Frames academy

Tingles, those tremors of pure emotion that course up and down your spine during moments of 20/20 clarity… Dublin winning their first Leinster Senior Football Title since 1995… a packed Vicar Street hanging on Mundy’s every word… Sigur Rós illuminating (literally) the Ambassador… Morrissey providing the top-notch theatrics at the same venue… Roy Keane’s extraordinary outburst in Saipan… Hearing Nina Hynes’ jaw-dropping Staros for the first time… The sheer electricity of Turn in the Temple Bar Music Centre… Hearing Damien Rice sing ‘Delicate’ live on my radio show… Mattie Holland’s daisycutter against the wily Cameroon… Josh Ritter playing Tom Waits’ ‘Innocent When You Dream’… Hanging out with Ash at Moby’s rooftop party in LA, while the stars came out to play… The Jimmy Cake’s ‘This Used To Be The Future’… ‘Distortion’ by Wilt… Estonian women… The Vines… The Frames’ celebratory shindig at Dublin Castle… The Reindeer Section… Meeting David Bowie with Ash in LA… Singing U2 songs with a bunch of pissed Latvians in a Cuban bar in Riga… The D4 turning Whelan’s into one big sweaty moshpit… Gemma Hayes getting the recognition she deserves… ‘Next To You’ by BellX1 … The sparkling wit, genuine emotion and magical songs of Dr Millar… The Polyphonic Spree… The return of The Harvest Ministers… The Chalets…

Album of the year? The Reindeer Section’s glorious, beautiful and life-affirming Son Of Evil Reindeer, an album to grow old with if ever there was one.

Gig of the year? While Ryan Adams was a supreme entertainer, The Frames sang to our souls, Mundy made us feel great and Turn sent us home sweating, the concert of 2002 was The Flaming Lips in Vicar St: one big, bunny suit-wearing, shimmering celebration of life, love and the power of the song that sent everybody out into the night air wearing the sloppiest grin this side of Rab C. Nesbitt.

Moment of the year? Robbie’s death-knell strike against the Germans, of course. A nation rose in one all-consuming roar of relief, joy and vindication. Sure, twould bring a tear to the eye of a politician. 2002, a year of tingles then. 2003? Bring it on!