It’s Funderland, only more, y’know, rock ‘n’ roll – if that’s possible. The flashing lights, the wonderful cacophony, the hordes of aspiring musicians running amok, and the plethora of great bands on the Live Stage. Opening at ten o’clock with panels aimed at students, Saturday at The Music Show was nothing if not a youth-friendly affair, heaving with teens and their teachers, committed souls who do stuff like this on their weekends. Hats off to them!

Young faces lit up as they got to plug in and thrum that first powerchord, while little buggers barely old enough to watch The Simpsons were paradiddling for lights out.
Ten minutes in the door and even the drummer in the Hot Press crew, a certain Peter Murphy, had renounced all Luddite principles and earned a new set of blisters road-testing a Roland syn-drum set.
“I mean, c’mon, a drum-kit with headphones?” he said afterwards by way of explanation. “Next thing they’ll have invented bass players who can tell the time, or a cure for LV syndrome.”
Peter, we can report, didn’t drool once while he played.
Upstairs in the Red Room at 11am, a Schools panel entitled So You Want To Write About Music? with panelists John Meagher of the Irish Independent, Maeve Quigley of the Irish Mirror and the aforementioned Mr. Murphy was chaired by Roisin Dwyer. The stories were good and the Q&A afterwards proved very illuminating. An hour later in the same venue, Stuart Clark set the agenda for the rest of the weekend with There Is A Future In Music. Gemma Hayes proved to be especially revealing, as she discussed her fascinating journey from independent success to major label prominence, and back to the hard grind of indie activity.
On the live stage, ONOFF – who won the intensely fought competition to play The Music Show – demonstrated why with a powerful rock’n’roll set. They were followed by one of the country’s great rising hopes Bipolar Empire, whose Pat McCarthy-produced debut album is set to be unleashed on the world shortly. They are all power and energy, topped off with the extraordinary Feargal Sharkey-esque vocals of guitarist and frontman Shane O’Reilly. They carried themselves like they were going places, and the music certainly has the elemental power to justify their high expectations.
The panels were beginning to pick up momentum with a discussion entitled Where Music Meets Film with directors Jim Sheridan and John Carney, Music Supervisor Nick Angel and Garage scorer Stephen Rennicks answering questions posed by moderator Olaf Tyaransen. Subjects under the microscope included the perils of directors temp scoring and becoming attached to tracks that are way too expensive to acquire on a limited music budget; the plight of the film scorer who’s repeatedly asked to replicate the work of acts the director can’t afford (one can hear the weariness in Mr Rennick’s voice as he recalls the number of times he’s been asked to facsimilate Sigur Ros!); and the ever-humorous and entertaining Jim Sheridan on dealing with Fiddy Cent. Rappers, Jim said, are unaccustomed to getting into physical fights ‘cos they tend to go straight from the diss to the Glock. Ulp.
“That was brilliant,” one musician in the audience said afterwards. “For anyone looking to get their works into movies, what Nick Angel had to say was really revealing and there were great stories and nuggets of wisdom from everyone.”
Simultaneously, the winners of the Irish Youth Music Awards were taking to the stage in the Green Room, a celebration of raw youthful talent that was followed by a guitar workshop by Tech Schools and a Drum Masterclass with Conor Guilfoyle, presented by Pearl.
There was a packed Red Room at 2pm, for what was to prove both the longest and the most visceral panel of the weekend, The Great Debate – Is Illegal Filesharing Really Killing Music? The prickliest jousting was between IFPI chairman John Kennedy and Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, with Kennedy dramatically picking up Killock’s laptop and handing it to B.P. Fallon, by way of illustrating the perniciousness of the idea that consumers – or indeed the file-sharing groups to which sites like Pirate Bay point people – are entitled to treat music as something they can pass on for free without the consent of the creator. Shane O’Neill of Liberty Global made a breakthrough, in effect offering to join with the rights holders in lobbying the Irish government for legislation that would turn the IRMA/Eircom “three strikes and you’re out” agreement into a law that would bind all parties. All in all it was a hugely interesting and very productive session that will almost certainly have political ramifications, in Ireland at least.
To follow, Peter Murphy chaired a spirited four-way between producer John D. Reynolds, filmmaker and broadcaster Philip King, Jinx Lennon and Luka Bloom. The subject: Has Irish Music Lost Its Soul? All tourist board guff aside, and notwithstanding the McCarthy report, there’s a feeling of optimism about the state of the nation’s arts. Despite Peter’s best attempts to play devil’s advocate, the prognosis is better than good, which is heartening indeed.
Eagle eyed observers will have noticed that there were more women on the songwriting panel than on any other over the course of the weekend. There was a hugely interesting balance, with Jim Kerr proving to be a hugely engaging and likeable contributor, without any pretensions. Paul Brady scotched any suggestion that the release of Hard Station was a kind of Dylan-going-electric moment, May Kay of Fight Like Apes was humorously candid about the fact that she had got involved in the band as a way of bunking off lectures and that she was writing songs, essentially to ensure that she’ll never have to do an exam in her life again. Ruth Anne Cunningham, talked about collaborating with other writers, explaining that she always spoke to them, so that she had a story of theirs to tell in a lyric. There was in it overall, a huge amount of food for thought...
Over on the Live Stage, as the morning turned to afternoon, The Coronas were jubilant, playing on the back of their first Hot Press cover and a number 3 new entry on the album chart. They performed with characteristic gusto to a packed and hugely enthusiastic room of adoring fans. Sandwiched between two of Ireland’s hottest acts, The Chapters also proved their mettle, losing nothing in momentum and delivering a brilliantly crisp and winning set. And then it was a woman that everyone wanted to see: the gorgeous Imelda May. She’s been the year’s ultimate revelation, coming from nowhere to a level where she can play the O2. And you know why? Because she’s the real deal and people sense it: even with just acoustic guitar and bodhrán, the music is hot, sexy and steamy and Imelda is a bona fide star, the kind of girl that nearly every warm blooded male wants – and lots of hot blooded women want to be. She was a hard act for Director to follow, but they too did themselves proud, their catchy indie songs winning new friends and influencing people. They’re still very much in the game...
To close the day it was up to the Green Room, which was packed for Have Guitar Will Travel, a public interview with Glen Hansard, conducted by Peter Murphy. Hansard is a great interviewee and handled the situation as if to the manor born: he premiered a brand new tune, played on a 170-year-old guitar rescued from a New York dumpster, delivered a hair raising ‘Say It To Me Now’ and a rather lovely ‘Low Rising’, from the new Swell Season album. Those nuggets were part of a marathon two-hour session with lengthy and fascinating Q&A, and let it be noted: unamplified, the man has one of the loudest singing voices we’ve ever heard. Everyone was having so much fun that they had to pull the plug and turn the heating off to get us out of the building...