On The Record »

• The Cure for Electric Picnic?

  January 24, 2012 @ 9:07 am | by Jim Carroll

  No doubt many of you have been keeping an eye on The Cure’s website over the last few weeks where they’ve been having the crack announcing European festival shows for summer 2012. An Irish show is definitely on the cards and, according to a source close to the band, is slated for “late summer”. This rules out a night at the Phoenix Park (licence only covers shows from July 5 to 26) leaving us with Slane (nah, can’t see enough Cureheads making it worth Lord Henry Mountcharles’ time to open the gate on his field with a bit of a hill in it – anyway, we’re hearing rumours about Coldplay or the Foo Fighters for Co Meath), Marlay Park (always possible) and the Electric Picnic. Seeing as the band are playing festivals rather than headline shows, we’re going with The Cure as the big headliner at the Electric Picnic this year. Mark this one as #gigileaks and come back to us when the Picnic announces its line-up in a few weeks.

• Factory Floor to play Forbidden Fruit 2012?

  December 14, 2011 @ 6:42 pm | by Jim Carroll

  I was lucky enough to see Factory Floor a bunch of times in 2011 at Primavera, Great Escape and Trans Musicales. The band have yet to play Ireland, despite the best efforts of various promoters to bring them in for shows (including Electric Picnic, Mogwai supports and another show). However, it looks now as if they’re on their way per a tweet from band member Nik Colk earlier talking about an appearance at next summer’s Forbidden Fruit festival. Thanks to Thomas Lennon for the heads-up

• Unblogged

  May 9, 2011 @ 8:08 am | by Jim Carroll

  On the Record is off the record until Monday May 16 due to, er, stuff. I’ll be updating comments during the week so please feel free to use this post to recommend gigs and new albums, give out about stuff, make random observations and the like. I’ll be at The Great Escape in Brighton from Thursday so all recommendations about bands I should see there welcome. Full report on TGE to come next week.

• Arcade Fire for Electric Picnic

  March 3, 2011 @ 9:00 am | by Jim Carroll

  OTR has learned that Arcade Fire will be one of the headliners at this year’s Electric Picnic when the bill is announced next week.

  The band have already confirmed a show at Edinburgh Castle for September 1, the day before the Electric Picnic begins. In response to a question on Twitter from an Irish fan about the band playing Oxegen, Arcade Fire manager Scott Rodger tweeted that the band would be back to do “something else, something better”.

  Arcade Fire played at the Electric Picnic in 2005, a gig which is now widely seen as a legendary show and one which the band have spoken about subsequently in several interviews. Yep, it really was that good – easily one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen. Arcade Fire have played many times in Ireland since, the last being a two night run at Dublin’s O2 in December 2010.

  Early bird weekend tickets are now on sale at €240 each (plus Ticketmaster fees). Interestingly, it looks like there will be day tickets on sale for the festival this year.

• Kings Of Leon for Slane 2011?

  October 19, 2010 @ 2:14 pm | by Jim Carroll

  It’s that time of year again. Slane Castle owner Lord Henry Mountcharles has already indicated that there will a gig in his Co Meath field in 2011 to mark 30 years of gigs in a field in Co Meath. Kings Of Leon have a new album out and, weirdly, there’s no Irish show in the frame for their jaunt on this side of the Atlantic in December. There’s a lot of informed speculation going around in the usual back-channels putting both events together so, as with previous punts of this kind, we’re going to call it. Kings Of Leon, Slane Castle, summer 2011. As is always the case with posts of this nature, I’m marking this as “speculation” until confirmed.

• Slane Castle gig on August 28?

  February 18, 2010 @ 2:04 pm | by Jim Carroll

  Per Ronan McGreevy’s interview with venue owner Lord Henry Mountcharles to run in the paper tomorrow, this year’s Slane Castle concert, if there is one, will happen on August 28.

  “That decision has not yet been made”, said Mountcharles when asked by Ronan about Slane 2010. “I would have to say that I’m hopeful, but not if the is aren’t dotted and the ts aren’t crossed, but I’m hopeful if there is going to be a show it is going to be at the end of August.”

  Mountcharles refused to be drawn on who might be playing (“if I did answer that question, you might have some indication of what I have in mind and I ain’t going to go there”), though he did say that there were many acts who could play the venue. “People often say to me that we have run out of acts to play Slane and I say that is rubbish. I actually cite Oasis as the example. There are bands out there that perhaps you and I haven’t heard of yet who could headline Slane.”

  He also addressed the many problems which occured in the wake of last year’s Oasis show at the venue. “There were problems, there is no getting away from that and yes a lot of discussions, meetings and physical changes to the site have been made. The areas where concessions can be put has been expanded. Those things are largely to improve the comfort zones on the sites.

  “The principle problem was a significant systems failure on the Dublin gate and that was where my attention was focused. I wanted to find out what the hell happened. There are changes about how it is going to be related to security and arrangements of how people get in and all of that. There are security aspects to all of that and for me to discuss those with you would not be appropriate.

  “I was very pissed off about what happened. It should not happen. I will be all over some people like a hot rash. I am in the business of not only make sure that things do not go wrong, but little improvements that people might not be conscious of are made to the venue. There is no room for complacency in the open air show. Complacency is frankly a sin. Attention to detail is paramount.”

  It will be interesting to see who will head the bill if the gig goes ahead because, frankly, I can’t think of a whole lot of acts who are (a) on the road this summer and (b) capable of filling Slane. AC/DC? Kings Of Leon? Let the speculation begin!

• Kings Of Leon to play Dublin’s 02 in December

  July 29, 2008 @ 10:24 am | by Jim Carroll

  Our (usually reliable) sources tell us that the sons of a travelling preacherman and their cousin are coming back to the capital for more of our euros in December. This will make it three visits in all in less than a year. They’re yet another act who will be playing The Venue Formerly Known As The Point in the run-up to Christmas. It’s going to be busy down there.

  Fans of the Kings – and there must be gazillions of them here if the band keep coming back so often – can download a new track, “Crawl”, taken from their forthcoming fourth album, “Only By The Night“, for free from the official website.

• Tom Waits, Dublin, 2008?

  April 17, 2008 @ 9:22 am | by Jim Carroll

  Please note the question mark and the tag used for this post.

  Rumours about a Tom Waits show in Ireland this year have been reaching fever pitch in the last week or two, as all three main players in the Irish live music business – MCD, Aiken Promotions and POD Concerts – have made their pitch to Tom’s Mister Fourteen And A Quarter Per Cent.

  Various venues for Waits’s first Irish show since he played Dublin’s Olympia in November 1987 have been mooted, including Malahide Castle, the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, Donnybrook Stadium, the RDS and the Phoenix Park.

  There has also been speculative chatter about shows in the National Concert Hall, The Academy and Vicar Street where you would have to sell your first-born at the door to get in.

  Our guess? And please note this is a guess so no questions about ticket prices or when tickets are going on sale or anything like that. Three nights in a marquee to be pitched in the Phoenix Park in early August.