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General Music

Celebrating Arthur

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Last Thursday, the good people from WHPR were nice enough to give me and few bloggers access to the Guinness 250 festivities in Dublin. As you well know at this stage, there were a wealth of gigs going on across the city on the 24th. Myself, Christian Hughes and Damien Mulley were in Bruxelles as the clock rounded to 17:59. As we toasted Arthur and Christian grabbed this video:

The pub itself was jammed with all venues selling out for the day. Looking out onto the street, where crowds seemed to overflow from each and every pub, there was a jovial atmosphere which almost looked exactly like the television ad. The one name on everyone’s lips was Tom Jones and specifically where he was doing his second gig of the evening. When you have a media access lanyard on, people tend to assume you know the whole lineup. 🙂 After watching Maria Doyle warm up the crowd in Bruxelles, I headed on to Tripod with the intention of coming back to Bruxelles later.

Tripod’s lineup featured performances by Republic of Loose, Jamie Cullum and Calvin Harris amongst others so I was eager to catch some of the evening. Unfortunately, Jamie Cullum was on early but I arrived just as Kelly Rowland was finishing her suprise set. Up next on the bill, after grabbing a quick pint of course, were Republic of Loose. The crowd were that loud singing along to ‘Comeback Girl’ that Mick Pyro didn’t need to sing it himself through sections. Quality. After that, Roots Manuva was up but I missed most of his set while I chatted to a few other people at the bar. :/
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Calvin Harris hit the stage around 10.30 and got the place hopping straight away with signature hit Acceptable in the 80s. The pace didn’t let up with as he banged out tunes like Ready For The Weekend and I’m Not Alone. A great way to end an evening toasting Arthur. Here’s to the next 250 years.

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Music Video

Empire State of Mind

Loving this tune at the moment. Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind:

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Music Video Web

In Your Eyes

No, not that song from the Eurovision years ago. It’s Peter Gabriel and it’s fantastic. Watch:

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General Music Video

Guinness 250 – Arthur’s Day

Guinness 250

“No, Mc then Guinness, it’s spelt like the drink.”
“Oh, now I get ya honey.”

So went a telephone conversation with a New York deli waitress last September. Guinness is probably the most Irish product in existence. This year marks the 250th anniversary of Guinness and as part of the celebrations on 24th September, there are a number of gigs on in Dublin. When I saw a number, I actually mean a shedload cos there’s gigs in four studio venues (priced €17.59) and 28 different pubs (priced €9) across the capital. Proceeds from all ticket sales will be donated to the Arthur Guinness Fund.

At the launch of Arthur’s Day last week, myself and a few other culch.ie punters were invited along to Oliver St John Gogarty’s in Temple Bar. The launch featured live performances by The Chapters (whose album I’ve since bought and is very good) and Noah and the Whale. We also got a chance to interview the Blizzards which is featured here. Tickets went on sale for the gigs this morning on Ticketmaster. I’ve yet to make my mind up on what I’m going to see but definite highlights would include: David Holmes, The Kooks, The Blizzards, The Chapters, Jamie Callum and Republic of Loose. You can catch more updates over on culch.ie or on guinness.com

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General Music

A Friday at Oxegen

Blur @ Oxegen 2009 - Darren Byrne
On Friday, a motley crew of us headed down to Oxegen 2009. We knew we wouldn’t be camping but with the weather forecast, it was probably for the better. We caught: Republic of Loose (awesome), a few minutes of Lily Allen, Fight Like Apes (crazy mental good), The Hours (well, I did and they were superb), a bit of Duke Special, Fun Lovin Criminals (serious smooth) and the amazing Blur. Darren’s got lots of photos over on Flickr plus some great ones from the Springsteen gig in the RDS on Sunday.