New Music Board Launched

Ireland’s “Mr. Pop”, Louis Walsh, has slammed the make-up of the newly inaugurated Music Board of Ireland. “They are all old-schoolers, there is nobody under forty there,” he told hotpress.

The new Board – Bord Ceol na hEireann – has been charged in its first year with developing a strategic plan for the development of the Music Industry, taking in both traditional and contemporary music. It is chaired by Ann O’Connell of Pricewaterhouse-Coopers and has eight other members representing, and funded by, both the Industry and the Government. Ann O’Connell has also been a member of the Irish Film Board since 1993.

Minister Síle de Valera TD has said that she is glad to play her part in this new development.

"I believe that the work of the Music Board will be instrumental in identifying barriers that exist in the development of the Music Industry, and in putting in place strategic policies on how they might be overcome," she says.

At the launch, John Sheehan of Sony Ireland and Chairman of the Music Industry Group of IBEC said "the Music Industry is of cultural, social and economic benefit to Ireland. The establishment of the Music Board will help to raise the profile of music and enable Irish Artists and the industry to achieve their true potential."

The Minister’s appointees to the Board include documentary maker Nuala O’Connor; Charlie Lennon, managing director of CUAN studios; musician Kieran Hanrahan; and Maurice Cassidy, Riverdance promoter and Chairman of FM104. The Music Industry has appointed Adrian Gaffney and Michael O’ Riordan of IMRO and Denis Woods and John Sheehan of PPI.

The Board is being funded on an equal partnership basis between the Minister and the Industry. The Government has provided £150,000, while IRMO and PPI have given £75,000 each.

The feeling that contemporary music is under-represented on the panel was voiced by Louis Walsh when he was contacted by hotpress.

"They won’t do anything," says Louis, "They are all old-schoolers, there is nobody under forty there. There is nobody new, there is nobody that will have any kind of a pop edge, a rock edge or even a dance edge".

In Louis’ mind the Board is going nowhere.

"They will have a few meetings but they are all settled in their jobs, there is nobody depending on it for their living. Even if they asked me to go on it I wouldn’t have the time."

As things stand Louis says that he rates Maurice Cassidy highly, but he suggests that the Board would benefit if someone like Fachtna O’Kelly, an influential figure in Irish music, was involved.

"It needs someone who knows record companies internationally," he argues.

On the part of dance music, Donal Scannell says that he doesn’t believe in doing things by committee.

"I don’t believe that the government is tuned into what I am into and what I do and that way of business. I would never expect them to do anything to help make things easier for me,” says Donal.

The scene activist also questioned the panel’s ability to tackle the way the music business is going in the future.

"It remains to be seen how we will consume music in the future – there is a whole range of possibilities – and the make-up of that committee is very much from a current definition of the music business. I would question how much they will come up with regarding how the Irish music business might position itself to take advantage of changing developments in the business internationally."

The Board has been set up initially as non-statutory, with the intention of putting it on a legal basis in three years time.