Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LOCAL TALENT DOING US PROUD
GREAT LINE-UP FOR LONGITUDE
I’d no intention of turning my little trip to London into a report for the Daily Mirror – I promise I’m not that self obsessed. It’s only as I reflected upon the weekend past I realised each highlight was related to a talented young man or woman from Northern Ireland.
My little brother, now working in the big smoke – used my visit as an excuse to check out ‘The Ferryman’, billed as a five star ‘play of the year’ on the posters I saw in the tube. That meant three and a bit hours in the West End, watching a family unravel in a farmhouse kitchen in rural Derry, 1981. It’s an incredible piece of work – a provocative story told by a wonderful cast, many of them from back home. One of the stand out performances was courtesy of Saoirse – Monica Jackson – who was instantly recognisable (to me, anyway) as Erin from Derry Girls. We all know she deliberately hammed it up and overacted on that particular show – which worked a treat – simply because that’s how many an actual Derry Girls happen to behave. But – onstage at the huge
Gielgud Theatre – she’s a troubled young girl trying to hold it together as everything around her begins to unravel. The lengthy standing ovation at the end was inevitable – though the best thing I can say about The Ferryman – and indeed Saoirse’s performance – is that the three and a bit hours flew by. And usually I’ve the attention span of a goldfish.
On Saturday, we headed to Loftus Road. With none of the big London teams (that I’d want to watch, anyway) playing at home, we decided cheering on QPR’S Conor Washington in the Championship would be a decent way to pass an afternoon. But it was another Northern Ireland starlet (and one actually born in Northern Ireland) who stole the show. I’d known all about Paul Smyth, a 20 year old lad from Belfast, from his time playing for Linfield – and was delighted to hear about his incredible goal on his debut for QPR earlier this year. Paul didn’t start on Saturday – but when he eventually appeared – with the game a 0-0 stalemate after an hour of lacklustre attacking from his teammates – he was a complete gamechanger. It was impossible to work out where he was supposed to be playing – Paul was all over the place, bothering the oppositions entire back four, zipping from wing to wing and causing all sorts of headaches for the
Bolton
Wanderers defence. QPR soon took the lead
– before a sublime Paul Smyth cross set up a second. A few fans noticed our particularly enthusiastic reaction to Paul coming on – and when I explained he’s from our neck of the woods they happily raved about how ‘Smythy’ has become a real fan favourite.
That night, we caught up with Philly Taggart, from Omagh. Philly has been in London a few years now – and currently hosts not one – but two specialist shows on Radio 1. Introducing future success stories is a speciality for our Phil – and everyone from Stormzy to Ratboy owes him a debt of gratitude for those early plays on Radio 1. Phil also works as a band manager (he’s part of the team steering TOUTS in the right direction), runs his own record label, does a load of TV work, DJS a bit and hosts a hugely successful clubnight. He’s also currently working on his first book (an industry guide for new musicians) and a star-studded podcast. So yeah, the boy done good.
Bizarrely, the night ended up in the company of Colin Murray, who was doing a rare DJ set in a little bar right near where my brother lives in Stoke Newington.
Colin gave me my first gig as a music journalist – writing for a little magazine called Blank, back at the end of the 1990s. I helped him out with a bunch of gigs he was putting on around that time – most memorably taking money from the 30 or so people who paid in to a Snow Patrol gig in Morrisons. Colin – as you probably know – is all over BBC 5 Live and is a regular on our TVS, presenting coverage of various different sports from around the world. He’s also a well respected writer and journalist, has published a book and – incredibly – is set to present the coverage of the Champions League for the USA. As for the Djing – he just does that for fun, playing everything from The Cure to The Rapture – a proper oldskool indie disco and great fun. He told me stories about forthcoming work adventures – but needless to say I could barely keep up.
Regardless – Colin is established and something of a household name these days. The future is all about the likes of Saoirse, Paul and Philly – all of them in their 20s. The next generation of Northern Irish superstars, each of them making an early impact. Interesting to see the reaction to the line up for Longitude Festival, which takes place in Marley Park, Dublin every July – as a sort-of replacement for Oxegen. When J. Cole, Travis Scott and Solange were announced as headliners – alongside Migos, Tyler The Creator, Sampha and Anderson Paak, most of the folk on my social network timelines responded by pointing out they didn’t know a single name on the bill – or that the poster looked like a series of random words and symbols. The more cynical announced that it was the worst line up they’d ever seen. Yet – Longitude all but sold out in a couple of hours. If you don’t know any of the aforementioned acts – but consider yourself a music fan – you’ve quite a lot of catching up to do. Start by heading to Spotify and checking out playlists inspired by the movie Black Panther – or just listen to the official soundtrack – that’ll give you a decent insight into type of music that is dominating festivals bills like this one – and why it’s so popular. Rest assured – these acts aren’t all making trashy pop or hip hop – a lot of it is actually pretty interesting – and often politically motivated music – be it hip hop, funk, grime or trap. It makes a change from the likes of Foo Fighters, The Killers and Beyonce who all headlined Oxegen – or even The National, Mumford & Sons and Ben Howard (all recent Longitude headliners) but hey – maybe we’re all just getting old. I arrived late to watching the Brits on Wednesday – but just in time to see a bit of the one act performing that I actually like – Kendrick Lamar Most of his performance was muted – despite it being after 9pm – making it pretty much unlistenable. Even though his mate trashing a car reminded me of Basil Fawlty, I turned over. And that’s my review of The Brits!