Want to see live gigs? Well you can!

Lorraine Nash released her EP during lockdown. She is now looking forward to live streams.
WE’RE two lockdowns deep into the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, and while hopeful promoters are dangling 2021’s announcements in front of us, in the event that things go according to plan and our most vulnerable are privy to a vaccine by summer, there are still no guarantees of anything, really.

“We have teamed up with the Opera House many times over the years now,” says Coughlan’s Live venue co-director Brian Hassett, “be it on our own shows, or the Right Here Right Now festival that we present together, so we were delighted to be approached by (Opera House CEO) Eibhlín Gleeson to programme a live show to record and stream online.

“I loved Niamh’s album, and I heard we would be on the same show, so I sent a quick message to see if she might be willing to play on a track together. I sent her the track with the lyrics, and she very kindly agreed. We haven’t even met yet, to run the song through, but that’s just the way things are at the moment.

Hosting the affair will be a veteran of music radio and beyond in Cork’s 96FM’s Michael Carr, the voice of the station’s specialist show Select Irish. Aside from providing introductions and engaging in conversations with the artists, he’s happy, as a music-deprived gig-goer, to be back in front of musicians performing live.

“The collective is currently composed of 26 venues that have come together with the sole aim of giving voice and representation to all the small rooms and independent stages that are bones, lungs, heart and soul of the Irish music industry. The collective have recently been successful in obtaining funding with the support of the Department of Culture, Tourism & The Gaeltacht.
