Galway singer-songwriter Derek Ellard has released a new single called ‘Understandably Forgivable’ in aid of Pieta House for Suicide Prevention Day. The lyrics deal with themes of loss and grief surrounding suicides and the alarming number of people who attempt to or succeed in ending their lives in the city’s Corrib River.
“Regardless of age, gender or background and particularly prevalent in his adopted home of Galway, too many times loved ones have slipped away or have been massively afflicted by their own ability to talk and support each other when they are at their most vulnerable. Written to make light of this flaw. ‘Understandably Forgivable ‘is a call to action for everyone who should have reached out and said something, but didn’t.“
The song releases on independent label Umbrella Records today and all of the proceeds from the track will go to Pieta House to aid them in there fight for suicide awareness and prevention.
You can listen on Spotify, Youtube or preferably buy the track on Bandcamp for the suggested €2 price, although those that can afford to can pay more if they wish.
In a very welcome bit of good news, a new free 24/7 wellbeing support programme for the Irish Music Sector called Minding Creative Minds has launched.
The service is now open for Irish musicians, songwriters, artist managers & event production crew and will cover individuals from Northern Ireland as well as those in the Republic. The assistance available includes:
Counselling service (short term intervention/ up to six sessions)
Telephone counselling
Secure video counselling
Extensive web portal and app enabling live chat with a counsellor
Minding Creative Minds will also offer a series of additional services including:
Advice on practical day-to-day issues that are causing anxiety or stress
Legal assistance
Financial assistance
Consumer advice
Career guidance
Life coaching
Mediation for conflict resolution.
Originally set to launch later this summer, the start date was accelerated to June 2 in response to the devastating impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic on the music sector.
Minding Creative Minds was spearheaded by David Reid (First Fortnight, Choice Music Prize), who partnered with IMRO (Irish Music Rights Organisation), IRMA (Irish Recorded Music Association), RAAP (Recorded Artists, Actors & Performers), Universal Music Ireland
and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to make the service a reality.
David said, ”We are delighted to launch this critical support programme that will give musicians, songwriters, artist managers & event production crew the opportunity to mind their mental wellbeing and be able to contact qualified counsellors and experts in different fields such as financial planning, legal and career matters enabling expert advice and helping to manage personal issues they might be facing. Working in collaboration with our partner organisations we can now provide a credible support structure for this sector. We look forward to extending this programme within the Irish music Industry and to enable this service to be available to the entire Irish Creative Community in due course”
Glastonbury Festival, due to celebrate it’s 50th anniversary on 24-28 June, has taken the decision to cancel the event due to ongoing concerns about the corona virus. The move will be seen as a bad sign for any other upcoming summer events and likely be the first of many announcements from large scale events across Europe. You can read the full statement from the organisers below:
We are so sorry to announce this, but Glastonbury 2020 will have to be cancelled, and this will be an enforced fallow year for the Festival.
Clearly this was not a course of action we hoped to take for our 50th anniversary event, but following the new government measures announced this week – and in times of such unprecedented uncertainty – this is now our only viable option.
We very much hope that the situation in the UK will have improved enormously by the end of June. But even if it has, we are no longer able to spend the next three months with thousands of crew here on the farm, helping us with the enormous job of building the infrastructure and attractions needed to welcome more than 200,000 people to a temporary city in these fields.
We would like to send our sincere apologies to the 135,000 people who have already paid a deposit for a Glastonbury 2020 ticket. The balance payments on those tickets were due at the beginning of April and we wanted to make a firm decision before then.
We understand that it is not always easy to secure a Glastonbury ticket, which is why we would like to offer all those people the chance to roll their £50 deposit over to next year, and guarantee the opportunity to buy a ticket for Glastonbury 2021. Those who would prefer a refund of that £50 will be able to contact See Tickets in the coming days in order to secure that. This option will remain available until September this year. For those who are happy to roll their deposit over, that will happen automatically. Further information – including details on rolling over coach packages, official accommodation bookings and local Sunday tickets – will be added to our website in the coming days.
The cancellation of this year’s Festival will no doubt come as a terrible blow to our incredible crew and volunteers who work so hard to make this event happen. There will also inevitably be severe financial implications as a result of this cancellation – not just for us, but also the Festival’s charity partners, suppliers, traders, local landowners and our community.
We were so looking forward to welcoming you all for our 50th anniversary with a line-up full of fantastic artists and performers that we were incredibly proud to have booked. Again, we’re so sorry that this decision has been made. It was not through choice. But we look forward to welcoming you back to these fields next year and until then, we send our love and support to all of you.
Northern Irish instrumental rock legends And So I Watch From Afar have launched a brand new festival which takes place at the end of March.
OK? Festival is a music and arts festival in support of mental health awareness and suicide prevention. To celebrate community and to encourage asking the question… Are you ok?
The show will be raising money for Aware NI, PIPS, and Help Musicians UK and they’ve gathered up a ridiculous lineup to help do just that. Performing on the night will be:
The concert takes place in The Telegraph Building on Royal Avenue, Belfast on Saturday 28th March 2020 from 6pm-late. Tickets priced £20 and more information available here.
A few words from the organisers:
“OK? aims to bring us all together in a show of community, love, support and awareness, to check in with one another and ask are we OK?
After suffering a devastating loss at Christmas ASIWYFA and friends partnered with charities Aware NI, PIPS and Help Musicians to raise money for mental health awareness and suicide prevention charities. We have all experienced some level of mental health issue. Anxiety, depression, trauma, the list goes on. Most of us know someone who has died because of these issues and have seen the devastating impact it has on those left behind. OK? aims to help people feel supported and able to reach out for help.
Organizer Rory Friers says – “At times in my life I’ve really struggled with my mental health, the community of music and the celebration of friends has always helped me find my way back. I have my reasons for why I need something like OK? right now, other people will have theirs, so whether you’re coming to this show to support the cause, support the music or to find some support yourself, lets make the the loudest most positive noise we can and remind ourselves that we’re surrounded by people who care”.
Organizer Helen Sloan says – “This event is a necessary coming together, through one of art’s great unifiers – music, to reinforce a sense of community and let everyone know there are available support networks for those in need.”
Aware NI – Lesley Wright, Community Fundraiser in AWARE says “AWARE is delighted to be involved in OK?. We are so pleased to see the musical community coming together in support of mental health in Northern Ireland. We would like to thank all involved in organising the event for choosing to support AWARE. Any funds raised will help us to continue to support people living with depression in Northern Ireland.”
As always it’s great to see artists banding together in support of causes they believe in!
We’re bigfansofVernon Janehereat TMFTML, so it’s only fitting that this weeks ‘Gig of the Week’ goes to the Dublin jazz-punks who continue their unstoppable rise by launching their debut album ‘The Ritual of Love Making’ tomorrow night in The Academy.
The band have gone from strength to strength throughout the years, constantly pushing their musical boundaries and innovating with each release. Having been lucky enough to attend the intimate preview show in Abner Browns Barbershop last month I can safely say that this show is not to be missed.
Support on the night comes from instrumental noise-wizards BiCurious and remaining tickets are extremely limited so don’t sleep on this.
Post-everything instrumental music embracing beautiful melodies, compelling rhythmic glue, and jazz-informed improvisation. This band take chances, but never EVER loses sight of what makes music interesting: melody, rhythm, and texture. Is it jazz or some kind of miracle of modern rock music? Yes, it is both. Think: the simple soulful melodies and deep grooves of Booker T and the MG’s, but armed with the lush harmonic language of Wayne Shorter and a rhythmic vocabulary beyond 1-2-3-4.
Well known throughout the southeastern USA, Kenosha Kid made recent appearances in Germany, Ireland, and Canada, often enlisting the additional help of like-minded fellow musicians.
In 2020, the European formation of the group makes a return to Ireland and features Dan Nettles, Berlin bassist Roland Fidezius (the fierce Lemmy-like low end from Peter Van Huffel’s Gorilla Mask) alongside Dubliners Shane Latimer (guitarist of OKO, Outerspaceways Inc. and arch-minimalists) and Matthew Jacobson (the percussive genius behind ReDiviDeR, Insufficient Funs, and Clang Sayne).
Based in the humid indie-rock haven of Athens, Georgia, guitarist/composer/bandleader Dan Nettles has supplied the world with his own unique blend of modern-jazz-meets-college-radio for over a decade. In 2004, Nettles formed Kenosha Kid with these principles: build a scene, write for people you know, and listen to your creative heart regardless of music idiom. Starting with the release of Projector [2005], Kenosha Kid has succeed in this, providing a steady string of remarkable content in a variety of formations (from trio to ten-piece) and flavours (from silent film scores to sci-fi influenced future-music).
The newest album, Outside Choices [2017] picks up where 2015’s Inside Voices left off.
The melodies are haunting, the grooves are devastating, and the band continues to expertly serve jazz purists, indie-rock hipsters, and funk loving jam fans alike.
With just one day to go until the General Election, we decided to round up some of the best politically charged music that’s been released recently from a slew of fantastic Irish artists using their art to make their voices heard.
T.P.M – TPM Don’t Have Your Money
Another stomper from the Dundalk 3 piece, this track is an anthem against landlords and in support of welfare cheats, highlighting the current governments attepmts to turn people against each other. TPM are making wasters sexy again and they couldn’t give a Fine Fuck.
You can catch them live at The Button Factory on March 20th, tickets available here.
Panik Attaks – The Boom is Back
Dublin punk perveyors Panik Attaks just released a brand new screecher of a single called ‘The Boom Is Back’. The track is a scathing look into Ireland’s horrendous housing crisis and the governments inaction in dealing with it. The chorus couldn’t be more direct. With a video (Edited by Scan) that’s like a Reeling in the Years directed by Adam Curtis what more could you want.
Be sure to check out their new ‘White Water Rafting EP’ below:
Lethal Dialect – To Whom It May Concern
Ahead of the the much anticipated new album, Paul Alwright AKA Lethal Dialect has released a new single ‘To Whom It May Concern’. Written by the rapper and featuring vocals from Eva-Jane Gaffney, the track is a call and response letter between an ex addict trying to get her life back on track and local TD. It details the two differing points of view and how they interact.
You can catch Lethal Dialect in The Button Factory on March 13th, more info here.
PostPunk Podge & DJ Limewire – ‘Stuck In The System’
Limerick’s Post Punk Podge is back with a new track produced by DJ Limewire. ‘Stuck In The System’ is a rallying call against the horrors of the disenfranchising system of Direct Provision on the asylum seekers who came to Ireland looking for a better life only to be cast into a perpetual limbo.
Live Shows
It’s not just new releases, many Irish acts have to show solidarity and raise money to combat homelessness by organising huge fundraising live show.
Rock Against Homelessness – Olympia Theater – March 3rd
Fontaines D.C have curated an amazing lineup of acts for a gig in Dublin’s Olympia Theater with all proceeds going to Focus Ireland.
The band says:
“Due to the gross incompetence and greed of successive Irish Governments there are now over 10000 Homeless People in Ireland, 4000 of them Children. Focus Ireland does incredible work to help them. We were delighted when we were approached to headline and curate this year’s Rock Against Homelessness Show”
It’s great to see so many artists taking a stance and getting engaged. Whatever your political inclinations, just be sure to get out and use your vote on Saturday. If you want my opinion, just listen to the words of TPM: “Fuck Fine Gael and Fuck Fianna Fail too”, Vote Left.
Cork electronic trio Happyalone are back with a new single ‘i need more than drugs (just to get me through the night)’. The track is a laid back groover dripping in vocoder tinged vocals and carried along on a trap drumbeat. Full of layered harmonies and moody, disaffected lyrics it’s less of a gut-punch chorus delivery and much more of a slow burner. Give it a few listens though and this one is sure to be stuck in your head for days!
The new single comes the day before tickets for their first nationwide tour go on sale. The band play Limerick, Belfast, Dublin, Galway and Cork in March/April and tickets go on sale this Friday.
After a two-year hiatus, the online Irish alternative music programme This Ain’t No Disco returns for its highly anticipated second season this Christmas. The show will be released worldwide on Christmas Day following a successful crowdfunding campaign.
The new season will feature a cross-section of Ireland’s thriving music and spoken word scene, representing some of the most talented yet under-represented visionaries in Ireland today. This dynamic audio-visual showcase seeks to examine not only where the boundaries are being pushed today, but also where this music is rooted both historically and geographically.
Hosted by DJ (and former host of the cult 90’s TV program, No Disco) Donal Dineen, This Ain’t No Disco is voluntarily produced by a skeleton crew of friends and music enthusiasts, directed by music documentarian and award-winning cinematographer Myles O’Reilly.
Donal Dineen says:
“There is an embarrassment of riches in Irish music at present, so Myles and I try to pick out strands of golden thread and stitch each episode together with due care. There is a collaboration of sorts at the heart of each edition.
For the new series, we plan to spread the net wider and dig deeper again, to unearth these stories. It’s just a snapshot of what’s happening. To map the whole rich tapestry would be impossible so we concentrate on important parts of the pattern as we see it and do our best to faithfully present that in the best light possible. For historical purposes alone, we feel it’s an important endeavour.”
Myles O’Reilly says:
“I can’t express how necessary and important it is that people of all ages in Ireland get to experience the joy of discovering new and emerging music from their own country. There are so many fresh sounds being created here in bedrooms, kitchens, living rooms, pubs, clubs and just about anywhere you can swing a guitar, which need to be heard and amplified, because they are the sounds of our country growing, and of our culture evolving.
After a two year hiatus to allow for new growth, This Ain’t No Disco is coming back for a second season, and what we ultimately hope to achieve pull focus on what it means to be Irish today, through expression in sound happening all around us.”
Season II of This Ain’t No Disco will comprise of four 1-hour long episodes to be released quarterly over 2020 via Patreon, Facebook, and thisaintnodisco.ie.
Donate to the project on Patreon from as little as €2 to gain exclusive access to This Ain’t No Disco’s episodes and be the first to find out who the special guests are: https://www.patreon.com/thisaintnodisco
Galway singer-songwriter Derek Ellard has released a new single called ‘Understandably Forgivable’ in aid of Pieta House for Suicide Prevention Day. The lyrics deal with themes of loss and grief surrounding suicides and the alarming number of people who attempt to or succeed in ending their lives in the city’s Corrib River.
Cork electronic trio 
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