Summer: Part 1

Argh.

I've been meaning to sit down and review the various gigs and festivals I've been at this summer so far but keep getting sidetracked by yet more gigs and festivals. (The Galway Arts Festival is currently keeping me busy)

I caught Paul McCartney at the RDS, Greenday at Marlay Park, the Body & Soul festival in Ballinlough Castle and got to the Saturday of Oxegen (yes the day it pissed non-stop).

James Hendicott does Oxegen far better justice than I would and I happen to agree with his opinions on most of the performances so I'm gonna link his reviews on state.ie here: on Saturday's Oxegen highlights and Muse. Basically Florence was a bit disappointing, Dirty Projectors were weird and Muse rocked....also Two Door Cinema Club (despite the lead singer looking about 15) and Andrew Hozier Byrne are ones to watch for the future.

Greenday at Marlay Park were hugely entertaining; engaging in lots of audience participation (pity none of the audience members who got to go on stage could sing), fun covers and generally rocking their substantial back catalogue for an eager crowd. Great concert overall even if it did reduce the beau's 'Days Without Seeing a Penis' count to zero (he likes it to be as high as possible) when random punter got naked for no good reason.

It had previously been at 4 days due to an event at a stag where a sleepwalking roommate almost peed on his bed in the middle of the night. The Beau was not having a good week.

The Body & Soul Festival, originally a section of Electric Picnic, this year launched it's own spin off festival in the grounds of Ballinlough Castle, Co Westmeath in June. For only €100 there was 2 night's camping, music from a variety of not very well know bands and DJs, artistic installations, fire ceremonies and fireworks, a forest full of hot tubs and arts & crafts/workshop and massage tents...oh and a Friendship Nest.

The weekend was a scorcher and I think the weather was largely responsible for making it an enjoyable weekend--if it had rained it would have sucked--it had very little shelter and lacked in kick ass entertainment. As it was wandering around the stunning grounds and walled gardens of Ballinlough, sipping cider in the sunshine and being entertained by random bellydancers and alternative musical acts made for a very fun weekend.

My own musical highlights of the weekend were Kormac's Big Band, Harry Bird & the Rubber Wellies and Galway man Ultan Conlan none of whom I'd heard of before the weekend.

The place was crawling with hippies and free-range kids, the toilets at the campsite were disgusting despite there being only 1500 people at it but overall, for what it cost, I think it supplied excellent value for money.

By far the best gig I've been at this summer so far, however, was Paul McCartney. I had fairly come to terms with the fact that I was never going to get to see the Beatles play live but this concert came pretty damn close. He played for 2 hours 40 minutes with about a 30 second break before 2 encores.

We got All my Loving (chills down my spine I tell you), The Long and Winding Road, Day in the Life, Let it Be, Lady Madonna, Back in the USSR, Eleanor Rigby, Hey Jude, Get Back, Paperback Writer, all the Wings classics: Jet, Band on the Run and a spectacular Live and Let Die (the song was written to have fireworks accompany it) followed by a raucous encore of Sgt Peppers and Helter Skelter. Even at 68 the man can seriously rock and he was a charming and charismatic performer into the bargain.

There's something magical about being in crowd where every single person knows the words to almost all the songs. Seriously - if you ever get the chance to see him live just go.


Meanwhile I'm cramming as much as I can afford of the Galway Arts Festival in and will have views and reviews in the coming days.