Five things to see… Live At The Marquee!
It's summer and Cork hots up as Live At The Marquee gets underway.
First emerging in the summer of 2005 the big-top tent - that started at the Cork Showgrounds before moving to the Monahan Road - that symbolises the Live at the Marquee summer season has played host to a glittering assemblage of national and international music and entertainment.
From legacy luminaries like Elton John, Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson, to trailblazers like Diana Ross, Dolly Parton, and Lady Gaga, the Marquee’s emphasis on pop music and established acts has betrayed an eclectic streak that runs under the season’s history.
Thrash-metal royalty like Slayer and Megadeth have headlined, while indie-adjacent noises have stretched from the reunion of US alt-rock innovators The Pixies, to Scottish crowd-pleasers Biffy Clyro.
Folk music has long been an underpinning of the festival’s near-two-decade run, most notably the annual appearance of the bauld Christy Moore, as well as US luminaries Crosby, Stills and Nash - but one could only wonder what could have been with an advertised 2010 appearance by Irish prog-rock icons Horslips, cancelled owing to a sudden illness.
Hip-hop has long been well-represented under the 4,000 capacity tent, with a pre-disgrace Kanye West making headlines by decamping to the Pavilion nightclub post-gig, living legend Snoop Dogg making an appearance, as well as peak-popularity performances by the likes of crossover stars like Flo-Rida.
Electronica of all shades has passed through the gates, including an audiovisual set from the iconic Kraftwerk, and appearances by The Prodigy, as well as synth-pop legends like Erasure and the Pet Shop Boys.
There are some odd ones out among the lists of all-time greats - the headlining status of certain artists has aged much worse than others’ (whatever became of Chickenfoot?), while a 2007 appearance by Ballydung’s most eligible bachelors, Podge & Rodge, has seen very few comparable excursions in the years that followed.
But as the years roll on, and speculation continues regarding the season’s next step after a stay of execution at the earmarked-for-redevelopment docklands area, the Marquee is assured its place in Cork’s history. This year’s lineup is a mixture of old reliables and rising pop prospects - and we’ve got five picks of our own to recommend.
- Wednesday, June 7
Hailing from Manchester, UK, rapper Aitch (pronounced ‘h’ in the British accent), began as a reluctant viral star, with a 2015 video of his wordsmithery being taken by a friend, racking up 10,000 views upon upload - encouraging the rapper to explore the medium further, rather than delete the video, as was his initial request. Taking music seriously after dropping out of college, playing sports and working in the construction sector, Aitch got his initial breaks rapping on the P110 channel on YouTube, garnering mainstream attention upon the release of 2018 single ‘Straight Rhymez’.
Second EP ‘Aitch20’ landed in the upper reaches of the UK Album Charts the following year - as well as a feature with Stormzy on ‘Pop Boy’, taken from the rapper’s album ‘Heavy is the Head’ - while UK singles chart success has followed him around, including collaborations with AJ Tracey and Tay Keith on #2-placing tune ‘Rain’, a feature on rapper Arrdee’s single ‘War’, and 2022 standalone single ‘Baby’.
Promoters advise that this show is sold out, with support from ANTSLIVE.
- Saturday, June 10
For a band that are approaching a quarter of a century together under their current moniker, or more, if you include their time as five-piece Juniper, Dublin alternative (for lack of a broader term) outfit Bell X1 have seldom been happy to rest on their laurels, morphing between folk, indie, post-punk, and electronics as their interest and vision calls for it - making for a deep and engaging songbook for the band to dip into, whether in full flight, an acoustic show, or with string arrangements by Dublin composer Éna Brennan, aka dowry.
New album ‘Merciful Hour’, for which the band are currently touring, emerges amid post-Covid upheaval and the existence of band members’ other projects - landing in the middle of their body of work as far as influences and inspiration - ‘Something Electric’ teases a more playful pushing of well-established boundaries.
Special guests for the night are Irish indie heads Soda Blonde, the current preoccupation of most of the members of Little Green Cars, moving further into the bounds of noirish pop music.
- Saturday, June 17
The term ‘legend’ really is bandied about too much in music in general - it can get to a point that anyone that sticks around their respective field long enough can be lauded with the label. Such a word doesn’t adequately cover the ground set by the likes of Christy Moore for folk music in a country that, even a generation or two ago, was in danger of losing a rich canon of literature, ideas, music and thought.
The music speaks for itself - whether it’s his involvement in folk revivalists Planxty, and their role in bringing the tradition to a new generation, best exemplified in a timeless medley of folk standards ‘The Raggle-Taggle Gypsy’ and ‘Tabhair Dom do Lámh’; novelty ditties like ‘Don’t Forget Your Shovel’ and ‘Joxer Goes to Stuttgart’; inescapable crossover hits like ‘Lisdoonvarna’ and ‘Ride On’; or songs that cut to the social heart of the nation, from ‘Ordinary Man’ and its tale of betrayal and destitution, to ‘Viva la Quinta Brigada’, immortalising Irish socialists and anti-fascists who volunteered in the Spanish Civil War.
The latter aspect of his legacy can oftentimes be buried deep within the popular idea of the singer’s body of work - an innate radicalism that, while possibly tamed by time, can be seen again and again in his career - from his active involvement in the anti-nuclear campaigns of the 1970s, to his support of republican causes, including 1978 album ‘H-Block’; while ‘They Never Came Home’, a song for the victims of the Stardust tragedy that was banned in 1985, after its release was found to prejudice then-ongoing court proceedings.
As per usual, there’ll be no support act for Christy and crew - and he’ll be on stage at 8pm sharp.
- Sunday, June 18
Led by founder member and frontman Mike Scott, legendary folk-rockers The Waterboys are set to reprise The Big Music sound for a date, plunging back into a body of work that’s been running, on and off, for the last four decades, ranging from anthemic rock ‘n’ roll, to considered folk and traditional influences, informed by Scott’s own connections to Scottish lore and history, as well as those of any number of collaborators and bandmates that have found their ways into the Waterboys - over 70 as of time of writing.
Two new albums over the course of the covid crisis - ‘Good Luck, Seeker’ and ‘All Souls’ Hill’ have seen Scott work with new collaborators and the Waterboys project explore the place of electronic and hip-hop elements in their sound - while a 2021 boxset, ‘The Magnificent Seven’, charted the course of the classic seven-piece line-up of the early ‘90s, with a remaster of the ‘Room to Roam’ album accompanied by demos, live recordings, concert footage and other goodies across 5 CDs and a DVD.
Support for the night comes from veteran singer and electronic artist David Kitt, himself celebrating over two decades in music, both under his own name, including his commercial peak during the Celtic Tiger-era songwriter boom, and under the New Jackson moniker, under which he explores live electronic performance.
- Friday, June 23
Less of a DJ set and more of a multimedia installation, 2FM perennial Jenny Greene stands at the centre of a show that melds reworked nineties dancefloor classics with the full heft of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, as well as location-specific visuals and appearances from live vocal collaborators, this year including Gemma Sugrue and Jack O’Rourke - not always an easy task from a stagecraft perspective when being solely called in for big choruses!
“Also, there’s the case that the Orchestra themselves wouldn’t be used to the environment they’ve suddenly found themselves in at all. Where I would be well-used to being blasted out of it with volume on the stage, that would probably be a new concept for them, so it took them a little while to adjust. But then it paid off, because I don’t think they’ve ever had a reaction like they got, so it’s twofold, y’know?”
Tickets and more information are available from ticketmaster.ie.
