The North has risen again

You probably don’t remember but, like the nightmare guest at a Christmas party, I collared you all in a corner last year and, through the seasonal Hit The North, had a right old moan.

Faced with a page to fill, and precious little good news to help with the task, I looked back in anger (or, more accurately, mild grumpiness) on a year of local creative inertia. And I griped.
Where was the ambition, I wondered. The have-a-go spirit. The fun, the cheek, the inventiveness. More importantly: where were the songs? One or two notable exceptions apart (Robyn G Shiels and Tracer AMC being the most prominent) there had been precious little evidence during 2005 that the music scene in the North was anything more than a self-satisfied boys’ club, whose main protagonists cared more about entertaining their housemates at a local pub, than the business of writing, recording and championing their own material in the outside world.
I also complained about a bone-headedly chauvinistic Harp ad campaign that had been irritating me all year. I guess you caught me at a bad time.
This year, however, you have nothing to be frightened of. I’m in much better form, I promise. I’m here to praise, encourage, recommend. So, shuffle up and please don’t be afraid. Glad tidings, I bring.
I want you to leave 2006 knowing how great Pat and Nipsy are. The skiffle-tastic, garage-pop duo are originally from Banbridge, but it’s reductive to see them as a Northern act. Sure, songs like ‘Don’t Fight With Me’, have a particular resonance to Belfast listeners, but their lives so far have run against a backdrop of Dublin, LA, Greece, London and Liverpool, and their music is a ball of sticky tape that’s been picking up influences everywhere they’ve rolled through. It’s a wonderful, energising thing to behold.
And it would be great if you could take Oppenheimer to your hearts. Shaun and Rocky may have been stalwarts of the Belfast music scene for many, many years, but any fears that their band would be a grizzly, seen-it-all-before, outfit, were dispelled as soon as they played their first few shows. Clutching the warm, Oakley-indebted, aspect of electro pop firmly to their bosoms, the pair’s debut album is a lovely, heart-warming joy – and the size of their hometown fan-base would shame many higher-profile acts.
The Answer's debut album has been championed as a riff-munching triumph by Kerrang this year, and the band have used this encouragement to launch a full-on offensive on the dark citadels of hard rock, spread imposingly across the land. After operating for so long in enemy territory (early London gigs saw them gaped at like zoo animals by skinny-tied Libertines fans), the boys are now taking full advantage of playing (loudly) amongst friends. Next year, it seems inevitable that their circle’s gonna expand rapidly.
And, of course, I must mention Hotsy Totsy Nagasaki, the Desert Hearts’ record that (finally) emerged at the start of November. The Irish release has run with worrying smoothness (anyone with a passing knowledge of the band would know that this is suspiciously atypical), and early smoke signals suggest that the 07’s UK launch is gearing up nicely too.
How it all turns out, however, is anyone’s guess. Whether Charley and Roisin are playing the Viper Room next Christmas, or The Bunker in Lavery’s – their latest LP is a monument to a fine and singular band, capable of conjuring up moments of poetry and emotion way beyond the capabilities of their peers. I mean, have you heard ‘Urchin’ yet? It would bring a tear to the eye of a pre-spooks Scrooge.
I’d also like you all to raise a glass in honour of The Tom McShane Band, David MacNair, The Fast Emperors, escape act, Pixie Saytar and Heliopause – each of whom added their own dab of colour to this year’s winning picture.
I should, of course, mention the new records from Snow Patrol, Duke Special and The Divine Comedy that are currently worming their way into hearts all across the world, and, of course, add that Nadine Coyle is still fronting the greatest pop band in the world, but really I don’t want you thinking I’m a gush.
So, (with a tip to watch out for Lafaro and Cashier No. 9 in 2007) I’ll leave before I take up too much of your time.
It was nice catching up with you again. And so much more fun than the last time.