MacD on Music: Coming Soon, to Headphones Near You …

This summer has already seen plenty of great musical moments. We’ve had the always-brilliant Stendhal Festival, Paul Casey’s Glastonbury debut (as well as the excellent warm-up gig in St. Columb’s Hall), and lots of new singles from some of our town’s finest artists.

There’s still plenty to come though, and this week I’m going to be taking a look at some of the upcoming highlights, from gigs to new releases:

Virgins in Bennigan’s

First up is a gig from the Belfast-based group Virgins, who will be playing Bennigan’s this Friday night (2nd August), with support from Ferals and Telezura. The group released their album ‘nothing hurts and everything is beautiful’ in April and this gig will be a part of the supporting tour.

The band, who recently played Stendhal, have been making the rounds for a while now and have shared the stage with some of the best currently on the scene, including CHERYM (who’s debut album ‘Take It Or Leave It’ is available now in Cool Discs), Cora Harkin and TRAMP (more on them later). This gig is sure to be a good one so get your tickets now, while you still can. Doors are at 8 and tickets are £8 each.

Louise DaCosta in Sandino’s

Next up is another label party from Louise DaCosta’s DaCosta Records. This one is on August 17th and, if the last one is anything to go by, is going to be a night of great craic and great music from some brilliant DJs. It’s happening in Sandino’s with free entry and doors opening at 10pm so make sure you don’t miss it.

Lord Jane’s New Song/Upcoming EP

Now, we move on to new music from the Belfast-based Lord Jane. Fronted by Clodagh May (a familiar name to long time readers), the group formed in 2022 and have so far released two singles, with a third, ‘Harmonia’ coming this Thursday (1st August). This will be followed by their debut EP ‘Tulips’ in September. The group have been making waves in recent times, recently opening for Problem Patterns in their recent Nerve Centre gig.

Made up of Sam Foote (guitar), Dylan Norton (drums), Carl Small (bass), Aidan Reynolds (guitar) and, as previously mentioned, Clodagh May (vocals), the band’s songs have been described by Hot Press as ‘vibrant and hard hitting’ and these new releases show no sign of things changing any time soon.

Music Capital

Music Capital has been putting on some brilliant gigs in the past few years, and the next few months will see them bringing more big names to our fine city. August 25th will see T’Pau, China Crisis and Nik Kershaw playing Ebrington Square for the ‘Back to the 80’s’ festival. Tickets are selling fast so grab yours while you still can.

Moving on a few months, October 4th will see the return of the legendary Mary Coughlan to St. Augustine’s. Mary, a true icon of Irish music, always puts on a brilliant show, weather it’s with the full band or just a piano player, and this one promises to be another great night.

Later that month, on Halloween itself, Crash Test Dummies will be playing the Guildhall as part of their tour to mark thirty years of ‘God Shuffled His Feet’, the album that gave the world the group’s most famous song, ‘Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm’. This one is sure to be a sell out so make sure you get in while you still can.

Skipping forward to December, we have a gig that seems to be becoming a tradition, Hothouse Flowers playing the Guildhall after Christmas. Once again, they’ll be playing on December 28th (also known as the day Lemmy died for those keeping track) and this time will feature support from Hannah White.

TRAMP’s EP

Saving the best for last, we now have one of the most anticipated releases of the year. TRAMP have been making a huge splash for the past few years, going from opening for Parker and General Fiasco to closing out Stendhal. In that time, they’ve released three excellent singles (‘Frankenstein’, ‘Snakes and Rabbits’, and ‘Postcards From Poland’), toured Ireland and the UK, played as System of a Down and Queen in back-to-back Halloweens in Bennigan’s and won the NI Music Award for BBC Across The Line Artist of the Year. Now, on August 23rd, they’ll be releasing their much-anticipated debut EP ‘The Birds’.

The EP is sure to be one of the best releases of the year and I’ll be writing more about it in the coming weeks so make sure to watch this space.

Now, time for the socials. Virgins can be found on Instagram @bandofvirgins, Louise DaCosta @thelouisedacosta, DaCosta Records @dacostarecords, Lord Jane @lordjanemusic, Music Capital @musiccapital as well as musiccapital.org and, finally, TRAMP are, of course, @thisistramp.