One Direction vs The Script

The Script: Odyssey Arena, Belfast Mon/Tues/Wed 8pm £32.50. One Direction: 02, Dublin Tues/Wed 8pm €40; Belfast’s Odyssey Arena, Belfast Thurs 8pm £35.50/ £29.50 (all One Direction shows sold out)

Oh, yes, it’s all to play for next week as old hands The Script and new kids One Direction don’t so much go head-to-head as fan-to-fan. You might not think there’s much in common between the acts, and you’d be right – with the exception that they’re both playing to capacity audiences at two of the island’s largest indoor venues.

The Script have, in fairness, paid some dues; we recall listing these Dubliners’ shows a few years ago when they played such venues as Whelan’s and the Sugar Club. The band knows, therefore, know what it’s like to perform in front of 50 or 100 people, some of whom are the bar staff.

The One Direction lads, meanwhile, are recent graduates of the X Factor School of Pop Music Chicanery, and probably wouldn’t know what it’s like to perform in any venue smaller than your average-size O2. And yet, there they are, tween- and teen-girl magnets, fresher-faced than The Script, and the most successful pop music act on the planet.

Funny old world, innit?

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Meteor Choice Music Prize Thurs, Dublin