I have played the International Bar on a Monday night. The Bankers on a Tuesday and Cassidy's on Westmoreland St. every second Wednesday. Carnival, Wexford St. on Wednesday, (trying to get a gig with the Zodiac Session), Legal Eagle, Four Courts, Thursday. (lovely people).
My history:
I have always loved music, since I was a kid. I began playing in 1970. Acoustic guitar, jamming and busking mostly. Hung around bands in London in the early seventies. Hawkwind, Global Village Trucking Company, The Seven Kevin's, Third Ear Band, Here and Now Band being among some I can recall. Made a living from busking.1974 I lived in Wales and mostly played solo acoustic guitar. I traveled extensively through out England and Europe busking to get by.
Also lived in Letrim in Ireland. On a small farm, playing my guitar a lot.
Moved back to Wales in 1976. I began to DJ at parties in Wales. Then punk happened and I was road manager for a band called White Lies. Living in London. Doing pirate radio broadcasting, jamming with the Earwigs, DJing at squat parties and the first warehouse parties, way before rave.
I moved to Rotterdam in 1979. I worked as a DJ in various night clubs. It was a spacey wonderful hedonistic time. Played electronic music with various musicians, different collections of people under various names. Hung out with James Chance and the Contortions and Tuxedo Moon also met a lot of musicians passing through Rotterdam, as they all came to the club where I DJ'd after their gig's in R'dam. The Birthday Party was a memorable night. Lydia Lunch another. SnakeFinger also was there at that time.
I returned to Ireland in 1984. I began DJing in Risks, under Grafton Street and in Sides. I also DJ'd in Sir Henry's in Cork. Oh and clubs on Lesson Street, god they where awful. Rave took over the DJ world and I ceased to DJ.
I began to work in Lansdown Sound Studio as an assistant engineer. I also did live sound for The Seven Kevins and Moby Dick for a short while. I was still strumming away on my guitar, and scribbling down lyrics on what ever piece of paper came to hand.
As I was not organised about this the pieces of paper would get stored in various books, and boxes, as I was moving around a lot. This went on for years. Unorganised song writing. Strumming in my bedroom, typical of the type. Never in front of people. In fact I developed a phobia about playing in front of people.
I returned to college as a mature student, and obtained a degree in Interactive Media and a diploma in Visual Communication.
Since then I have worked as a graphic and web designer.
So if any of you bands need CD covers, posters, websites, flyer's, photography or videos, I can do the lot.I spent two years working for Waltons Music, making tutorial DVD's, teaching how to play Irish traditional musical instruments, and doing design for print and web.
During my time there, I gathered all my songs, all the scrapes of paper, together in one folder for the first time, with the intention of working on them and writing proper songs.
There they where, in a folder for the first time ever.
Then I lost the folder.
Life took the old away and left me with no songs.
I sat down and began to write in an earnest and organised way, for the first time in my life. I now have a batch of original songs and these are what I am performing at the open mic night slots as I get them.
Funny how it all works out.