"becoming more affluent with the english language" - Madra, sir, you are the dog's bollocks.

sorry if i came across abit aggresively in my previous post. i really am surprised i got so wound up. was havin a s**te day i suppose. i reckon my biggest hope is that the irish scene can prosper cause lets face it, the uk music scene right now is horrendous. each band is a clone of the next. at least in ireland that is not the case. not all bands are great but from what i have been hearing most irish bands do not mirror each other which has to be good. im not trying to advocate some form of support group for the irish music scene but these bands releasing albums presently in ireland are only starting. these are debut albums. it does take a while for bands to nail their trade but i do believe that bands should be nurtured here rather than abused. im sure we all want a strong music scene in our country and we are all entilted to our opinions , i just feel that all bands here should be given a chance. ok, you may not like their first album but what if their next one rocks your socks off. patience is of course a virtue none more so than in music. look at radiohead. their first album to be fair was not up to much, then their second album was possibly the best rock/indie album of our generation. anyhoo, its good to talk. peace

funny thing is, all the stupid nationalism regarding music does no-one any good. who gives a s**t about local bands over any other? i'd never buy a band over another due to their nationality. thats just dumb. we're too close, too critical, too lienient, too analitical, too quick to write off and too quick to hype in equal measure.

take this analogy for a sec, the irish soccer team are horrendous. they embarass their country with the way they have been playing recently. however, i and hundreds of thousands of irish people still support and love them because they are irish and we still follow them around the world. i know music is a different entity but i really think ye are taking this way too seriously. i personally think there are an array of irish bands out there at the moment that could be massive internationally and thats not cause i love their music its because nowadays the music scene internationally is poor and if the likes of t he oc friendly snow patrol can make it anyone can. director, the blizzards , the loose etc.. these are all acts who have a chance and maybe im being a bit of a twat but id much rather support them than some pouncie faggoty north london band with s**te songs and even worse attitiudes. sorry for being patriotic but its the truth. i want these acts to make it cause im proud of where im from and i like seeing people from this country succeed. so please, stop with this bulls**te about not taking it easy on irish acts. thats not and never has been the point. just be patienced with these acts cause u never know what they may produce and im sure you would like to see a world class album come out of ireland at some stage. who knows... trust me bands that read about themselves negatively on forums such as these do lose confidence when someone comes on and says they are s**te. it may be against your beliefs but cut them abit of slack and give them time and yes, do it cause they are irish.

If a band are s**te, they are s**te. I've only time for good bands.

amazing statement. my god your an intelligent chap. high fives.

I blame Hotpress for championing s**t bands ie. Blizzards, Director, Marshals, Humanzi. They're all Irelands "Great White Hopes", and have been for too long now. Record companies pay Hotpress for advertising. Hotpress, in turn, rave about the companies bands. Before we know it everybody is talking about these s**t bands. No hope for the good bands unless they're signed. Spondulies make the music world go around! Such is life... The only true section in Hotpress is First Cuts by Jackie Hayden. The rest is articles that have been paid for indirectly

pandora you really have it all sussed out. thats exactly what happens. record companies go and spend their money on an irish magazine to make sure they get rave reviews. thats exactly where their money goes. seriously, in this statement you do not come across as a begrudger at all. im taking a guess here, maybe im wrong but heh. are you or one of your friends in an incredibly crap band that cant get any love in hot press or any other publication for that matter. do you think that they are the best band ever and that no one will give them a break. maybe there is a reason fot that. they are really s**te. let me put it to you this way. no band that get signed, record an album and get printed in the media are crap. they may not be your cup of tea but bands get signed for a reason. in some form they are very f**kin good. i myself am in a band that i think are ok but we dont deserve any more than we get cause we dont work hard enough at it. its a bit of fun. bands that get signed work bloody hard to get to that point and i personally respect bands that make it that far. i certainly dont sit in my room wondering why these bands are getting all the love and we get nothin. we dont deserve it and they do simple as that. so pandora, before you go making statements such as these, try consider what your sayin and how it comes across. whatever does go on its got nothing to do with the bands. thats business, so try not hold it against the bands themselves. and just for the record, i think some of these bands debuts albums are fantatsic and could easily work in the uk.

"bands get signed for a reason. in some form they are very f**kin good. " bands get signed if the people who are signing them think they will sell records and make them money.

A lot of anger there madra. Some Irish signed bands are horrendous. Bands, as Una points out, get signed to make record labels pots of cash. It's the only way you can explain some of the crap on radio. Some magazines give good reviews in exchange for not pissing off the record label and lose ad revenue where most of their money comes from. Whelans/Village pulled all their Ads from Hotpress after hotpress took them to the high court. It happens

Madra, you've written a lot of bulls**t on this thread so I'm not going to take anything you say to heart. I'm not a musician, I don't know too many people in bands and, either way, it's not my motivation for writing what i genuinely do think. I'm sick of reading about the same no-hopers all the time. I could name twenty bands that are better than the ones that are being thrown in our faces all the time. It's my opinion and I don't give two f**ks what you think dude. Because you're just a dim-wit.

"dim-wit" - sinking lower still with name calling...remember, stay classy PQ

That's not sinking low! I could sink very low...it's in reference to the silly comments being made by Madra. I respect your observation though.

kinda funny, this madra chap comes on and accuses posters here of being bitter, whether it be because they were bullied in school or they are in a crap band that can't get press etc, when on this thread alone he sounds more bitter than anyone else....cause people have opinions? aint got the patience to read through all the long ranting but "bands get signed for a reason. in some form they are very f**kin good"? Yes, Westlife are f**king rides, i'd give that Cian chap a good rodgering if i ever met him. matt

oh sailor...Cian's cane

just had a read through my threads there dude and im finding it extremly hard to find my bitter edge shine through. those that know me would tell you the last thing i am is bitter. im the most optimistic chap going your just taking this out of context. im going to try make my point one last time, not cause i have to, just cause i want you to get what im saying. first, to say a band is s**te is fundamentally saying that they cant play their instruments, they cant write songs, the singer cant sing, they look like they were raped by the cookie monster etc... clearly a band that releases an album is none of the above (even most boy bands can sing). however, to say a band is not exactly my cup of tea is bang on. thats an opinion dude. not that a band is s**te. obviously there are people out there who may think otherwise and thats all im saying. music is business. its a juggernaut of a business that cant be stopped and either you play ball or you get run over. thats the fact. the good old days of the mick jaggers and bowies is gone. the music industry has evolved (for the worst) due to many reasons but mainly the internet. thats why you may be subjected to music you dont pariculary like. we are being bombarded with it from very angle in the hope the new beatles may come around and save the industry. this may never happen but if it does, i hope its a f**king irish band which brings me to my last point. maybe there are irish bands ye do not think are good, but what happens if this band you dont like matures with their second album and ends up writing an international masterpiece that even morrissey himself approves of and more importantly you like. im not saying to pretend a band is good if you dont believe that. what im saying is give these guys a chance to see if they can pull off something special and yes, do it because they are irish. if after their second album you still believe its going nowhere, then by all means say what you want. i would never look down on someone cause of their opinions and i would never suggest a person change their opinion im just saying try and be slightly more constructive with them. for example. "im not really into them but i can see what some people may see in them. they have a good singer but its very commercial and boring." maybe im wrong but this my friends is my opinion, try look for the good in bands rather than the not so good or put differently try look for the potential in them. anyway, nite nite