Music Ireland '07

They came in record numbers to Music Ireland ‘07 – the third and by far the biggest and best such event to date. Throughout the three-day event, the RDS Main Hall was abuzz with the sound of guitars, drums, keyboards and sundry other instruments. More importantly, the thousands who came along to sample the best of what the Irish music industry has to offer, were the true testament to the success of the event.

The special schools day – a new innovation for this year – saw coachloads of students from all over the country, descend on Dublin 4, many of them eagerly lapping up information on careers in music. Crowds gathered around the many performing musicians who displayed their skills in various masterclasses and demonstrations with good-natured enthusiasm. There were many highlights, but one of the simplest was perhaps among the most profound.
During his drum clinic, Conor Guilfoyle – who is a great teacher as well as a brilliant musician – asked the audience to tap out a simple rhythm on the side of their chairs. They did. “That’s it,” he said, “now you’re making music.” You could see light bulbs going on all over the room.
Instrument and equipment stands were permanently thronged, with people who were interested in doing business after the show. “The quality of the visitors over the weekend was great,” Aidan McCullough of Keynote said, towards the close of the day on Sunday. “They were people who know their stuff, and who were really interested and informed. It was a great event in that respect.”
Meeanwhile, the numerous seminars and talks were, for the most part, standing-room only and proved not only to be hugely informative but in many cases, highly entertaining. Highlights included a sometimes heated debate on the lack of radio play or for Irish artists, with the irrepressible Louis Walsh stirring it on more than one occasion! “That was really good,” Louis reflected afterwards, “I have a feeling that we may see the start of a change in attitude as a result. But we need to keep the pressure on.”
Other highlights included a fascinating audience with Rough Trade Records supremo Geoff Travis, who hugely impressed the audience on Sunday with a marvellously intelligent and musically aware reflection on both his own experiences in ‘the business they call show’, and on the state of the industry. “He was brilliant, wasn’t he?” one musician commented, having given the Rough Trade man his band’s latest demo. What was especially impressive was the fact that, having regaled the room with stories, hard earned wisdom and philosophising in equal measure, Travis stayed aftrerwards for forty minutes, chatting to musicians and fans alike and collecting a huge batch of demos.
Legendary producer Stephen Street featured on Saturday in a similarly lively and informative discussion on the theme: “Are Producers The Real Superstars?” Moderated superbly by Paul Nolan, the panel of Brian Masterson, Joe Chester and Street combined anecdotes, opinions and reflections on what a producer brings to the recording process, concluding unanimously that – with the exception of the brains behind Motown and similar pop svengalis up to the likes of Timbaland – the producers role is essentially about bringing out the best in the artists they’re working with.
There were insights aplenty on the art of songwriting from Brian Kennedy – who looked in great shape for a man who has been touring consistently over the past few months! – John Spillane and Niall Breslin of The Blizzards.
The feeling among the exhibitors who took part is that that it was the most successful event so far. “It was everything I hoped it would be,” Lesley Kane of MIDI (Musical Instrument Distribution Ireland) declared. “It just gets better and better.”
Kane feels strongly that instrument and equipment sales are a key component of a healthy local music industry and an exhibition such as Music Ireland could be an important way to promote it. “We need to drive kids back into music stores – some of them don’t know where their local store is,” she told hotpress. “We worked very hard on making our exhibit attractive. We actually put 95% of our marketing budget for this year into this. We brought John Blackwell [Prince drummer] over to promote Sabian cymbals and he was just amazing. As anyone who saw him perform will attest, he was very helpful to anyone who wanted to talk to him.”
Blackwell also put in an extraordinary performance to a crammed live arena – how often have you seen close to a thousand fans packed into a room to see an hour-long performance from a drummer? Solo!
Michael Browne of Big Bear Sound, who specialise in the sales and support of professional recording equipment, agreed that the event was a resounding success. “It was very good – I was pleasantly surprised,” he said. “This is our third year doing this and while the second year was an improvement over the first this year, it seemed to all come together this year.
“The crowds were certainly up – I think there was about three thousand people there last year but I reckon this year there was between six to eight thousand people coming through. The education day is a great idea.”
Aidan McCullough of Keynote Music, distributors of leading brands such as Martin guitars and D’Addario, feels that there is room for further improvement.
“It would have been nice to have somewhere a bit quieter to bring who is genuinely interested in hearing say a Martin guitar,” he observed. “But overall the buzz was good, the reaction was good and the dealers who came in with us thought it was a good event to be at.”
The Sennheiser Live Stage was jumping throughout the weekend, with great performances from, among others, the wonderfully talented Laura Izibor, The Frank and Walters, The Walls, Dirty Epics, The Chapters – who deservedly won the Sennheiser Band Competition – and, of course, Paddy Casey, who delivered a superb short set to bring a pulsating Saturday afternoon to a close.
All told, it was a weekend of fine music, stirring debate, wisdom exchanged, educational opportunity, visual treats – and the chance for just about anyone who felt up to it to bang that drum.

hotpress would like to thank the sponsors, Sennheiser, Roland, MIDI (Sabian, Marshall and Pearl) and Walton’s (Gibson, Dunlop, Zoom and Remo) for their support of Music Ireland ‘07. We’d also like to thank all of the exhibitors, the experts who graced the panels and workshops and the live bands who performed so brilliantly over the three days.