“This year we’re looking at educating the soul musically more than academically.”
DCU Campaigns and Information’s Officer Dave McGovern certainly has the right idea.
In a year that saw Mark Ronson for Trinity, Groove Armada for DCU and B*Witched for, well, everywhere, college events have never had such prestige. Producer turned performer Ronson, for example, hit the stage at Trinity before he ever made it to Tripod.
With a line-up that also included Lightspeed Champion and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, TCD seem to have left the other colleges in the dust. Not that it comes as a surprise with names like 2many DJs, CSS, Electric Six and Babyshambles in their history books.
“The Trinity Ball is one of these rare events where not only do they turn a college into a music festival, but everyone just completely lets their hair down,” says TCD Ents officer Nick Longworth.
Now under contract to MCD, Longworth points out that last year’s Ball has left the organisers with big shoes to fill. “We will be working very closely to bring the best possible line-up to the Ball this year, particularly as it’s being known as the 50th Trinity Ball.” He’s keeping the wish list under his hat though, “I have a few ideas...”
That said, UCC have snagged Mundy, David Kitt, Damien Dempsey, Rodrigo y Gabriela and Damien Rice in recent years and highlights from DCU’s academic year saw performances by Groove Armada (DJ set), Ham Sandwich, Vivienne Long, Leo from The Streets and Declan O’Rourke.
Homegrown heroes like The Blizzards, Delorentos, The Coronas and Fight Like Apes were also making appearances at student bars nationwide this year and for those leaning towards something a bit less credible, cheese-tastic nostalgia acts like 2Unlimited, East 17, B*Witched, Chesney Hawkes, 911 and the Vengaboys all made a huge comeback on campuses in 2008.
But September marks the beginning of a whole new term and right about now, SU officers everywhere are desperate to hunt down what they hope will be the college performance of the year.
And competition is tough. UCD have already confirmed The Saw Doctors, The Coronas, Delorentos, Fight Like Apes and Sash for their Freshers’ Ball in the Academy and DCU have lined up Cathy Davey, Fighting With Wire and Fight Like Apes for theirs. “Last year we had a focus on an ’80s revival,” DCU’s Dave McGovern tells me, “but this year we are looking at developing our live music scene.”
“We’ve visited and taken inspiration from various festivals around Europe to bring something unique to the campus. We want to bring in some acts that are successful in their own countries but haven’t broken the Irish scene yet.” He adds: “Ultimately our aim is to book genuine, quality acts from anywhere on the planet.” 
Meanwhile, the people that pull the strings in Trinity are hoping to revisit some of the old favourites, with a tribute band cover competition already in the pipeline.
Further south, UCC Ents Manager Vincent O’Brien hopes to top last year’s standout Blizzards show with an even better performance. “What we’re hoping to do this year is bring in bigger acts less frequently,” he says, “as opposed to last year when we had lots of bands of good local status playing the college bar every week.”
Not only are they hooking bigger and better performers each year, it seems that universities have now garnered the ability and, more importantly, the determination, to tempt the musical portion of the student body out of the classrooms and onto the stage.
As is the case in most colleges, the Music Society in UCC is one of the most active on campus, organising events, equipment and workshops to cater for all music tastes.
“The Live Music Society here is great for encouraging emerging talent.” O’Brien says. “It’s very active with both with on-campus activities and in venues down town”
The beauty of some of the more centrally located campuses is that they can borrow from what the nightlife of their city already has to offer. In NUI Galway, the music society hosts events both in the College Bar and in venues in Galway city, including Open Mic nights in the Cellar Bar on Eglinton St.
It’s too much of a good thing for DIT however, where the difficult layout of the campus (DIT is spread out across eight different buildings across Dublin city) makes life difficult for Events and Marketing Manager Mark Breen. “The problem in DIT traditionally is that we don’t have our own venue, so we have to use clubs in town. If I could click my fingers tomorrow and get a venue I would, we’d be much better off in a more centralised area.”
“But obviously venues in town have their advantages too,” Breen agrees, “people already know what the place is like, the price of drinks, that kind of thing. Last year we were granted Temple Bar square for our Rag Week Carnival, which was even better than having our own campus.”
Despite the lack of a communal venue, DIT has two stages, in their Aungier St. and Bolton St. colleges, and encourage student performers to show the rest of the college what they’re made of. “We have PAs set up there permanently,” Breen says, “so if any bands approach us for gigs we can let them play.”
For those looking for an alternative way to get involved in the buzzing College music scene, the airwaves are another great starting point. NUI Galway’s Flirt FM (101.3fm) broadcasts every weekday and Wired FM (Limerick IT and Mary Immaculate College Limerick 99.9FM) goes out all day Monday to Thursday during term time.
Even some of the lesser-known stations (Belfield FM (UCD), Trinity FM, DIT FM, DCU FM and Griff FM (Griffith College)) broadcast student-produced shows several weeks out of the academic the year.
One of the biggest student set-ups, Cork Campus Radio (98.3FM) has been operating out of UCC since 1995, and produces a speech and music broadcast throughout Cork from 8am - 5.30pm Monday-Friday, fifty weeks of the year.
Kept going by almost 100 student volunteers, station manager Catríona Chambers says Cork Campus Radio is a great way for budding presenters and musicians alike to hone their skills: “We advertise around campus for students to come on board with us and we have live sessions where musicians guest on different shows, usually a mix of student bands and established artists. Recently we’ve had Cathy Davey, Declan O’Rourke and Fight Like Apes and, of course, loads of local bands.”
“Obviously,” Chambers adds, “We always try to give the local bands an extra push.”
The college music scene has always played a huge part in helping local acts break into the industry. In the past Trinity, UCD, DCU, UCC, NUI and UL have all hosted their own Battle of the Bands competitions, which culminate towards the end of every year in a huge inter-varsity event (Last year’s final in DCU helped turn up the country’s newest rock find Fight Like Apes).
And this year, Trinity’s Students’ Union is taking the fight one step further. “We are looking into producing USB keys with Trinity Bands’ songs on,” says Ents Officer Nick, “so that students can get familiar with what’s on offer.”
College is so often the place where the songwriters find their voice and musicians find their sound. The help really is out there for the budding musician, so whether you want to revolutionise music as we know it, or just set up your own Guns n’ Roses tribute band, now’s the time to do it. Let’s not forget that the four members of the Doors met in UCLA in California. Prick up your ears, kids, you may be sharing a lecture hall with the next Jim Morrison.