Talent Spotter
DEIRDRE MELVIN BROUGHT MUSIC TO MILLIONS WHILE AT THE BBC AND IS NOW SHARING HER TALENT SPOTTING SKILLS WITH LOCAL AND GLOBAL AUDIENCES. SORCHA CROWLEY REPORTS.
I’VE BEEN VERY FORTUNATE TO HAVE PEOPLE INDULGE MY DAYDREAMS ALONG THEWAY
DITCHING the career plan and going with what you love, or better still, not having a plan at all, is often touted as the route to happiness. Cartron girl Deirdre Melvin is certainly a prime example of someone following their joy and absolutely loving their job as a result.
She is the woman behind the ground- breaking ‘ Virtual Trad Orchestra’ which won a 2016 Digital Media Award for the Hawk’s Well Theatre.
Officially she is the Project Manager for the Hawk’s Well Theatre, unofficially, “Miss Miscellaneous” she giggles in an interview ahead of Culture Night with The Sligo Champion.
“Yes it’s going to be busy. Culture Night is really very nice. It gives everybody a little chance to dip in and out of stuff, you get to meet a lot of the artists, studios are all open, that’s the bit that’s fun really,” she says as rehearsals carry on for a 4pm production of ‘ The Wonderful Tune’.
The stage is covered in sand which Deirdre and her team have to have cleaned up ahead of a 6pm soundcheck for Niamh Crowley’s commissioned Revolutionary Strings show and music from The Second Coming written by Michael Rooney: “That’s today’s challenge!” she says.
Deirdre’s childhood was steeped in the Sligo arts and trad music scene, aided by supportive parents growing up in Cartron. She came through the Walter McDonagh School of Drama and went to Carmel Gunning for tin whistle.
“It’s in the air here. You don’t think much of it until you leave. I went to university in Wales and got frustrated because nothing was happening so I just started putting on things. I ran a ‘ Funk and Soul’ night, I played in a band, ran the Irish Society, ended up running the whole Student’s Union, then they paid me to stay on and be in charge of Entertainment.
“There was never a plan but I always thought ‘ why not? Let’s do this. Let’s have a party’,” she says.
The bubbly brunette was always interested in people, specifically, talking to people.people This was evidenteviden as early as her teenage years in the Ursuline College. “I’ve always been interested in people and radio. Even when I was in the Ursuline they indulged me. I had a little radio station for a few weeks over the intercom. We used to always get our songs cut off the by Headmistress when I was giving away a Mars bar,” she laughs.
She worked in radio on campus in Wales, did a Masters in Radio Production and began working in music with BBC Radio 1 and Radio 4 for a few years in London.
Her interest in music took her on to the Colin Murray show, an award- winning DJ from Northern Ireland whose listener figures reached 5.5million.
“One of my ‘ glamour’ jobs working with Colin was pulling in sacks of CDs and picking some music to hear,” she said.
It wasn’t all light entertainment - Deirdre realised good old- fashioned rock music was being used as a form of political rebellion in Serbia which led to her making a documentary on Milosevic and Rock ‘ n’ Roll in 2006.
Milosevic’s wife is the Simon Cowell of Serbia. She owns MTV and led the ‘ Turbo- folk’ genre of Serbian folk music : “You’re talking scantily- clad girls belting out the hits, vaguely folk- y. If you wanted to rebel via music in Serbia you had to pick up the guitar. I went to Exit Festival. They did a hundred days of music to protest against the bombings.
“A lot of those organisers have been through hell, thrown in jail, beaten up. It was brilliant to go and see that move from an underground peaceful protest to being their equivalent of Glastonbury,” she says.
After a while in London, the homing beacon kicked in and iRadio provided the perfect opportunity to return to the West of Ireland.
Deirdre helped set up iRadio - “great fun in Galway” - but then her thoughtful side re- surfaced.
“I got to a certain point in life and thought who am I? I can’t play music on stage but yet I’m chosing one CD over another, booking people for a gig over other musicians. I’m some kind of portal for music,” she explains.
The self- exploration led to a Masters in Music Psychology in which she did a thesis on Reward and Pleasure in music: “It’s the same thing as an itch with music as with eating.”
Fate stepped in in the form of Mayoman Brendan Walsh which luckily for Sligo, led Deirdre to return to her hometown. She decided she’d rather be with her “lovely man from Mayo than be in some university in Europe poking around the brain.”
Joining the Hawk’s Well was a natural fit. She has always been involved in the Sligo music scene, programming Sligo Live events for eight years even when she was away. She’s now on the Board of Sligo Live, happy to be “just one of the many voices they ask about acts.”
Deirdre can trace her career in music back to childhood trad sessions.
“I’ve always been into music and through music you get to meet people. That’s the greatest gift to get, especially through trad music in Sligo.
“You go into sessions when you’re 15 and you’re talking to people in their 40s or 50s and it’s normal. It’s not til you leave here that you realise that not many people have that inter- generational experience and skills,” she says.
If there is a con to the “amazing” arts scene in Sligo, it’s lack of visibility by the national press, something Deirdre’s clearly irritated by.
“I can’t get over how the national media ignore us constantly. I find it very frustrating. You might pick up a national paper and you’ll see events that are here on a Wednesday, listed for Dublin on a Friday or Cork on a Saturday but Sligo is never mentioned,” she says.
Music and Drama in Sligo are in safe hands with Deirdre there to champion their work. “I’m constantly amazed by people finishing work, coming in and learning lines, going on stage and delivering brilliant performances. The music scene is brilliant here. We might be geographically isolated but in our tastes and our attitudes we’re up there with any global city. That’s exciting.”