Twenty years since the last compilation of Limerick bands was released, a new generation of musicians are taking the Irish scene by the lapels and giving it a hearty shake-up. That said, it does make one musician feel slightly uncomfortable. Daragh Dukes, Headgear’s main protagonist, remembers the halcyon days of 1989 fondly, if blearily. Indeed, he holds the honour of appearing on both that compilation (The Reindeer Age) and its new counterpart, ToneList.

“I guess I’m the senior member of ToneList,” he laughs heartily. “It goes to show how old I am. The first band I was ever in, They Do It With Mirrors, was on that compilation. When Noel texted me about ToneList, asking me if I wanted to put a song on it, at the time I wasn’t sure, but I managed to get this song finished in time. I’m delighted to be on it.”
That song is new Headgear track ‘Where Is Home’. It marks a new chapter in the musician’s history; having found success with his second album Flight Cases, Dukes will spend the rest of this year finishing its follow-up. Having won over audiences around the country, he claims that he’s always found Limerick radio stations and crowds supportive of his music, but the scene lacks a focal point.
“One thing about The Reindeer Age was that the whole scene was based around a recording studio called Xeric – and that was brilliant, because everybody was centred around the same place where they recorded and rehearsed. Limerick doesn’t really have that centre anymore. Dolan’s is probably the closest thing to it. So there isn’t as much of a community as there could be. But everyone is very supportive.”
Ann Blake of The Brad Pitt Light Orchestra, whose song ‘Grace Jones’ was chosen for inclusion on the album, is similarly enthusiastic about the local crowds.
“There’s a lot of goodwill, yeah,” she enthuses. “There is a lovely feeling of identity, being from Limerick. I mean, you do want to get out there and get heard by as many people as possible. But if you don’t win over your hometown, you’re nothing. The scene, as you can see from the bands on the compilation, is really positive. I think being from Limerick, too, you tend not to have notions about yourself, because you grow up being slagged. Saying where you’re from is an introduction to a slagging, but it leads to a nice lack of nonsense on the scene, anyway!”
Her band, who release their debut album Lowering The Tone this autumn, was initially the brainchild of her composer and songwriter brother David. His old college band was taken out of retirement several years ago, when he and Ann found themselves on the receiving end of popular acclaim after having their Sugababes cover included on Volume 2 of the Even Better Than The Real Thing series. The Brad Pitt Light Orchestra are one of ToneList’s more eclectic bands, taking in everything from indie to orchestral fragments, to pop music.
“We do get asked about that a lot,” she smiles, “but that’s just the personality of David’s writing, I think, rather than a deliberate thing. He has a background in writing for everything from theatre to big rock bands. I think he just writes what he writes, and it just comes out as gospel, or pop, or dodgy prog, or whatever.”
Another experimentalist with big ambitions is Drumming Room, aka Dave Carroll. When his former band split in 2007, Carroll’s doodlings on a laptop and a drumkit began to take the form of a solo project. If you’re thinking R.S.A.G though, don’t – Drumming Room is an altogether different kind of beast.
“I was a bit disappointed that he stole my thunder,” jokes Carroll, who moved to London to study the art of tubthumping in 2007, but who is currently residing in his hometown before heading back across the water to further his career later this year. “I bought his album when I moved back home earlier this year, and I really like what he’s doing. I think our styles are completely different, though - mine is more electronic-based.”
Carroll became involved in the ToneList project by responding to a MySpace bulletin posted by Alan Jacques of Green & Live. His song ‘Good Riddance 2007’ was chosen for inclusion, and he agrees that the Limerick scene is thriving at present, even if the ‘R’ word means that gigs have become significantly less busy.
“There’s always been a great conveyor belt of bands coming through Limerick,” he says. “The generation of bands from about five or 10 years ago have clearly influenced the ones that are around today. If you listen to their demos from around that time, I guarantee that you could hear the influence that they have on the current crop. It’s going really well. I’d like to see it going a bit better, but I think they’re definitely onto something with projects like this.”