If in Dowd

The scramble for tickets is just insane. Thousands of teenagers and adults battling on TripAdvisor to get good seats. And after a couple of stressful moments, no more tickets! Isn't it so funny. This is the Coldplay that is doing duets with Rihanna and Beyonce, this is the Coldplay that releases EDM records. It's a very different Coldplay to that of 2005. These two are from the album 'X + Y'. My dad used to have this in the car the whole time so I had months of listening to the album nonstop - but that was years ago. I hit shuffle on Spotify and heard Square One - the opening track, one I recognised instantly from the distinctive riff. Square One is a very interesting start to the album - the synth combined with loud guitars gives the band a very unique sound. The track really builds up. The guitars pick up pace and the song is very lively heading from the chorus into the second verse. There's a James Bond-like riff to follow every line. It's one of my favou...

That's it: I've had my fun on the radio. Now I better go back to learning Irish irregular verbs. Though it scares me to say it, the commitments of the Leaving Cert will take up most of my time over the next year. I have ambitious plans to study from the crack of dawn on Sunday mornings. If I stick to my plans, I'm going to need to be full of beans and enthusiasm when I wake up. Currently on Sunday mornings I am mentally and physically at my weakest - think of the guy who says ' YARP ' in the film Hot Fuzz (that's before I have eaten my Weetabix*). Therefore, it would make sense that I would put my radio interest on pause for the next year to focus on academia. I suppose one could say that I'm going on ' hiatus '. However I always feel a bit cautious around using that term. It's most often associated with bands who've washed up and been dropped by their record label. Usually these groups don't survive the hiatus and become regulars on re...

It is often said about artists - particularly the mass-produced pop variety - that they simply can't reproduce the slick sound of the studio recordings when performing live. Be that as it may, I think singer-songwriters (which are not of the said category) have the power to really bring something special to a tune when performing it live. And I don't necessarily just mean through the atmosphere or intensity that is present at a concert, but through the manner in which they perform it - the instrumentation, the speed, the style etc.  Mundy is an Irish singer-songwriter, he sort-of shot to fame in the late 1990's when one of his songs was featured in Bazz Luhermann's remake of 'Romeo and Juliet'. He has had a mixed career since - got back into the charts about a decade later with a cover of Steve Earl's song 'Galway Girl'. His version has become a classic and continues to be heard in country discos in the west of Ireland!! A song of Mundy'...