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Music Network is an Arts Council funded organisation who, amongst other things, organise tours of live music throughout Ireland. These tours can involve either traditional, contemporary or classical musicians and most significantly the network bring these shows to small theatres all around the country. Sometimes they bring over acts who have a show ready to go (De Temps Antan and Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi are recent examples), but at other times they put a number of musicians together and ask them to develop a programme.

On the eve of the winter solstice Kíla brought their Féile Kíla to the National Stadium on the South Circular Road (féile = festival). For those unfamiliar with the band: Kíla are an eight piece band that Songlines Magazine described as folk fusion - a more apt description than the usual trad world hybrid, though they are that as well. Last year Kíla celebrated 30 years as a band and to mark the occasion they put on their first Féile Kíla. It was a resounding success, with none other than president Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina in attendance.

 “Frank Turner will be performing his most original project to date”, proclaimed the venue program. That venue was the Birmingham Symphony Hall, a spectacular place for a concert. 'No Man's Land' was released in the summer. Frank's eighth album to date is a concept album, celebrating remarkable women who are not as famous as they ought to be. The album was accompanied by a podcast series with an episode for each song, delving further into the stories of the female protagonists.

Headbanging trad on speed. That was how I described Talisk’s late night show at the main stage at Cambridge Folk Festival this summer. When the opportunity arose to go and see the trad trio at their own headline gig I jumped at the chance, and so it was that I found myself in Edinburgh’s historic centre on a very dark and wet November evening.

To say that Lankum’s concert on their album release day was highly anticipated would be an understatement. The band had tweeted photos of them working on ‘The Livelong Day’ in the studio (Meadow Studio, Delgany, Co.Wicklow) earlier in the year. They posted a fascinating playlist on Spotify, compiled by their producer John ‘Spud’ Murphy, of tracks that inspired the making of the album . In interviews the band had been saying that they had finally made the album that they had been trying to make for a long time.

“Hello, It's us again, back at the Foxlowe. I recognise some of your ....clothing” says Simon Nicol guitarist and vocalist of Fairport Convention setting the relaxed atmosphere for this evening on their Spring tour 2019. The Fairport Spring tour is a more relaxed acoustic stroll round the country, the band are seated on stage, Simon's guitars are acoustics and drummer Gerry Conway sans drum kit plays a variety of percussion and the cajon on which he is seated with his hands only.

Some background first. Important context needed. Built in the late 1950’s in response to Sheffield’s chronic social housing issues, which in turn resulted from the need for back-to-back tenement house clearance post WW2, Park Hill has dominated Sheffield’s skyline ever since. It’s a monolithic structure (afforded Grade II listed status in 1998) after the ‘Brutalism’ style French architect Le Corbusier, under the supervision of John Lewis Womersley (never knowingly under built?) containing 1,160 dwellings across 4 high rise blocks – it was the biggest social housing estate in Europe at that time. Got it. But what do Sheffielders think of it?

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