2022-12-03 Tom Dunne - Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge

Something Happens... One of the greatest Irish bands ever and the reason I owned so many paisley shirts in the late 80s and early 90s. They were also the reason behind some rather dodgy dancing on the steps up to the stage in the Johnstown Inn on many occasions... But I can forgive them all that because they were so damn good.

I've lost count of how many times I saw them live over the years. I have a terrible memory (that's why I took up photography), but I have recollections of seeing them multiple times in Whelan's back in the early 90s and also in the previously mentioned Johnstown Inn in Kildare, also in the 90s.

I think the last time I saw them was at the Electric Picnic back in 2012, so when I saw that Tom Dunne was performing just down the road in the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge, I jumped that the chance to see him play live again.

So, was it worth it? Oh hell yeah! The set obviously included a lot of Something Happens songs, but he also threw in some Beach Boys, Beatles, Glenn Campbell, Billy Bragg and a dash of Nirvana also. In between songs we were treated to stories about the songs, or the artists he was covering, it made for a night filled with laughter! Obviously, Tom couldn't so that all on his own, so he brought along Alan Connor to play keyboards and the more intricate guitar pieces!

I left that gig smiling and I was still smiling when I edited a couple of the photos late into the night and, as I type this and remember back, I find myself smiling again.

It was a fantastic night of songs and stories. If you get a chance to see the show, you should go.

Now for a few photos:

2022-03-26 Buskers on Grafton Street, Dublin

I took a walk around Dublin today, thought I'd check out the buskers on Grafton Street. There's a fine history of busking in Dublin, acts like Hothouse Flowers , The Frames , Rodrigo y Gabriela , Damien Rice , Paddy Casey , Kodaline and a host of others all cut their teeth on and around Grafton Street. It stands to reason that some of those busking today will be successful in the future! So, who did I get to see today? Well, check out the photos below: Zoe Clarke Allie Sherlock Paul Jenkinson

Bye Bye Spotify...

I ditched Spotify Premium this weekend. Why? Well, I read an interview with Daniel Ek , the CEO of Spotify, and I profoundly disagreed with what he said and his attitude towards musicians in the interview. So I said 'F*ck it', and closed my premium account. I still do have a free account* as many bands choose Spotify to release their music, so I'll keep it for that reason. What now though? Well, I'd created a large library of music on my home server over the last 20 years or so. Every time I bought a CD, it got ripped to the server. Every time I bought digital music from Bandcamp , Google or 7 Digital , they too got stored on the server, and that was fine for home use, it worked well. But now I'd dumped Spotify, what could I do, how could I access my music outside the house? I'd played around with software called Plex a few years back, but had no use for it. I ended up doing nothing with Plex, but for this project, I decided to revisit it. I knew that i

Interview with King Kong Company

Originally published 10/09/2013 on Chunk.ie So, there I was, wandering around the Electric Picnic wondering who I was going to watch next. One of the lads said he had heard good things about King Kong Company and that we should check them out, so off we headed to the Body and Soul Arena to do just that. As I mentioned in my review of the Electric Picnic, the gig was epic. I figured we just had to interview them here on CHUNK.ie, and here it is! First things first, congratulations on a storming gig at the Electric Picnic. It completely blew me away. Was this your first Picnic experience? We’ve been to many Electric Picnics over the years but just as punters, and it’s always been a great festival, so it was a fantastic experience to play at its 10 year anniversary. King Kong Company is a rather interesting name for a band, where or how did you come up with it? The name is taken from the film Taxi Driver. If you look closely, Travis Bickle is wearing a badge which says King

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