Christmas came early this year for me. Never did I think that Me First and the Gimme Gimmes would be playing Dublin, and never did I ever think I'd get to shoot one of their shows! Well, that all changed last week when they played the Academy in Dublin on a cold, damp, Monday night! I've been a fan since 1997, when one of the lads I worked with, brought in a copy of Have a Ball . It was love at first listen! I did manage to catch them live back in 2019 when they played the O2 Forum in Kentish Town , London, and it was every bit as good as I'd hoped, but it paled in comparison to Monday night in Dublin. So, how did it come about? Well, back in 2013, I interviewed the band for a now defunct Irish website called Chunk.ie . Over the years, I've stayed on their PR roster, so I took a chance and emailed my contact there. Lo and behold, a few emails later and all was sorted, I was down to photograph the show. How was it? Brilliant, amazing, fantastic,...
I had no plans for this weekend until The DJ Bambi Show on Twitter uttered the immortal words 'Any interest in a ticket for...' and I, after thinking it over for a millisecond, said YES!
The ticket was for Alex Gough in the Button Factory in Dublin. Now, I'd heard of Alex before, but if I'm being honest, I didn't know much, if anything about his music style. To make things interesting, I didn't listen to any of his tracks before I headed to the gig, so I walked in blind!
I won't lie, I did get a tad worried when a group of young ladies sat at the table next to me though... I wondered was this guy going to be an Irish Justin Bieber! (not that there is anything wrong with his music, I'm just not his demographic!)
I needn't have worried. To put it mildly, I was blown away, I really enjoyed his set. His singing style kinda reminds me of early Huey Morgan and there's a lovely bit of funk running through the music. The young ladies beside me? They loved it as they screamed and cheered along all night. The rest of the crowd (once again restricted by Covid regulations) seemed to really enjoy it, as did Alex himself.
So yeah, all in all, a great night out in Dublin again. Definitely keep an eye out for Alex Gough, he's going places!
Now, on to the photos:
@irish_mj @alexgoughhh playing the ##ButtonFactory ##Dublin 27.08.21 Great gig, worth catching live! ##Drums ##Irish ##Gigs ##LiveMusic ##IrishMusicParty
♬ original sound - IrishMJ