IMRO Showcase Tour 04 | Best Of Tour Gig | 29th May | The Village The 8 acts performing at the "Best of Tour" gig in The Village, Dublin, on Saturday 29th May are: Alphastates Life After Modelling Fighting With Wire Stars of the City Contraband Mainline Stanley Super 800 Me In The Park IMRO will have a limited number of guest list places available for this showcase. If you like to be included on this list please send an email to keith.johnson@imro.ie The IMRO Showcase Tour, Ireland’s longest running national music showcase tour took to the road again at the end of March. The Tour, now firmly established as one of the premier opportunities for emerging acts to showcase to record companies and the music media here in Ireland and the UK is one of the most sought after gigs on the Irish Music calendar each year. Breakthrough successes by emerging Irish acts are at an all time high internationally with major inroads being made by the likes of Damien Rice, The Thrills, The Frames and Gemma Hayes. Ireland has now firmly positioned itself on the ‘must visit list’ of every major record label looking to sign the next big international act. The tour this year has attracted a record amount of label and media interest both from Irish and UK based companies. Over the years the Tour has given in excess of 500 bands the opportunity to showcase their wares to live audiences and industry movers and shakers throughout Ireland. The 2004 Tour consisted of a series of regional showcases which took place in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Belfast and Dundalk. The tour will culminate with ‘Best of Tour Gig’ in The Village Dublin on Saturday 29th May. The showcase will be hosted by Dave Fanning and a large industry attendance is expected with a number of industry representatives flying in from the UK especially for the show. "Over the past few years the standard on the Tour was really high and I’m expecting the same this year. Lets face it … the IMRO showcase is THE big showcase to get … because IMRO have established it that way” - Dave Fanning, 2FM. The 2004 Tour is fully supported by 2FM through the Dave Fanning, Rick O’Shea, Dan Hegarty, Jenny Huston and Cormac Battle evening shows. With no shortage of exciting acts emerging from around the country at the moment, the 2004 “Best of Tour” gig is shaping up to be one you just can’t afford to miss. “Nights like the IMRO Showcase Tour remind us how effervescent, vibrant and almighty the Irish scene is and shall be for some time to come” is how Tanya Sweeney of Hotpress described the event last year.