In my time as Online Writer-In-Residence for the Irish Writers Centre I attended an open mic poetry night in Dublin. Slots for reading filled up well before the night itself and the room was packed. Queer poets read alongside straight and cisgender poets and I found myself alarmingly surprised at the ease of it, wondering why I had never, not once, as a straight cisgender person, been to a mainstream poetry evening in the North which featured poetry about queer lives, queer love, queer sex.
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Brian Smyth is a Green Party Councillor for the Lisnasharragh area in Belfast. In a previous existence, he fronted the band Dirty Stevie, releasing an album, A Beginner’s Guide To Levitation, in 2010. With this in mind, Dig With It put in a request for playlist and Brian obliged with his personal soundtrack.
‘Holy Show’ is the first affirmative moment of the night and it’s the best. Pillow Queens putting a voice to difficult times, watching the replays and then walking out of the ruins.
We project our own feelings into songs of course and ‘Holy Show’ may have other readings. But for some of us, it became a soundtrack to lockdown and all of the self-examination we put on ourselves. It was about fading horizons and bad decisions but importantly, it also sang of escape and a life outside. ‘Holy Show’ was like ‘Born To Run’ or ‘Land’ or ‘Running Scared’. Every time you listened back, you could hear the glimmer of deliverance. Continue Reading…
In Issue 6 of Dig With It magazine, we profiled the shortlisted albums for the NI Music Prize. The list arrived shortly before the press deadline and with a further, dramatic stroke, the two additional public choices for album of the year came in at the very last moment.
You can order up the for Music Prize special in the magazine here. But here is the gist of it – a wonderful array of records, Nordy singularity, ambition and style.
Thanks to the Dig With It contributors whose reviews and interviews we quote from. Geat work, all.
“So many people have Mike Edgar to thank for a life in music. He has been a true champion, mentor, driving force and friend to the musicians of NI. His enthusiasm has never waned and we are so delighted to make him our Outstanding Contribution to Music recipient for 2021.”
Charlotte Dryden, CEO, Oh Yeah Music Centre
Gender Chores play a version of ‘Brand New House’ by Mob Wife. Later in the night, Mob Wife play the song again, but somehow make it sound like Gender Chores. A tribute to a tribute. Everybody cheers. Good work, Bangers ‘N’ Mash (Ups).
Here’s something that flourished in the summer of 2020. It became an online album of pals and peers, respecting and reinventing each other’s work. Bangers ‘N’ Mash (Ups) raised funds for She Sells Sanctuary / Women’s Aid. It was a support network when gigs were impossible and it transmitted creativity and soul.
Remember when Joshua Burnside put out a momentous album last year and we wondered how cool it would be if we ever witnessed it live? Well, here’s the time. It’s the first of three sold-out nights at the Sports Club, as Belfast gets weirdly to terms with unchecked, unmasked gigs in tight proximity to mates and musicians.
The cover is a painting of prog-rock era Peter Gabriel, imagined by Britpop misanthropist Luke Haines. The record is made in Derry by an established, Anglo blow-in. The songs are furious in parts but mostly peeved and petulant. They seem to be sited in some wind-lashed, provincial sinkhole, frequented by ruffians, poseurs and bald adolescents. Welcome back, Invaderband with your new streak of slanted, declamatory stuff.
We meet in a park on the south side of Dublin Bay. The clouds are up and we talk loosely about band rehearsals, bicycle maintenance and the joy that a teenage Conor J. O’Brien once found in a new Radiohead release, saving up his first listen of Kid A for the morning before school.
He chats about life drawing classes in Berlin, which he follows online, organised by Dave Hedderman, his old bandmate from the days of The Immediate. Conor’s drawings, at least the ones he shares with us, are vivid and peculiar, something we might discuss later. But like his music, they suggest turbulence versus order, some reassuring details in the face of the unknown.
Three festival events in three months – Stendhal have kept the nerves steady and made a momentous case for music, camping and people getting delighted, outdoors. From a trial gig in June and then a couple of roaring days in July, the ultimate was always a showdown in August with multiple live stages, 5,000 visitors and a tenth birthday party of jubilant proportions.
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