Cheebah and all that - Limerick, Ireland

The Hip Hop Spot

Bazzy B writes

"I've opened a practice room on O' Connell St Limerick so any bboys who interested in becoming a member its 15euros a month. Every member has access to the spot to train or hang out day or night whenever they want . It's purpose is to give everybody a decent chance to make the most of their  time and bring hip hop to the younger generation as well as get people of the streets. There will be lessons in bboyin ,graff,djing and maybe mc'ing also.  Lessons are extra but not much. So please support THE HIP HOP SPOT, Upper O' Connell st, Limerick city."

The venue is downstairs at the corner of Mallow Street, where Southcentral LK was located before it moved. For the day that is in it Baz also has heartfelt piece on his real life superhero.

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Limerick Printmakers and Lyric FM are just a stones throw from each other and both celebrated 10 year birthday parties this year. To celebrate a special box set of fine art prints was launched last night in the Georgian House. The ten fine art prints made by Limerick Printmakers Studio Gallery Members,are based on music selected by 10 presenters from Lyric FM. You can read more and indeed preview all the work here

Work above part of a triptych by Des McMahon based on interpretation of Coltrane "a Love supreme" chosen by John Kelly

I love Limerick

Video for I'm from Limerick

The man with the masterplan Richanthon has promised a new TV channel for Limerick. The I love Limerick youtube channel is producing some original content along with favouring a lot of Limerick related videos. One gem that they unearthed was the I'm from Limerick video. Brought out a number of years ago by the Limerick Co-Ordination Office and directed by Mike Finn, it was shown in Limerick cinemas and was the start of a successful pride campaign until it was rather tragically overshadowed by one of the worst periods ever in the city's criminal history.

Video for Richanton with Sarah Lynch

Too hot to type

- HomeBass is a new Friday night in the Trinity Rooms featuring different DJs from Limerick based promoters, Nu Killa, Roots Factory, Dubble Bass, Cheebah and Viva. Admission is free, bbq and drinks promos all night.

-Roots Factory have had a last minute change of venue for this Saturday. All the reggae action now takes place in Dolans warehouse. Admission only 6 euro.

- Speakeasy Jazz is fast becoming the hit night of the summer. Tomorrows session is detailed here. Bock has some video from the last one here.

- Blas is on over the next week. Donal Lunny, Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill all play in different venues around the city

- Anyone now for the last few tee shirts

Shane

Ranks

True Blood Soldierz have released a new mix tape/cd with 14 tracks. Genre Problem is available for 5 euro from the bands bebo page. Track above, Recession Skank features the guest female vocalists Nadine Smith and Lina. The TBS crew were one of many who played at the fantastic Africa Day celebrations at City Hall back in mid May. A tremendously varied day, with everything from Grime to jazz to gospel wafting out over the Shannon. Hopefully this day will be repeated, all that was missing was dry weather. The use of the City Hall and its immediate environs stretching up to the castle was a huge success and one that should see more use. Robin Parmer has a great set of photos over at his flickr page.

Africa Day: MC
Originally uploaded by robin746

While Africa Day showed up many of the positives of the city, a review of a recent gig by The Rubberbandits illustrated how certain perceptions always linger. The reviewer Naomi McArdle writing in online zine drop-d states in the opening paragraph that

"hailing from SUV Stab City, Limerick rappers tend to leave a rank taste." ??

The rest of the review makes some interesting observations about shelf life of such a stage show and the comments gets into a worthwhile discussion on the 'up da ra' song.

Shane

the credit crunch (on expenses) tour

Cheebah's rep in London The Unusual and Electric Record label's tour dj Mr Adam Whitaker touches down on Fri 27th June for a blitz of beats.Fridays Bar-b-Q in Nancy Blakes at 6 to 9 has Adam on a smooth jazzy tip with some choice stylings then at 10 till late its the swinging of the chandeliers set in the Wicked Chicken. Saturday sees our man in his perfect environment outside in the alley for what should be the party of the year so far for Mickeys.Full of beans Adam will then be guesting at the end of the night at Jcs Roots factory in Bakers .If you haven't experienced our man yet you're in for a treat and this magic roundabout of a two day tour is the way to do it.

Paul Tarpey

Deeper Love

Video for DeLorean Suite- Deeper Love

Big things happening with Delorean Suite's new single "Deeper Love". Featuring a host of remixes it has garnered airplay on a number of high profile radio shows over the last month. You know it is going to be big when you hear an RTE presenter playing it and NOT making reference to the band's Limerick or indeed, Irish base.Video above is by Ger O'Donnell.

Shane

Strollin' round town

Smiling DJs.  Not as common as they once were.  Maybe it’s down to selectors hoping that the music they play should speak for itself, or maybe the over-scholarly ventures into crate digging have left them somewhat socially inept.  Either way, there isn’t as much personality on show anymore, with set-lists ticking either the overly familiar or compulsively obscure boxes, but leaving the good-times option unmarked.  However, Galway has always been fortunate enough to rely on the sound ears of Graham Dolan to whack the funometer right up into the reds.  For the last 10 years, the city of Tribes have danced to the patchwork of unpretentious tunery stitched together by Dolan, AKA DJ Stroller, in every pub, club and squat with a working PA.  Everywhere from the Roisin Dubh, the Bierhaus, The Bluenote and the GPO have had to mop up punters’ sweat late in the night after the ever-beaming Graham has finished dousing them in everything from children’s TV themes, Motown stompers, cheeky bootlegs and bonafide indie gems.  If a man’s taste in music is an insight into what goes on inside his brain, Graham’s mind is awash with bright cartoon colours in a land where Fat Albert and the gang get drunk with the Ninja Turtles while Kermit the Frog gets dating-tips from Kool Keith.

His annual head to head funk excursions with Jeremy Murphy have become some of the most anticipated sets on the west coast, with the two beat merchants in charge of pushing the momentum to exploding proportions on the Saturday night of Galway’s Community Scratch Games.  But Graham is used to the high-pressure spots, having amassed one of the most ridiculous collections of support slots that would make any head woozy.  Lets see, big breath now – he’s played before Cut Chemist, The Pharcyde, Marlena Shaw, RJD2, Giles Peterson, DJ Cash Money, The Nextmen, Erol Alkan, DJ Dexter and the Audio Bullys.  Oh, and he’s played after Atmosphere, Ugly Duckling, Kidz In The Hall, Final Fantasy, Dan Deacon, The Mad Professor, Bloc Party and Asian Dub Foundation.  I even left a few out, to be honest.  The kid has the credentials.

The under-lying issue that always makes a Stroller set such a refreshingly fun event is his dedication to playing GOOD music, rather than NEW music.  New does not automatically equal GOOD.  There’s no slow set with Graham, its go hard or go home.  Some DJs pace themselves perfectly over the course of a night, gently elevating the mood, the ambiance and the BPMs.  Not Graham.  Its wall-to-wall bangers for the night.  Relentless fun.  Anyone who catches him this Saturday in the Wicked Chicken with his heavy hits artillery in check should keep an ear peeled for his ability to blend 2 seemingly divergent tracks together to push things in some bizarre directions.  Here’s his current top 3 personal mixes that push things over the edge of madness.

Tipper – “Ton Of Bricks” VS Ini Kamoze – Here comes the hot-stepper”

Shawn Lee’s PingPong Orchestra – “Psychedelic Sambai” VS Wu Tang “Mystery of the Chess-boxin”

Mischief Brew – “Kraftywerk” VS Audio 2 “Top Billin”

 Johnny Doobs

Graham Dolan (DJ Stroller) plays the Wicked Chicken, Saturday 20th of June from 10pm onwards.

The Big Chillum

Video for the big chillum

The Big Chillum on Sunday last at Dolans was a huge success. The all day event brought together all the strands that have been successfully operating the dub spectrum in the city for a three room spectacular.

Above some film from outside in the bbq and smoking area earlier in the day. Downstairs in the Warehouse on Sunday evening, the biggest guests of the day Horace Andy and Ashley Beedle took the stage for a very lively two hour set. Short footage below.

Video for Horace Andy and Ashley beedle

Paul took a number of photos. You can see them over on the myspace page. Tag them if you can.

 

Ashley Beedle- photo by Paul Tarpey

 

Upstairs in the outdoor lounge- photo by Paul Tarpey

Voting Works

While it may appear that only over this campaign Irish hip hop emerged as a political force with plenty of videos, (including local ones), the reality is of course very different. Back in the early to mid 90s, much Irish hip hop had a political tinge to it. From Scary Eire's  '10 men dead' to Marxman "A sad affair" and ill dependents "the retort", irish hip hop punched at a much more radical weight than most other genres of its time. I would not include the above track  in that canon, however I suppose it is interesting that a young rapper like the assassin (recording here is from 1997/8) feels that he had to do something political to fit in with the prevailing trends in Ireland. Taken live from the legendary Stevie G show on pirate Radio Friendly. Archived forever on the great old h2Eire site.

If you are voting today, you will presumably be voting your own way for a variety of reasons from  local to  European. While there are a myriad of issues, which people will be basing their opinion on, it would be amiss of us considering the nature of this site not to draw you attention to one.

Over this election campaign in the local Limerick area, two Fine Gael councillors have made immigration their central issue. Around the same time that posters of Jim Long kitted out in his blue shirt began to appear in the City south ward he also beefed up his comments on migrant workers. He admitted he didn't mind been called a racist. Out in the County area, his colleague Liam Galvin managed to get front page of the Limerick Leader, with more unsubstantiated rumours. He uses as a source taxi drivers for claims that some Eastern Europeans may be involved in welfare fraud.

While there is no doubt that not all members of Fine Gael share these views, the approach by the party in dealing with it is worth noting. Enda Kenny the leader informed the media that he told Long to apologise but Long claims he said no such thing. Under pressure from the Limerick Leader, after the Galvin outburst the party promised that their immigration proposals would be published during May. However these have not been published. On a national level we have already seen the outbursts in the last year from Leo Varadkar and Brian Hayes.

It apears that Fine Gael will emerge as the most popular political party in Ireland this weekend. In the race for "anyone but Fianna Fail" they obviously appear as an appealing option to some. However their  failure to deal effectively with the above should make these people think.