Steven O'Rourke posted on July 02, 2009 20:00
This blog is by no means old. However, when Key Notes realised that Hard Working Class Heroes (HWCH) would be seven this year, it stopped him in his tracks. What a different place the world was in 2003. That being said, the more things change, the more they remain the same and HWCH continues its raison d'être: an Irish Festival for Irish Bands.
With this in mind, HWCH launched its call for bands on Wednesday evening. Despite the heat (and boy, was it hot) a large number of familiar faces gathered in Freebird Records (Secret Book & Record Store and nirvana for music nerds like Key Notes who also have an unhealthy fetish for second hand books). The event was launched by Angela Dorgan of First Music Contact, the people behind HWCH, who called on Irish bands to register with the Breaking Tunes website to secure a slot at the event. Registration is completely free and who gets in will be decided by an industry panel made up of writers (though not Key Notes, so no bribes!), A&R folks and domestic and international festival programmers.
It should be noted that the closing date for applications is July 30 so get in quick.
Music photographers are also being called to submit their work for consideration for the Photographers Exhibition. Those interested should log on to the HWCH website for more details.
As for the launch, this blog was impressed by the performances of all three acts. Biggles Flys Again (Freebird Records), The Ambience Affair (Road Records) and And So I Watch You From Afar (Tower Records) are a great barometer for the current state of Irish indie music. Key Notes particularly enjoyed the performance of The Ambience Affair (and not just because of the chips!) but was also sorry he couldn't stick around for more of And So I Watch You From Afar (at that stage, Key Notes was suffering heatstroke!).
Hopefully there will be many great performances over the course of the HWCH weekend (October 16-18). Ticket prices remain the same (40 euro weekend pass, or 18.50 euro per day). CLUAS regulars will know that Key Notes, Ian Wright and Anna Murray provided the most in-depth coverage of HWCH '08 and, if this blog can help it, CLUAS will once again be the place to go to read reviews of your favourite bands playing HWCH.
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