I agree with all you've said Eddie. Our band, The Mouse, have just come back from America and we were treated like lords there. We played four gigs and we were paid good money and were given plenty of free drink too. It made us realise what we knew already....bands here are treated like s**t of Saddam's shoe. I'd like to say aswell that I was gutted to hear of Listo's split. They are my favourite Irish band....I just hope that they might somehow change their minds in the future because there is a lot of talent in that band both individually and collectively. We'll be playing with them on the 20th of Dec in TBMC, it should be a right ol' knees up....early start aswell....round 8.30pm I think

Eddie, you are dead right - its a sad state of affairs. The thing is we are talking about those bands who are caught in the middle-ground so to speak, they are way beyond the battle-of-the-band bullsh1t but not part of the hotpress/mcd merry bandwagon. But, is it all the venues or is it a social mindset? i have seen people walk away from frontdoors because the cover charge was €5! What needs to happen is that accepted norms need to be challenged - ever been to Whelans and wished you could watch bands til 3am instead of having to listen to the same indie tunes all over again from 11 - 3???

A particular pet hate of mine, is the way the Irish public react to music that comes into this country from the UK and abroad. For some reason, the irish public give automatic respect to these bands, purely because they are British or american. I firmly believe that if Coldplay were Irish, then they would never get past the status in ireland that the Frames currently have . Take the thrills for example. If they had decided to stay in ireland and play the irish music scene, would joe public be giving them the same respect that they currently have...i think not. Why are people happy to pay €22 to go see a UK band and not pay €5 to see an irish equivalent of equal merit. However, once an irish band recieves some positive attention in the UK, then the public suddenly stop and listen. From the start, an irish band faces an uphill struggle for success. The radio stations wont play your music, because its Irish and because you play whelans, or eamonn dorans, and the Irish public wont pay for your music because your just some small irish band... No amount of financial aid is going to help this..is it ? Its a mind set problem, one that i dont think can be changed. Maybe the solution is to take the route of the thrills and get out of ireland...

Klootfan is right about the Irish radio stations not giving enough airplay to bands that need it the most. I will try to start an e-mail campaign to radio stations asking them to play more Irish bands music. Again I expect a lot of apathy from people but if you dont start annoying their heads then nothing will change. For anybody else who would like to e-mail the radio stations and get the ball rolling then I will save you the bother of trying to find e-mail addresses.... helenak@fm104.ie sales@fm104.ie yvonnem@fm104.ie andyp@fm104.ie mailto@fm104.ie strawberry@fm104.ie thejam@fm104.ie adrianb@fm104.ie adriank@fm104.ie aidanf@fm104.ie aine@fm104.ie algibbs@fm104.ie alisonm@fm104.ie andym@fm104.ie bernardo@fm104.ie brendanw@fm104.ie cathya@fm104.ie cathyc@fm104.ie ciarao@fm104.ie clareb@fm104.ie clarem@fm104.ie clionad@fm104.ie colmh@fm104.ie darylm@fm104.ie davek@fm104.ie decland@fm104.ie declanp@fm104.ie feenao@fm104.ie grainnek@fm104.ie grainner@fm104.ie hazeln@fm104.ie jennyg@fm104.ie jennyj@fm104.ie jeremyd@fm104.ie jessicad@fm104.ie jimjim@fm104.ie joanl@fm104.ie johnw@fm104.ie jonathanh@fm104.ie leonag@fm104.ie lisat@fm104.ie margaretn@fm104.ie markn@fm104.ie melissam@fm104.ie michelem@fm104.ie nealao@fm104.ie niamhc@fm104.ie nicolaf@fm104.ie patg@fm104.ie paul@fm104.ie pauld@fm104.ie paulf@fm104.ie paulineb@fm104.ie philipm@fm104.ie phoneshow@fm104.ie ronan@fm104.ie ronanmc@fm104.ie sandra@fm104.ie sandram@fm104.ie sarahm@fm104.ie seanc@fm104.ie sineady@fm104.ie stephenf@fm104.ie stephenk@fm104.ie stevenc@fm104.ie suzanner@fm104.ie taralg@fm104.ie taram@fm104.ie timf@fm104.ie tonyd@fm104.ie floorbangers@fm104.ie claireb@fm104.ie rick@2fm.ie newsbeat@2fm.ie aidanleonard@2fm.ie conorg@2fm.ie cormac@2fm.ie damianfarrelly@2fm.ie damienmccaul@2fm.ie dan@2fm.ie dave@2fm.ie fullirish@2fm.ie gareth@2fm.ie gerryryan@2fm.ie info@2fm.ie jc@2fm.ie jenny@2fm.ie johnkenny@2fm.ie johnpower@2fm.ie larry@2fm.ie markmccabe@2fm.ie michaelcahill@2fm.ie mrspring@2fm.ie saturday@2fm.ie webmaster@2fm.ie wesdarcy@2fm.ie info@98fm.ie gerry.stevens@98fm.ie liam.coburn@98fm.ie onlineatwork@98fm.ie talk@98fm.ie una.power@98fm.ie gerry.stevens@98fm.ie liam.coburn@98fm.ie onlineatwork@98fm.ie talk@98fm.ie una.power@98fm.ie barry.dunne@98fm.ie chris.barry@98fm.ie mark.byrne@98fm.ie morningcrew@98fm.ie info@98fm.ie garrett.gunnigle@98fm.ie sales@98fm.ie allen.kiely@98fm.ie ciaran.davis@98fm.ie elaine.geraghty@98fm.ie john.keogh@98fm.ie john.taylor@98fm.ie pat.mannion@98fm.ie michael.brady@98fm.ie online@98fm.ie elaine.gerahty@98fm.ie elaine.gerathy@98fm.ie if anyone knows how to put all these names into the one mail address then please by all means do so These are the 3 big uns so if you do give a s**t about Irish music and not just pay lip service to it then blast away and show u can make a difference. If you could forward these names to everyone in your address book then all the better viva la revolution an all that

i agree with what everyone has said,and eddie you got the right idea with those email addresses,but one thing i wanted to say was,i was playing down in wexford not to long ago and the place we played in was kinda small but eveyone that came to the gig came purely for the music to see the bands and enjoy the music, and they did and it was great to play to a crowd who really wanted to see some live band belt out some of there own songs,i think dublin is kinda small to be playing in everyweek great music falls upon closed ears and it truly is a shame.but anyway something has to be done about the cost of renting out venues i heard the tbmc is gone up in price to rent out cant remember the exact price but it was a bloody discrace.! let it flow

Ok, I'm expecting that I'm going to incur the wrath of entire board here, but I'm going to play devils advocate for the radio stations. I don't think radio stations should play music because its Irish. Irish music should not get any special treatment, I don't think it does Irish music any favours. What bands really need is a level playing field where they have equal chance of being played as a band from any other part of the world. This kind of healthy competition keeps bands on their toes creatively. I think DJs should play what they actually think is good, if an Irish band is genuinely good, then a good DJ is going to play them on merit rather than being the token Irish band to fill some kind of quota. This however is where the real problem lies. DJs can't play what they want, they are constricted by advertising and record company driven playlists which makes for extremely dull radio. Another major problem in Ireland is as has already been pointed out, a lack of venues and also I think a lack decent modern affordable practice spaces. Its hard for the music scene to thrive if bands haven't got somewhere to play and practice regularly.

your wrong about places to practice there are loads of places for bands,but you are right about the radio there is no point,well i suppose on some decent radio programmes its good to play some irish music but i mean i suppose it all comes down to weather the dj likes it or not cause im sure all the s**t pop from ireland gets a big push on the radio regardless of the dj being into it. ps....i did hear list on the radio it was 2fm and larry gogan played it!

Nice to hear that I'm wrong about practice spaces. I just got that impression from a practice space used by bands next door to where I used to live about six months ago. It was a small, accoustically poor room at the back of a pub, right next to a noisy street (neither a good thing for thr band or passers by). It also had no soundproofing so I would be kept awake at least once a week. I never complained to the pub owner about it, but it was incredibly annoying at times, especially when they were practicing the same incredibly annoying cover version for hours on end!