Victory for the Comic Muse – The Divine Comedy
Neil Hannon’s ninth album, ‘Victory for the Comic Muse’, includes a thirteen-piece string section, harp, French horn and oboe as well as Dougie Payne of ‘Travis’ on bass. It is hard to select a favourite from the album, showcasing as it does Hannon’s clever use of character-based lyrics.

Is it his wife he is singing about in the wonderful ‘Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World’ as he laments the differences between the psyche of men and women? He has said that ‘A Lady of a Certain Age’, the story of a faded society woman in her twilight years, comes from reading Noel Coward’s autobiography.

Whatever his inspiration, each song requires attention so that no word of this great lyricist/ poet is missed. He covers the whole gamut of emotions in his own inimitable style.

Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
This is the follow up to the Arcade Fire’s critically acclaimed debut Funeral which saw them gain a huge following, with our very own Bono among the celebrity fanbase. This album was recorded in a church and you can hear the religious influences throughout the album from the gospel-like start to ‘My Body Is A Cage’ to the biblical style lyrics.

This is an album of the moment, tackling issues from America’s invasion of Iraq- ‘don’t wanna fight in a holy war, I don’t want a salesman knocking at my door, I don’t wanna live in America no more’ to America’s celebrity culture in ‘Anarchist Television Blues’.

This album is powerful in a few senses, the songs have an anthemic feel to them with plodding drumbeats, driving organs and building rhythms offsetting Butler’s angst-filled voice. This is very different to most other music out now. It’s an acquired taste worth acquiring.

Kings of Leon – Because of the Times
This, the third album from Tennessee family unit the Kings of Leon (three brothers and a cousin) sees the lads coming up with a pretty good third album in a row. No mean feat by anyone’s standards.

The Kings of Leon take a bit of getting used to as Caleb’s voice is unlike anything you’ve ever heard. He shrieks, drawls and screams his lyrics in a deep southern accent that makes them sometimes unintelligible. The one thing you can understand is the emotion in his voice.

This album reminds me a lot of the Pixies with Caleb’s shrieks and with a lot of the songs being driven by the bass. It has taken me quite a few listens to fully appreciate this record which, to be honest, I wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t been such a big fan of the Kings already. The stand-out tracks are the hauntingly explosive debut single ‘On Call’ and the feet twitchingly funky ‘My Party’.
One for the fans.

THE PHIL WARE TRIO
‘In Our Own Time’
The Phil Ware Trio had a CD release gig at Whelans on 12th April. Everyone in the venue seemed aware of the special occasion as the trio took to the stage earlier than their regular gig at J.J. Smyths on Monday nights. The first performance of new music is always very exciting– sound in creation, happening now.

The trio were performing mainly original compositions from their debut album ‘In Our Own Time’. The gig was mind-blowing, it swept you along with invention and intrinsic rhythm and the album is a document of that night.

This very impressive trio comprises Phil Ware on piano, Kevin Brady on drums, and David Redmond on double bass. Their collective compositions are the epitome of pure jazz.

Recorded at Balbriggan studios with Phil playing one of the best pianos in the country, and mixed with the help of Dave McCune, the production values are very high. Phil spent time thanking everyone involved in making the project, and quipped with the audience, introducing a standard “Let’s play something we all know, or I mean, let’s do something we all play!” He especially thanked Kevin and Dave for their work and for being great to work with: “The interplay of these three fine players is tight yet relaxed, passionate.”

Phil Ware, English-born has been based in Dublin since 2000. He’s a magnificent piano player, intuitive and gifted, replete with new ideas, sweet and deliberate, and is by now an honorary Irishman. The album closes with a reading of that magic Bond theme ‘Nobody Does It Better’ sung by Carly Simon. The entire album is a sheer listening joy. Do buy this album if jazz is legal in your house.
www.philwaretrio.com

SUMMER GIGS
The summer is nearly upon us and as usual we’re spoiled for choice here in Ireland. It being a case of too many gigs and not enough time… or money!

The highlight of the summer is as usual the Oxegen festival, taking place on the 7th and 8th July. Hopefully you’ve got a ticket ‘cos they were sold out pretty quickly after going on sale.
There are too many great bands to name but the highlights definitely being our very own Snow Patrol and American rockers Kings of Leon on Saturday and Razorlight, Arcade Fire and the Kooks on Sunday.

The Heineken Green Energy Festival takes place this summer over the May bank holiday weekend and will make Dublin Castle the focal point of the city for the weekend. One of the best live bands of the summer and certainly the indie live band of the moment, Kasabian will be taking part on the 5th with Sinead O’Connor and David Gray playing the other nights.

Also this summer there are a load of ‘old rockers’ dusting off the cobwebs and coming back on the live scene. With the likes of the Rolling Stones (one not to be missed), Aerosmith, The Who, Meatloaf and the prince of darkness himself Ozzy Osbourne touring. For those of you who like your performers under 60 we have the Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters and the aforementioned Kasabian.

For the funky bunch among you who like to go to a gig and get their groove on we have the likes of the legendary Diana Ross, Beyonce and Justin Timberlake. For the ladies we have Al Green, Joe Cocker and the aul smoothie himself Lionel Richie.

Rounding off the summer at the end of August/ start of September we have the Electric Picnic in Stradbally Hall, Co Laois with the likes of Primal Scream, Bjork and the always entertaining Iggy Pop and the Stooges ending the summer with a bang.

SHANE THE SURVIVOR
By Brian Rutherford

I first caught sight of the Pogues when they were shown on ‘The Tube’ on Channel 4. I was a mere 13 year old and when I saw them sing a song in a toilet I was very amused. Now, 24 years later, I find the snake himself, Shane Mc Gowan tying the knot. This is his story.
Shane Mc Gowan was born in Kent, England on December 25 1957. He lived for most of his childhood in Puckaun, Tipperary, which is where his mother came from.

His mother was well used to singing, dancing and storytelling. She had moved to Dublin, where she sang and tried modelling and where she met her husband Maurice McGowan, who was artistic and literate.

He, too, enjoyed music. As Shane says himself, “When I was little I was brought up by the people in Tipperary who knew millions of songs. It was real gut stuff, music that had been handed down from generation to generation, listening to and singing Irish music was a part of life, I had an auntie who played the concertina, an uncle who played the accordion and cousins who played banjo and tin whistle.”

At the age of seven Shane’s father got a job with C and A, a British clothing firm, and the whole family, including Siobhain, Shane’s sister, had to move to central London, where the only songs heard were a pub jukebox.

Shane had an uncle who ran an Irish pub in Dagenham and he spent a lot of time there. He was also accepted into Westminster public school, but later got expelled due to possession of drugs.
This was to become a characteristic of McGowan over the next years with Shane having more than a taste for just beer. Then everything changed. While working at a pub in Charing Cross, Shane stumbled on the punk scene.

One night, he saw The Sex Pistols play and in his own words “Seeing the Sex Pistols changed my life, it changed loads of people’s lives. Here was a band that just got up there and made really horrible noise and didn’t give a s***. They were all our age and had dyed hair and wore brothel creepers and it was just a question of, I hate everything, I thought they were brilliant, the best group I had ever seen.”

Shane soon jumped on the punk bandwagon and got a job at Rocks Off, a Soho record shop. It was about this time he decided to give singing a go in a band called ‘The Nipple Erectors’.
They released a single, ‘King of the Bop/ Nervous wreck’. They then changed their name to ‘The Nips’ and released ‘All the time in the world/ Gabrielle’. In 1980 they broke up.

Shane met James Fearnley at this time, who went on to play with the Pogues. Shane had also met Spider Stacey at a Ramones gig and Jem Finer was also in the wings following the break-up of the Nips.

About 1982, after Stacey, Finer and McGowan played a few gigs, Fearnley was approached and accepted membership of the group. Cait O’Riordain who got to know Shane decided to give it a go as well.

The band now known as ‘Pogue Mahone’ released a single ‘Streams of Whiskey/Dark streets of London’ and gigged playing Dubliners’ favourites and some songs by Brendan Behan.

Spider Stacey once said of McGowan’s singing, “The refrain at the end of a song hit an emotional nerve and I just started crying, it was really embarrassing.” This was proof of what was to come and the rest is as they say history.

No date is yet set for the wedding but whenever or wherever it takes place, Happy Wedding Day to Mr McGowan and Victoria.