Some Fancy Green Artwork

Rolling out new artwork for the One Take Sessions on June 21st, July 12th and August 2nd, here’s the first of them. See all y’all on Thursday night in Cleere’s as we bring the One Take Sessions to a new level.

Nouvelle Vague, Duke Special, Scott Matthews On The Piccie Bill

Come on!! MORE NAMES!! The country is crying out for more names for Electric Picnic and while Oxegen’s lineup was unleashed like the thunder storms of late, the Electric Picnic lineup comes along more like a sun shower - a few drops here and there but nothing to bother you.

I’m waiting with heightened anticipation (oooooh) of the long weekend in September. Yes. I know its not a long weekend. But for us festival-goers it certainly will be.

Anyway, that said, Nouvelle Vague, Duke Special and Ivor Novello winner for this year Scott Matthews have been announced as additions to the Picnic lineup in Stradbally. Out of that bunch its Nouvelle Vague who’ll get me going, looking forward to seeing them live and in action. Here’s the press release…

Nouvelle Vague, Duke Special and Scott Matthews are the latest additions to the main stages. And further below the Foggy Notions stage line-up has also been announced.

With the unanticipated worldwide success of Nouvelle Vague’s eponymous debut album French multi-instrumentalists Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux and their coterie of breathy female singers have managed to touch on something close to genius with their covers of some of the great names of 80s including Joy Division, The Kinks, Velvet Underground, Bowie, and Gary Numan. These Gallic, post-punkers on a Bossa Nova tip are unlike any other and their quirky, melodramatic cover versions had everybody dancing and lip synching right till the end.

Belfast’s finest vaudevillian, Duke Special’s, last year was the stuff of musician’s dreams - signing to indie-label V2 Records, a slew of European, UK and Irish dates and three Meteor Ireland Music Award and a Choice Music Prize nomination. Picnickers can expect Peter’s balmy vocals and dreadlocked persona to be accompanied by the theatrics of an old gramophone a velvet encased piano, stunning fiddles and collection of makeshift instruments when he takes to the stage at Stradbally.

Scott Matthews has been hotly tipped to be as great as Robert Plant and Jeff Buckley. The Wolverhampton wonder has already beat off stiff competition to win the illustrious Ivor Novello Award this year, for his single Elusive taken from his debut album Passing Stranger. Scott Matthew will be bringing his Midlands folk rock and blues to Electric Picnic.

Spotlight On: ReClaim

The One Take Sessions returns again this Thursday night for the first of our night’s in Cleere’s Theatre and on the bill is Dublin’s ReClaim.

The three-piece, pictured above on Balcony TV earlier in the year, “play their own brand of emotions, high intensity rock” and make a welcome addition and arrival to the One Take Sessions in Kilkenny.

Starting out in Dublin in early 2005, they’ve impressed crowds along the way with some fine songs and musicianship. Via their MySpace profile… ReClaim write songs about the human condition in the 21st century, both personal and societal. They draw their inspiration from their experiences in the working class communities they come from, and observations on the wider world and it’s history. Their personal stories of love and self discovery carry the listener into a another world of possibility. ReClaim’s music is characterised by soaring melodies and lush chords over a bed of grinding bass and pounding drums.

Check out the video above and judge for yourself, then visit the ReClaim MySpace to check out some of their tunes including ‘Seeing Clearly’ and ‘Break Free’. The lads play the Temple Bar Music Centre in Dublin tonight before hitting the Sessions in Cleere’s on Thursday night. Music starts on Thursday at 9:30pm, drop in, its free!

So Many Sessions!

Looking over the bookings for the One Take Sessions of late and they’re coming fairly hard and fast, so much so that we’re already taking bookings for October 4th (with slots starting to fill) and October 26th. June 21st sees three acts (Mantra, Reclaim, Diarmuid Comerford), four on July 12th (Jimi Cullen, Waiting To Explode, Bright Light Fiasco, Darren Byrne), four on August 2nd (Ian Doyle, Tortured Artists Social Club, Gordon Barry, Michael Whelan), we’re on a break for August 23rd while in September (13th) we return with three more bands (Bad Mothers Union, The Demise, Mute) and Jamie McDonald has put his name in the hat for October 4th.

Any takers for futures Sessions dates? We’re looking forward to the very first night of it in Cleere’s (even though we’ve been running gigs in there for two years). Hope to see you Thursday.

Big Announcement: One Take Sessions Gets New Permanent Home

This is big one for us as we feel that we’ve got to do the ‘Sessions even more justice. It is rare that we make massive announcements but I feel that this is a pretty big one for us.

The One Take Sessions has a new home. Cleere’s.

To the older heads of the Kilkenny music scene that may come as music to certain ears. A long time ago the original music club started in Cleere’s in the theatre before moving on to Ryan’s in Friary Street for a few years. With the Music Club winding down in Ryan’s earlier this year, the One Take Sessions has become what the press call “one of the most anticipated staples of the local music scene”.

We’ve been on the go since November 2006 and that was an intentional start too. The music scene in Kilkenny is quiet towards the winter months, including our own heavy weekend schedule. We felt it was the perfect time to start into the One Take’s and start building the reputation as the premier night of its kind in Kilkenny. Now, 7 months on, we’re moving. But we’re not moving far - just next door.

Until now, the One Take Sessions has been a resident fixture in the music calendar in ID with some terrific acts gracing the makeshift stage by the fire place under the stairs. Maybe not the most ideal of spots (the stage that is) but we’ve seen some great acts and a great atmosphere at each of the ‘Sessions. I feel that the ‘Sessions in ID isn’t a long term thing and so in continuing the success of the ‘Sessions we’re moving to a permanent home in Kilkenny’s best known music venue - Cleere’s Theatre.

We’ve got a fantastic relationship with the staff at Cleere’s who have accommodated almost all of our gigs since 2005 including our launch party in October 2005, our first Christmas Party and countless other nights since then so it is with absolute delight that we bring the One Take Sessions to Cleere’s to make it a permanent fixture in the place that feels like home to us when it comes to music.

We feel it will give the acts the best possible experience, the bigger stage, the lighting, the most intimate atmosphere in the best local venue around.

With that, this week’s One Take Sessions, originally penciled for ID this coming Thursday night will be taking place in Cleere’s Theatre (just next door) and that will be the case from here on in. KilkennyMusic.com would like to thank the management and staff at ID for their support of the One Take Sessions since November and we also say hello to the staff in Cleere’s, who will be sick of seeing us at this stage. We’re really looking forward it and hope that you’ll be there this Thursday to enjoy the welcome arrival of the One Take Sessions to Cleere’s Theatre.

See you this Thursday at 9.30pm where you’ll get Mantra, ReClaim and Diarmuid Comerford all on the stage.

Win Tickets To The Guggenheim Grotto

We’re giving away two tickets to The Guggenheim Grotto this coming Saturday. Here’s the deal - we’re accepting entries until 11am Friday morning, the gig opens 9.30pm in Cleere’s Theatre on Saturday night with the first act (Pal Steelo) on the stage at 10pm.

The tickets are worth a tenner each and can’t be exchanged for a cash prize or other future gig.

Winning is easy, all you’ve got to do is take a minute to register on KilkennyMusic.com and then leave your name on the Guest List. Winner will be contacted by email by midday on Friday. If there’s one band you come to see this summer with KilkennyMusic.com, make it The Guggenheim Grotto!

(we’ll be nice too - if you don’t want to register on the forum, even though we’d really like you to, just leave a comment on this blog post, making sure you’ve got a valid email or URL available as well)

The Crowd Go Wild - Photos From Saturday Night

Ross has been busy again and has two new albums up in the KilkennyMusic.com gallery for Laminate and Original lineup after the madness that was Saturday night. Great to see the crowd out for this one again. If you weren’t there you can relive some of it through the galleries (click the bands names above) or check the YouTube video of Laminate performing ‘Paper’.

Just to have some music to listen to on Monday morning, here’s ‘Tom Petty’ by Laminate.

LISTEN: Laminate - Tom Petty

One Take Sessions This Week

Time certainly does fly when you’re running gig to gig and with the cleanup job done after the weekend with Laminate and Original Lineup we can now look forward to a quieter night this coming Thursday with the 12th One Take Sessions, our free music night featuring a wealth of acoustic solos, duets and bands since November last year. Acts on the bill for this week include Mantra, ReClaim (Dublin) and Diarmuid Comerford (Wexford).

See OneTakeSessions.com for all the details as usual.

Expect some nice announcements about the One Take Sessions shortly!

Vesta Varro Gig Canceled

Word reaches KKM this fine sunny Sunday that the proposed Vesta Varro gig in Eddie Murphy’s in Thomastown next Friday night as part of their ‘Exit Here’ tour has been canceled. The gig was due for Friday June 22nd with support from Indie Kids Can’t Dance but an email from IKCD this morning says the gig is off.

Vesta Varro were last seen in the City back in February of last year when we had them guest in Cleere’s to promote the launch of their Blue Mirror Boy single. New album, ‘Exit Here’ and new single ‘Pyramid Clocks’ available on VestaVarro.com.

Laminate and Original Lineup, Some Gig! (Video footage from last night)

Its a rare occasion that we bring a full gig to The Loft (first and only other time being the beginning of February this year) but last night’s show with Laminate and Original Lineup would have to make you think again. Both bands were on top form last night, Original Lineup starting at the later time of about 10:20pm before Laminate took over around 11 and played through a barrage of tunes until after midnight. While a lot of the crowd (one of the greatest crowds we’ve seen in recent times) took advantage of the seats available in The Loft for Original Lineup there was no stopping people getting up and leaping around for Laminate.

If you missed last night - and shame on you if you did - you missed one of the highlight gigs of the year, one particular KilkennyMusic.com forum regular calling it “the best KilkennyMusic.com gig ever”. Now, we might argue that point ourselves given that we’ll have been to all the gigs, but at the same stage the gig in The Loft last night was possibly the best of the year so far.

As such, we’ve put ‘Paper’ by Laminate up on YouTube this morning. It was shot on my (Ken) K800i mobile, so excuse the lack of broadcast quality. That said, if you would like to consider sponsoring KilkennyMusic.com towards the purchase of half decent video camera (we’re trying to raise a grand for it) then please contact us as we’re all ears and dying to get these gigs recorded! If you’re reading this on the RSS feed, take a visit to the KilkennyMusic.com homepage where the video from last night is now the featured video, or else jump straight to it on YouTube. Ross will have photos from last night’s madness in the KilkennyMusic.com gallery after the weekend as well.

Thanks a million to Derren, Harvey and Johnny (Laminate) and to Matt, Robbie, Neil, Jelly and Art (Original Lineup) for last night and to everyone who made it to the gig and rocked out. Bound to be some seriously sore heads and ears this morning.

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