MacD on Music: Past Gigs, Past Gigs and More Past Gigs

It’s (almost) mid-August, which means it’s almost the end of the (intermediate) summer.

For music fans, this will be remembered for some of the best concert line-ups this town’s seen in recent years. We’ve had countless stacked bills, from Parker’s incredible album launch, also featuring, TomCat, Ferals and TRAMP to Melter’s brilliant Derry debut, with support from The Marra, Dirty Faces and (once again) TRAMP, to last month’s Rock For Pride, who’s bill featured TomCat, The Marra, Ainé Sweeney, String Cut Puppets, Emily McCormick and Dirty Faces.

On top of this, we had yet another brilliant weekend at Stendhal, with it’s usual mix of legends, up-and-comers and everything in between. This week I’m going to be taking a look back at some of these amazing gigs, just days away from another one (to find out which one, you have to keep reading).

Parker (w/TomCat, Ferals and TRAMP)

The first gig I’m looking back on is the album launch for Parker’s much-anticipated debut, ‘Never Let This Go’ (available in Cool Discs. Go buy it now if you haven’t already). The release was marked by a launch gig in Bennigan’s, featuring some of the best musical talent this town has to offer, with those not on the bill probably in the audience. I spoke with Dylan Bradley, frontman of the band, about the gig:

“We launched our debut album in Bennigan’s on the 30th of June and it was definitely one of my favourite shows so far. It’s always a buzz to have a sold out show, it’s such a great feeling to go into a show knowing there’s a good chance it’s going to be a great one. We were also lucky enough to be joined by some of our favourite bands around right now; Tramp, Ferals and TomCat. They all played absolutely incredible sets. It was such a fun night and a perfect way to kick off our album tour.”

Melter (w/The Marra, Dirty Faces and TRAMP)

Next up is the Derry debut from (basically) local band Melter. Melter are based across the water but their roots are firmly in Derry. This summer they played a brilliant gig upstairs in Sandino’s that was, easily, one of the shows of the summer. I spoke with Ruairi Coyle about his thought on the gig:

“Where do I start?! What a night that was! Amazing craic from start to finish and a pleasure for us, especially coming over from England and what an introduction to Derry for our Mickey! When putting gigs on you’re hoping to get a good crowd in of course, but also that the other acts/bands you have on enjoy themselves too (which hopefully they did). It was so encouraging to see the size of the crowd in the room from pretty much the start of the gig, meaning every band got to play in front of a decent amount of people.

"Big thanks to those beautiful bands we were lucky to have on; The Marra, Dirty Faces & TRAMP. Everyone played fantastically well and made us feel like we had to give it that extra welly ourselves. It was great. We’d also like to personally thank the man with the golden touch, Gerry Craig, for doing God’s work behind the desk as per usual, and also to Ann Harley & Sandino's for having us in! Let’s make Round 2 even bigger!”

Stendhal

This summer saw the return of the always-brilliant Stendhal festival. Every year, it plays host to an array of the finest artists from around the world, past and present, and this year was no exception.

The weekend saw great sets from headliners the Wailers and Cara Dillon (not together, although that would be interesting), Ethan Hollen (who got to play his single ‘Forest’ in a forest), Cora Harkin, Red Eye Pariah, The Gatefolds, Oscar Jennings, Polar Bolero and Waldorf & Cannon (the last three all featuring local Tout Jason Feenan on drums). To close things out, TRAMP played an electrifying set on the Henry McCullough Stage. It was certainly a weekend to remember.

Of course, the summer of song isn’t over yet. As promised, here’s the next stacked-deck line-up. This Sunday sees Sandino’s play host to the last ever gig by The Clameens. Going out Last Waltz-style (R.I.P. Robbie Robertson), the gig also features TomCat, tessio. and, as has been the case with most of this summer’s best gigs, TRAMP. Unfortunately, I myself won’t be able to get to this one (I’ll be in Finland) but make sure you don’t miss it. This is one that definitely won’t be happening again.

Finally, in non-gig related news, last week saw the release of the brilliant new album, ‘My Northern Soul’ by Declan McLaughlin. It’s available in Cool Discs now.

And, to close things out, here’s the socials. Parker can be found on Instagram @bandcalledparker, TomCat @tomcat_band, Ferals @ferals_official, Melter @meltertheband, The Marra @themarra_band, Dirty Faces @dirtyfacesderry, The Clameens @theclameens, tessio. @tessio_, Declan McLaughlin @declanmclaughlin_derry, Cool Discs @cooldiscs and, of course, TRAMP @thisistramp.