It should have been such a simple task. Her people had spoken to my people… OK, I don’t actually have people, but you get the idea. All I had to do was phone New York and talk to Nicole Henry. ‘The number you have dialled is not recognised’ – I looked, it seemed short. Better …
To a born and bred Dubliner like myself, the cult movie The Commitments was something very special. It showed the world that Irish music was far more than Showbands and Fenian Ballads – it showed that Dubliners had soul! That the Dublin Soul Scene depicted in the movie was for the most part fiction, invented …
Another summer evening down by the seaside, the cool breeze from the sea a welcome relief from the days’ heat inland. 70s soul sensation The Real Thing is what has brought us to The Spa Pavilion. Opening the evening was a very competent five-piece band! OK, they were in fact The Real Thing band, in …
Ahead of their show at the Spa Pavilion in Felixstowe we chatted to Chris Amoo of The Real Thing (originally published in Grapevine Magazine’s July issue)
It was just under two years ago when Kaz Hawkins and her Band o’Men burst into my life one September evening. I was a volunteer at the John Peel Centre and it was her first ever UK tour. None of us knew what to expect. Back at the John Peel Centre last night – what …
Were I the sort of music fan who doesn’t bother turning up for the opening act at a gig, then I would never have discovered James Hunter. Back in 2007 I was lucky enough to get some last minute tickets to see Bryan Adams play at Wembley Arena, but it was a James Hunter album …
In 1980s Dublin, on the north side, Jimmy Rabbitte aspires to manage the world’s greatest band, with only one music in mind: soul. Disgusted with bands in Ireland, and beginning with his friends Outspan and Derek, he assembles a band in the tradition of 1960s black American recording artists like Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin and …