****************************************** SHOWCASE TOUR ****************************************** The IMRO Showcase Tour, a series of showcase gigs profiling some of the best emerging acts in Ireland continues next week with a gig in The Sugar Club on Wednesday 5th May. The Tour has been packing venues throughout Ireland over the last five weeks while at the same time attracting significant a&r interest from Irish and UK based labels. We have a limited number of guest list places available for this gig. If you would like to have your name included on this list please send an email containing a list of names for inclusion to keith.johnson@imro.ie Showcase will feature: Stars of the City Baby Jenks My Brother Woody Torgas Valley Reds VENUE: THE SUGAR CLUB (Leeson Street) DATE: Wednesday 5th May DOORS: 8:00pm The Tour is sponsored by 2FM ****************** STARS OF THE CITY ****************** Inspiring a veritable signing frenzy and wowing them on the US east and west coasts, STARS OF THE CITY are bent on becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy. With the recent surge of interest in Ireland's newest stars ..."Stars of the City" are about to embark on what is to be their biggest year to date!! A mere two years young Stars of the City are the main focus of some strong label interest and everybody from the Big five to the hippest of Indies are looking for a piece of the action. Fresh back from recent showcases at SXSW, New York and LA where significant new contacts were developed by the band, the coming months will be all important for this critically acclaimed act. "Stars of the City are currently enjoying life at the forefront of Dublin's new dawn … the skies the limit!" - Hot Press January 2004 - "Hot for 2004" ************************ TORGAS VALLEY REDS ************************ Torgas Valley Reds are a three piece based in Belfast. We could tell you that in the mid 90's, as Backwater, they released several singles and an album on Che Records and Fantastic Plastic. And maybe it would make some sense to point out that around that time they gigged with Radiohead, Ash and Idlewild. Their new single "Torgas Valley Blue" was released in April on HOWL records. Come see them play live. We're hoping that the Ba Ba's, the handclaps, the fuzzy bass and the sing-a-long choruses will be enough to make you love TVR as much as we do. ********************** MY BROTHER WOODY ********************** My Brother Woody is the creation of 24 year old songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Cleare. Michael has played extensively around Ireland sharing the bill with the likes of Mundy, Turn, the Jimmy Cake, the Chalets, the N.P.B, the Tycho Brahe, Marc Carroll, Roesy and Colm Quearney (Q). He has received airplay on Today fm ( the Ray Darcy show), 2FM (Dan Hegarty and Dave Fanning shows) and will shortly enter the 2FM studios to record a Fanning Session. Having spent a year writing and recording in San Francisco, he returned to Ireland to put the finishing touches to his debut e.p. The songs were recorded in various bedrooms between San Francisco and Offaly on an 8 track machine While in San Francisco, Michael played regularly in various clubs around the city and recorded a song for a Dennis Wilson (Beach Boys) tribute CD to be released later this year. The Songs on “My Brother Woody” are hook laden and harmony-driven, full of warm infectious melodies, recalling the sound and style of legendary American bands such as the Beach Boys and Big Star, as well as more modern purveyors of good vibrations like Teenage Fanclub. There’s a sweet innocent, wistful quality to the music, a breath of fresh air, like fellow west coast pop enthusiasts the Thrills into a sometimes overly earnest and introspective Irish songwriter scene. My Brother Woody was recently voted 5th most outstanding new artist on the Irish scene in the cluas.com 2003 readers poll ******************* BABY JENKS ******************* A Dublin five piece who although individually have experience on the Dublin gig scene only formed in November of 2002. Their debut as Baby Jenks came when they performed to a packed Mother Red caps in November 2002, followed by an equally successful performance at Dublin's Voodoo bar in early 2003. Baby Jenks obvious talent and pure passion for music is brought to life by the fusion of their different but almost perfected ability to create nothing short of beautiful music. Each bringing their own unique talent by drawing on a mixture of experience, musical ability and raw emotion.