The randomiser says “do you come here often?”
Jim Carroll
Quote of the weekend: “running a record store is like running an angling shop these days: the customers are all middle-aged men”. There were many, many, many fine takeaways from our Banter session with Olan O’Brien from All-City Records on Saturday afternoon as he went through the history of that shop and label. Other nuggets included a stat that just 30% of All City’s business comes from records/CDs and some musing on why Los Angeles’ urban sprawl is the go-to place for hot music right now. Thanks also to 2fm’s Jenny Huston and Irish Independent’s Nick Kelly for their time and contributions to our second Banter discussion at the weekend. Using Jenny’s book In Bloom: Irish Bands Now as a jump-off point, we explored the past, present and possible futures of Irish music. Podcasts on both sessions to come.
Florence & The Machine return to Dublin’s Olympia for shows on May 2 and 3. Tickets on sale from Friday at €28. That’s a 12.5% increase in ticket prices (and, we assume, her fee) since her gig at the same venue last month.
New DJ incoming at Today FM. Red FM’s KC is leaving the southern capital for the big smoke where he’ll take over the 10pm to midnight slot from Alison Curtis, who is moving to the early breakfast show (5-7am). That move means both Today and 2fm are now all-male broadcasting bastions from 7am to close of business. I can see a few opinion columns a-brewing already….
Observer Music Monthly goes out with a bang with beautiful portraits of those rock’n'roll, blues, jazz and country legends still with us. Let’s remember the mag for features like this rather than its usual quota of ass-licking reviews.
The Beatles’ songwriting collaborations and partnerships as you have never seen them before.
More Haiti benefits: live sets from BATS, Hunter-Gatherer and Groom plus DJ sets from Nialler9, Mary Jane Girls, Popical Island and guests at the Twisted Pepper on February 4. Music from 8pm, preceded by a cake sale from 7pm, admission is a tenner and all cash raised goes to fund GOAL’s work in Haiti.
Book of the weekend: plenty of fabulous reviews incoming (one here and one here) for Race of A Lifetime, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s revealing look at the runners and riders (so to speak) in 2008′s US presidental election. Excerpts from the book (which is called Game Change on the other side of the pond) here.
Doom, gloom, repeat to fade: worldwide sales of recorded music slumped (you could also say “fell”, “dived”, “dipped”, “collapsed” or “were down”) 10% in 2009. Heavens to Murgatroyd!
I bet there is much chewing of the cud about that figure and other record industry woes at the annual MIDEM shindig going on right now in the south of France. You really have to wonder just how relevant MIDEM is in this day and age. While I know a lot of business gets done with various labels selling catalogues and doing distribution deals, the lack of a robust live angle makes this something of a gathering for the dinosaurs. That said, there is always one or two snippets of interest so it’s worthwhile to keep an eye on Hypebot’s MIDEM coverage this week for breaking news.
Time to program your spam filters to delete all mails with the words “Meteor Music Awards” and “Most Promising New Act” as tens of thousands of acts who think they’re the “most promising new act” barrage, harrass and pester you for your vote. It’s like the invasion of the bodysnatchers with guitars. There’s a reason why public votes don’t work, you know.
Film of the weekend: if you only go to see one extraordinary crime thriller set in a French prison this week, make sure it’s A Prophet. In particular, Tahar Rahim puts in an incredible performance as Malik, the prisoner at the centre of the drama as he develops from a no-mark to a player over the course of the film.
Kudos to the Richter Collective for their Introduction to Belfast bash at the weekend which featured SKP, Girls Names and Not Squares. Enjoyed the post-Wavves wobbles and rattles of Girls Names, while Not Squares again demonstrated the very best way to kick out the jams is to do so without paying the slightest heed to anyone else. The new single is called “Asylum” and it melt your head into tiny little pieces.
I’d forgotten how slamming this tune was until I was DJ-ing on Saturday night and came across it. Take it away, Lefties Soul Connection!
.. I can remember an Irish Times sat mag article on this, that interviewed AC and a few others on this subject, I think Willie O’Reilly was quoted, hazy memory tho
Pedro – i’ve always believed that it should be the best person for the job regardless of gender but are radioheads telling me there’s no woman capable of doing the job? Jaysus, I’m turned into a rampant feminist – this fucking blog has has a lot to answer for
OC – I remember that piece too – about how all the producers at Today FM were female? Just done a rough search online but can’t find it. Are you sure that the piece did not run in the Tribune mag?
Wish I could offer some feminist support Aoife but afraid I know nothing about radio and feel that women are fairly well-represented in the profession of music media. However the media itself is inherently sexist – the first lesson I learned in photography was that pretty girls make up the most popular pictures and if there’s a band with a female, she’s to be made the centre subject. It’s probably the case that a woman with a sexy voice/image will be more likely to attain a prominent position than someone better-informed if it’s going to boost audience figures.
Seems we’re still governed by traditional ideals, with those in power having probably been raised by housewives and supported by working fathers. It’s all changing however, the workforce is generally becoming more balanced…certainly the next generation can expect to see a more equal, natural degree of talent where it matters. It’s just slow going.
Jim – Nothing to complain about my friend. I’m a boy raised by women so I completely appreciate everything Sweet Oblivion has said thus far.
Although someone who works in the media there (and will remain unnamed) had the cheek to complain about me once saying I was sexist after a certain mail-out she received when I wrote something about David Sitek & Scarlett Johansson.
Thanks…I don’t think it’s a coincidence, and it is something that is a product of the society we live in. eg: It wasn’t until 1978 that contraception was legalised here; abortion is still not legal; Church and State still are linked beyond what many believe they should be (and we all know how many women are in high-up positions in the church….!). These might seem completely unrelated, but they aren’t. Not at all. Women have a lot more rights now in Ireland but we still haven’t reached equality, ergo there is not equality on the airwaves (yet). Things are changing…faster in some areas than others.
The bottom line is it’s only in recognising inequality that we can do something about it, so good on you for highlighting this issue. It’s something that needs to be flagged up more.
You are offering support Nay – we all have to go on our own personal experiences, like I’ve never been a photographer so I can only learn from your experience of that, y’know?
And I think that what you said and what Pedro said are linked, that hopefully things will change and are changing. I know my brother grew up in a house with 4 women and used to borrow my books on gender&music. Now he sends me his college essays on gender & posts videos of feminist anarcho punk bands that I’ve never heard of on my facebook page, so suffice to say it’s something he’s aware of!
Plus it really isn’t about creating a divide between men & women, it’s just making both more aware of inequality in both directions. Men experience sexism too, and we could have a whole other discussion about that! (But Jim would have to start his gender equality blog first).
(But Jim would have to start his gender equality blog first).
For the love of God, don’t give my assorted editors ideas like that
Hey, if you ever need any help with it, you’d just have to mention ‘women on radio’ and I’d have the comments section filled for you in an instant – make that Women’s Studies MA of mine even more worthwhile!
Sweet Oblivion
Excellent point made about your brother. I am the youngest of four so I have three older sisters.
Every day I would be out with my dad and friends and would constantly be around sports but in the evenings I would read my sister’s books and listen to their music. That’s definitely had an effect on me.
I work for two big music managers over here, both of whom are female and very well respected. The label I occasionally work for is run by a man and a woman, (but the woman clearly is the one in control and who runs the entire set-up).
Back in August, a bunch of big executive producers and music supervisors from LA where in town, they outnumbered the men by 3:1. These are people who completely run networks like ABC, NBC, HBO etc.
Right now, my partner (who is from the Middle East, so she is well versed on the problems women face in that culture) is teaching me about completely esoteric female architects from the 60s & 70s who built entire cities.
There has always been ridiculously talented women running the show, they’re just not spoken about or recognised enough, which is appalling.
The fact that we have to continue to say the word “women” is awful. Equality dammit!
Went to see A Prophet as I really liked the director’s previous film The Beat That My Heart Skipped but it’s a bit of a letdown to be honest. Agree that Tahar Rahim’s central performance is very, very good but it’s a very good performance in an overrated, disjointed and cliched film that’s way, waaaay too long and quite hard to follow.
Hi Jim and others,
Just a contribution as a radiohead here.
Quite a few years ago I was at a Radio conference with a lot of senior radio types from Ireland, the UK and some from the US.
The topic of female presenters came up as part of a very nerdy discussion on voices/tones/delivery and all that stuff. One of the participants, a radio consultant, quoted research which had been done in the radio market in Ireland at the time (early 90s). It claimed that the main reason that there were not more women presenters (in the DJ sense) was that they tended to alienate female listeners. The only exception to this were female presenters with deeper voices and that is why quite a few of the female presenters on Irish (and UK) radio in the 90s and more recently were much more deeply voiced.
When it came to looking for the ideal male presenter, deep voice, slow delivery (thats me fecked anyway) and smooth style were what researched well.
That pretty much was the position here in commercial radio until the likes of Spin emerged, along with the likes of pirate Phantom, Beat etc around 2000.
Since then, the famous focus groups have shown that there is more of a preference for female voices amoung stations aimed at a younger audience.
Thats some of the backround, and for the record, I dont agree with the logic of it but I do think its a slowly changing culture. In local/regional radio at least, there has been a move towards newer voices (both male and female) and I think that has to be welcomed.
Jim, Im not sure if that answers your question at all, just my 2 cents in an interesting debate.
DOI: I work at and am a director of Phantom 105.2.
Simon Maher
Florence pre-sale sold out very quicky.
Phew another OTR fillibuster! I have been a fan of Alison’s Last Splash for as long as I can remember and look forward to hearing her in the morning. AM Kelly used do that slot and I always liked her humour even though I was half asleep. Maybe 2XM will prove to be an incubator for a new wave of DJs..