On the Town: Notes started to fly out the door of The Village on Dublin's Wexford Street as the annual Hot Press party started to swing. "Sometimes early in the morning, I watch her breathing rise and fall, I've spilled in drinking beside her in the stillness of dawn," sang Paul Noonan, of Bell X1, when he and one other member of the group, David Geraghty, performed their song, West of Her Spine. "See how her hair spills over like frayed ends of twine," they sang.
Right on cue, the elegant singer Juliet Turner, whose last album, Season of the Hurricane, turned gold after selling 7,500 albums last month, was ready to step up to the mic as part of the night's entertainment to celebrate the launch of The Hot Press Yearbook 2004 and Irish Music Directory.
"The idea is to empower people who are starting up, enabling them to get past the hurdles," said Niall Stokes, its publisher and editor. "It's a labour of love," he said. "We wanted to open out the little black books in the back pockets of the agents and the managers." With a print run of 30,000, the yearbook and directory contains information on more than 5,000 businesses and contacts in the media and entertainment business.
Another young Dublin group to watch, The Chalets, were ready to rock. Their soundchecks were completed and their stage-names were all intact: Enda Loughman, Paula Cullen, Caoimhe Derwin, Chris Judge and Dylan Roche are known on stage as Enda Warlord, Pee Pee, Pony, Chris Warlord and Dibbot. The group will be supporting underground band from the US, The Shins, on Monday, April 26th, in Whelans.
Alison Curtis, Today FM producer, introduced some of the acts. She will be presenting a selection of alternative indie music at two live shows - the first on Thursday, April 29th in Dublin's Spirit Store and the second on Thursday, May 6th in the Lobby in Cork.
As the music began, more faces from the world of music arrived. Gerry Fish popped in. Mickey Harte strolled by, pleased to announce that his new single will be released on Friday, May 14th. It will be called A New Way to Fly, he said. And that was only the start of the party.