Britpop band Dodgy seemed to drop off the radar in 1996 until their Glastonbury appearance two years ago. Now the band are due to play their first Irish gig in over ten years with a show in the Turk’s Head on Parliment St, Dublin on May 13th. (Tickets available from tickets.ie)
I had the pleasure of catching up with Math to find out where Dodgy disappeared to and how the band are getting on now.
There’s only one track that could really be this week’s Tune of the Week and yes, I’m choosing it for the video. There hasn’t been this much religious imagery in a music video since Madonna’s Like a Prayer but Lady Gaga’s team have pumped out this gem. I love the grading and the clever biker disciples and there’s a hint of Michael Jackson’s group choreography in there too. No doubt this will be considered to be over the top by many and it possibly breaks every Irish blasphemy law going. Enough reason for this week’s Tune of the Week to be Lady Gaga‘s Judas.
Last Bank Holiday Sunday night, I decided to tune into a local radio station after they posted on twitter that they would be playing contemporary Irish music. Worth a shot I thought, however, after listening to the same station for about 20/25 minutes I had to switch off, here’s why.
The station in question first played Van Morrison’s ‘Real Real Gone’, a single from his 1990 album ‘Enlightenment’. They played Brian Kennedy’s ‘Crazy Love’ from 1995. They also played The Adventures’ ‘Broken Land’ from 1998, which I will admit is a great song. The only contemporary song they played was The Kanyu Tree’s ‘Radio’. Oh, Josh Ritter also made an appearance as an Irish artist before the presenter quickly defended his choice.
As a lover of music, I believe that we must support our own artists. The term ‘signed’ or ‘unsigned’ isn’t relevant anymore, anyone can get on iTunes and have their music freely available. I do believe that any artist, no matter how far into their career, should be able to stand up beside national or international artists. To make a living from music now, Irish artists need to be able to have a network outside of here. The wealth of talent and the international appeal of Irish artists such as James Vincent McMorrow or Adebisi Shank says it all. (more…)