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On The Record

Jim Carroll

Music, Life and everything else

Irish music

Hard Working Class Heroes – the class of 2012

Here’s the full list of acts playing this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes festival: A Dark Horse / A Lazarous Soul / Aisling Quinn / Autumn Owls / Benny Smiles / Biggles Flys Again / Bouts / Carried By Waves …

Release the damn album now!

Two Door Cinema Club are not the first act to experience that sinking feeling which comes with discovering that someone has nefariously leaked your forthcoming new album. That huge investment of time, money and creativity counts for nothing when someone …

Adrian Crowley’s new album and upcoming Dublin shows

Adrian Crowley returns to action in September with a new album and a brace of dates at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre on the Peacock Stage. The album, Crowley’s sixth and the follow-up to the Choice Music Prize-winning “Season of the Sparks”, …

Notes on a Glen Hansard interview

There is a widespread belief amongst music journalists that Noel Gallagher is a brilliant interviewee. And he really is: Gallagher is a dude who understands that the media want a couple of wisecracks, some off-the-cuff anecdotes and an ability to …

Goodbye Westlife, hello “the male Adele”?

It’s nearly all over. Two rounds of shouting, screaming, singing, cowboy hats, banners, syrupy ballads and four lads sitting on stools at Dublin’s Croke Park this weekend will bring the curtain down on the momentous Westlife story. There will be …

An eulogy for Richter Collective

All good things inevitably come to an end. Yesterday’s announcement by Irish indie label Richter Collective that they will be closing at the end of this year led punters and pundits alike to sigh loudly. It’s never a good thing …

“Irish people need to be told what’s good from outside”

Over the weekend, anyone who was following Richie Egan on Twitter got a blast of strong words about something which vexes anyone who follows Irish music’s comings and goings. Egan was tweeting about how it takes international validation for many …

The Great Northern Songbook at the Ulster Hall

One of the finest venues on this here island has to be the Ulster Hall in Belfast. I’ve seen some great shows there over the years – I remember The Waterboys playing a stunner back there when I was a …