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2024-12-02 Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - The Academy, Dublin

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,...

2023-08-26 The Playing Fields Festival - Clane GAA

It's The Playing Fields Festival time again!  TPFF23, it's third outing, is back and it's the same, but a little different also.


For the first time, it's not just an Irish affair.  The legendary Basement Jaxx headlined the Sunday night.  Also, for the first time, it's under canvas.  Not a big circus type tent, a more low rise, stretched canvas affair, as per TribFest a few weeks back.  Given the state of the Irish summer, it was a great decision.  The final difference was that I was only there for Day Two as I'd already arranged to bring my niece to see The Vamps, and that clashed with Day One.

So, along with Basement Jaxx, who else was playing Day Two of TPFF? Well, we had:
    Diversion
    Roisin O
    and
I think we can agree, that's a pretty good mix of rock n' roll, party time and dance music!  Even under canvas, the stage was pretty big and sounded good.  Both CamrinWatsin and Basement Jaxx made use of large screen visualisations, which looked pretty great in the dark!

The Irish weather turned up in force at times, but thanks to the new stretched canvas tent, the heavens could open and we all could stay dry, unless you went for an ice-cream...  I'm not saying that's what I did, but if I did, it was definitely worth it!

Food and drink were all reasonably priced for a festival and there was plenty of seating around where you could sit and eat without having to balance a pint in one hand and food in the other.  I wish more festivals would provide seating, it makes life easy!  That all lent itself to a great, family friendly atmosphere.

So, it looked good, sounded good, had a great atmosphere and a great line-up, what more could you ask for?

Anyway, that's enough about that, all you really need to know is that it's a fantastic festival and if you're in the Kildare area, you should add it to your list of Summer Festivals!

Now for some photos!

The Flavours






Diversion




Altered Lines




Spring Break





Raging Sons








Róisín O










CamrinWatsin





Basement Jaxx




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