Edith adds a new string to her bow with Made By Music
GROWING up in a small rural town with only RTÉ One and Two to keep you warm at night, music television was a pipe dream.
My only link to new tunes came from desperately trying to press record and play on the tape recorder during Tony Fenton’s radio shows. Or through raiding my older sisters’ tape collections which were always well hidden and tended to consist of The Pale or The Cure albums.
Occasionally I would make it to Zhivagos in Galway to pick up a single or two; the latest Stunning release was always a big deal.
Then MTV entered my life and music exploded. I went from Richie Kavanagh and Dustin The Turkey albums to The Beastie Boys, The Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana.
It was like waking up from life in Little House On The Prairie and finding yourself on the set of The Word. This game-changing discovery was narrated by the sweet talking Scot Edith Bowman. With her wonderful, soft Scottish brogue, she would helpfully guide me through the new releases Stateside and conduct interviews with some of the biggest names.
So it was with a slight giddiness that I found myself sitting across from her this week as Three Ireland launched their Made by Music campaign, which is creating visually arresting music videos for songs about connection.
Wearing a bright green suit and her trademark glasses, the voice of a generation of music fans was excited to be in Dublin.
‘I am wearing my green like a little Scottish leprechaun’, she smiled. ‘I am delighted to support this initiative. Anything that supports new music and artists to get a foot on the ladder is good.
‘Because it is harder now than it has ever been to get a break. There is also so much out there and it is so much easier to make music and have somewhere to play it. Drawing attention to new and diverse acts is a no brainer for me. It is a creative way of getting behind new acts in the way they make the videos but not controlling them and allowing it be about the artists. It is great to see such a big brand get behind the little people.’
The Three Ireland campaign launch was hosted at hip Dublin venue Opium, and saw three rising Irish artists — Jafaris, Saint Sister and Kormac — come together to produce a series of music videos.
Bowman, who was a top BBC Radio presenter, is as much a part of indie music fabric as many of the artists she now calls friends. One group she is particularly close to is Irish rockers Snow Patrol.
‘I am friends with the Snow Patrol lads,’ she nods. ‘I love the new album and it was a long time coming. My favourite track is Soon. It’s about Gary and his dad and the video is beautiful.
‘I have seen Gary and the lads in between records a few times. We were all out together in LA two Christmasses ago. Nathan lives up the road from me. I am so glad they are back and the record is getting the response it deserves.
‘It is quite funny that they are going out on tour with Ed Sheeran. It’s role reversal. That’s the type of people they are. They aren’t precious about it.
‘Ed has invited them to play and they were instrumental in giving him a leg up and taking him out on tour with them.’
Edith lives in London with Editors frontman Tom Smith and their sons Rudy, ten, and five-yearold Spike and says they love nothing more than hitting the road.
‘I never really went on tour as a journalist but now we go and take the kids,’ she says. ‘They were playing a festival in Holland called Pink Pop and Bruno Mars was headlining. The kids were desperate to go so we got on the bus with the band on Friday after I picked the kids up from school.
‘Then we were on the bus all weekend and went to Germany and did a festival there and woke up in Holland and watched Years and Years, Editors and then Bruno Mars. I spend most of my time trying to hold the boys back from running out onto the stage. So we went out front and I had Rudy on my shoulders and it was great.’
Three Ireland’s #MadeByMusic will unveil more videos by Saint Sister and Kormac this summer.