The Flowers remain as positively charged as ever, and songs like 'Hallelujah Jordan' and 'Don't Go' remain among the best to come from an Irish band, but there is a uniform harmlessness to their work that begins to pall before too long
Run DMC practically invented hip hop, they were the first rap act to appear on MTV, the first to be nominated for a Grammy, and the first to sign to a product endorsement deal
Dervish have been on the road for ten years now, and theirs is a joyful synthesis that has long since been amply demonstrated on live recordings like Live In Palma
The first single to be taken from the Devlins’ forthcoming ‘Consent’ album, ‘Static in the Flow’ is the kind of single that seems ideally suited to the airwaves in America.
Now that we have all more or less accepted that the best use to which music can be put is in the marketing of one or other corporate product, it shouldn’t really come as any great surprise that Ireland’s largest manufacturer of black stout has harnessed the talents of the redoubtable Mr. Perry to promote their product.
Suge Knight, the Death Row Records supremo, coughed up $2.5m to keep the artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg out of jail, then went down himself for gun possession.
An all-too-average song from a man who is capable of so much better. At this point in his career, Jack L. needs a show-stopper of a tune to bring his undoubted gifts to a wider audience: ‘So Far Gone’ will hardly be the one to do so.
The social conscience of his generation teams up with his old muckers Messrs. Lunny and Synnott to deliver the kind of tune he was quite probably put on this earth to perform. Never has a tale of binge-drinking and husband-beating sounded so stirring.
The improbably gangly Gil Scott Heron saunters onto the Savoy stage like a goodwill ambassador from another, less frenetic era. Clutching a conciliatory white towel, his greying hair bursting out in clumps from beneath his baseball cap, he looks for all the world like a kindly grandfather figure come to entertain at a children’s party.
Part of Jimmy Scott's appeal lies in his longevity, of course. Now 76, when he throws his arms out wide, one can only marvel, partly at the sheer breadth of the gesture, but mostly at how anyone so frail can remain standing without support.
Last year, Dermot Lambert (Blink) and Dave Brown (Little Sister Sage) developed an idea to host a showcase night offering young bands the opportunity to be seen and heard by representatives of the music industry. Now, the Garage gigs are back with a vengeance.
