OKE.... It was standing room only for what turned out to be both an entertaining and informative guitar master-class when Colm O’Hare introduced singer, songwriter and acoustic guitar virtuoso Newton Faulkner who had flown in from London especially to be with us at The Music Show. The dreadlocked Londoner had the rapt audience in the palm of his hands immediately after he walked on, effortlessly slipped into a majestic performance of his song ‘Badman’ and enquired if anybody needed a hug!
As well as playing songs from his two best-selling albums, Faulkner discussed his playing style and technique in considerable detail, demonstrating some of the tricks he uses and how he discovered the advantages of using open tunings. He confessed there was no epiphanic moment when he actually decided to dedicate his life to playing guitar, explaining that “there were always guitars around the house, and my dad had a couple of nylon string guitars. In due course everything else just faded away and I realised that I wasn’t really doing anything else but playing guitar”. Utilising bar-chords, Otis Redding’s ‘Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay’ was one of the first songs he learned to play. He also had a spell playing bass in a Green Day covers outfit, performing his debut live gig only two weeks after getting his first guitar! But noticing that everybody in his Surrey neighbourhood was playing “thrash chords screamo metal” he soon decided he needed to get into what he described whimsically as “counter-musical terrorism” and his shift into acoustic territory was confirmed.
Apart from learning a lot about guitar playing from his own experimentation he also attended the Academy of Contemporary Music where he studied under the late American-Irish guitar wizard Eric Roche whose impact is reflected in Newton’s song ‘So Much’, which he wrote as a gesture of respect for his former mentor.
He spoke about recording for film, his love of touring and admitted that a broken wrist almost ended his career. And there were quite a few laughs along the way too. Faulkner revealed that he had been working on new material with another unique guitarist – Seasick Steve – and that the fruits of this collaboration might appear on his next album. Running well over his allotted time, he bowed to repeated requests and concluded with his rapturous version of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
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Top Irish and international talent in the music industry were escorted to and from The Music Show in the eagerly awaited Alfa Giulietta car.
Irish musicians have been making waves in the music industry for years with great lyrics and innovative sounds. These musicians wanted to make their presence known, and this year’s The Music Show in the RDS on October 2 & 3 was no different; they made a grand appearance by arriving in style in the brand new Alfa Giulietta.
Alfa Giulietta is the compact car that has it all; a five-door hatchback with the perfect blend of sportiness and style, class leading MultiAir engine technology for performance and fuel-efficiency and a prestigious Euro NCAP 5-star awarding it the safest compact car ever.
Having made its world preview at the recent Geneva International Motor Show, everyone has been waiting anxiously to catch a glimpse of the award winning car in Ireland. The collaboration between The Music Show and Alfa Romeo was an interfusion of music and engineering at the forefront of innovation.
Pictured: Drummer Carlos Hercules, who has worked with Leona Lewis and Westlife among others, arrives to the RDS in the sleek new Alfa Giulietta.
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Westlife manager and X-Factor judge Louis Walsh launched a blistering tirade against Irish radio stations for their failure to support Irish artists, at The Music Show.The veteran manager of multi-platinum pop acts like Boyzone and Westlife said he had to “grovel” to Irish stations to get his artists’ records played.
“They think they’re doing you a favour by playing an Irish record,” Walsh claimed, adding that he believed the airplay issue to be the single biggest problem facing the Irish music industry at the moment.
Walsh told Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan, who was also participating in the Communications and Music debate, that a strict quota system should be introduced to ensure Irish acts get airtime.
“In France and Canada it works and they have a thriving music industry. So it works and it’s your job to sort it out,” Walsh told the Minister.
“I turn on the radio – and we’ve got about 10 radio stations (in Dublin) – and they all play the same top 40 records. They’re not playing any new songs by any new bands. The only time I see a new band here is on The Late Late Show. We’ve got so many new bands, and I don’t mean pop bands. I mean all bands. But we might as well be in America or the UK. Honestly, it’s very frustrating. (As a result) there are people out there and no-one’s going to sign them. The oxygen of the business is radio,” Walsh asserted.
“We probably get more airplay for my bands in the UK than in Ireland,” he added. “I still have to grovel here to people, I’m still trying to get people interested. They think they’re doing you a favour by playing an Irish record. We had a launch the other week for my new girl band Wonderland, and there weren’t any Irish DJs there. There’s just a lack of interest in Ireland in Irish acts.”
In response, Minister Eamon Ryan claimed it was difficult to legislate for quotas of Irish acts as this could be perceived as discriminatory under EU law. However, this point was ridiculed by Walsh, and by a number of furious speakers from the floor who expressed their frustration at not getting their records played.
A number of singer-songwriters in the room called for a strict quota, like that in France, to be implemented.
The Minister argued that a “culture” in the Irish radio industry, rather than a lack of Government regulation, was to blame for the preponderance of American and British music on the airwaves.
“In the late-70s there was a huge thriving independent music culture and it was the pirates [radio stations]. It was totally unregulated and it was playing young Irish bands one after another. So why is it that there’s a culture in our radio stations that isn’t recognising that people want local content? There’s a cultural issue there in those institutions that you have to address,” said the Minister.
Marc Marot, CEO of the entertainment arm of the powerful Sports Entertainment Group (SEG) and former MD of Island Records, warned that a strict quota system would probably not be a good thing for alternative music.
“In France, there’s some rubbish played because of the quota system,” he said. “The danger is that the 30% quota system will support your records, Louis, but it won’t support alternative Irish records. It won’t support a new, Irish PJ Harvey.”
