Last week, I was surprised – and rather tickled, if the truth be known – to get a call from Larry Bass, CEO of Screentime ShinAwiL, the production company behind You’re A Star – the third series of which is set to take the headline slot on RTÉ every Sunday night for 17 weeks commencing in November.
Over lunch (lunch! – yes, I’m a sad individual who doesn’t get out much), he told me that he was anxious to “raise the musical credibility level”, as he put it, of the programme; specifically, he wanted to see more folk/traditional/acoustic acts – audition for the show. I told him I’d do my best to get the word out, and duly sent out an e-mail to all and sundry, asking them to pass on the news.
Well, my good God. You’d have thought I’d crossed over to the Dark Side and entered into a pact with the Antichrist. A typical response was posted on the IR-TRAD list-server by a gentleman whom I know to be otherwise sane and for whose musical opinions I have the highest respect:
“Please folks, don’t pass this on. This is a pirate submarine that endeavours to sink anything that is good and beautiful in every form of music. Don’t feel complimented when you get recognition from a group that prowls the world seeking whom it may disempower. MONEY is the top line, the bottom line and the total arbiter. They’re looking for a traditional Westland [sic], Spice-girls (or boys). If they get their hands on them, they’ll chew them up and spit them out when they’re finished with them. Our young lads and lassies deserve better. Tell these people nothing, they’re in the dark already.”
Now, hang on just a minute. Nobody’s forcing anybody to go the hairspray and spangles route. Larry seemed to me like a decent skin; the two acts he mentioned specifically were the decidedly un-airbrushed Danú and Kíla. (Unfortunately, both are ineligible, as the winning act has to represent Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest next May, and Eurovision rules stipulate no more than six members in a band). He was also quite clear about wanting to improve the musical quality of the show, and mentioned that the audience vote element has been removed from the early stages of the competition, so that it’s only the judges themselves (Dave Fanning, Barbara Galavan and Hazel Kaneswaran) who determine who goes forward to the final.
As I don’t have a television, I’ve never seen You’re A Star, and I’ve only seen the Eurovision Song Contest once, in 1996 – I was in a pub at the time, and word went up that Eimear Quinn was about to go on stage, so we all gathered round to watch. She was backed by a fine bunch of musicians – Conor Byrne on tin whistle, Niall Ó Callanáin on bouzouki, fiddler Cora Smyth, bodhrán player Aimée Leonard and Ronan Kennedy on keyboards. The song was Brendan Graham’s ‘The Voice’, and it won the competition. It was a pretty good song too, from what I recall.
I gather that things have degenerated since, and that last year’s Eurovision featured people dancing in furry caveman outfits. But there’s no reason why a talented artist with a good song can’t make it through while maintaining his or her musical integrity.
As for You’re A Star, it’s a popular show with a huge viewership, so it’s bound to raise the profile of anyone involved. If even one or two of the people who watch it buy a CD they wouldn’t have otherwise bought, or go to a gig they wouldn’t have otherwise attended, isn’t that a good thing?
If the above makes sense to you and you’re a singer, musician or band with six or fewer members and not already under contact to a record company, then I say go for it. Auditions are being held at the Hawk’s Well Theatre in Sligo on September 25, the Liberty Hall Theatre in Dublin on October 12, and the Dunamaise Theatre & Centre for the Arts in Portlaoise on October 16. All auditions start at 9 am, and registration closes at 3 pm; everyone who turns up on the day gets a chance to be heard. Bands are asked to audition only in the Portlaoise venue, which will be equipped to accommodate all groups.
As long as we’re riling up the purists, I may as well mention that Máiréad Nesbitt, Méav ni Mhaolchatha, Chloe Agnew, Lisa Ann Kelly and Orlagh Fallon all took part in the Celtic Woman show at the Helix, along with the Irish Film Orchestra and the Aontas Choral Group. Billed by its organisers, the Celtic Collections record label, as “A haunting journey through the realms of the most beautiful songs ever written” (please don’t shoot, I’m only the messenger), the concert was filmed for broadcast in March 2005 on the American public television network PBS...
Gerry O’Connor has been travelling all over the place, doing multiple launches of his new album No Place like Home. The initial launch was a sold-out concert at the Roisín Dubh on July 20 – Gerry’s birthday, incidentally – during the Galway Arts Festival, featuring Gerry with Brendan O’Regan, Tommy Hayes, Damien Evans and Garry Ó Briain, plus Cathal Hayden joining in for a couple of tunes on the fiddle. It being Gerry’s first solo gig in at least three years, the audience was predictably packed with fellow musicians from Sharon Shannon to Lúnasa to Máirtín O’Connor, Declan O’Rourke, members of Danú and the Saw Doctors.
Launch No. 2 took place on August 26 at Reidy’s Pub in Newtown, Co. Tipperary, near his home village of Garrykennedy. From there it was on to the Gig Rig at the Fleadh weekend in Clonmel, where Gerry also found time to record spots for Kieran Hanrahan’s Céilí House programme as well as RTRs feature on the Fleadh. He also made two appearances for young musicians at the Premier Music Shop, which he found “really rewarding – just giving something back!” He’ll be playing support to the great Earl Scruggs at the third annual Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival, over the weekend of September 24-26 in Longford town.
Flute player and trad DJ extraordinaire Marcas Ó Murchú and his new wife Caitríona – a great sean-nós dancer and singer, says Marcas – have just come back from their honeymoon in time to play a gig in Tullarvan Mill, Buncrana, on September 24, together with their niece Nora Ó Murchú on fiddle and keyboards. The show starts at 8.30pm.
A number of folk and traditional acts will be performing in the Dublin Fringe Festival Spiegeltent, which has been erected on a platform at George’s Dock in the IFSC. Among those scheduled to appear in the huge Art-Deco tent (September 20-October 10) are Paddy Keenan with Tommy O’Sullivan, Niall Vallely and his new band, and Caroline Moreau and Oleg Ponomarev with their inimitable mixture of French chanson and gypsy music. For full details, see www.fringefest.com or ring 1850 FRINGE.
Finally, congratulations to Letterkenny on being selected as the venue for the 2005 All-Ireland Fleadh.

Musicians and singers with news to share can
e-mail Sarah on [email protected].