Castlebar's posh moshpit to bring big gigs to northwest

Jim Carroll on music

While many eyes may be on the forthcoming unveiling of the refurbished Point/O2 in Dublin's Docklands, a new 4,000-capacity space has opened in Co Mayo.

The Royal Castlebar Theatre and Event Centre is the new handle for the space formerly known as the Traveller's Friend and, more recently, as the TF Royal Theatre.

Five months ago the old theatre was levelled to the ground and an all-singing, all-dancing state of the art venue was put in its place.

While the initial plan was to build a "monster venue", as manager Donnacha Roche puts it, the decision was taken to go for comfort over volume.

"Rather than pack in as many bodies as possible," he says, "our aim was to ensure that people enjoy themselves in a comfortable and intimate setting. We believe that the person who sits in the back row of one of our events will still have a first-class experience."

The Royal Castlebar's 4,000 capacity means it has the potential to pull in acts who would previously have bypassed the northwest. It also gives music promoters another option when adding Irish shows beyond Dublin and Belfast.

Castlebar isn't the only Irish town getting a plush new room. Last weekend saw the opening of the €33 million Wexford Opera House. While it's mainly intended for opera, the availability of two rooms, with capacities ranging from 175 to 864, means it may well witness rock and pop acts soundchecking in the future.

Both venues may feature on the shortlists for next year's Live Music Venue of the Year awards, organised by the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO). The winning venues for this year's inaugural awards, as chosen by 6,000 IMRO members, will be announced at Dublin's RDS on October 3rd. Not surprisingly, the terrible RDS itself is not shortlisted.

Point of Information, y'all

Winston Churchill, John McCain, Desmond Tutu, Heather Mills, Sammy Beckett, Bono, Bart Simpson. Now, Timbaland. The hip-hop producer is set to become an honorary patron of Trinity College Dublin's Philosophical Society next month.

This news naturally got the college debating society into the headlines as a result.

"Timbaland is a remarkable individual whose contribution to music is simply astonishing," says Philosophical Society president Barry Devlin, who obviously never got around to listening to Timbaland's last patchy solo album, Shock Value, before inviting him along.

Whatever about his own releases, Timbaland continues to pull in high-profile production gigs. He has recently been working on forthcoming releases from Beyoncé and Chris Cornell, and is slated to work on the new Jay-Z album.

Talent trio

There are many reasons to look forward to the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival. One of the fringe events is a special edition of SweetTalk, with presentations from Irish and international creative talents.

Steve "Steinski" Stein, the influential New York-based cut-and-paste pioneer, will talk, along with Dublin graffiti artist Maser and London graphic designer John Gilsenan from the IwantDesign practice.

SweetTalk takes place in the Sugar Club, Dublin on October 23rd.

ETC

• Get into the Culture Night spirit with a Roots Freeway concert at RTÉ's radio studios on Sept 19th, featuring No Crows and The Carter Brothers. Free tickets from www.rte.ie/radio1/roots freeway

• Musical Roomsis 40. Sinead Gleeson's online series (and occasional Ticket feature), in which musicians talk about where they go to be creative, hits the big 4-0 with Immanu El. musicalrooms. wordpress.com

• Lir release their first album in 13 years on Oct 3rd. Livewill be launched, naturally enough, with a show at Dublin's Whelan's the following night.