RTÉ 2fm Radio Press Pack, Week 46
Saturday 8 November – Friday 14 November 2008
Highlights:
Cormac Battle with The Flaws in Studio
Dan Hegarty with Autamata in the Repeat Studio Session
Dan Hegarty with Floggong Molly Live at Oxegen 08
Jenny Huston with Elbow at the Picnic – Part 1
THE LATE SESSIONS
2am: FISH GO DEEP
Ireland’s favourite House combo with their monthly message to the nation from the dancefloors of Cork.
4am: SILVER APPLES
Truly these are some of the original pioneers of electronic music, the Silver Apples formed in New York in 1967 and comprising of percussionist Danny Taylor and lead vocalist Simeon, a bizarre figure who played an instrument also dubbed the Simeon, which (according to notes on the duo’s self-titled 1968 debut LP) consisted of “nine audio oscillators and eighty-six manual controls. The lead and rhythm oscillators are played with the hands, elbows and knees and the bass oscillators are played with the feet.”
Although the utterly uncommercial record sold poorly, the Silver Apples resurfaced a year later with their sophomore effort, contact, another far-flung outing which fared no better than its predecessor. After the record’s release, the duo seemingly vanished into thin air, perhaps returning to the alien world from where they purportedly came. However, in 1996 the Silver Apples mysteriously resurfaced, as Simeon and new partner Xian Hawkins released the single Fractal Flow.
American and European tours followed, and a year later a new LP, Beacon, was released to wide acclaim. The follow-up Decatur appeared in 1998, and was soon joined by A Lake of Teardrops as well as The Garden, the long-unreleased third and final effort from the original Simeon/Taylor partnership.
However, on November 1, 1998, the Silver Apple’s van crashed while returning from a New York gig; the accident left Simeon with a broken neck and spinal injuries. Since the accident, Silver Apples’ activity has diminished. Simeon spends his time making new music, recuperating, and boating on the Gulf of Mexico. Xian Hawkins has released three albums of solo material under the name Sybarite. Danny Taylor died on March 10, 2005 in Kingston, New York. In September 2007 Simeon went on tour for the first time in years, performing as a solo version of the Silver Apples to much acclaim.
Recorded live by RTÉ 2fm at the Little Big Tent, Electric Picnic, Saturday 30 September, 2008
Producer: Ian Wilson
RTÉ 2fm, Saturday 8 November, 2.00am
THE LATE SESSIONS
12 midnight: JOEY BELTRAM LIVE AT THE SUMMER SESSION
New Yorker Joey Beltram is widely acknowledged as a leading innovator in the early development of underground dance music. Joey began DJing as a hobby back in 1983 at the age of 13 playing mostly early electro and hip-hop. He made the switch to house music in 1985 when the first wave of Chicago house hit New York City that same year.
In 1989 he started releasing some of his early productions on several small New York record labels. A year later he caught the eye of R & S Records in Belgium and by mid 1990 released his first major record with that company titled Energy Flash. Beltram soon followed with some equally impressive releases. In 1999 he formed STX Records, which he currently records for under both JB³ and Joey Beltram.
Recorded live by RTÉ 2fm at The Summer Session Fairyhouse, 21 June 2008
1am: 4KEE
Our dancehall correspondent sends in his report from that blessed Caribbean isle.
2am: SUNIL SHARPE – THE MONTHLY MIX
Resident techno whiz kid Sunil is back with his take on techno.
3am: DJ MEK
Mek is the man from Tullamore with supernatural control over the wheels of steel.
4am: PSYCHONAVIGATION MIX
To complete the trio of residents tonight, we have the high kings of ambience with their monthly message.
Producer: Ian Wilson
RTÉ 2fm, Saturday 8 – Sunday 9 October, 12 midnight
*Highlight*
CORMAC BATTLE WITH THE FLAWS LIVE IN STUDIO
Cormac takes in some live tunes in studio and talks to the Monaghan lads.
The Flaws have spent much of their summer playing festivals at home and abroad, from a brilliant set at Glastonbury where they played the Leftfield Stage to a packed tent and a very well received audience in Castlepalooza where they wooed the crowd into a dancing frenzy and left them screaming for more. The bands festival season came to an end with a much anticipated appearance at Electric Picnic on Saturday 30 August where they rocked the Crawdaddy Stage to a full house happily singing along to Sixteen, Out Tonight, and the like.
The Flaws Autumn tour saw them hitting full houses all over the country and also saw the release of Idolise, taken from their Choice Nominated debut album Achieving Vagueness, which will be used as a promo only single to coincide with the tour. The track was recently chosen by RTÉ as the music for their Euro 2008 closer. The specially recorded video piece was watched by over 600,000 viewers.
A trip to Italy is on the cards for late 2008. Having released Achieving Vagueness, and toured there in March of this year the lads are looking forward to returning to the beautiful Milan to play some dates.
Producer: Ian Wilson
RTÉ 2fm, Sunday 9 October, 9.30pm
DAN HEGARTY WITH LE GALAXIE IN THE 2FM STUDIO SESSION
Electro rockers Le Galaxie released the single You Feel The Fire!, on 31 October 2008.
In the year they took their Grids V Guitars mania to London Calling, Bud Rising and Electric Picnic, Le Galaxie released You Feel The Fire! at a launch at Dublin’s Crawdaddy on 31 October. Choosing late night Halloween madness over early evening sanity, this late performance included Italian horror/sci-fi movie/Demolition Man visuals.
Le Galaxie are Michael Pope on guitar and synth, Anthony Hyland on guitar, Alastair Higgins on drums and David McGloughlin on bass.
Born from the burning embers of the critically acclaimed 66E, Le Galaxie harnessed the power of musical maximalism in 2007 and released the single We Bleed The Blood of Androids in May 2008 to much praise.
EUROSONIC COMPETITION – All week Dan is to choose a listener and friend to go to the annual Eurosonic Festival in Holland.
RTÉ 2fm and The Eurosonic Festival will fly the lucky pair to Holland, return train to Groningen, accommodation in Groningen for the festival, VIP passes to see all 160 bands over the two days plus a tour of the city and a chance to produce their own video blog of the event.
Email: dan@rte.ie
Producer: Ian Wilson
RTÉ 2fm, Monday 10 October, 12 midnight
*Highlight*
DAN HEGARTY WITH AUTAMATA IN THE REPEAT STUDIO SESSION
Tonight Dan Hegarty brings us a full live session with Autamata, the brainchild of Ken McHugh. Ken and singer Carol Keogh talk to Dan between tunes about the rise of Autamata.
Having reached a point where the marriage of live instrumentation and electronic programming came naturally and fluently, Ken began to incorporate all these influences into Autamata and set about making his debut album. This all came at the same time that he was establishing his own record label, Lefthand Records.
One year on and My Sanctuary was born. The album was built up from layers of electronic music, structured into songs featuring guest vocalists, Carol Keogh, Cathy Davey and “my wee nephew Michael who got to ‘be a robot’ for a while”, Ken explains. “I even decided to sing on a couple of the numbers myself.”
Producer: Ian Wilson
RTÉ 2fm, Wednesday 12 October, 12 midnight
*Highlight*
DAN HEGARTY WITH FLOGGING MOLLY LIVE AT OXEGEN 08
A slice of Irish American Celtic punk from Flogging Molly, the seven-piece band formed in Los Angeles, California. Molly are currently signed to SideOneDummy Records. Prior to forming Flogging Molly, Dave King was the vocalist for heavy metal band Fastway featuring guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke of Motörhead in the early to mid 80s.
Recorded by BBC Radio Ulster and Radio 1 on the RTÉ 2fm New Band Stage on Sunday July 13 as part of the RTE/BBC sharing of live music on the island
Producer: Ian Wilson
RTÉ 2fm, Thursday 13 October, 12 midnight
*Highlight*
JENNY HUSTON WITH ELBOW AT THE PICNIC – PART 1
This year’s Mercury Award winners with a wonderful live set at the Picnic, complete with stings. The lads from Bury in Lancashire, England have remained the same band since forming in 1990
This year alone Elbow performed at Delamere Forest in Cheshire on June 14, 2008 as part of the Forestry Commission’s 2008 music tours. The band commented before the show, “We always love playing gigs in unusual places. We’ve never done a gig in a forest before so we’re really looking forward to it.”
Elbow and Bournemouth-based Air Traffic embarked on an extensive North American tour in May 2008, which was greatly received by the media including Blender and Spin magazine, Elbow appeared on the Other Stage at the Glastonbury Festival on 28 June, played at the Reading and Leeds festivals on the August Bank Holiday weekend 2008, joined on stage by many violinists and cellists. They also performed in the Obelisk Arena at the Latitude Festival on 19 July 2008.
They have just finished a tour in October with gigs in Leicester, Leeds, Gateshead, Liverpool and Manchester.
Recorded by RTÉ 2fm at the Electric Arena, Electric Picnic on Saturday 30 September.
Producer: Ian Wilson
RTÉ 2fm, Friday 14 October, 9.30pm
Further Information:
Jack Fox, (01) 208 2452, jack.fox@rte.ie
Denise Sammon, (01) 208 2215, denise.sammon@rte.ie
Sandra Byrne, (01) 208 2506/ 087 249 3048, sandra.byrne@rte.ie
Sarah Martin, (01) 208 2312/ 087 750 1850, sarah.martin@rte.ie