Cheebah and all that - Limerick, Ireland

What on Whit

This bank holiday sees lots of choice and hopefully a heatwave  in the city. On Saturday Adrian Sherwood has his first appearance in Limerick and indeed a very rare appearance in Ireland when he plays in the underground with Roots Factory. Sunday has Johnny Doobs in the Wicked Chicken while downtown Brigadier JC's Dimanche du Monde world music night in Mickeys has Paul tarpey and PC as guests. Then, later that night the trinity rooms has a special double bill with Zion Train and the rubberbandits both on in the Courtyard. Admission is just ten euro. Going to be a great one. 

Full size flyers below.

Quayside

Video for Limerick hiphopjam

A smoking hurley

I recently had occasion to speak to an old school English socialist party worker who was spending a few days in Limerick. He was intrigued with as he put it the ‘vulgar’ amount of election posters assaulting the senses on his way in from Shannon. Too true. After the last trip down this aisle there was some talk of a cutback  of the unnecessary volume of these toxic flags. This was not to be. Quirky media fillers from the last election showed images of houses and boats made from these tenacious oversized flyers relegating a ‘less is more’ argument straight to the wastebin. This time we now encounter a doubling of strained nervous plastic faces 1984-ing locals and tourists alike.

The visitor I spoke to registered the generic Fine Gael's campaign in particular. ‘Are the people in the back of the picture chasing the candidate?’ he wondered. "Also are all in that crowd white?". No but the design doesn't flag it. I had wondered about that poster myself. Are the models Irish or stock imagery? Because its the campaigns; ( the party and the design agency’s) decided image of how the Celtic tigers grown up children appear. They look quite conservative.

The whole soap opera encapsulated in these overbearing dioramas mean little to the youth of Thomondgate. Where these unbending placards haven't been burnt leaving melted gobs on the pavement they have been co-opted / initiated into the realm of the celtic tigers cousins (Hey cuz!). The people the design agencies don't have stock imagery for. The streets redesign now sees Fine Gael's Hurley properly attired and outfitted for a radical shift in the party's policy and you couldn't get fairer than that in a democracy.

Paul Tarpey

Discos Revenge

On a saturated summers night The Disconauts sheltered from a day of Limerick rain to muse on various musical manifestos under the guise of a short interview with cheebah.

 The Galway based band with Djs Keith and Padraic on decks underpinned with live drums by Mark and augmented with Ben on brass have been a consistent live draw over the last 7 years. They are particularly well known and respected amongst the tenacious tribe that grew out of the house music movement from the early 90s. The Disconauts consistency as selectors and musicians is rooted in a deep commitment to knowing the craft of delivering Disco music in its true sense combined with a responsible mission to gather a new crop of space travellers to their cause each year.

Cheebah: Theres a great relationship between yourselves and Limerick and i know i should know this but how long - in what ever line up you care to mention - have you been playing here?

(Mark) We toured when we had a 12’’ out and our Limerick date was in Costelloes,11 years ago! I dont know was there even electricity then. i think we used footpumps.

Cheebah: You're as strong as ever, Can i ask is this a testimony to deep houses Irish longevity or is that a narrow definition of your sound ?

(Padraic) Its a case of not ’just’ deep house as such but its us playing and being interested in proper un- cheesy dance music, House, Disco, etc. When we DJ in Limerick for example we have played funk and Hiphop in Mickey Martins and then played a live set of house in the Trinity Rooms then theres different stuff on the menu again when we play in Bakers and the Wicked Chicken....

(Mark) Good music becomes a genre because it stands the test of time and thats whats all about .

Cheebah: Looking back at a time when the idea of Dance music in irish venues became established as an entity in its own right and not just a substitute for live / show band gigs (in the 90s ) people like yourselves with the likes of Greg and shane in Cork were on the ground ready and willing to put the work in to maintain a scene. A scene which is possibly taken for granted sometimes today.

(Padraic) Right, Well, theres people all over the country who were there from the start and who are still active today and thats important . People like Billy Scurry, Declan Cominisky, all those guys in Dublin for instance. Also if you care about the music you need to play and promote it properly . We did care from the beginning and worked many jobs to support it. it is possible to be that committed its not just a fly by night ‘oh im just a dj ‘for as long as the trend lasts thing. You might not make a sole living from it but its do- able.

Cheebah: You cant take any scene for granted, as obvious as it appears the promotion is equally as important as the sound.

(Padraic/ Keith) No,you cant take anything for granted. Theres so many music trends currently circulating that could just take over the space if you stop what your doing, and some of those trends are not necessarily good. In accessing music these days every thing is instant, so if you take your eye of the ball its gone!

Cheebah: Thats taking responsibility, Quality control. On the instantaneous thing, everyone seems to be making accelerated ‘Tunes’ these days.

(keith) There are some terrible things out there!

Cheebah: Can i expand on this. With access to, say an influential DJ's current playlist on a specialist net radio show combined with affordable deck technology and beatport for example, it sometimes happens that any guy (and its always a guy) can decide to play for a crowd as an approximation of say Sven Vath or Joey Negro .

(Mark) Superficial acceleration. What that means is that someone is replicating what the source dj has done and then when they play themselves they are not in any way replicating what they have done themselves.

(Padraic) Or spent the time in researching the music and culture. For example DJ's who were seriously into the Detroit experiment, people like DJ Deep,when he was a kid he actually went to Detriot to live with Derrick May. He went there to totally immerse himself in it. Kids who now download a set or parts of it just to think ‘I'm as good as him’ should know that's not the way it goes. I was a judge at a DJ competition 2 years ago and 4 out of 5 guys played almost identical sets, all downloaded it just became boring.

(Mark) Of course what they are not downloading is the vibe in the room on the night or what the crowd were like with the ebbs and flows of the dancefloor .The whole package.

(Keith) The whole experience. Its something as a DJ you are constantly learning. Your best record in a club one night may be the same one that clears the floor in the same place the following week! Its all about timing as well learning to read bodies on the dancefloor.

Cheebah: Keith, myself and yourself were Judges at a competition about 9 years ago. This guy stepped up and for his 15 minutes on the decks he just stuck in (and hid behind) a Richie Hatwin live cd!

(Keith) Yeah! And when i spotted it he begged us not to tell his friends who couldn't believe that he wasn't the winner! Hilarious.

Homegrown Jams

Appolonia - All City Jam - Dublin on MUZU.

Paul already wrote on the Riverfest jam on the Saturday May 2nd. The following day saw a spectacular dance off by the various breakers. A month earlier, Dublin saw a similar event with another installment of the all city easter jam. Nice short documentary piece on it above.

Photo of Limerick Danceoff by Don Moloney Press 22

Michelle McLaughlin R.I.P

The sad news of the passing of Michelle at such a young age was a shock to all who knew her particularly from her great presence working in the Wicked Chicken. Her upbeat positivity and her ever smiling personality will be greatly missed.

Wear Red

Photo owned by Luke Hoagland (cc)
March in solidarity with the victims of gangland crime today at 3.00 pm in Limerick. Assemble Pery's Square. Those in attendance are been asked to wear red. Full details here. In the past, marches in Limerick have surprised in terms of attendance. I expect this to be no different. Be there.

Pure Bandits

The song 'Pure Awkward' from the Rubberbandits with its tale of  hurling lessons setting off Ice Cube and Snoop on a drug fueled homo erotic adventure was always a track I felt that set them very much apart. Ice Cube himself played Dublin recently and Ophelia, who was supporting, brought the Rubberbandits up on stage with her. This allowed for them to meet the man himself. Read their version of what happened next, it involves a hurley, over here.

Video for Rubberbandits and Ophelia

Shane

Rita and Benny

Paul Tarpey has a great piece on Adrian Sherwood in the Limerick Events guide this month. The dub warrior plays the Roots factory on Saturday May 30th. This anecdote caught my eye and is another link in a chain that we have looked at before here, notably the connection between the Irish and Jamaican communities:
Amongst these influences Sherwood remembers an interesting link between the Irish and Jamaican music he experienced from a small record shop in Stamford Hill.
“ It was called ‘R‘n’B’ after the owners Rita and Benny and people thought it stood for rhythm ‘n’ blues. They’d record Russian music off the radio and press it up. That little shop released the first Lonnie Donegan record, the first Jamaican record and the first Irish Record in England and the label said ‘Irish and Jamaican records together,’ because both communities were getting treated the same ( as immigrants) there was this link between them, they were drawn together because of their love of music, Irish and all this, on a label run by a Jewish couple!”
Full interview here

Shane

Once more around the block

The Alley in Mickeys will throb to the offbeat Funk of the Cheebah and Broken Funk Crews heralding many an inner city summer session begining this saturday in the spot where it all started. Bring your dancin sneakers

Paul Tarpey