The doors of perception

Most musicians are just big kids, so it’s not surprising how many of them jumped at the chance to design a door that will be seen around the country before arriving at Music Ireland ‘06 and then being auctioned for charity. The Thrills, The Blizzards, Brian Palm of the Mary Stokes Band, The Immediate, Royseven and Julie Feeney are among the first wave of artists to finish their masterpieces. With others currently in preparation, the entire collection will be displayed at Music Ireland '06, in the RDS.

Ireland’s mobile media network 3 came up with the brainwave to approach a number of top Irish musicians to see if they’d fancy designing a door, to create awareness of 3’s new Virtual Music Store, which allows users to download music on their phone, no matter where they might happen to be. The response from bands was overwhelmingly positive. And no wonder, this is a powerful new sales outlet: in the UK, 3’s digital sales equal 11% of all downloads. All tracks purchased online by Irish users through the 3 store will be eligible for the Irish charts.
Hot Press were asked to participate, with the task of designing the door going to artist and musician Brian Palm. Brian plays harmonica with the Mary Stokes Band, who had just returned from a tour of Holland when he set to work on the project.
“With Hot Press due to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2007, I thought immediately of a front door, No. 30,” he says.
Brian first came to Ireland in the 1970s, and wanted to create something that reflected that decade, when the capital city wasn’t quite so well off.
“The idea was to make an old, distressed, cracked Georgian door, the kind Dublin used to be full of.”
The fine detail of the work is brilliant, but he also hung a guitar from it, as a symbol of rock ‘n’ roll – one of the things that has transformed the country in the years since Hot Press was launched.
On the reverse, Brian chose to pay tribute to some of the country’s music legends.
“The inside is almost like someone was inside a shitty bedsit, and you put up posters of your idols, as seen on the front cover of Hot Press: Rory Gallagher and Phil Lynott.”
U2 also feature prominently in the artwork, front and back, with Palm saying the back is “a tribute to the royalty of Irish rock.”
Like Palm, Roesy is an artist, and his brilliantly colourful creation reflects it. Since the auction will benefit charities of their choice, the singer-songwriter decided to reflect the message of Friends Of The Earth in his work. Roesy feels very strongly about the environment and so the door – which took a day and a half to complete – features five creatures descending on a “really rich, vibrant looking lotus”, an idea that he thinks represents the solution to the problems we’re facing.
“The only way we’re going to get this thing under control is by everyone coming together,” he avers.
For Neosupervital it was about making something that, quite simply, looked good.
“I like the colour brown, I like the colour blue, I like the colour pink,” he says, somewhat controversially. “I wanted orange, but they didn’t have any in the box… I wanted it plain and simple, and in colours that I like. And I went from there.”
Despite the simplicity of intentions, the experience was not without pain for the synth-pop king.
“It took an hour or so,” he reveals. “I put an awful lot of paint on. I had to stop towards the end because you don’t want to breathe those fumes for too long.”
The Blizzards suffered for their art too, spray-painting their door in the middle of a torrential downpour. Not being experienced with paint and a brush, frontman Niall Breslin says they went in with one goal in mind: not to embarrass themselves.
“They’re going to sell it, so we realised we’d have to do a decent job. We couldn’t just stick our names on it and draw matchstick men. We spent a few hours because in fairness, if you’re going to do it, do it right.”
They ended up with one side that Niall admits is “very camp”, and another with a “kind of punk design.” The band are hopeful their door will reach a high price at the auction. And so it should – it may yet prove to be the work of superstars...b

All doors will be on display at Music Ireland ‘06. Roesy will also be exhibiting his door at The Gallery No. 1, Castle Street, Dublin, on Dec 10, 9 and 10. His up-coming Irish tour stops at: Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Nov 18; An Glor, Clare, Dec 2; The Vine, Wexford, Dec 3; Crane Bar, Galway, Dec 4; The Moving Stairs, Roscommon, Dec 6; and The Sirus, Cork, Dec 15.