What cover artwork this is.....

Live at the Marquee Cork announces first batch of shows already

A batch of acts have been assigned to the Marquee shows in Cork. They seem to have been announced a bit earlier than usual.

The Prodigy in a Marquee would be well worth it:

June 18 – The Prodigy. €59.40, on sale Wednesday December 3

June 20 – Gilbert O’Sullivan. €39.20/€41.70, on sale Tuesday December 2

June 21 – Kasabian. €33.60, on sale Tuesday December 2

June 27 – Christy Moore. €35 – €45, on sale Monday December 1

July 4 – Josh Ritter. €38, Wednesday December 3

July 7 – Rod Stewart. €81.25/€91.25, on sale Monday December 1

Orbital to reform!!!!!!!!

Oh joy! According to NME:

Orbital have reformed after five years and will headline the Big Chill 2009.

The dance duo, whose split after their last gig headlining the Other Stage at Glastonbury in 2004, will head up the line-up for the Eastnor, Herefordshire bash, which will take place on August 7, 8 and 9 next summer.

Speaking about their reformation, Orbital's Phil Hartnoll said in a statement: "It's not an exercise in nostalgia, the time just seems right. Everything just seemed to fall into place.

"We've got 15 years of active service, making song. If you boil that down to a 90-minute festival set you should get something thoroughly exciting from beginning to end. Let's put some fun back into it."

No other acts on the bill have been announced yet. Keep checking NME.COM for ticket details when announced.

Acts including Leonard Cohen, The Mighty Boosh band and Roisin Murphy were on the bill for last August's bash.




Thank god for this as I was very sore with myself for missing their last Irish gig at Oxegen 2004 due to some piss poor timetabling by MCD. I mean what genius decided to have Orbital on the same time as Massive Attack AND the Chemical Brothers. Those MCD heads are a special bunch.


My intuition would lead me to believe they will headline Electric Picnic 2009.

Tune I would most like to wrap up at present....

is "Walls" from Becks latest album "Modern Guilt".

There is such an addictive flow to it...and I need a fix of it every day, just to take the edge of you know

LCD Soundsystem are no more....

Apparently James Murphy has callled it a day for LCD Soundsystem material being created however the personnel ensemble of the group will operate in the near future under a different alias and a possible change in direction musically.

A sad day, but possibly the dawn of a great day....

Kanye West, NEC Birmingham 15/11/08

The best way I thought of celebrating fnishing some tough projects was to visit a friend in Birmingham and smack up the Kanye West gig. Kanye West is an artist I admire for his willingness to utilise various genres in creating his own style of tunes. At times I find some of his material hit and miss (mainly due to some of those tunes with the annoying vocal distortions reminiscent of a Scooter song-his song "Through the Wire" springs to mind. Ultimately the man has serious talent and confidence and I knew it was going to be a belter of a show.

The NEC arena in Birmigham is a fine arena and altough we were seated in the furthest corner of the arena away from the stage the sound wasnt totally lacking as I presumed it would. I was delighted to hear Santogold was the support act but her performance was timid enough. The crowd seemed impatient with her to be honest.

Kanyes stage setup was bloody impressive. Elevated slopes covered the stage to mimic an alien planet with the flat mid-section mobile throughout the performance moving forwards, upwards an so on. The live band were situated in the front of the stage. Each member or section of the band were elevated for each performance depending on their input to each song.

Kanye spoke to a "Knight Rider" type character on the giant screen intermittently between songs which I thought was a good idea but was executed poorly. It came across a tad cheesy.

Mr. West is a known performer-the man can belt them out. A lot of songs were given fresh adjustments and others were pushed into a higher gear. "Jesus Walks", "Diamonds are Forever" and "Flashing Lights" were real standouts. The whole crowd throw hands forward in unison which saw something to behold from where we were standing.

The man leaves an impression. The mans got talent. If you can check him out.

MTV EMA 2008....last night

Sweet merciful lord what was last nights EMAs(on in Liverpool) all about.

Firstly Katy Perry was disgracefully hollow with her weak presenting consisting of childish sexual innuendos.

Secondly there were moments where it felt like some major propaganda rally (dare I compare it to the Nuremburg Rallys of the Hitler era) for Barack Obama. Every presenter or artist paid homage to him at any given chance. I am not trying to be pessimistic about his victory, and indeed Americas-but last night was overkill to the highest order.

It was as if the whole show was supposed to emulate the notion that the US isnt a jokeshop in the eyes of the world thanks to Obama's win. Is MTV really a propaganda mechanism to sway the thoughts of teenagers/young adults in Europe to love America again?

The winners of some of the awards were highly undeserving and the titles MTV gives to awards now is to say the least puke. Tokio Hotel being nominated(not to mind winning an award-which they did) demeans art.

Bono-what were you thinking claiming the Beatles belong to Dublin and other self-rightous padding he gave to his introduction to Paul McCartney was cringe-tastic



Once again Kanye redeemed the show with a stellar perfrormance. MTV owe him

There were many instances throughout the MTV EMAs 2008 where I felt let down by life and society-I really did. It was truly awful stuff-shame on you MTV

Last nights Jools Holland show

If you didnt get to see Later with Jools Holland last night(short half hour broadcast) on BB2 be sure to check out the full show on BBC2 this Friday at around 11.30 p.m.

It was so brilliantly random compared to most episodes. From Al Greens ambiguous interiew coupled with a rapturous performance of "Lets stay together" to Jools having to warn viewers of the impending strobe lighting(first time on the show I believe) coming from Pendulums performance. Then there was Damon Alburn showcasing his new project-and what fun it is......

The Wire

After hearing rave reviews about this TV show for quite some time now through various blogs and articles I decided I had to submerge my bad self into the world of the Baltimore(setting of the show) police department. I also decided it best to start from the very beginning in order to allow myself concentrate on the whole picture.

Four episodes into series 1 and what do I think? It is a bloody good programme. It is utterly engrossing. I feel like hibernating right now and smacking myself in the face with all the later episodes and seasons(its at season 5 at present I believe)

In my opinion what sets it apart from all other "Cop" shows on the box at the moment is the sequence and flow of the storylines. The CSIs and all that are grand for one or two episodes but I always feel like each episode is a carbon copy of the rest given their format:

murder-problem-case-solve

The Wire seems to be a long running storyline centered around a loose and reluctant collection of cops delegated the role of breaking up a drugs ring ridden with unsolved murders in the Projects. Four episodes in and already I am indulged in the rugged network of police politics and corruption. Every scene and character encounter is relevant. The are funny moments too, which I like.

Get involved in this programme-you wont be disappointed.