Pop Market

ONE of the biggest musical events Dublin has witnessed begins today as the Heineken Green Energy Festival (remarkably in only its second year) throws itself open to a bewildered public. It's massive - besides the 60-odd bands playing, there's going to be all sorts of competitions, seminars, film screenings and other rock'n'roll related activity taking place all over the gaff. We'll try and guide you through the maze, but do feel free to go with the flow.

The big gigs are all being held in Dublin Castle, starting tonight at 8 p.m. with a double bill of Babybird and Divine Comedy; a strangely symmetrical line-up in that both acts go in for a similar sort of songwriting approach. They also share a largely ignored, but mightily impressive all the same, back catalogue. It wasn't until Babybird's sixth album Ugly Beautiful that they (although he's really just Stephen Jones) began to make an impact, largely thanks to the never-ending playing of You're Gorgeous, while young Neil Hannon only managed to get intimate with the charts on the release of his third album. I could be wrong, but isn't this about the sixth time that Divine Comedy has played in Dublin in the last year?

There's a big curiosity value in the gig by The Seahorses in the same venue on Saturday night, thanks to the Stone Roses connection. Their first single, Love Is The Law, (which is very Stone Rosey) is out on Monday, with the album Do It Yourself following shortly. With due respect to all the other bands on, the real event of the whole festival for many will follow immediately after The Seahorses when Beck takes to the stage. If Mellow Gold wasn't warning enough, last year's Ode lay saw him fulfil all his early promise (and more). As post-modern as they come in his montage-style musical effect, this is the gig of all gigs.

Suede have always excelled themselves on in their Irish gigs, and their Sunday night concert should be another highlight. So much of Coming Up has turned into instant top 10 singles that they'll probably be concentrating on that album - but it would be nice to get a few songs off Dog Man Star, which is a mini-classic in its own right. You can largely ignore Monday night at the Castle, because it's The Counting Crows.

Round and about elsewhere, one of the better metal bands, Type O Negative, will be kicking up a racket in the SFX Centre on Sunday night, while techno-head types the much-acclaimed Propellerheads will be block-rockin' the beats in the Temple Bar Music Centre tonight. In Whelans, tickets have gone very fast for Beth Orton's appearance tomorrow night. Apart from the solo acoustic guitar work, Beth has also guested on vocals with people like John Martyn, Red Snapper and The Chemical Brothers, so God knows what to expect from her. Could be one of the surprise highlights, though.

Taking place in Eamonn Doran's, Bad Bob's, Fitzsimon's, Break For The Border, Barney Murphy's (never heard of it) and The Mean Fiddler is the Band Challenge, where round and about 40 of the country's newest bands battle it out for a prize fund of £15,000 in rehearsal and recording time. There's some really good bands in here, like Anodyne, The Marbles and The Hitchers. I think we can safely predict that at least one of these three will be taking part in the grand final which will be held in the Music Centre on Monday night. The other point behind the Band Challenge is to get all the visiting A&R people away from the bar at the Clarence and into these venues so that, hopefully, they can sign up one or two of these bands.

Stopping only to tell you that the Festival Club is at Columbia Mills, Sir John Rogerson's Quay all weekend and the wrap party is in Bad Bob's on Monday night, it's on to the day-time events: which means the seminars. All of them are being held at the Music Centre with the first one, Everyone Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We, taking place from 11 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. tomorrow.

FOCUSING on the increasing importance of the Internet and all things technological, speakers will be telling you the how, why and where of rock'n'roll of the Internet. From The Bedroom To The Charts from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow looks at the recording and compositional systems used in dance music. If ever you wanted to know the difference between a Voyetra Gold Midi Sequencer and an Octamed, this is the one for you. A&R Men Are Deaf on Sunday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. will look at the "talent scout" aspect of the music business, from initial demos to the completed album and all points in between, while State Of Independence from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. will look at the role of the indie record companies. "Is there really such a thing?" "And what does it mean anyway?" will be among the questions answered.

Finally, we have 25 tickets for each of the seminars to give away. It's very simple: go to the front office of the Irish Times (in D'Olier Street) any time after 9 a.m. this morning and just ask for a ticket to the seminar you're interested in. Enjoy it?