‘BURN BLUE (ACOUSTIC VERSION)’

LISTEN HERE 

 “Strident, urgent, and anthemic songwriting” CLASH

“Jawdropping” Daily Mirror 

‘Burn Blue’ is nominated for best single in NI Music Prize 2018

Rosborough has released an acoustic version and performance video of ‘Burn Blue’, the incredible track that launched his career in his native Northern Ireland. Awarded Single Of The Fortnight by Hot Press magazine, ‘Burn Blue’ was described as “Jawdropping” by Daily Mirror (Ulster), who voted it their No.1 track of 2017. Radio support came from every major Irish network, and Rosborough was invited to perform at the prestigious Other Voices Festival in Dingle alongside artists including Loyle Carner and Django Django. ‘Burn Blue’ was also recently nominated as Best Single in Northern Ireland’s Music Prize 2018 https://www.nimusicprize.com/.

‘Burn Blue’ (Acoustic Version) comes in the wake of Rosborough’s soaring, cinematic recent single ‘Fall To Earth’, a Track of The Fortnight in Hot Press (“sounds nothing short of world beating”) which was playlisted at Radio X. ‘Fall To Earth’ followed his UK debut single ‘Another Lesson’, which received radio support from Radio 1, Radio X and 6 Music.

Rosborough opened 2018 with a headline Irish tour and supported Neon Waltz on their UK tour in March before performing at a plethora of prestigious festivals over the summer. Following a recent tour in support of Seafret, he will tour the UK with DMA’s in December and join Amy MacDonald on her European tour in March & April 2019.

ROSBOROUGH LIVE:
17 Nov – Atlantic Bar, Portrush, Co. Antrim

26 Jan – Culturlann Ui Chanain, Derry

On tour with DMA’s:                            5-17 December in UK

On tour with Amy MacDonald:            March 2019

Martin Mackie

 
Releases ‘Magic Portion’

The First single to be taken from his forthcoming album Temperance Songs due in 2019.

Available now from iTunes

“Ireland’s answer to Nick Cave”, Dan Hegarty, RTE 2FM

MARTIN MACKIE release the single MAGIC POTION, the first offering from his album TEMPERANCE SONGS, due for release in spring 2019. MAGIC POTION features a stellar line-up of Irish musicians; KATE ELLIS, the musical director of the CRASH ENSEMBLE on cello, CONOR O’BRIEN from VILLAGERS on bass guitar, ELEANOR MYLER from the band PERCOLATOR on drums and MARTIN MACKIE on guitars and vocals. The accompanying video was made by Martin’s long-time friend and collaborator LAURA SHEERAN.

Temperance Songs is an album which deals with the theme of alcohol in its many forms and MAGIC POTION concerns the age-old struggle between the enjoyment of booze and alcohol abuse.

Martin said:  “The songs are about my own experiences with alcohol. Not just me personally but my family and friends. Rollovers, lock-ins, early houses, hair of the dog, and the booze blues are just some of the subjects. But I’ve tried to add a bit of comedy to the misery. For example, one song is called THE BALLAD OF CHRISTY MOORE. It’s folk tune about me coming back after the Electric Picnic. I was hanging, as they say. I’d this weird dream or maybe even a hallucination that the ghost of Christy Moore was in my wardrobe, even though he’s very much alive. Christy’s a famous ex-boozer. So, in the song he jumps out and starts lecturing me on the evils of excess. I was a bit worried what Christy would think of the song because there’s a line in it that describes him as being all ‘sweaty and hairy’. So I sent it to him. To my utter delight he sent me back a lovely postcard that said: ‘Dear Martin, Sweaty and Hairy, Ride on! Christy.’ And he drew a little guitar beside it. I’ve framed that.

“At the risk of sounding like a pseud, I got the whole idea for Temperance Songs from a series of paintings by the artist William Hogarth. The Rake’s Progress is eight paintings showing the rise and fall of young man who ends up in the Bedlam asylum because of his partying lifestyle. I was gonna write a song for each painting but I found out the composer Igor Stravinsky had beaten me to that idea. You can’t compete with him so I had to change things. Instead I drew from my own experience.

“There’s other songs such as A LOCK-IN FOR THE DAMNED about a famous Dublin venue where people end up leaving, completely twisted, when it’s daylight. That’s normal behaviour in the music world. The track DRUNK FOR FIFTEEN YEARS features vocals by Waterford singer KATIE KIM, who is another friend. That song is about a guy in hospital after a mammoth drinking session. Again, there’s ghosts and spirits in the lyrics, that seems to be a recurring theme. I think there’s a lot of mystery to booze, the psychological effect it has on you when you drink and the downer you can get if you overdo it. Nobody in Ireland really talks about this stuff, beyond platitudes and clichés, so I thought it would be nice explore it in an album.”

https://martinmackie.bandcamp.com/track/magic-potion

Release video for ‘Bad Blood’ on Decal Records and announce Irish Tour for November

David Geraghty is most well-known to Irish audiences as a founding member of Bell X1 but in recent years he has been exploring a new solo direction under the moniker Join Me In The Pines. The new video for their current single ‘Bad Blood’ directed by Simon Daniels and produced by Design for Life has just been released, watch it here: https://youtu.be/prhrMBGZKqw and continues in the band’s new electropop vein, with synths and layered vocals with a distinctly 80s feel.

Join Me in the Pines recently completed a full band tour in May and June where Dave was joined by Marc Aubele (keyboards and vocals) and Mick Major (bass and vocals) and Tim O Donovan (drums and vocals). The tour was a chance for fans to hear the bold new musical direction and it was hugely successful. David says “It was so satisfying to finally hear the full energy of the band bringing the recordings to life and to receive the reactions we did. Thanks to everyone that came to the shows. There´ll be lots more to come.”

After completing some solo shows in July and August the full band will re-join David for a tour again this November, which will include dates in Kilkenny, Cork and Galway and a highly anticipated Dublin Show in Whelan’s on 17 November.

A new album will be forthcoming later this year with mixing duties undertaken by the very talented Ross Dowling (James Vincent McMorrow, Talos, Brian Deady). This will be David’s fourth solo release and the second under Join Me in the Pines.

Join Me In The Pines Live;

Sat 3 November         Cleere’s Kilkenny

Sat 9 November         Cyprus Ave, Cork

Sat 17 November       Whelan’s, Dublin

Sat 24 November       Roisin Dubh, Galway

Ticket links at: http://joinmeinthepines.com/gigs

Two Balloons

Screens at 30th Annual Galway Film Fleadh on Sunday 15^th July

The magical stop-motion animated short film Two Balloons was produced in Portland, Oregon and premiered at the 30th Foyle Film Festival in Ireland last November. Since then the film has been screened at some of the most prestigious international film festivals and won many awards. And now the filmmakers are delighted to announce that Two Balloons will screen at this year’s historic 30^th annual Galway Film Fleadh, taking place from 10^th to 15^th of July.

Two Balloons was four years in the making and it tells the spellbinding story of two adventurous lemurs travelling the skies in their wondrous airships. One night they meet by chance and forge a bond which sees them through a calamity and cements their friendship.

Two Balloons was inspired by the music of Peter Broderick, a celebrated American composer who has collaborated with Philip Glass, Efterklang, Yann Tiersen, M. Ward and Dustin O’ Halloran amongst many others, as well as composing his own music and film scores. When director Mark Smith heard Broderick’s ‘More of a Composition’ he knew instantly that he wanted to work with him. The score for the film is an intrinsic piece of the production and as Peter is based in Co. Galway with his wife, singer Brigid Mae Power, this screening at the Fleadh feels like something of a homecoming for Two Balloons.

Originally the film was envisaged as a live action short and the plan was to build two real airships, but the production ran into problems when they couldn’t secure an aircraft hangar for the required length of time. So instead Mark decided to create the film as a stop-motion animated film despite the fact that he had no prior experience of stop-motion. As he says: ‘I was obsessive about preparation because I had never produced a stop-motion project. Sometimes I saw pre-production as training for an endurance race I had never run before.’

One of the first questions asked when they made this decision was, ‘what form will the characters take?’ Mark took inspiration from Cyril Connolly’s The Unquiet Grave in which Connolly admires ring-tailed lemurs: ‘they held the secret of life to me; they were clues to an existence without thought, guilt or ugliness wherein all was grace, appetite and immediate sensation.’ And so the two curious adventurers in Two Balloons were born.

Mark and his crew spent sixteen months storyboarding and building a stage to encompass the sets of the half-scale lemur world. Only then did they begin to shoot, which was an intensely time-consuming process: shots which were only ten seconds long took two months to shoot. The result is the nine-minute long Two Balloons, a poignant and heart-warming film which was a labour of love for all involved.

Since its debut the film has shown at many film festivals including Flickerfest International Short Film Festival (Australia), Santa Barbara International Film Festival (USA), Atlanta Film Festival (USA), Short Shorts Film Festival (Japan), Anima 2018 (Belgium), and the upcoming Fantasia International Film Festival (Canada).

Two Balloons has also won numerous awards, most recently the Special Mention Jury Award at Animafest Zagreb, the longest running animation festival in the world. The crew of the film was especially delighted with this award, highly coveted as it is within the animation industry. Other awards garnered by Two Balloons include Hoka Award Best Animated Short Film (Oxford Film Festival), Adult Jury Award: Best Animated Short Film (Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF Kids), and Jury Award: Best Animated Short (Sonoma International Film Festival).

The team behind Two Balloons is looking forward to visiting Galway next month and sharing the magic of the film with the Fleadh audiences.

Behind the scenes: A Stop Motion Ocean: https://vimeo.com/237123570

Behind the scenes: Assembly of a Miniature Storm: https://vimeo.com/238038660

THE WHILEAWAYS

Release double single ‘roll down your window’ 

& ‘Spare Me From Your Heartache’

taken from their forthcoming album

From What We’re Made releasing 20 July

The Whileaways release the first single from their upcoming third album From What We’re Made on 11^th June with the album to follow on 20^th July. The single is two sided: the A side is ‘Roll Down Your Window’, a jaunty summer single featuring the band’s trademark interwoven harmonies; and the B side is the more laid-back ‘Spare Me From The Heartache’.

The Whileaways are Noelie McDonnell (vocals, guitar), Noriana Kennedy (vocals, banjo) and Nicola Joyce (vocals, baritone ukulele). The three are accomplished folk musicians in their own right with more than a dozen recordings to their collective credit. They came to know each other’s singing at music sessions in the folk melting pot of Galway city. The trio first got together in 2012 with a tour and the success of that led to releasing their eponymous debut album in 2013.

Their second album Saltwater Kisses was released in 2016 and critically lauded, both at home and internationally. It was chosen as album of the week by RTÉ Radio 1 and received four-star reviews from The Irish Times and The Irish Echo in America who described their sound as ‘perfected simplicity’.

Indeed, The Whileaways’ three distinct voices combine to weave a tight tapestry of captivating harmonies. They prefer minimal instrumentation on their recordings, allowing their distinctive vocals to be the focus of their music. The trio balance folk songs from both sides of the Atlantic with beautifully crafted original songs, in a way that is inventive and undeniably engaging.

Over the last couple of years, The Whileaways’ have been involved in some interesting collaborations, including working with orchestras and a brass and string ensemble. When writing the songs on From What We’re Made, the band were influenced by that experience and wanted to include this influence whilst still retaining the unique vocal sound that they are best known for.

Their third album represents a maturation of the band and their creative aesthetic, and they’re looking forward to giving audiences a taste of this at gigs later this year.

See The Whileaways live:

Sat 21 July – Unitarian Church, Dublin

Mon 23 July – Campbell’s Tavern, Galway

Mon 20 August – Matt Molloys, Westport

Fri 24 August – Inish Bofin, Co. Galway

Wed 5 Sept –  Markree Castle, Sligo

Sat 8 Sept –  Harvest Festival, Fota House Cork

Sat 15 Sept – KAM, Kinvara, Co Galway

Sun 16 Sept – Clifden Arts Festival, Galway

Tue 28 Sept – Goresbridge, Kilkenny

Releases ‘Chasing (OTÔSAN Remix)’ Feat JVMIE

Taken from his forthcoming album ‘Stay’ due out on 15 June

Irish dance music producer Shaun Warner presents ‘Chasing (OTÔSAN Remix)’, the first track to be released in Ireland and the UK from his sophomore album Stay, which is released globally on 15^th June. Shaun is currently based in Dubai where he is signed to Universal Music MENA and where he has already achieved massive success as a producer and DJ.

‘Chasing’ sees Shaun partner up with singer, songwriter and producer, JVMIE. Australian born, now Los Angeles based, JVMIE has topped the Billboard Club Dance Chart with her collaboration with Dave Audé ‘Back 2 Love’. ‘Chasing’ is a hypnotic house track with poignant lyrics and dazzling vocals from JVMIE. Adding their own unique spin to the original are OTÔSAN, a New Zealand based production and remix duo who have stripped back the original to a bass heavy rework.

Shaun originally hails from Menlo in Galway where he started his music career as a DJ in 1998. He quickly moved up the ranks, from supporting local names through to promoting his own club nights, followed by a stint DJing in Dublin at venues including The Odeon and Sin. In 2007 Shaun left Ireland and spent several years in Australia, performing at many of the country’s biggest festivals including Stereosonic, Summafieldayze, Parklife, White Paradise, and Creamfields. Those well-received, high-profile sets saw him signed as an ambassador for Hed Kandi in Australasia, and it was during this time that Shaun began creating his own music in earnest.

In 2016, Shaun signed a deal with Universal Music MENA to release his debut album, Shaun Warner & Friends which dropped in January 2017. The album outperformed all expectations and made its way to number one on the UAE iTunes chart as well as cracking the top 30 charts in Ireland and New Zealand.

Shaun followed this debut success with three singles already released in the UAE and USA from Stay: ‘Chasing’, ‘Messed It Up’, and ‘Turn You On’. Stay was produced in Dubai but the vocals came from all over the world, with two of the vocal tracks recorded in LA, one track recorded in the UK and another in Amsterdam. Shaun also collaborated with Grammy Award winning producer Tek (Chris O’Ryan) who engineered the ‘Black Summer’ remix.

‘Chasing’ was released in December 2017 and spent eight weeks in the US Billboard Charts Top 50 as well as charting strongly across the Middle East. Now it’s Ireland and the UK’s turn to experience this little slice of magic. ‘Chasing’ is bound to be a dancefloor staple in clubs all summer long.

https://www.facebook.com/ShaunWarnerDJ/ / https://www.instagram.com/shaunwarnerofficial/

CONFIRMED AS SUPPORT ON ED SHEERAN’S SUMMER IRISH TOUR 

NEW SINGLE ‘WE DON’T HAVE TO RUN’ FEATURES RYAN MCMULLAN

AND WILL BE RELEASED ON MAY 4^TH

Irish trad band Beoga are kicking off the summer with a bang. They’re set to release their new single ‘We Don’t Have To Run’ featuring Ryan McMullan on May 4^th, and will then join Ed Sheeran as support on his huge outdoor summer Irish tour. Beoga love working with Ed and are thrilled to continue their relationship by becoming a part of his upcoming live shows.

2017 was something of a banner year for Beoga as they co-wrote the massive international hit ‘Galway Girl’ with Ed Sheeran, and were featured on another track on his album ‘÷’, ‘Nancy Mulligan’. The two tracks have accumulated 683 million streams at Spotify alone. They also performed with Ed in front of 150,000 people at Glastonbury, taking them to a fresh audience and elevating them to a new level in their career.

That connection also continued with Beoga’s appearance in the Ed Sheeran documentary ‘Songwriter’. The band have been at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival this week where the film has been showing.

Beoga signed to Spirit B-Unique Records last year, and they’ve been holed up in the studio working on new material with Johnny McDaid and Foy Vance. ‘We Don’t Have To Run’, a collaboration which features Ryan McMullan on lead vocals, is the first single from these sessions, and will appear on the band’s new album that will be released in the near future. 2018 is shaping up for be an even bigger year for the band.

Beoga’s bodhrán player Eamon Murray commented, “We know how lucky we are to be working inside such a collective of super musicians, producers and co-writers. Everyone brings something different to the table and it’s been a different process this time round.”

Beoga (Irish for ‘lively’) originally hail from Antrim and have been in existence for fifteen years. In that time, they’ve produced five critically acclaimed albums, been shortlisted for a Grammy and performed with the Ulster Orchestra at the BBC Proms.

Although Beoga’s sound is firmly rooted in the Irish traditional genre, they often incorporate other elements, and their current evolution sees them finding the precise intersection between trad music and contemporary pop.

“We were making music like we’d never done before,” says accordionist Damian McKee. “It was like starting again from scratch.”

“It’s less pressure as well,” agrees Sean Og Graham (accordion / guitar). “You only have to come up with eight bars of something or find a really good hook. But it’s challenging to find something that’s vibey enough to last through an entire song.”

Completed by Niamh Dunne (vocals / fiddles) and Liam Bradley (piano / keys), Beoga have been described as “the most exciting new traditional band to emerge from Ireland this century” by The Wall Street Journal.

The band’s forthcoming live shows are:

MAY

3^rd – Cork, Cyprus Avenue (headline show)

4^th / 5^th / 6^th – Cork, Páirc Ui Chaoimh (supporting Ed Sheeran)

9^th – Belfast, Boucher Playing Fields (supporting Ed Sheeran)

12^th / 13^th – Galway, Pearse Stadium (supporting Ed Sheeran)

16^th / 18^th / 19^th – Dublin, Phoenix Park (supporting Ed Sheeran)

http://www.beogamusic.com/

JOIN ME IN THE PINES

Release new single ‘Two To Fall In Love’ and announce Irish Tour

https://youtu.be/eUXQ-1-3P8s

Available now on iTunes, Apple Music and Spotify

David Geraghty is most well-known to Irish audiences as a founding member of Bell X1 but in recent years he has been exploring a new solo direction under the moniker Join Me In The Pines. The new single ‘Two to Fall in Love’ will be released on 16 April 2018 and represents a move away from the dark folk of previous albums, embracing instead joyous music with hints of Prince, Bowie, Gary Numan, Nile Rodgers. ‘Two to Fall in Love’ has an electropop sensibility underpinned by a brooding bassline, with Geraghty’s atmospheric vocals gliding over the top.

Following on from the Join Me in the Pines’ solo tour in February, Geraghty has just announced a May/June full band tour which will preview the bold new musical direction. Geraghty says, “I really enjoyed getting back out there on the recent solo tour, but I’m so excited to perform the new album with the Join Me in the Pines band in May and June. The reaction to the new songs in February was great but now it’s time to get the groove on with the band.” David will be joined on the road by Marc Aubele (keyboards and vocals), Mick Major (bass and vocals) and Daragh Mayon (drums and vocals).

A new album will be forthcoming later this year with mixing duties undertaken by the very talented Ross Dowling (James Vincent McMorrow, Talos, Brian Deady). This will be David’s fourth solo release and the second under Join Me in the Pines.

May / June TOUR 2018:

Fri. 11 May – Cleeres Kilkenny

Thurs. 17 May – de Barras, Clonakilty

Fri. 18 May – Roundys, Cork City

Fri. June 1 – Roisin Dubh, Galway

Fri. June 8 – Dolans, Limerick

Ticket links at: http://joinmeinthepines.com/gigs

Golden Discs have some exciting events planned for the eleventh annual Record Store Day on Saturday April 21^st. Building on the huge success of last year’s event, there will be in-store performances, DJs, discounts, and exclusive releases throughout our sixteen stores nationwide.

Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding independent record stores. Eleven years later it is a calendar fixture that is hotly anticipated by the international music industry. Golden Discs has been at the forefront of Irish independent music retailing for over fifty years and are delighted to participate in an event that celebrates music and community in such a positive way.

The official Record Store Day releases include titles from some of the most well-known and well-respected names in music. Golden Discs’ customers have been most interested in these releases:

Bruce Springsteen – Greatest Hits / Long unavailable on vinyl, this 2LP set, pressed on red vinyl, is assembled from the brilliant remasters of Springsteen’s discography by Bob Ludwig and Tony Scott.

 Rory Gallagher – French Connection / Never released before Rory Gallagher’s live concert recorded in Paris, France in 1974 for RTL French Radio.

 The Cure– Mixed Up / Limited Edition Double LP Picture Disc set of The Cure’s 1990 remix album Mixed Up. Featuring nine remixes of their hits including “Lullaby”, “Close to Me”, “Pictures of You”, “Love Song”, “Why Can’t I Be You?”  Newly remastered in 2018 by Robert Smith.

 The Cure – Torn Down / Sixteen new remixes by Robert Smith of classic Cure tracks including “Three Imaginary Boys”, “Just One Kiss” and “Never Enough”.

 U2 – Lights of Home / U2 is releasing “Lights of Home,” a single from their latest album Songs of Experience on a 12” picture disc in a clear PVC bag.

 David Bowie – Lets Dance Demo / This black vinyl 45 rpm 12” single features the first appearance of the full length demo of ‘Let’s Dance’, previously released in an edited form through digital download and streaming services for David’s birthday on 8th January this year. 

 David Bowie – Welcome to the Blackout (Live in London ’78) / This previously unreleased 3 LP set was recorded live during the ISOLAR II tour at Earls Court, London on the 30th June and 1st July 1978 by Tony Visconti and was mixed by David and David Richards at Mountain Studios, Montreux, 17th – 22nd January 1979. The newly designed trifold sleeve features imagery by photographers Sukita and Chris Walter.

 Led Zeppelin – Rock and Roll / Led Zeppelin’s first Record Store Day title featuring two previously unreleased tracks, both produced by Jimmy Page.  This unique single includes a Sunset Sound Mix of Led Zeppelin IV’s “Rock and Roll” and “Friends” from Led Zeppelin III recorded at Olympic Studios, London. This limited edition Yellow 7″ Single features a large hole and shaped adaptor, housed in a printed paperboard sleeve.

 Pink Floyd – Piper at the Gates of Dawn / The psychedelic debut album by Pink Floyd was their sole album completed with original vocalist/guitarist Syd Barrett and featured the early classic “Interstellar Overdrive”. The original mono version of Pink Floyd’s first LP, named 1 of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Notorious – Considered by Rolling Stone and The Source as one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time, by one of the greatest rappers of all time, “Juicy”, the first single from the legendary debut album Ready to Die, is back on vinyl for the first time since its 1994 release.  This limited edition will be reissued on Clear/Black marble swirl effect vinyl as a special Record Store Day exclusive. 

Undertones –Celebrating the 40^th Anniversary of the ‘Teenage Kicks’ single (1978), and including all 13 of the classic Feargal Sharkey era singles and hits. Original single artwork replicated and master cut from the original analogue tapes.

In addition to the rarities, limited-editions and re-releases for Record Store Day Golden Discs will offer deep discounts of up to 40% on catalogue stock and up to 50% of decks and turntables.

Join us at your local Golden Discs this Record Store Day April 21^st:

• Golden Discs in Newbridge will have Wayfarer instore performing.
• At Golden Discs in Athlone singer/songwriter Skywriter will be performing in store at 1.30pm.
• In Golden Discs in Wexford dreampop duo Frankstein Bolt will be performing at 1pm followed by Rachel Grace (winner of Wexford’s Got Talent) at 4pm.
• In Golden Discs on Patrick St in Cork, one of Cork’s best loved DJ’s Ian Richards will be spinning discs throughout the day.
• In Golden Discs Limerick will have DJ Toby playing vinyl 1-4pm
• In Golden Discs in Waterford local band Crome Yellow are performing followed by De Zoot. In addition, staff members will be playing vinyl only all day.
• In Golden Discs in Dundrum Town Centre Molly Sterling will be playing live from 1pm

www.goldendiscs.ie

NEW SINGLE – ‘MS. MONROE’

DEBUT ALBUM ‘MIDNIGHT BROADCAST’ Due on 23.03.18

Watch video for Ms. Monroe  https://youtu.be/77C8nUxoghI

“One of those bands that you discover and you wish you’d known them longer” – Chris Hawkins, BBC 6 Music

“Ones to watch” – Dan Hegarty RTE 2FM

“After Eve is a perfectly weighted indie rock song that swells the heart” – Hot Press Magazine

To coincide with the release of their debut album, ‘Midnight Broadcast’ (through Seventh Dial Records) Warsaw Radio have released their new single ‘Ms. Monroe’. The song and video takes inspiration from the relationship between film maker Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe. The narrative imagines Monroe giving advice on relationships after the break down of her relationship with Miller when they were filming what would be Monroe’s last film (‘The Misfits’) in Reno, Nevada.

Warsaw Radio formed in 2013 in Brighton when Nikki Bates (violin & vocals) answered an ad posted online by Brían McNamara (vocals & guitar) looking for musicians to start a band. McNamara had recently moved from Limerick, Ireland to Brighton to be closer to the London music scene. Prior to moving to Brighton McNamara honed his craft playing solo in venues and busking in New York’s Greenwich village and San Francisco. Brían was previously lead singer in a rock band signed to Xeric Records in Ireland (a label owned by The Cranberries first manager Pearce Gilmore) and as an unsigned solo artist played across Ireland including shows with acts such as Mundy and Bell X1. Nikki Bates moved to Brighton from Barcelona around the same time as Brían. Hailing from the North of England, as a musician she had worked with the likes of Sting, EMI studios, Cinematic Sinfonia and London Philharmonic Orchestra.

According to McNamara the name of the band came about when he was reading a history book and there was a couple of paragraphs about the siege of Warsaw in 1939. “During the siege they had a live orchestra performing on air to help with peoples morale…. the musicians on Warsaw Radio kept going until their transmitter was hit by a shell. It was a pretty incredible story and it reminded me of the famous quartet on the Titanic who kept on playing as the ship sank. I liked the message of defiance and we were looking for a band name so that’s where it began.

Bates & McNamara performed as a duo initially and played with a variety of line-ups on the Brighton and London music scenes.  The duo attracted attention due to the unique blend of McNamara’s baritone vocals and Bate’s soaring strings. Laurence Bridge joined the band full time in 2014 on bass. Bridge had previously worked with a number of indie rock acts in Brighton and the likes of Tom Odell and Lucie Barat. Paul Lennox (drums) and Edd Mann (lead guitar) completed the W.R touring line-up.

In the autumn of 2016 McNamara approached Mercury nominated producer Jag Jago (The Maccabees, Florence Welch) at Brighton Electric Studios with demo tracks and this led to the release in Feb 2017 of their debut single ‘After Eve’. The single was picked up BBC Introducing and debuted on BBC Northern Ireland’s – Across the line show. This was followed by support from BBC Radio 6 Music D.J Chris Hawkins and Dan Hegarty on RTE 2 FM in Ireland.

The band have toured extensively in the UK & Ireland including head-line shows at Ronnie Scott’s London, Notting Hill Arts Club, Whelans Dublin, The Belfast Empire, The Great Escape Festival in Brighton and The Beautiful Days Festival in Devon. They have appeared as special guest support to artists such as The Waterboys, Mick Flannery and The Lone Bellow, all bands/artists that have inspired their sound. W.R’s sound brings together different genres based on each of the individual band members in a fusion of rock & alt-folk.

Upcoming shows:

Friday 9 March                                    Green Door Store, Brighton (Album launch show)

Tuesday 27 March                              Whelan’s, Dublin

Wednesday 28 March                        Roisin Dubh, Galway

Thursday 29 March                            Cyprus Avenue Cork

Friday 30 March                                  Kasbah Social Club @ Dolans, Limerick

Thursday 5 April                                  Sofar Sounds, London

Saturday 28 April                                Nells Jazz & Blues, London (supporting The Stunning)

facebook.com/warsawradio / instragram.com/warsawradioband / twitter.com/warsawradio / warsaw-radio.com