MacD on Music: How many mics

Open mic nights are an essential part of music. They’re the place where new artists get to hone their craft and where legends get discovered. In Derry, the open mic scene has been mostly in pubs in recent years, which tends limit those taking part to the eighteen plus crowd or those with a half-decent fake ID.

Recently, Clipper Quay Street Food Market has begun hosting it’s very own all-ages open mic night from seven to nine every second Wednesday, giving the young talent of this town a spot to play in front of a crowd and get their names out there.

I caught up recently with host Cheryl-Ann, herself a veteran of the open mic scene, to talk about it ahead of the next one this Wednesday (22nd April).

“It’s open to all ages. We’ve had all sorts of acts. We’ve had poets, we’ve had rappers, we’ve had a fella come in and play saxophone. We’ve had wee boys in here that were thirteen who have started a band together, and they were brilliant. If you come along before seven you’re almost guaranteed a slot as of now, but it’s getting busier and busier so you’re probably better messaging us to get a slot.”

We then spoke a bit about Cheryl-Ann’s own history of Open Mics: “I started in Cafe del Mondo. That would be seventeen years ago now I would say, on a Monday night. I went in, the guitar was bigger than me at the time. It was my daddy’s guitar. I didn’t have one of my own.

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"I started playing in there and I probably would’ve sang the same song every Monday night at the start, but it was great because I then had a wee community of music friends who were growing up in the same position as me, and they all went off and created bands. Even still, to this day, there’s some of them I would message if I needed a band or needed a guitar player or something, they’re all from that era. Half the people from there are playing all over the world now. That’s where I got my first gig from. It’s great for young people, and there’s nowhere else that’s doing Open Mic nights that are open to all ages.”

“The first time I ever walked into Cafe del Mondo was on my own. I’d seen the advertisement and my mammy said ‘You should go up to that and try it out’ so I went up and it maybe went on for two or three years. There’s friends that I have made there that I still call friends, that I never met before I went in there, and I can see that starting to happen here, which is amazing because they could go on to be the next Snow Patrol. I’m nearly sure Soak came in there a few times. Luke McLaughlin [Touts/The Marra] used to play there. I think every Derry musician was in Cafe del Mondo at some stage.”

Next, I asked about the artists coming to the Clipper Quay Open Mic: “We have maybe a group of five or six young boys who are fourteen or fifteen, and they’ve been coming every week since we’ve started and every week one of them rocks up with a new instrument, which is class. They’re building their own wee repertoire for going out and gigging. I know two of them had their first gig in FoyleSide a couple of weeks ago, and they’ve got a band outside of here.

"They’re getting to perform in front of people, whereas, I think nowadays, young musicians are so focused on TikTok and so focused on online that that aspect of live performance is nearly forgotten about. Maybe because there’s not the place for them to do it, but in here gives them that experience, what you need to set up, what type of guitar you need, like you can’t rock up with an acoustic guitar, you need a guitar with a lead, that kind of stuff. They’re all learning that from here, which is really good, and hopefully with my seventeen years of experience I can give them a wee bit of help too.”

“It’s on every other Wednesday now, but hopefully come the summer time it’ll be on more regularly, and if it comes to the time when we can’t fit everyone from seven to nine, then we might make it longer. I can see that community that I had in Cafe del Mondo starting to build up here in the young people and it’s really nice to see.”

And that’s it from Cheryl-Ann. The next Clipper Quay Open Mic is this Wednesday (22nd April) and is open to all ages.

Now, onto other business. This past Friday saw the release of ‘Crashland’, the lead single from Sister Ghost’s latest EP ‘Oracle’. Speaking of the song, ghostly sister Shannon says: “This song was written in the spirit of being possessed by feelings of gratitude for friendship, travel and rock’n’roll!

"I wanted to write something that captured the feeling of blasting your favourite songs in the car, with the windows rolled down as you cruise through the Mojave desert with your buddies or explore a new city for the first time and make new friends along the way”.

‘Crashland’ and ‘Oracle’ are both out now on all good streaming services.

Finally, time for the socials. Sister Ghost can be found on Instagram @sisterghostofficial, Cheryl-Ann @cherylannofficial and Clipper Quay Street Food @clipperquaystreetfood and @clipperquayopenmic (on both Instagram and TikTok).