Blindboy pushes boat out with an online club

THE Rubberbandits shot to public notoriety in 2011 with their song A Horse Outside, a satirical look at life in their home town of Limerick.

But now one of the members, Blindboy Boatclub, has established himself as a leading commentator and has set up a podcast to great success.

Last year his podcast exploded in popularity and he has gained a substantial fanbase with more than 150,000 listeners every week as well as more than 3,000 subscribers to his account on the web publishing platform, Patreon.

Each subscriber pays a minimum of a dollar a month to support to Blindboy.

Patreon is fast becoming a vehicle for creative types to earn money in the online sphere. Some of the biggest Patreon accounts across the globe can net individuals tens of thousands of dollars a month as the public pays for unlimited access to their podcasts.

The Blindboy podcast started last October and regularly ranks at the top of the iTunes charts and currently ranks at number two in the listings.

Blindboy, whose real name is Dave Chambers, brings his listeners an eclectic mix of musings with topics ranging from the Bebo culture of 2006 to an in-depth looking at the racist tropes used in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.

He also gives his Patreon listeners ‘a podcast hug’.

The listenership of the podcast is continuing to grow with approximately one million listeners worldwide, according to the man himself.

But Patreon subscribers have access to more of his recordings and are, in essence, members of an exclusive Blindboy club.

The other half of the Limerick hip-hop duo, who formed in 2000, is Mr Chrome, whose real name is Bob McGlynn.