
Co. Down and out in Paris and Lille and Nantes and Toulouse: the promising Bangor/Donaghdee trio pop up on the bill of a high profile show here this weekend - the first of a wave of Irish acts visiting the French capital in November. More...

Seriously: their free open-air concert in Berlin, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall,will be blocked off so that only a limited number of people can see it. Satire is dead: www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontp...05145.html

How s**t is that? They were an excellent band, one of the most exciting things to come out of Ireland in a few years in my opinion. Terrible pity.

This year's Prix Constantin field is dominated by safe-hands French male folk-pop - with a bit of variety coming from three Englishmen and a misogynistic rapper. Groan. But we still reckon that on 9 November the prize will go to one of the two ladies on the list.More...

Winsome, lose some: second album syndrome strikes the photogenic Paris punk-poppers. 'About Love' has all the signs of a band writing for the sake of it - tired, personality-free tracks that could have come from any guitar band with access to a photocopier.More...

Attention bands / songwriters ! Get involved in a really fun way of helping out a great cause this Christmas...

At the risk of being wrongly accused of Glen-bashing, it has to be the cover of the new Swell Season album, something which looks like it's from a Wolfe Tones tribute to the fallen volunteers of 1916...

I recently caught up with up and coming Belfast electro pop foursome Yes Cadets prior to their performance at the HWCH festival in Dublin. Yes Cadets were only formed last summer but in a short space of time have been causing quite a stir...

A first glimpse at Joann Sfar's 'Gainsbourg (Vie Heroique)', the forthcomingscreenversion ofthe life of France's greatest ever pop star. However, the film has been touched by tragedy.More...

Just as Phoenix were rocking the east coast of America last month, over on the west coast a new festival showcased even more French artists. 'Ooh La L.A.' featured Cocoon, Sebastien Tellier, The Dø - and adopted Frenchman Gonzales.More...

A pet peeve of mine is bloated websites: site with pages that are so stuffed with images and widgets that they take too long to download, even on broadband...








