your heart’s content, but remember to declare an interest where one should be declared. Please note that plugs are accepted on the whim of OTR and may be edited for length/clarity/common sense. Events with a commercial sponsor are really ads and will probably not be published in this slot. Have a rocking weekend, y’all.

  • The pains of being pure at heart

    November 19, 2009 @ 5:55 am | by Jim Carroll

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  • The Far Side - playlist for November 17 - James Byrne at the controls

    November 18, 2009 @ 4:09 pm | by Jim Carroll

    As played by James “Indie Kid” Byrne (Nightlink, Any Other City Records, Villagers) who stood in for me on The Far Side, Phantom 105.2, November 17, 10pm-midnight. Check out James’ own Nightlink show every Saturday night/Sunday morning on Phantom 105.2 from midnight to 2am.

    Orange Juice “Moscow” (Domino)
    Japandroids “Young Hearts Spark Fires” (Polyvinyl)
    The Replacements “Colour me impressed” (Twin Tone)
    Cause Co-Motion “Baby Don’t Do It” (Slumberland)
    Swell Maps “Cake Shop Girl” (Secretly Canadian)
    Let’s Wrestle “Music is My Girlfriend” (Stolen Recordings)
    Kurt Vile “Freeway” (Gulcher)
    Surfer Blood “Swim to Reach the End” (Kanine)
    Maritime “Tearing up the oxygen” (Flameshovel)
    Atlas Sound “Walkabout” (Kranky)
    M.Ward “Vincent O’Brien” (Merge)
    The Specials “A Message to You Rudy” (Two Tone)
    Helio Sequence “Broken Afternoons” (SubPop)
    The Kingsbury Manx “Pageant Square” (City Slang)
    The Asteroids “The Great Escape” (Scientific Labs)
    This Moment In Black History “Back In A Plaza Groove” (Cold Sweat)
    Girls “Ghost Mouth” (Fantasy Trashcan)
    Constantines “Soon Enough” (Sub Pop)
    Bruce Springsteen “Nebraska” (Columbia)
    The Replacements “Here Comes A Regular” (Warners)
    Atlas Sound “Shelia” (Kranky)
    Clinic “Distortions” (Domino)
    Young Marble Giants “Music for Evenings” (Domino)
    New Villager “Rich Doors” (Moongadget)
    Joan Of Arse “Things Asleep in the Sun” (Scientific Labs)
    Roy Montrell “(Everytime I Hear) That Mellow Saxophone” (Speciality/Ace)
    This Moment In Black History “Let’s Talk About A Civil War” (Cold Sweat)
    The Replacements “Left of the Dial” (Warners)

  • Mo’ festivals

    @ 3:38 pm | by Jim Carroll

    Those interested in new music, noise and experimental jazz should check out the Bottlenote Festival which takes place in Dublin’s Twisted Pepper on December 4 and 5.

    The main sets will feature four members from the Bottlenote collective - Seán Óg, Shane Latimer, Simon Jermyn and Justin Carroll - collaborating with visiting artists from Norway, Paris, Denmark and London. Aside from two nights of double bills featuring newly commissioned music, Bottlenote will also feature Bang Hazard and Lead Soup as well as laptop sets from Estonian sound artist Alo Allik and Dublin’s Eomac. There will also be a couple of free educational workshops.

    Weekend tickets are €20 (€14 concessions) and admission per night will be €12 and €8. Full schedule for the festival here.

    Still with the jazzers, the Galway Jazz Festival runs from this Thursday to Sunday and features shows from Trygve Seim Orchestra, Rebecca Martin & Larry Grenadier, Métier, Francesco Turrisi Trio, Buckley, Stowell, Feely, Polar Bear (video below), Julia Hülsmann Trio and Matthew Berrill’s Galway Allstars. Full rundown on admission prices, dates and venues here.

  • The Week of the Cat continues: singer blames “gallons of Guinness” for audience unhappiness

    @ 5:37 am | by Jim Carroll

    Per report in today’s paper, Yusuf “Cat Stevens” Islam was “utterly shocked” by the response to his now infamous Dublin gig on Sunday night.

    The singer addressed the issue in a post on his blog. “It was something I’d never experienced for most of my musical career”, he wrote. “The tendency of some to drown away the blues of a hapless draw with a few more gallons of Guinness….obviously didn’t help either.

    He also states that the audience’s reaction will mean changes for future shows. “One thing is clear: many of the fans didn’t know much about the Moonshadow section – and some thought I wasn’t coming back on stage. That can easily be fixed with a free program for the night and me personally informing the audience of what’s going to happen. Perhaps a shorter segment of the Musical will also help tighten things up, and we’re already working on that.

    “If the advertising was in anyway sending out a different message, then I can only apologise for that – but my name, ‘YUSUF’, can’t practically be printed any bigger.”

  • Seen and heard in Newfoundland: Hey Rosetta!

    November 17, 2009 @ 5:00 am | by Jim Carroll

    First instincts usually turn out to be right. There were a couple of dozen acts plying their wares over the weekend at the Music NL Conference in Newfoundland and, over the last week or so, I checked out their MySpaces to hear what was in store. The one group which stood out a mile from that trawl were Hey Rosetta! And the one group who stood out from the weekend’s showcases, which went on as a TV in the background broadcast ice hockey’s 100 greatest brawls? Yep, you guessed it, Hey Rosetta!

    I liked the cut of a couple of acts over the weekend. The Dardanelles are a bunch of young bucks lashing through a fierce and fiesty bunch of fit trad grace notes, while Sherman Downey’s hooksome indie-pop tunes have a touch of the Paul Simons to them. And any major label A&R dude with a hankering to take a punt on something which might - might - pay off in spades should take a look at Aislin House, five sisters ranging in age from 14 to 21 playing a very poppy brand of trad and folk. Yep, The Corrs without the conspiracy theory brother.

    But Hey Rosetta were the ones who really stood tall. Of course, some of this was down to the company they were keeping - there was a lot of pretty woeful Celtic rock on show - but the St John’s group would be a highlight at any festival showcasing new acts.

    Six kids making spine-tingling, emotional big-sky indie music, Hey Rosetta!’s tunes already have a slice of strung-out ambition and a wash of songwriting smarts. Frontman Tim Baker has one of those damn fine voices which makes you pay attention without him having to yell in your face, while the harmonies and melodies just keep on trucking all through the set. They look and sound like they’re in this for the long haul.

    Their current album, “Into Your Lungs (and around your heart and on through your blood)”, got a Polaris Music Prize tip-of-the-hat in Canada last year and gave the band a considerable leg-up at home. Abroad, they’ve already had a few spins round Australia and will be playing UK and French dates in the coming weeks. They’re up there with fried fish tongues, brightly painted clapboard houses, Fred’s Records and the view from Cape Spear as some of the finest things we experienced this weekend.

  • Norn Iron music board shuts up shop due to “differences”

    November 16, 2009 @ 7:46 pm | by Jim Carroll

    The Northern Ireland Music Industry Commission (NIMIC) has ground to a halt due to differences between board members.

    Founded in 2001 to “provide strategy and services towards accelerating the development of a sustainable music industry in Northern Ireland”, NIMIC provided various educational programmes and a wide range of local and international showcases for new bands.

    The voluntary closure appears to have come about when Invest NI and other partners withdrew funding due to “irreconcilable issues within NIMIC’s board”.

    It is not known if another body will be established to replace NIMIC.

  • “I cannot remember anything like this happening at a gig before”

    @ 4:39 am | by Jim Carroll

    Oh oh, Joe’s going to be busy today. Some of the folks over at Boards were at the Cat Stevens/Yusef Islam show in the O2 last night and it seems that the crack was only mighty. Some gig-goers didn’t seem to realise that the show, the dude’s first ever Irish appearance, included a preview of new Cat-tastic musical Moonshadow. C’mon OTR readers, I know some of you were there.

    Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, The Specials took to the boards of the Olympia for a two night stand. Here’s the rave review from State.

  • Thank plug it’s Friday

    November 13, 2009 @ 2:13 am | by Jim Carroll

    In The Ticket this week, 50 Cent tells us why it’s tough out there this weather for a hip-hop playa, we profile a new DIY guide for girls who want to rock and Cymbals Eat Guitars share the contents of their rider with us

    There’s New Music hip-hip-hurrahs for Free Energy, C!ties, Slow Motion Heroes, Traz and Percolator, while the Music News has stories on Other Voices, Autobahn’s Mad Hatters Ball and Fucked Up and friends doing their version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”

    Album of the week comes from Michael Nyman and David McAlmont (a glorious collaboration) and there are also reviews of releases from Twinkranes, Ceu, St Catherine’s Homes for Lazy Infants, Tori Amos, JLS, Noelie McDonnell, The Mountain Goats, Keith Jarrett and many more.

    New flicks for your viewing pleasure (or displeasure) include The White Ribbons, 2012, Harry Brown, Cold Souls, Amelia, Taking Woodstock and Tulpan. Plus movie news, DVD reviews and the weekly quiz to make you realise you don’t know as much as Donald Clarke.

    All this AND - ta-dah - the finest guide to going out in the land.

    The Ticket: flying high every Friday

    This is probably (with a bit of luck) the only OTR plugs post which will ever be written in Newark Airport, New Jersey. We’re en route to Canada for the Music Newfoundland and Labrador conference, but the weather has meant flights are delayed and I’ve found out more about this airport than I ever really wanted to know. Rang Bruce to see if he wanted to do lunch, but the dude was out. Still, found this reminder of the aul’ sod while I was wandering around trying to stay awake….

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    The OTR plugs service is open for business. Plug and recommend away to your heart’s content, but remember to declare an interest where one should be declared. Please note that plugs are accepted on the whim of OTR and may be edited for length/clarity/common sense. Events with a commercial sponsor are really ads and will probably not be published in this slot. Please note that I’m a couple of thousand miles away so comments will not be updated until the afternoon. Over and out.

  • Happy JNLR Day to all the anoraks in the audience…

    November 12, 2009 @ 7:36 pm | by Jim Carroll

    The raw data is here, the lingo is translated here and the first press releases are filtered here. Let the spinning and “we’re the most listened to radio station amongst over 45 females with an university degree in Co Leitrim” begin!

  • Tune of the Week - “Love Cry”

    @ 8:57 am | by Jim Carroll

    Give Four Tet nine minutes of your life and he’ll give you the keys to his world.

    From the forthcoming album “There Is Love In You”, this is probably the foxiest groove which Kieran Hebden has ever produced. He’s done sharp, smart, woozy, hynotic, Afrotastic and minimal before, but “Love Cry” is the first time Hebden has wrapped all of the above into a slice of deep groovy ‘lectronica capable of out-flashing the dancefloor.

    It wiggles and wobbles. It shimmies and shakes. It damn well keeps you in the zone. Chalk the album down as one to illuminate some dark January days.

  • Competition reminder

    November 11, 2009 @ 4:14 pm | by Jim Carroll

    Win two weekend passes for the upcoming Homelights festival! You have until 9.55pm tonight to enter.

  • The Far Side - playlist for November 10

    @ 11:25 am | by Jim Carroll

    As played on The Far Side, Phantom 105.2, November 10, 10pm-midnight.

    Four Tet “Love Cry” (Domino)
    Memory Tapes “Bicycle” (Acephale)
    CFCF “Half Dreaming” (Paper Bag)
    Subway “Jupiter” (Soul Jazz)
    To Rococo Rot “Seele” (Domino)
    Nice Nice “One Hit” (Warp)
    Cold Cave “Life Magazine” (Matador)
    Sleigh Bells “Crown On The Ground” (Self release)
    Slow Motion Heroes “Paper Over Cracks” (Self release)
    We Cut Corners “Toll Free” (Self release)
    The Middle East “Blood” (Spunk)
    Lykke Li “Possibility” (Atlantic)

    Playtime for Robots – The Far Side’s Kraftwerk special

    “Trans Europe Express” (from “Trans Europe Express”)
    “It’s More Fun To Compute” (from “Computer World”)
    “Aero Dynamik” (from “Tour de France”)
    “Tour de France Etape 3” (from “Tour de France”)
    “Dentaku” (from “The Mix”)
    “Musique Non Stop” (from “Techno Pop”)
    “Metropolis” (from “The Man Machine”)
    “Airwaves” (from “Radio-Activity”)
    “Mitternacht” (from “Autobahn”)
    “The Model” (from “The Man Machine”)
    “The Hall Of Mirrors” (from “Trans Europe Express”)

  • Music media - Observer Music Monthly, When Under Ether

    @ 10:28 am | by Jim Carroll

    As part of an overhaul of the newspaper, the Observer Music Monthly has been axed. While the supplement did take some time to find its feet, I thought it had improved vastly in recent times, though they never quite got over the habit of giving every damn album four or five star reviews.

    The first episode of new music TV show When Under Ether aired last night on RTE 2. For those who didn’t see it, the show is now available on the RTE Player.

  • John Lydon was wrong: anger is not an energy

    November 10, 2009 @ 3:39 pm | by Jim Carroll

    Over the last few months, the Irish nation has morphed into Howard Beale. We are, as Beale roared, as mad as hell and we’re not going to take it any more. With every passing week, every passing live current affairs show, every passing protest march, the anger mounts.

    This anger is applied indiscriminately left, right and centre. We’re angry with politicians, highly paid TV presenters, unions, highly paid union leaders, rich folk, folk who used to be rich, poor folks, builders, developers, emigrants, immigrants, public sector workers, private sector workers, bankers, footballers, football pundits, the FAI, Morrissey, neighbours, relatives and friends. Oh, and journalists too. It’s an equal opportunities kind of anger.

    But the problem with anger is that it doesn’t get you anywhere. You vent, rant and fume but, when you’re finished venting, ranting and fuming, you’re still in the same pickle that you were in when you began. It may be entertaining to watch someone go off on one (as last night’s episode showed), but it does absolutely no good whatsoever.

    Some would argue that this anger is part of a cycle of coming to terms with the demise of the boom. We’re already had the denial and we should be preparing ourselves for bouts of bargaining, depression and, finally, acceptance. It’s going to be a long wait.

    Anger won’t get rid of this catastrophe of a Fianna Fail/Green Party government or bring your job back or eliminate this recession or reduce the pay of your favourite broadcaster. Anger won’t bring more people out on the streets to join unions marching up and down our grey boulevards. Indeed, it’s obvious that protest fatigue is beginning to set in as people realise that marching is not actually getting anything sorted. And then they’ll get angry about that.

    You wonder if those we’ve elected to govern this little nation and those who try to run government departments have any idea how to deal with this. Are they simply waiting for the anger to die down and move on? Do they envisage this anger actually turning into the kind of mass action we’ve never had in this country (drunken Celtic fans going a bit loopy on a Saturday morning does not count)? Do they believe that the Irish people are happy to fume and roar and shout, but will never go beyond that? Eventually, they think, life will go on. Budget cuts will be made, certain taxes will be increased, public services will be sliced, but life will go on. The anger will pass.

    Or, as usually happens, the public rage will find a new target. There will be another set of reactions as opposed to actions. Cue more calls to Liveline, more outbursts from the audience at a TV show, more ROFLOL online reactions to all of the above. No-one ever learns. Unlike Beale, we keep on taking it.

    Maybe it’s time for this to become the new national anthem

  • Competition - win a pair of tickets to the Homelights festival!

    @ 10:37 am | by Jim Carroll

    As previously noted, the Homelights festival will take place at Dublin’s Whelan’s from November 27 to 30.

    Curated by Adrian Crowley and Foggy Notions, it will feature a ton of performers including Vashti Bunyan, James Yorkston, Adem, Andy Irvine, Minotaur Shock, Lord Cut-Glass , Dosh, AC himself and many more.

    Limited weekend tickets at €45 a pop are available here.

    Thanks to Foggy Notions, we have a pair of weekend tickets to give away. Simply tell us what’s your favourite folk album of all time and why in the comments fields below and we’ll pick one winner from the entries. Competition closes at 9.55pm on Wednesday.

  • The randomiser says “oops upside your head, say oops upside your head”

    November 9, 2009 @ 10:37 am | by Jim Carroll

    Hands up who feels sorry for the Maccer? A little bit sorry? No takers? Anyway, there must be easier ways to pimp a book than causing the Minister for Garlic and RTE’s current affairs queenpin to fume. McWilliams’ fecking awful week ended with the Irish Daily Mail sending both Shay Healy and Brenda Power out to have a pop at him on Saturday, while yesterday’s Trib was “get Maccer!”-tastic from cover to cover. Indeed, per the Trib’s Mick Clifford, we learn that McWilliams has moved on from David Brooks to Calvin Trillin in terms of his NYT reading. Ravey Davey will be hoping that reviews of the book will be only bleedin’ rapid.

    Bet there’s no mention of Miss Pencil Skirt in Dan O’Brien’s new book. Read this piece from the Economist Intelligence Unit writer about Ireland’s political paralysis and add “Ireland, Europe and the World: Writings on a New Century” to your book list.

    New music show on the small screen incoming: with a nod and a wink to Peej Harvey, When Under Ether hits your tellies on Tuesday night on RTE 2. Fronted by Michelle Doherty (Phantom FM and ex-Channel Six’s Nightshift) and Elton Mullally (who used to produce the latter show), the new programme will, natch, air at stupid o’clock (11.45pm) which is the norm for music TV shows. Nonetheless, it’s a welcome move because we need more music TV shows on the box (such as Una Mullally’s new show incoming on TG4 in 2010) and on smaller screens (Analogue Episode 1 is now live featuring Kronos Quartet, Patrick Kelleher and So Cow). After all, just ask Wild Beasts or Stornoway about the bump in gig attendances, profile and sales thanks to recent spins and pirourettes on Later.

    Banter does the Noughties: the topic for the monthly yakking session at the Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey Street, Dublin) on November 28 is the Review of the Decade. Our guests for this rocket-powered blast through 10 years of pop culture are Richie “Jape” Egan, Nadine “Sunday Business Post/Phantom FM” O’Regan and Trevor “Bodytonic chief” O’Shea. As always, admission is free but fill in the form here to guarantee your place

    The return of On The Record Presents: following our very successful debut into this sort of thing a few weeks ago, On The Record Presents takes over the live room at the Twisted Pepper again on November 28 with live sets from the awesome Dark Room Notes and the equally awesome Not Squares. It’s all part of the TP’s first birthday bash with Carl Craig rocking the basement, a Silent Disco in the cafe and Mr Jones and Mud in the Mezz.

    New albums which make you go “yes” when you finally get around to listening to them: you can file “Embryonic”, the latest masterblaster from The Flaming Lips, under this heading. Man, you’ll be hearing and seeing things when this starts to ebb and flow.

    Hoops upside your head: Hanging From The Rafters: The Story of Neptune and the Golden Age of Irish Basketball sounds like an absolute blast. Kieran Shannon’s book remembers what happened when a bunch of US pro basketball players fetched up in 1980s Ireland and transformed the domestic game. Excerpts from the book here and here.

    Will summer 2010 be a quiet one on the megastar gigging front? There’s certainly very few names already in the offing for shows here next year. I mean, just look at who’s onboard for Cork’s Live at the Marquee series to date: Kenny Rogers, JLS and Deep Purple. Sure, they used to have better line-ups for Siamsa Cois Laoi.

    We are the robots: tune into The Far Side tomorrow night for a Playtime for Robots hour from 11pm as we boot on down the autobahn with the remastered Kraftwerk back-catalogue booming on the stereo.

    RIP Jerry Fuchs. The drummer with !!!, The Juan MacLean and Maserati died after falling down an elevator shaft at a party in Brooklyn.

    “The fight, by all accounts, looked as if it were taking place under water between two arthritics in Michelin Man suits”: Tom Humphries sums up the little and large heavyweight bout on Saturday night. Now that Haye has desptached “Shrek’s older, bigger brother”, the hype machine can begin to roll once more.

    Three is the magic number: when three different people mention a new band, you just have to check them out. Three highly respected tipsters raved to me about The Middle East within 12 hours last week. And yes, all three are bang on the money.

  • Eco-friendly plugs

    November 6, 2009 @ 10:38 am | by Jim Carroll

    As The Ticket turns green for the week, Roland “2012″ Emmerich explains why he directs films which are always destroying the planet, we find out how green is your favourite rock star, there’s an assessment on the trade-offs being made between the entertainment industry and the planet and why music fans as much as the industry need to greenwash their behaviour.

    There’s New Music berths for Washed Out, CFCF, Cloud Castle Lake, Clang Sayne and Belly Of the Underdog, while Music News has the skinny on Indiecater Records, Eurosonic and what’s top of the classical pops for kids.

    Album of the Week comes from 8 Ball and there are also reviews of new releases from Robbie Williams, Snow Patrol, Channel One, The Slew, Cosmo Jarvis, Dam-Funk, Kila, “Gilles Peterson Presents Havana Cultura: New Cuban Sound”, The O’s, the Sick and Indigent Song Club and more. Plus Eoin Butler gets busy with the singles, downloads and streams in Shuffle.

    In the cinemaplexes, this week’s new releases are Bright Star, The Men Who Star At Goats, A Christmas Carol and Welcome. Plus there are DVD reviews, the weekly movie quiz and a round-up of current film news.

    The Ticket: we will save the blooming planet!

    Please note that you’ll now find all Ticket content in the Culture section on this website. Online editor Hugh Linehan talks about the latest changes to the site here.

    MC v D: Simon Carswell writes in today’s Business section about what is behind the ding-dong between former MCD bedfellows Denis Desmond and Eamonn McCann. Simon’s report the case includes reference to “a €5 million once-off payment from Ticketmaster. The payment from Ticketmaster, which sells concert tickets, was made to Mr Desmond’s firm, Gaiety Investments, in November 2005. Mr McCann describes the €5 million payment as “a non-recoupable term volume discount”. It’s believed this payment was a 10-year advance to MCD for which it agreed to sell 600,000 tickets a year through Ticketmaster.” Please note that this case is currently before the Commercial Court so comments on it will not be published.

    The OTR community noticeboard is open for business. Plug and recommend away to your heart’s content, but remember to declare an interest where one should be declared. Please note that plugs are accepted on the whim of OTR and may be edited for length/clarity/common sense. Events with a commercial sponsor are really ads and will probably not be published in this slot. Have a fabulous weekend.

  • 25 years of Morning Ireland

    November 5, 2009 @ 12:27 pm | by Jim Carroll

    RTE Radio One’s Morning Ireland marked a quarter-century of broadcasts with their first show in front of a studio audience this morning.

    For listeners/watchers in the studio audience, it was a chance to see exactly what goes into the making of the country’s most listened-to radio show aside from those pre-dawn starts for the presenters. For those at home, there was a couple of special guests (like President Mary McAleese, Brian Cowen, Des Bishop and Cathy Kelly) to go with the usual mix of news, sports, newspaper reviews, business reports (still the foreign language section of the show) and analysis.

    Best of all, there were cameos from the two Davids - Hanly and Davin-Power - who presented the first shows back in November 1984. I wonder did they know that this pic would still be in use 25 years later….

    2davids.jpg

    …or that the show would still be top of the news agenda all those years on. As both mentioned as they remembered the ‘84 debut, the idea of a news show at breakfast time met with resistance both within and without RTE at the time. Mike Murphy was doing the breakfast gig and it was felt that light music and chat was a better draw than heavyweight politics and current affairs. Even with BBC Radio Four’s Today programme setting a precedent across the Irish Sea, the notion of a heavy-hitting news programme in the morning was viewed as a radical move by the RTE powers-that-be.

    But the show persevered. It survived such early opposition, consolidated its grip on the schedule and thrived in an era when media giants are supposed to be struggling. It’s fair to say that in an era of instant news updates via a myriad of different mediums that Morning Ireland more than holds its own. Even on a station wall to wall with other news and talk shows - from fellow agenda-setters like the News At One, especially when Sean O’Rourke is in the presenter’s chair (still the best news man RTE Radio One have), to the horrendous headbangers hour that is Liveline - Morning Ireland is still the one which gets the audience and, by extension, the attention from anyone who wants to get their message to those 460,000 people.

    It helps that the show really has no viable competition in the morning news stakes. Despite several attempts by Newstalk to grab the headlines with presenters like Eamon Dunphy and David McWillians (and Claire Byrne and Ivan Yates at present) doing chat alongside cornflakes down through the years, Morning Ireland is still the one which gets the huge numbers. What’s interesting is that their pre-eminient position has not induced complacency. Sure, the formula - news+sports+traffic+interviews+papers+analysis+occasional light fluffy stuff+business - does not really change, but that’s the meat and two veg of a show like this.

    The real selling point is the bond between presenters and audience and how they reel in their prey, sorry, guest politicians, spinners, spoofers, chancers and journalists who got an unexpected wake-up call from a producer at 7am. Whereas you all too often get grandstanding and showboating elsewhere with presenters over-keen to be the centre of attention, there’s an honesty to Morning Ireland’s style which strikes a chord with the listener. We know from experience that there have been many, many times down through the years when a Morning Ireland presenter has harrassed and hounded a guest who has been trying to hide behind bluff and blather. That’s what we tune in and that’s what we expect. Here’s hoping that they’ll continue to do just that for years to come - with panache and politeness at all times, of course.

  • Fresh Air

    @ 11:03 am | by Jim Carroll

    Fresh Air is a month-long festival on your radio where you won’t need any wellies to enjoy the vibes.

    For the month of November, Donal Dineen’s Small Hours show (Today FM, weekdays, midnight-2am) will have a different guest artist on the show to play some tunes live, have a chat and play a selection of their favourite records.

    Acts to be featured include 3epkano, Adrian Crowley, Beautiful Unit, Chequerboard, Dark Room Notes, Goodtime John, Hulk, I Am The Cosmos, Katie Kim, Kevin Blake, Niwel Tsumbu, Patrick Kelleher, Pauline Scanlon, R.S.A.G, Si Schroeder, Sunken Foal, Spilly Walker, Stefan Galt, Thread Pulls and Valerie Francis. The full night by night schedule is here.

    You can hear the first couple of Fresh Air sets - from Villagers, Roland Gomez and Stefano Schiavocampo - here.

    As part of the festival, there will be four live Sunday night shows around the country with Katie Kim as artist in residence, a different guest perfomer at each stop and Dineen on the decks and live visuals. The tour calls to Cork’s Pavilion (November 15), Galway’s Roisin Dubh (22), Dublin’s Button Factory (29) and Limerick’s Daghdha Space at St John’s Church (December 6).

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