Review: Marina and the Diamonds at The Olympia on the 17th of October With a name like Marina Lambrini Diamandis, you are only ever destined for one of two things; grow up and become a promo girl for lightly sparkling Lambrini wine or, of course, start a musical journey and rename yourself as Marina and the Diamonds. For the sake of [...]

As the weekend drew to a close, James Hendicott and Ros Madigan attempted to wipe away the tears as the thought of leaving the magical Electric Picnic was fast becoming a reality, just before the tears set in, they managed to pen their thoughts on day three of Electric Picnic:   The Dublin Gospel Choir (&#9733 &#9733 &#9733 &#9734 &#9734) Decked [...]

And so the festive frolics began. Our two men on site, James Hendicott and Ros Madigan, gave their opinion:   Trinity Orchestra (★ ★ ★ ★ ☆) Trinity Orchestra are the perfect hangover band, even if they are playing a notoriously psychedelic album. Performing Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’, the depth offered by the full-orchestra set up is [...]

Bags packed, whiskey decanted into plastic containers and the annual haul from the office to the bus stop whilst looking like a tortoise with over-sized shell complete: it can only be time for the annual Stradbally pilgrimage, and Ireland’s best-loved festival. With Oxegen dropped for the year, there are fears that the comparatively alternative late-summer extravaganza might be overrun with [...]

Van Morrison and Tom Jones at Marlay Park on August 25th 2012 Review: Ros Madigan Photos: Owen Humphreys After the furore around The Phoenix Park gigs earlier in the summer, it’s littler brother, Marley Park, seemed to learn from his elders mistakes as this set of gigs went without much of a hitch. Even Mr.Guetta and his deluded masses behaved themselves the [...]

  As everyone and their dog knows, this year’s Electric Picnic festival is kicking off this Friday in Co.Laois. In the interest of getting the best bang for your buck, Team GoldenPlec have put together a list of recommendations for the weekend. You know the big one’s (The Cure, The Killers et al), but what about the hidden gems you [...]

Review: Ros Madigan Photos: Owen Humphreys Having treated the Irish fans to 3 performances in 48 hours last year, Alex Ebert and Co were back to Dublin’s Olympia theatre to showcase their latest album – ‘Here’. That whirlwind set of performances last year began with an electrically intimate show in The Button Factory and finished up with a truly special [...]

In the first big musical weekend of the summer, many options awaited the average punter up and down the country. In a weekend where Rory Gallagher songs rained supreme up-north and where fruit of the forbidden nature was dominating the headlines and twitter feeds in the capital, strawberry was the fruit of choice as we attended Strawberry Fest in Enniscorthy, [...]

Alt-J at The Academy 2 on Thursday 24th May Review: Ros Madigan Photo: Kieran Frost The past couple of months have seen Alt-J begin to stamp their mark upon 2012. Since the release of their song Breezeblocks, as far back as March 2011, they have slowly but surely been gaining interest from all walks of the musical sphere. Even despite their [...]

Review: Vantasival Festival 2012 Review: Ros Madigan Photography: Sean Smyth The 1st of May is widely recognized by society for being the first day of summer. So what better way to kick off the summer than heading along to Vantastival, a family/VW van orientated independent-music festival. Located in Bellurgan Park, Co. Louth under the beautiful backdrop of the domineering Cooley [...]