Month: April 2019

Hard Working Class Heroes is changing it’s name to Ireland Music Week after 16 years. The festival will also expand from 3 to 5 days.

Ireland’s leading music industry conference and showcase festival Hard Working Class Heroes is rebranding itself after 16 successful years of elevating Irish music and exporting it abroad. The festival will now be known as Ireland Music Week and is expanding from three days to five, it takes place in various venues across Dublin city centre from October 1st to 5th. 

The core of the festival ethos will remain, showcasing 50 of the most export-ready emerging Irish talent today to the best of the national and international music industry. The conference  gives artists the chance to learn and develop their craft and create new opportunities with agents, labels, bookers, music supervisors and services from all over the world.

Speaking about the name change, FMC Director Angela Dorgan said:

“The new name will more accurately represent the strategic role of the festival in launching export-ready Irish artists to global prominence at our export-supported events such as Eurosonic, SXSW, The Great Escape, and more. Ireland Music Week will also expand to develop the infrastructure of the Irish music industry as a whole”.

Some of last year’s big successes to progress from Hard Working Class Heroes include Just Mustard, The Wood Burning Savages, Wild Youth, True Tides, Æ Mak, Flynn, Pillow Queens, ROE, Bad Bones, A. Smyth, Kitt Philippa, Laoise, THUMPER, Maria Kelly, Molly Sterling, Joshua Burnside and more.

Since its inception in 2003, HWCH has showcased many of Ireland’s best-known acts including Fontaines DC, David Keenan, Soulé, Daithí, whenyoung, Bitch Falcon, Jafaris, Chasing Abbey, Saint Sister, Wyvern Lingo, Jealous of the Birds, Fangclub, Touts, The Academic, Choice Music Prize winners Rusangano Family, Villagers, 2013’s breakthrough act Hozier, along with Girl Band, Jape, The Coronas, Soak, Talos, Le Boom, Loah, Ham Sandwich, Otherkin and many more.

Applications for Ireland Music Week will open in May. Details on how to apply will be posted on irelandmusicweek.com in the coming weeks. 

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Dublin math-rockers Chancer release a cover of The Prodigy’s ‘Invaders Must Die’ in aid of Pieta House

Photo by Flicker user badjonni – Used under Creative Commons

Dublin math-rockers Chancer have released a cover of The Prodigy’s ‘Invaders Must Die’ as a tribute to the late great Keith Flint who died last month by suicide. The single is for sale on their Bandcamp page, with all proceeds from the release going to Pieta House.

The cover is an ear-shattering, rip roaring rendition of the 2008 single, with seriously punchy production. Chancer plan to release more original music later this summer, so keep an eye out!

Pieta House tackle the issues of suicide and self-harm day after day, issues that have touched every community in Ireland.
You can donate directly to Pieta House here:

https://www.pieta.ie/donate

Or support them by purchasing the song through bandcamp here:

https://chancermusic.bandcamp.com/track/invaders-must-die-the-prodigy

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INTRODUCING: Claire Z teases upcoming album with debut single ‘The Getty’

Dublin based singer Claire Z has just released ‘The Getty’, the first of 10 tracks from her upcoming debut album Between the Sun & Moon,  which she plans to release separately over the coming months.

‘The Getty’ shows off Claire’s smooth vocal style, underlain with a head bopping modern soul progression and soft backing vocals. We’re very excited to see what the rest of the album has to offer. Check out the album teaser trailer below: 

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New online radio station ‘PLAYIRISH’ launches, programming 100% Irish music 24/7

A new online radio station, ‘PLAYIRISH‘, launched over the weekend. The platform promises to offer curated playlists of nothing but Irish music, from established musical heroes to up and coming acts, streaming 24/7 .

It’s available globally on the Irish Radioplayer platform and mobile app, or through the PLAYIRISH website in your browser.  Over time, PLAYIRISH say they’ll also host a selection of original music shows from well known Irish musicians, music industry figures, songwriters and composers, alongside musical content from key events in the Irish musical calendar such as ‘Other Voices’ and ‘Hard Working Class Heroes’.

Founded by some of Ireland’s leading Irish Music Industry and radio professionals – Sinead Troy (IASCA & Yangaroo Music), Peter McPartlin (former CEO of Today FM & TXFM), Liam Thompson (Magic FM Virgin Radio UK, Red FM, Communicorp & iRadio) and Angela Dorgan (First Music Contact & Music From Ireland) – PLAYIRISH is a ‘not for profit’ initiative under the guidance of IASCA (Irish Association of Songwriters, Composers and Authors)

Sinead Troy of IASCA says:
‘Every serious music city or territory has it’s own small but cool radio station that champions new and exciting music, whether it’s BBC6 Music, KEXP in Seattle, or FluxFm in Germany. PLAYIRISH will be ours to champion Irish music at home and internationally’

It’s certainly a big step in the right direction, providing a platform for Irish artists to showcase their work which is either non-existent or relegated to a few specialist shows on most of the country’s commercial radio stations. I look forward to seeing what PLAYIRISH 
develops into in the coming months!

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