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Tuesday, 25 May 2010 |
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REPUBLIC of Loose bring their delicious blend of dirty blues and sleazy funk to Limerick Racecourse on June 18 as part of the summer Twilight evenings.
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Tuesday, 25 May 2010 |
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LIMERICK’S CentreStage has launched its 2010 season of Performing Arts Summer Camps in the city.
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Tuesday, 25 May 2010 |
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LIMERICK Printmakers Studio and Gallery is currently showing an exhibition of original fine art prints by Polish artist Monika Meler.
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Tuesday, 25 May 2010 |
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TALLAGHT Choral Society performs a free concert at Glenstal Abbey this Saturday, May 29 at 3pm.
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Tuesday, 18 May 2010 |
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IT actually seemed quite apt to be on the receiving end of a crackling mobile phone line that sounded much like a vintage 78rpm gramophone record when I spoke to Duke Special ahead of his final UK show in London this week.
The Belfast-based minstrel, known to passport control as Peter Wilson, has always sidestepped popular trends and gone for a more timeworn, dramatic and theatrical sound, which is steeped in romance and wonder. His music transports you back to simpler times, harder times, back to an age when Alexander Graham Bell hadn’t long revealed his great invention to the world and one where the concept of text messaging and ringtones would have seemed as outlandish to most as moon landings or women’s rights. So as I strain to hear the Duke above the distant din of rush-hour London traffic with a pretty lousy phone signal not helping matters, I almost feel like I’ve been teleported down the line for a personal glimpse into the Irish singer’s very own charming and antiquated universe.
But with the 39-year-old only hours away from playing the final show of a successful sell-out UK tour to promote his new 3-CD boxset ‘The Stage, A Book & The Silver Screen’, he’s in jubilant form and very much in the present.
‘‘The tour has been great. I was a bit apprehensive before it started because I didn’t know how people would react to a show made up of songs from the latest record that they probably wouldn’t be too familiar with, but it really has been brilliant,” Wilson tells me.
‘The Stage, A Book & The Silver Screen’ is the follow-up to Duke Special’s 2008 album ‘I Never Thought This Day Would Come’ and is without question his most ambitious record to date. This triple-CD set is made up of two albums and an EP, each a separate thread dedicated to a play, a novel and a silent movie star. And despite its highbrow literary connotations, the record went Top 20 on its release earlier this year.
‘The Stage’ refers to the album ‘Mother Courage And Her Children’, which features 12 songs written for a production of Bertolt Brecht’s anti-war play.
Next up, ‘A Book’ is a five-track mini-album about ‘Huckleberry Finn’. This recording is the first ever of an unfinished musical written by Kurt Weill based on the Mark Twain classic.
The final disc then, ‘The Silver Screen’, alludes to the album ‘The Silent World of Hector Mann’, based on ‘The Book of Illusions’ by contemporary American author Paul Auster.
“I never intended to release these records together, it just kind of happened by accident. It was all done gradually during breaks in my diary over a period of three years.
A friend played me one of five Kurt Weill songs that had never been recorded before and I just knew that I had to record these songs and it was a real coup for me to be allowed to do so,” Duke confesses.
“To be honest I didn’t know how these songs were going to be received by people and I really didn’t care. I’m surprised that it did so well but really I just thought it was important for people to have the opportunity to experience these beautiful and thrilling songs. I’m really pleased with how they turned out,” he says.
Two years ago Duke Special was asked to write the music for the National Theatre in London’s new production of Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Mother Courage And Her Children’. With the Northern Irish star and his band soon weaved into the play itself alongside award-wining actress Fiona Shaw, it wasn’t long before Duke started recording the songs, which possess his inherent theatrical zeal and dramatic spirit. Shur, you can hardly read an article about this dreadlocked performer these days without Vaudeville being mentioned somewhere along the way.
“The Vaudeville thing doesn’t bug me, if it helps people as a point of reference to discover my music then that’s fine. What I don’t like is being labeled as a pop star that is trying to be an artiste,” he snarls.
Duke’s personal favourite of the three CDs in the current boxset, he tells me, is ‘The Silent World of Hector Mann’, recorded in Chicago with legendary producer Steve Albini. The album features songs performed by Duke Special and written by many artists including Neil Hannon, Ed Harcourt, Thomas Truax and Paul Wilkinson. Easily the most accessible of the three discs, it’s a refreshing slice of Vaudevillian (oops) fun that whisks you away on a magical mystery tour of train tracks, tramps, romance and violins.
“I’m not interested in repeating what I’ve done in the past and want to branch out and do new things. You have to keep it interesting and original. I take influence from a diverse range of places and want to experience and try new things in my art.”
Duke Special plays Dolan’s Warehouse on Friday June 4. Tickets are now available from the Dock Road venue.
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Tuesday, 18 May 2010 |
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WITH a Limerick act soon to complete the bill for Bob Dylan’s concert at Thomond Park on July 4 alongside special guests David Gray, Seasick Steve and Alabama 3, this star-studded show is now shaping up to be the gig of the summer.
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Tuesday, 18 May 2010 |
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THE magic of the great musicals returns to LIT Millennium Theatre this Saturday, May 22 at 7.30pm with its brand new 2010 show bringing the glitz and glamour from the West End stage and the bright lights of Broadway.
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Tuesday, 18 May 2010 |
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LEEROY Thornhill, onetime member of The Prodigy — the biggest electronic dance act of the nineties — returns to Limerick to take control of the decks at Trinity Rooms on Sunday June 6.
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Tuesday, 18 May 2010 |
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‘SPINAL Krapp’, originally written by Darren Maher for this year’s UnFringed Festival, returns to the Limerick stage at the new Loft Venue at The Locke Bar from June 15 to 19.
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Tuesday, 18 May 2010 |
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THE highly entertaining Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club kickstart Limerick Racecourse’s summer Twilight Evenings in style on June 12.
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