Of course democracy works, look at the US! ...er, ok, you've got a point Is it just me or does the poll feel like a bit of a re-run of last year? Bit like Christmas TV really.

I agree with you there - i'd love to see the actual figures for these votes, if voters can only vote once. There was nothing fresh there at all. Surely Simple Kid and other Newcomers should be in there somewhere. Bit of a disappointment really. Yawn! Bush .... Gore.....who Cares!

It seems people are sucked in fools and haven't attended many gigs this year...Personally Radiohead was my favourite gig of the year without question and amazing performances from Blondie, Manu Chao, Flaming Lips, Calexico, Redneck manifesto, Coldspoon conspiracy(fav gig from a local band),Lackluster, Wevie Stonder,Decal and many many more floated my boat. Ask a Frames fan what gigs they have been to this year and apart from Damien Rice, Mundy, Damien Dempsey,Lisdoornvarna fest,Mark Geary,Paddy casey and Witnness cos they all go to Witnness to see the latter artists mentioned anyway you will be quite bored by the time they fill you in on how many times this year they have seen them all play live....get a life folks there are loads of bands and talented artists out there way better than the Frames and maybe not all of them you will like but you won't know unless you give it a whirl! Yay to the Coldspoon Conspiracy by the way.

Well, I gotta be fair and acknowledge that I've seen a couple of the 'Frames-set' gigs myself in the past 12 months - some good, some bad (Mark Geary should start to feel his ears burning about now).. But how anyone could rate GemmaHayes ahead of the Lips, or Bowie, or Gillian Welch, is far beyond me. She certainly looks purty though...

thought I had clicked on the poll results for 1999 by accident - no disrespect intended to anyone but we haven't really moved forward have we? then again, i have absolutely no doubt that these are 100% genuine results and therefore this is the way the vote went down. i suppose its very hard for any new act to obtain the "critical mass" thats required to beat the mainstays of the irish music scene. maybe as a measure to fight "anti-competitiveness" we should insist that certain acts and solo performers NOT be allowed to support each other as is soooo often the case - anyone got any thoughts on that?

Yeah, its a nice idea to get some genuinely different acts supporting the Frames an friends, but I imagine it would be very intimidating for the band concerned. Could you imagine being in an arty, avant garde or electronic act trying to play to a Frames/Gemma Hayes/Damien Rice etc. audience who seem to value "authenticity"? Maybe theres a chance they would like you, but theres a strong possibility you would get a bad reaction or worse, no reaction at all. No disrespect intended to the Frames but they and the rest of the similar acts in their scene seem to trade on a kind of "cult of personality". There is a lot of emphasis put on the individuals in these bands and how "real" their songs are, supposedly taken from the songwriters own experience (with long-winded anecdotes to match). In this kind of an environment its hard for a band that works on a more conceptual level or who just want to write great simple pop songs to make their presence felt. Sometimes it seems this kind of audience looks for a bit too much meaning from a gig. Sorry folks, this is "music", you want "Religion and Philosphy 101" down the hall. Maybe thats a little harsh, but hey, its monday and I'm even grumpier than usual.

Well said that man! My dislike of Frames/Glen love-ins has been well documented here in the past. When I hand over my hard earned neurons for a gig, I expect to hear music and not some second rate, patronising pyschobabble. As for Mark Geary, he can stick his Mikado biscuits where the sun has not right to shine.

Yaaawwwnnnn. The Frames. Gemma Hayes. Damian Rice. Far too predictable. Text-book voting in my view. I must say I'm disappointed with the results too. Better luck next year I hope. Q2

Ahh lads...it's Monday, lets not get into the Frames-talk again!!!!!

Re: all the same bands winning ok, so a lot of the winners were the same as other years, but we've never been included any year before, and were pretty damn suprised to be this year. i'd hardly call The Coldspoon Conspiracy, Messiah J & The Expert, Waiting Room and The Redneck Manifesto "part of the frames-set" or connect any of them with "long-winded anecdotes" or part of any "love-in". it's easy to scan quickly down through the results and just see the usual names (ie, damien rice, frames, mundy etc) pop out, but look a little bit closer and there's a few great acts that have been credited.

yes, well done Coldspoons - didnt mean to overlook ye're success (and others)... by way of explanation, i would have said that this discussion highlights just how well ye did in gaining recognition. well done again.

I second that John, ye did very well coldspoon, so fair play. It's just that as far as the winners go, it's just the same old story again. To me, it's like Man Utd always winning the league, Kilkenny always winning the hurling, Schumacher always winning the Grand Prix etc. etc. Here's hoping ye come up trumps next year. Q2

Heehee...he'd only do it if he could fit his acoustic into the car with him...for protection of course!

As tally-man, returns officer, or whatever, for the 2003 readers’ poll I suppose I should be independent, or at least hold no opinions on the poll results. Nonetheless I will stick my neck out and say that I share some of the views expressed on this thread (for example about the fact that several names that came up in the latest poll results have been appearing in the results year-in, year-out...). But two quick points: 1) To be honest there's a certain inevitability in these sort of polling exercises: the highest profile acts on the local scene are going to get a high proportion of votes cast. And until there is some sort of (even radical?) reshaping / evolution of the local scene in terms of how profile is 'distributed' among acts (or however you'd like to put it) there will a certain similarity from year-to-year in the poll results. It may be frustrating for some whose curiosity makes them look beyond the highest profile, most established acts but it's the nature of the polling game. 2) Nonetheless it's not as if there is NOTHING new in the 2003 results. As already noted by others in this thread there was strong polling for many fresh acts making a mark and doing so on their own terms. And some of them may in the coming year go on to bigger and brighter things and pave the way for a new flow of fresh blood. Who knows how things may then turn out? And yes - for what it’s worth - I too couldn’t believe it when Flaming Lips only scraped in at number 5 in the 'best performance on stage' category (and that Radiohead didn't even make it in to that same top 5). What’s the world coming to, eh? Anyway let's see how the votes pan out for the 2004 readers’ poll. And any suggestions on how future polls are run (change/tweak the categories? Publish top 10 in stead of top 5 resutls?) are more than welcome. eoghan Editor, Webmaster, Electoral Returns officer & all that sort of stuff www.CLUAS.com

Euhh..Top 5 gigs, albums (excluding The Frames, Damien Rice, Gemma Hayes)???? Seriously though, popular acts will always get the votes. It goes to show that the people who read Cluas are not necessarily the ones on this board.

Eoughan, you might have an idea there alright. A top five is quite limited as you are just going to get the usual suspects in the main, so perhaps a top ten would be the way to go - it would presumabely give a much bigger, more interesting and colourful picture, which is probably what most of us on this board are interested in. Anyone else got suggestions??

well, isn't the real issue that people's preferences don't change radically every year. why would we expect them to? if the frames were in the top 5 live acts in ireland 3 years ago - or whatever - then chances are they'll still be in the top 5 now. i think polls/awards/lists are basically only good as jumping-off points for discussion - like this one about the singer-songwriter clique. on the other hand some (eg oscars) aren't even worthy of that.

Hi all, Surely it wouldn't be that tricky to show the top 10 in all categories? Is the format of these polls set in stone? Could an administrator not just go into results and update them end of story everybody happy? Will he/she? Gumby.