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 Please note that this case is currently before the Commercial Court so comments on it will not be published.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 Events with a commercial sponsor are really ads and will probably not be published in this slot.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.

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….

…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.

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).

Three Trapped Tigers “1” (Blood & Biscuits)
Tyondai Braxton “Uffe’s Woodshop” (Warp)
Not Squares “Asylum” (Richter Collective)
Holy Ghost “Hold On!” (DFA)
Friendly Fires/Au Revoir Simone “Paris (Aeroplane remix)” (XL)
Phenomenal Handclap Band “15 to 20” (Tummy Touch)
Casiokids “Fot I Hose” (Moshi Moshi)
Lemonade “Big Weekend” (True Panther)
Animal Collective “Summertime Clothes” (Domino)
Dirty Projectors “Cannibal Resource” (Domino)
Eddy Current Supression Ring “Which Way To Go” (Goner)
The Drums “Let’s Go Surfing” (Moshi Moshi)
The Monks “Monk Chant” (Light In The Attic)
Dinosaur Pile-Up “My Rock & Roll” (Friends Vs)
Hockey “Too Fake” (EMI)
New Villager “Rich Doors” (Two Syllable)
Girls “Lust for Life” (Turnstile)
Florence & The Machine “You’ve Got the Love (XX remix)” (Polydor)
Hudson Mohawke “Rising5” (Warp)
Silkie vs Mizz Beats “Purple Love” (Deep Medi Musik)
Mount Kimbie “Maybes” (Hot Flush)
Raekwon “House Of Flying Daggers” (Icewater)
El Michels Affair “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” (Fat Beats)
Lefties Soul Connection “Organ Donor” (Melting Pot)
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble “Alyo” (Honest Jons)
Mulatu Astatke & Heliocentrics “Cha Cha” (Strut)
La Roux “Coming In For The Kill (Skream’s Let’s Get Ravey remix)” (Polydor)

Fitzgerald said he felt “cheated” after spending three years studying for an economics and sociology degree and not finding a job at the end of his studies. “I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I was on a promise with the Government”, he wrote, “but I was led to believe I would be getting more action than this once I graduated. I realised I wasn’t going to get a decent job anytime soon and it became clear that the only boom taking place was in my overdraft account.”

A lot of people agreed with his point of view and the article received a good slew of comments - yesterday’s paper had a selection of them. Most readers echoed Fitzgerald’s point of view and said they too were forced to move away or were planning a move abroad. Nearly to a man and woman, everything was blamed on the current Fianna Fail/Green Party government (one poster went to far as to blame it on “the Government, banks, business, police, law, and even the Catholic Church” to make sure all corners were covered).

There will always be people willing to compile a blame report of this sort because emigration remains a hugely emotive subject in the Irish psyche. There can’t be a household in the land which hasn’t had some family members going abroad to find work or, in recent years, advance their career.

Even after the huge emigration surge of 1980s (which reminded older folks of the one in the 1950s), there were still thousands of Irish people taking the boat or plane out of here for a myriad of reasons. Many of the people I know who’ve left in the last 12 months did so because they wanted to work in areas or at a level in their industry which was just not possible in Ireland. They wanted to avail of opportunities to live and work elsewhere and have a range of experiences which they just couldn’t get in Ireland. Staying here, regardless of the economic situation, was not going to keep their brains and enthusiasm levels engaged. They were always going to go. They wanted to go. I know myself that I headed to London in the 1990s because I wanted the kind of music and media industry experience I just couldn’t get here at that time.

However, Fitzgerald is really writing for and about the new wave of emigrants who are leaving here because they just can’t find any work. They’re different to those who were happy to go of their own volition. These involuntary emigrants wanted to stay in Ireland, work in Ireland and live in Ireland, but found that they couldn’t do any of the above due to the current economic shit-storm. Sure, there’s economic doom and gloom elsewhere, but it doesn’t seem as bad, prolonged or unyielding as the Irish mess so they’ll take their chances elsewhere.

For more on why this is happening, see a report in today’s paper from a meeting of the Dublin Economic Workshop. David Blanchflower, a professor of economics at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, focused on how “those who have really been hurt in this recession have turned out to be the young”. With youth unemployment currently standing at 27.6 per cent in Ireland, it’s no wonder so many are heading away.

If you needed even more reasons for the exodus, Elaine Byrne paints a fairly depressing picture of the auld sod in her column today: “this is an Ireland that gathers in her thousands to the shrine church in Knock on the say-so of a clairvoyant, in the desperate hope of a miracle, of anything. An Ireland that worships tree-stumps in Rathkeale. An Ireland that has had a 43 per cent increase in the numbers taking their own lives during the first three months of this year. An Ireland that is preparing to strike and polarise itself even further. An Ireland that seeks to abolish democratic institutions.”

But, as Byrne notes, “negativity will not save us”. Repeating over and over again that things are bad is not going to solve anything. Yes, emigration has many ramifications for both the individual and the society which remains behind, but there are also positives as well as the over-riding negatives.

As happened in the 1950s and 1980s, there will be just as many bright sparks who will stay here, stick it out and put their own projects into play despite “the Government, banks, business, police, law, and even the Catholic Church”. They will persevere with their plans because they have the ideas, the determination and the ambition to do so. Over the last few months, I’ve met a huge range of people who’re very happy to stay here and make the most of every opportunity this recession brings. And, as before, some of those who left will come back with new ideas, fresh thinking and a desire to contribute.

It’s really up to the latest lost generation to decide if they want in or if they want out. Either way, dropping that sense of entitlement would be a good start.

Cork rocks: thanks to Joe, Stevie, Pat, Bootleg Mark and everyone else at the smashing Pavilion venue in Cork for a grand night out last Thursday at Bootleg’s first birthday party. Four damn fine bands played - Katie Kim, O Emperor, Slow Motion Heroes and The Impressionists - and I got to play some tunes too. Lovely hurling, boy.

Bantertastic: thanks to Francois and Sunil Sharpe for participating in a fairly riotous and no-holds-barred Banter at the Twisted Pepper last Saturday night. “90s vs 00s” saw the two of them yakking - and boy, they can talk - about which decade produced the most thrilling sounds and nights out in the capital city. The bout went right down to the bell with audience giving it to the ’90s on points (or pints). You can relive the night on the podcast which will be live once the legal eagles have finished with it. The next Banter happens on November 28 and will be the pop-culture review of the decade. Full details to come next week.

Per report, “it was agreed in June 2006 Mr Desmond would buy Mr McCann’s share of the partnership in relation to the promotion and operation of outdoor concerts in the Republic for 4.66 times the average net profits of the partnership for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005, it is alleged.”

McCann “claims he is owed some €3.8 million as his profit share, but that Mr Desmond claimed that figure should be €104,680.”

However, “it is alleged Mr Desmond later denied the existence of a partnership, was reluctant to disclose the books and accounts and provided limited information relating to accounts.”

McCann claims “it became clear Mr Desmond had failed to keep proper books and records for the partnership and that partnership funds had become intermingled with funds and accounts of other companies of Mr Desmond’s” such as MCD Productions and Gaiety Investments.

Forensic accountants Grant Thornton had been engaged to examine the books and McCann claims their examination “indicated no evidence of separate books and records maintained for the partnership. He claimed the firm found that payments which should have been recorded as partnership monies were recorded in the books of other companies of Mr Desmond’s.

“As late as September last, Grant Thornton received new information from MCD about settlement statements for events in Lansdowne Road between 2002 and 2006, it is claimed. Mr McCann said the firm was given selected settlement statements with artists and certain settlement statements for Oliver Barry, event co-organiser, but it had not been possible to reconcile the two sets of statements.”

(Comments turned off as this case is currently before the courts)

As has become the norm with the bigger shows heading this way, both of the above acts will play in Dublin’s O2 where the schedule is getting rather busy. Aside from the sell-outs like Beyonce, Muse and Depeche Mode, advance bookings from Chris de Burgh (everyone’s favourite Irish Times letter writer is planning a gig for April 21, 2011 so you have 18 months to get your excuses together) and the We Will Rock You musical which may put some bums on seats in the quiet days of January, there are some gigs booked in which will be a serious test of an act’s pulling power in the biggest venue in town.

Imelda May, for example, will be playing a pre-Christmas hometown hop on December 22. The rockabilly revivalist has had a bumper year by anyone’s standards and seems to have been playing gigs somewhere in the country every other week. She had the benefit of a solid burst of TV advertising from Universal over the summer to help push her “Love Tattoo” album, proving once again that major labels are pretty darn good when the ball is already rolling. Such advertising also helps her live pulling power so you wonder if Universal’s contract with her include a share of that loot.

While May’s successful year probably comes as a bit of surprise to many - after all, the only pundits who were tipping her at the start of ‘09 were Pat Kenny and, er, this blogger - a show at the O2 is a whole different hill of beans. There’s certainly nothing wrong with Team May’s ambitious streak in this regard. A show of this size has plenty going for it on the optics front, which is something a lot of Irish bands seem to forget, and also plays well with the group psychology about how and why certain acts make the great leap forward out of the pack. But you have to wonder if there really are 9,000 mad-for-it May fans out there who want to see her a few days before Christmas? After all, she has just done a six date run around the land over the October bank holiday weekend so that’s a six week gap between an expansive tour and the O2. Is there really that much demand for a May show of this size?

What will be interesting to observe is if the venue’s halo effect will help push this show in any way. Since last December, there has been a steady stream of punters heading down Dublin’s docks as intent on checking out the revamped venue as much as the band onstage. I’ve heard next to no complaints about the gaff, mainly because the people tasked with upgrading the venue did all the right things. Not only is it an ultra-modern space well capable of taking the convoy of trucks and the big productions, but it also seems to pass the various sight and sound tests from the paying audience who sit front of house.

It has also become the comparison point for all other largescale venues in the country. Look at last week’s announcement about the Tipperary Venue where the €460 million development, featuring a huge casino and new all-weather racecourse, will also have “an underground entertainment centre with a retractable roof capable of holding 15,000 people which would be ‘the rural equivalent of Dublin’s 02 complex’.” The promoters of that project will be hoping O2 feel like buying the naming rights for that venue as well.

While Desmond has been in full control of the business for quite some time, per the Sunday Business Post, “the former business partners have yet to agree on the value of McCann’s stake, and the Belfast prompter is now taking his case to the High Court in an effort to force a deal”. Naturally, “it is understood that the two men have very different valuations of the stake”.

The case is due before the Commercial Court this morning and, should it proceed to a full hearing, “will reveal the inner workings of MCD, one of the most private businesses in Ireland”.

(Comments turned off as this case is before the courts)