A new jazz club for Belfast

A new monthly Jazz Club will be opening in Belfast on Friday 1st March and after that on the first Friday of each month. The venue is upstairs in the new Sunflower Public House which is situated behind Belfast Central Library on the corner of Union Street & Kent Street. The great news is that …

Once upon a time …

It’s not often a snow blizzard plays havoc with an interview but that’s just what happened a firtnight ago. We’re not talking about the skiff of snow we had last week, but a full-blown, once-a-decade force of nature. I was waiting in vain to skype Andrew Dale of The Once, the excellent Canadian band from …

Karine Polwart interview

  Karine Polwart is one of those people who, it seems, is an infinite seeker after the truth and who has the God-given talent to wrap that truth up in a package of words and music. That’s why I enjoyed our Sunday morning chat – via Skype – about what made her a singer and …

Gerry Diver’s The Speech Project

  This Sunday will see an amazing piece of avant garde traditional music – yes there is such a thing – when Gerry Diver’s Speech Project ends its Irish tour with a performance at the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen’s University in Belfast. Growing up in Manchester, Gerry got all the musical benefits of …

A Feast of Trad

An Droichead on Belfast’s Ormeau Road has announced highlights for this summer’s Feile An Droichead, tickets for which are now on sale. Now in it’s 4th year, the Féile has become a much anticipated annual event on the traditional arts calendar and attracts some of the finest names on the Irish music scene. Running over four days …

William Kennedy Piping Festival

The William Kennedy Piping Festival is looking very enticing this year. The dark nights of November are lightened by the musical fireworks of pipers and other musicians from all over the globe, and the cold dissipates in the warmth of the welcome in what is, almost literally, a family affair in the heart of Armagh. …

West Ocean String Quartet

‘Twas fitting that the West Ocean String Quartet should play at St. George’s Church in Belfast. Between 1817 and 1821, Edward Bunting, the man who recorded the music played at the 1792 Belfast Harp Festival (thereby saving a huge part of the national repertoire for posterity), was organist in this very church. One of the stained glass …