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It’s Funderland, only more, y’know, rock ‘n’ roll – if that’s possible. The flashing lights, the wonderful cacophony, the hordes of aspiring musicians running amok, and the plethora of great bands on the Live Stage. Opening at ten o’clock with panels aimed at students, Saturday at The Music Show was nothing if not a youth-friendly affair, heaving with teens and their teachers, committed souls who do stuff like this on their weekends. Hats off to them!

Young faces lit up as they got to plug in and thrum that first powerchord, while little buggers barely old enough to watch The Simpsons were paradiddling for lights out.

Ten minutes in the door and even the drummer in the Hot Press crew, a certain Peter Murphy, had renounced all Luddite principles and earned a new set of blisters road-testing a Roland syn-drum set.

“I mean, c’mon, a drum-kit with headphones?” he said afterwards by way of explanation. “Next thing they’ll have invented bass players who can tell the time, or a cure for LV syndrome.”

Peter, we can report, didn’t drool once while he played.

Upstairs in the Red Room at 11am, a Schools panel entitled So You Want To Write About Music? with panelists John Meagher of the Irish Independent, Maeve Quigley of the Irish Mirror and the aforementioned Mr. Murphy was chaired by Roisin Dwyer. The stories were good and the Q&A afterwards proved very illuminating. An hour later in the same venue, Stuart Clark set the agenda for the rest of the weekend with There Is A Future In Music. Gemma Hayes proved to be especially revealing, as she discussed her fascinating journey from independent success to major label prominence, and back to the hard grind of indie activity.

On the live stage, ONOFF – who won the intensely fought competition to play The Music Show – demonstrated why with a powerful rock’n’roll set. They were followed by one of the country’s great rising hopes Bipolar Empire, whose Pat McCarthy-produced debut album is set to be unleashed on the world shortly. They are all power and energy, topped off with the extraordinary Feargal Sharkey-esque vocals of guitarist and frontman Shane O’Reilly. They carried themselves like they were going places, and the music certainly has the elemental power to justify their high expectations.

The panels were beginning to pick up momentum with a discussion entitled Where Music Meets Film with directors Jim Sheridan and John Carney, Music Supervisor Nick Angel and Garage scorer Stephen Rennicks answering questions posed by moderator Olaf Tyaransen. Subjects under the microscope included the perils of directors temp scoring and becoming attached to tracks that are way too expensive to acquire on a limited music budget; the plight of the film scorer who’s repeatedly asked to replicate the work of acts the director can’t afford (one can hear the weariness in Mr Rennick’s voice as he recalls the number of times he’s been asked to facsimilate Sigur Ros!); and the ever-humorous and entertaining Jim Sheridan on dealing with Fiddy Cent. Rappers, Jim said, are unaccustomed to getting into physical fights ‘cos they tend to go straight from the diss to the Glock. Ulp.

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