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Irish Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Zach Bryan: Who is he and why is he so popular in Ireland?
Few artists in the history of music and in the space of two years can go from playing in front of 1,200 people to three sold-out concerts in front of 180,000 people. Zach Bryan has filled the gap for a new generation of Irish music fans yearning for American singer-songwriters and storytellers in the same milieu as Bruce Springsteen and Garth Brooks . Both Springsteen and Brooks have been successfully promoted by Peter Aiken of Aiken Promotions who would not have gone to such lengths to book a venue as big as the Phoenix Park for Bryan without knowing his audience. The three concerts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night are the first in the Phoenix Park since 2018. READ MORE Bryan last played here in April 2023 in front of 1,200 people in the Helix. Aiken recalled a meltdown online with some 10,000 fans trying to purchase tickets. Since then, aside from Taylor Swift with 220,000 monthly listeners, Bryan has become the most streamed artist on Irish Spotify. Like Brooks, Bryan is from Oklahoma and sings songs about heartbreak and loss. Despite his 29 years, he has had a lot of the tragedy in his young life – his mother died in 2016 having struggled with alcoholism for much of her life. Bryan spent eight years in the US navy before releasing his first album in 2019. It is only since quitting the navy four years ago that he has become a huge star Bryan is the biggest artist that a lot of Irish people have never heard of. As with Brooks, there is a town and country divide. He's hardly off regional radio and his biggest fan base is, unsurprisingly, in the northern and western parts of the country. Just 10 per cent of tickets to his concerts were bought in Dublin. When the gigs were first announced, locals in the vicinity of the Phoenix Park didn't know if he was a rapper or a heavy metaller, Aiken recalled. [ Zach Bryan at Phoenix Park: Stage times, set list, weather and more Opens in new window ] Bryan is commonly referred to as a country artist, but he doesn't like being pigeonholed in that territory. 'He's come from nowhere. His songs are about heartbreak and loss and all the things that people don't like talking about any more,' said Aiken. 'Maybe [those] in Dublin aren't aware of him, but people outside Dublin are very well aware of him. 'He's the real deal. He's not country per se but he's very Springsteen. He's a great storyteller and a very dynamic performer – he has a lot of charisma. 'When you have 160,000 people here, they're going to know the words to every song; it's going to be a very unique, special atmosphere.' [ Zach Bryan: the country music star who has sold out summer concerts at the Phoenix Park Opens in new window ] The weather is set to be fair for the weekend and no rain is forecast. Fans will need to stock up on water and sunscreen with temperatures reaching 25 degrees on Sunday. For most fans it will be a 45 minute walk from the Parkgate entrance of the Phoenix Park to the concert location. Gates will open at 5pm and the support acts, Turnpike Troubadours and Noeline Hofmann, will kick things off from 6pm.
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Kneecap at Fairview Park in Dublin: How to get there, set list, ticket information and more
West Belfast rap trio Kneecap – Móglaí Bap , Mo Chara , and DJ Próvaí – will take to the stage in Dublin's Fairview Park on Thursday, June 19th. With their politically provocative lyrics, working-class commentary and dramatic live sets, Irish language group Kneecap have grown in popularity at home and abroad. Member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs as Mo Chara, was charged last month with a terrorism offence for allegedly displaying a Hizbullah flag at a gig in London last November. He is due appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court the day before the gig on Wednesday, June 18th. If you are planning on heading to the Kneecap concert at Fairview, here is everything you need to know. READ MORE When and where is it? Kneecap play Fairview Park in Dublin on Thursday, June 19th. What time should I arrive? Gates open at 7pm, and the show is likely to begin at 8pm. No queuing is allowed before the gates open. Concertgoers should plan to be within the venue 30 minutes before the show starts. There are no readmissions to the concert if you leave. Gigs at Fairview Park tend to wrap up at about 10.30pm. Who is playing? Support acts for Kneecap include Better 4 U singer Gemma Dunleavy and Irish postpunk band Gurriers . What songs will Kneecap play? Kneecap's set list will likely be similar to that played at their gig in Barcelona on June 8th: Intro It's Been Ages Thart agus Thart Better Way to Live Sick in the Head Your Sniffer Dogs Are Shite I'm Flush I bhFiacha Linne Fine Art The Recap Rhino Ket Guilty Conscience Get Your Brits Out H.O.O.D How do I get to and from the gig? Fairview Park is within walking distance of Dublin city centre, and very accessible by public transport. You are encouraged to walk, cycle or avail of public transport to get to the gig – driving a car to the site is not advised. Travel by train/Dart: Dart services will run as normal to and from the site. Clontarf Road Dart station is about a 10-minute walk from the event. The last southbound train, running towards Connolly Station, departs Clontarf at 12:16am, while the last train north leaves shortly before midnight. Travel by bus: Dublin Bus runs plenty of services to Fairview Park bus stop, which is only a couple of minutes from the site entrance. Buses are available from Eden Quay (14, 15, 27a, 27b), Abbey Street Lower (6, H1, H2, H3, 130) and Talbot Street (42, 43). Irish Concert Travel is running a same-day return bus to the gig from cities and towns around Ireland, including Donegal town, Sligo, Longford, Ballina, Mullingar and Galway city. Buses to Concerts are offering a similar service from the likes of Belfast, Newry, Dundalk and Drogheda. Travel on foot: Fairview Park is walkable from the city centre. It should take less than 40 minutes on foot from O'Connell Street to the park. Travel by car: You are advised not to travel to the event by car, as there will be no local parking facilities near Fairview Park. Are there any tickets left? The gig is sold out. Fans can check Ticketmaster for official resale tickets. Remember to download your tickets to your phone in advance, in case any issues arise around internet connection at Fairview Park. [ Kneecap name high-profile legal team to defend terrorism charge against Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh Opens in new window ] Screenshots may not work on the day, as Ticketmaster often use live or dynamic barcodes that update regularly. Fairview Park's box office is located beside the site's entrance near Annesley Bridge Road. What is security like? Under-16s must be accompanied by an adult to be permitted entry. You are advised to bring an official form of identification – ideally a passport, Garda age card or driving licence. Bags will be searched, and bringing a large bag or backpack may lead to significant delays or even entry being denied. Umbrellas, alcohol, garden furniture, professional cameras or recording equipment, glasses and cans are prohibited. What does the weather look like? Met Éireann has said it looks set to be a warm and humid day on Friday. Predominately dry with sunny spells, though there is a chance of isolated showers. Highest temperatures will range from 20-24 degrees.
BreakingNews.ie
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
Fontaines DC, Kneecap, CMAT: How much do you know about new Irish acts?
There have been many exciting Irish acts solidifying themselves as impressive performers, incredible vocalists, and talented songwriters in the last decade. Acts like CMAT and Fontaines D.C. have been growing in popularity, receiving well-deserved attention and praise. Advertisement Groups like Kingfishr and The Mary Wallopers have brought a fresh sound to the Irish indie and folk scenes, while the members of rap trio Kneecap champion the Irish language in their music. So, how much do you know about those new to the Irish music scene? Test your knowledge by taking our quiz!
Irish Times
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Róis: ‘Moving away from Ireland shook me. Going away is essential'
I always knew I wanted to do music. Growing up in Fermanagh , I was lucky to have older siblings who said, 'Don't do the thing your careers teacher tells you to do, just do the thing you love.' I had a good ear. I could pick up instruments and pick up tunes. If I was going through anything, I'd have to sit down and bash at the piano. There's an inner confidence there. I liked what came out; what I made. I believed in myself and believed I could make this a career. I'm 25. I have three older siblings and we all grew up with traditional Irish music. My grandfather played the bagpipes and was an amazing singer. He died a month ago and he told me as he was dying that The Clancy Brothers asked him to go on tour with them and he turned it down because he was raising a family. My father used to play the accordion and would have pushed us to learn Irish music. We would all have competed in Fleadh competitions. My mother brought us all over the country – her job was bringing us to lessons and competitions. My older brothers were very influential because they started to get into alternative music and electronic music and they introduced me to Daft Punk when I was six or seven. At 15 I became obsessed with Nirvana and Kurt Cobain . It was all I could listen to. At 18 I studied composition in the Royal Irish Academy of Music and moved to The Hague at 20 for the third and fourth years of that undergrad. READ MORE Moving away from Ireland shook me. I think going away from home for a little bit is essential. Everything started happening. My teachers said, 'You have this very rich culture and you're very connected to it. You should explore it, because that's who you are, and to be a musician you have to know who you are.' They brought me back to trad in a way, incorporating traditional melodies with my contemporary, modernist influences in music. Keening for me is a catharsis; it helps me. It's a guttural, visceral, intuitive way to voice your emotions I have a love-hate relationship with trad. I love trad and I sing in a traditional way, but my live performances are inspired by my own modern contemporary understanding of music. Dad's a traditional beef farmer. I'll put my dad's cattle calls into a techno track: 'Suck, suck, suck, suck.' Róis: 'I think keening is a release of negative thought patterns, of bad life experiences' When I started to get into keening, I'd never had a loved one to grieve over. But every human goes through trauma. I think keening is a release of negative thought patterns, of bad life experiences. Meditation helps people. Getting a hug replenishes people. Keening for me is a catharsis; it helps me. It's a guttural, visceral, intuitive way to voice your emotions. In pre-Christian times, keening would have been a very natural part of the wake. It was the practice for a woman to sit beside a coffin and keen. I really like to scream in the car whenever I'm going through anything, and make weird vocal noises. No one can hear me. The car is probably the only place where you can do that – even in your house if you did it, the person next door would probably ring the police. Then it became the right thing to do musically, to express myself. [ RTÉ Folk Awards 2025: The freewheeling spirit at the heart of Ireland's trad resurgence Opens in new window ] I was very close to my grandfather. After he died, I just screamed. I lost my voice after three days, going around in the car, having to do a few big journeys. By the time the funeral was over, I felt at peace with it. [ Emma Rawicz: 'I think jazz is made for people who don't necessarily fit into life's prescribed boxes' Opens in new window ] Keening communally is something I haven't done, but understanding something that's bigger than yourself like grief needs to be done communally. I'm sure that's what keening used to be. Everything is so individuated now. You have to have a brave face and cry by yourself. I think going back to this more pagan and less Christian and sterile way of dealing with the world would be so helpful for people. Róis is my stage name. I don't want to be a tyrant about it, but I prefer to remain anonymous. I have lots of different reasons for it. I don't like to be recognised. I'm very introverted. I never thought I would be a [front person] performer, I thought I would be in the background in a band. That's always what I wanted to do. But it never happened and I thought, 'Ah, just do it yourself.' I like to do a gig and however many people are there, it's easy to finish the gig, take the mask off, and then no one knows who you are. In conversation with Nadine O'Regan. This interview is part of a series talking to well-known people about their lives and relationship with Ireland, and was edited for clarity and length. Róis plays the National Concert Hall with Crash Ensemble on Tuesday June 17th as part of the MusicTown 2025 concert series. Tickets €22 from
Irish Times
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Ed Sheeran has as much right to call himself Irish as The Pogues or The Smiths
Ed Sheeran rarely says or does anything controversial – but the internet has required an urgent dose of smelling salts after the singer said that he identified as 'culturally Irish' . Sheeran made the remarks in an interview with Louis Theroux, saying, ' My dad's family is ... he's got seven brothers and sisters. We'd spend all of our holidays in Ireland'. He said : 'My first musical experiences were in Ireland, I grew up with trad music in the house. So I identify culturally as Irish, but I was obviously born and raised in Britain.' His comments have generated considerable commentary on both sides of the Irish Sea – though why this should be so is a mystery. With early songs such as The A-Team and later hits like Castle on the Hill, Sheeran was following unashamedly in a bare-boned, dewy-eyed tradition of confessional acoustic songwriting – which, if not invented in Ireland, is certainly part of the country's bloodstream culturally speaking. That isn't to suggest early 2000s artists such as Paddy Casey, David Kitt or Damien Rice should be given credit/blame for Sheeran – but it is surely telling that he was coming of age musically while they were at the zenith of their powers. The influence of Rice, in particular, is something Sheeran has talked about on many occasions – recalling how seeing the Kildare singer perform in Whelan's when Sheeran was aged 14 had a formative influence. As he told Hot Press in 2022, 'I was brought up on Van Morrison's Irish Heartbeat album. Then there was Planxty, Christy Moore, Dónal Lunny, and my cousin got me into Bell X1, The Frames, Damien Rice, Mundy and Damien Dempsey. I'm really inspired by Irish music.' READ MORE The shock is that this should be considered surprising. What could be more Irish than a singer with a guitar emoting from the bottom of their boots? Tellingly, Sheeran's biggest hit, Shape of You, was co-written with another Irish musician, Snow Patrol's Derry-born guitarist Johnny McDaid. When it comes to his Irish identity, the obvious black mark against Sheeran is Galway Girl – not so much a song as a harbinger of the music apocalypse, with fiddles that sound like a caterwaul from Celtic purgatory. But while it is deeply cliched, is it really so different from anything put out by The Pogues or Dropkick Murphy's, 'Irish' bands whose music feels like the equivalent of a trolley dash through a Carrolls Gift Shop? Fair enough, Sheeran is a long way from The Smiths, perhaps the most 'Irish' British band of all time, their music suffused in mordant wit, sexual repression and poetic fatalism – aka the holy trinity of Irish cultural hallmarks. But as a heartfelt singer-songwriter, he is absolutely entitled to feel Irish. As he himself has stated, he is following in the footsteps of Damien Rice and Mundy. The difference is that he has spun from these raw materials chart-topping gold. Good on him – and at least he isn't as annoying as Bono.
