When Brian Eno released Ambient 1: Music For Airports in 1978, flying was still a relative luxury and airports were gateways to holiday destinations that didn’t involve candy floss and sandcastles. Eno’s four-track suite of […]
Tag: David Bowie
Face To Face with Dublin Bowie Festival 2020
In the four years since David Bowie’s death, tributes have stopped feeling like a wake, and rather a celebration of maybe the greatest pop music icon of them all. As we’re hoovering up pine needles, […]
Throwing darts in lovers’ eyes: David Bowie in 20 songs
The last time I checked there were 50-odd David Bowie compilations, and they’re piling up at an even greater rate since his death. But even as record companies pick at his bones releasing 200 quid […]
Planet Earth is blue: Dublin Bowie Fest returns
Now that it’s been three years since David Bowie’s death, festivals and tributes have become more of a celebration rather than the genuine loss felt in the direct aftermath. Like the passing of Prince a […]
Good Karma: Boy George still looking ahead
At a recent gig, Boy George introduced Culture Club as “a soul-funk-pop-reggae combo from the United Kingdom, where we have two queens”. It’s a bit of a mouthful, but Culture Club are so much more […]
Smart Alex: Arctic Monkeys pissed the right people off
It seemed like Ireland was the only country that Arctic Monkeys didn’t include on their summer festival schedule, and there was plenty of moaning when they didn’t get added to the Picnic. But after a […]
Bryan Ferry beyond the white tuxedo
When I told a mate during the week I was going to see Bryan Ferry he responded with a simple: “Jesus lad,” and an emoji somewhere between sad and bewilderment. He followed it up with: […]
Another fine edition of Bryan Ferry
Depending who you’re talking to, Bryan Ferry is either the avant-garde hero who helped Roxy Music write the art-rock blueprint in the 1970s, or the impossibly suave crooner engulfed in elegant adult pop. But who […]
Boom-bap meets dancehall in Bazza Ranks’ Where Would We Be, feat. P.O.A.
Irish dub/reggae producer Bazza Ranks (Dirty Dubsters) has just teamed up with Irish hip-hop crew Prisoners Of Audio for a crossover record that’s an unashamed love letter to music itself. Where Would We Be asks […]
Irish gigs round-up
CELEBRATING DAVID BOWIE: Olympia Theatre, Dublin, Monday Dublin went headlong into a Bowie wormhole last week, with tribute shows, lectures, exhibitions and stage plays as part of the Dublin Bowie Festival, – but we’re not done just […]
Irish gigs of the week
GHOSTPOET, The Button Factory, Dublin, Tuesday, €16 Ghostpoet’s fourth album Dark Days and Canapes is the bleakest yet from the poet, rapper, singer, beatmaker and producer, but his acclaimed live show will be no less intense. The […]
Irish gigs round-up
SEU JORGE: Vicar Street, Dublin, Wednesday, €40 It’s been a year and a half since David Bowie died, so thankfully the mawkish tributes and overblown covers are drying up, to return once a year on his anniversary. […]
William Basinski’s droney, disintegrating Bowie tribute — For David Robert Jones
Of all the tributes, cover versions and live celebrations of David Bowie around the anniversary of his death, this meditative piece by avant-garde composer William Basinski taps into Bowie’s unrelenting obsession with experimentation and reinvention. Referencing […]
Nile Rodgers interview: ‘Chic is a celebration of my life’
If you’re wondering how Nile Rodgers keeps on top of his endless collaborations and a to-do list as big as a phone book, the clue might be his early starts. We get a lunchtime interview […]
Gigs round-up, June 19-25
SEA SESSIONS, Bundoran, Co Donegal, today till Sunday, SOLD OUT The air will be a hell of a lot fresher in Bundoran than in the fields of Westmeath for Body & Soul. Sea Sessions has billed itself […]
Moo Kid 