Friday 30 March 2012

THE APRIL 12'TH'ERS


Well, March Medicine Sessions gave Lismore's nightlife a proper slap in the face. People haven't stopped gibbering about what a good night it was, the good sort of gibbering that is. The fact that I got handed a weekly column in the local newspaper has also been fantastic, allowing me to waffle about various stuff that I like whilst keeping The Medicine Sessions 'brand' in the subconscious minds of West Waterforders. Whether they actually read the article or not, the brain cannot escape the black, white and red header titled "The Medicine". (See page titled 'paper clips')

Keeping an article is actually great fun, of course I know 'The Dungarvan Observer' is hardly MOJO magazine, but it's nice to see your stuff in print. A couple of weeks ago I even got asked to do a review for a single by Cormac O'Caoimh, who will be playing April Sessions. I didn't initially believe it was my place to be reviewing other people's art, but I actually enjoyed the process. The fact I know absolutely nothing technical about the ins and outs of music helps I think. It would be great to include reviews more often and particularly of those artists who have played/will be playing the sessions.

Of which, here is the line up for Thursday April 12th.

CORMAC O'CAOIMH

Former front man of 'The Citadels', Cormac is currently putting final touches to his new album "A New Season For Love", the single of which is available RIGHT NOW. Or you can purchase an album from him in person, after his set at The Medicine Sessions. He recently supported 'The 4 Of Us' and gigs frequently up and down the country.



DIMITRY DATUS

A three piece band currently gigging regularly on the Cork scene and who will play as part of the "Cork Rocks" concert at the Opera House on April 21st. You can see them at The Medicine Sessions first and witness a slightly tweaked (for a small room) version of their "odd rock" sound, face to face/ear to ear/eye to eye.. etc.



POETRIO.

The Medicine Sessions main spoken word performance for the night,  promises to be an unpredictable and completely original act. The Medicine Sessions will see Mo O'Connor, Gary Baus, and Bren O'Ruaidh, who usually perform together in various Jazz band incarnations, collaborate in a poetry performance/instrumentation/spectacular... to be honest, anything could and possibly will, happen.



And don't forget that there is the "open floor" time, for those who want to experiment with reading/performing their own compositions of words to a friendly, open and supportive room full of people. Give your name to me (Vick) when you arrive so I can slot you in.

Doors open at 9.00pm, get there in time for a seat and the 9.30 start.. on the dot! See you all there and don't forget to bring your bucket money :)




Sunday 11 March 2012

THE GOOD MEDICINE.


Sometimes, you have ideas, vague dreams maybe, whilst drifting off to sleep. They juggle for position with thoughts of what to do with lottery winnings, the oh so witty comebacks you never got to make but should have and imaginings of sun-swept coastlines. You ponder on them for a moment, then move on, dismissing them as fancies, tell yourself; "sure I'd never be able to do that! It would never work!"

But what if one day you thought; "fuck it! I'm going to have a go at doing the thing! It might work! Even just for a little bit.."

So, I decided to try... and on Thursday 8th of March 2012.... It worked!

From moment one (the vague dreaming) I had a sequence of images in my head of the night. It contained a completely eclectic array of performers who would be big and bright and stunning, the sound would be perfect, the night would flow, the spoken word would hook the capacity audience, everyone would get on, there would be laughter and tears of joy, banter, a brimming bucket, calls for "MORE!" and dancing.

There was at least as much as that and as I looked around the faces during the night, to see the most unlikely of Lismore's people with eye's closed, lost entirely in some hidden part of themselves, there was evidently more. Since then, people have been coming up to us saying things like;
"best night I had in ten years!"
"how did you get the bands to come they were amazing!?"
"the spoken word stuff is brilliant, it made the night totally different"

Everyone is a little bit shocked.. including me.

I have to of course thank all the performers who risked the first night and absolutely made it! All the lads from TORCAN (with a fada) and FEAR STALKS THE LAND were fantastic at mucking in together during sound checks, as there wasn't a huge pile of room and I'm no sound technician! All the lads are so professional though that they know their gear inside out and the sound on the night was just spot on. .. apart from the odd mobile phone interference from somewhere. Plus they were all genuinely nice guys and a pleasure to work with.

Massive appreciation to Rab Urquhart aswell, another all round good bloke, who did a huge service to The Sessions by being the first spoken word performer, a brave task to an uninitiated crowd I would say. I could sense that the audience was a little unsure as to the protocol involved in spoken word at first, their faces went something like this: is it alright to clap after every poem? Do you laugh when it's funny? Should we make intellectual faces whilst listening? what is this!?.. I think I like this stuff... hahahahahahhh! different stuff!... BOOM!.. got it.! LOVE IT!
Nicola Tull stepped onto our 'open floor' as the first 'open floorer', another brave gesture, especially considering it was her first time reading her poems publicly. Would love to eventually drum up more 'open floorers', but they are proving elusive so far, think I need to market it better.

It's taken me far too long to realise that IT IS OK TO TRY YOUR IDEAS OUT. I need to give MUTANT ARTSPACE  a nod here too, because I have had great words of encouragement from Moray along the way... and while I'm here, more than a couple of words need to be said about my lovely other half, The Ronald, who made the Medicine Room magic and generally propped everything/everyone up, and fashioned a projector screen weight from an old iron.

CHEERS! Vick.