Awe-inspiring Limerick act Headgear led by talented songsmith and musician Daragh Dukes will jet into Dolan’s Warehouse this Saturday, October 6 to promote their third album ‘Flight Cases’.

The brand new single, ‘Harry Truman’, the second to be taken from Daragh’s critically-acclaimed third album was given ‘Single of the Fortnight’ in the current edition of Hot Press magazine, saying that it is “beautifully couched in watery piano keys and haunting grooves”. The Irish music mag also said that Headgear’s live show “would give Radiohead a run for their money”, while The Irish Times said the Limerick act’s music will “swim in your head forever”.

‘Flight Cases’ has received widespread critical acclaim and according to Daragh, a native of Castleconnell, the album was written to help exorcise his fear of flying.

“I kind of had a fear of flying a while back so I decided to try and write some songs about it and it led to this album. Thankfully I’m over my fear now,” says Daragh.
A veteran of the Limerick music scene for many years, Daragh was guitarist with They Do It With Mirrors, a local band who were signed to Setanta Records in the late eighties, and also fronted Fat Buck, a band tipped ‘as the next big thing’ in the mid-nineties.

Then on the eve of the millennium he locked himself away in his bedroom with a sampler for company and the Headgear sound was born, and with it Daragh’s best work to date. What started out as a very lo-fi sounding project on the first Headgear album has now on album three turned into a full big band production and the end result is just astounding.

“Headgear does feel more like a band these days. I started making music as Headgear when I bought a sampler a few years ago and I suppose I was more into making music than writing songs at the time. I got a lot more into song-writing then and things started to take a more understandable shape. It makes more sense now because we are playing more live shows. There was a time there where over a period of two years that we only played live five times which was ridiculous,” he claims.

Among the ‘great players’ who worked with Daragh on his latest album was comic actor Pat Shortt whose new movie ‘Garage’ opens in cinemas this weekend.

“Pat has played on all the Headgear recordings from the very first things I ever recorded. I had some Miles Davis samples that I was using and it was great to get someone in who could play this stuff really well. I know Pat for years and he’s a really good friend. He’s Headgear’s brass and reed section, he’s some player and hopefully he’s going to play at five or six of the shows on this tour.”

2007 has been a very busy and successful year for the Limerick act since the release of their ‘Flight Cases’ album in March. Headgear played at this year’s Electric Picnic where they were hailed by critics and punters alike as one of the festival highlights.

“Yeah Electric Picnic was fantastic, we had a great time. We were due to play a set at 2.30 in the morning on the Chill Out stage so we had rehearsed this really chilled out set and we arrived to a full on rave with whistles and everything. It was bananas but we had a really good gig and there was a stage invasion at the end of the show. I’ll never forget it.”

Headgear perform at Dolan’s Warehouse this Saturday, October 6. Support comes from Nick Carswell. Doors open at 9pm and tickets cost 13 euro. For further information or bookings call Dolan’s on 061-314483 between 10am and 6pm.
It promises to be a show you’ll never forget!

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