ON THE TOWN: The rock 'n' roll fraternity came out to party at the Sugar Club on Dublin's Leeson Street this week, writes Catherine Foley.
Dolores O'Riordan and The Cranberries, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club as well as members of The HotHouse Flowers, Dvine, the five member girl-band, and the three Bellefire singers - sisters Cathy and Ciara Newell and Kelly Kilfeather - all turned up to lend their support to HotPress publisher Niall Stokes at the launch of the HotPress Yearbook 2003.
The yearbook is a who's who listing of all the individuals working in the music industry - including photographers, promoters, financial advisors and event organisers.
At one of the front tables at the nightclub venue was singer Richard Gilpin, who is based in Letterkenny, Co Donegal. He will be playing numbers from his last album, Beautiful Mistake, in Belfast's Rotterdam Bar tonight.
He chatted to fellow-singer Maggie Kane, whose EP, Sapphire is just out. Her next gig is in Da 2 on Wexford Street on Thursday, April 17th.
Dubliner Brendan Kilkenny, the long-haired entertainer and civil servant who became famous through RTÉ's Popstars series, and later on You're a Star, is busier than ever guesting on radio and TV shows. Karl Burke and Giles Packham of electronica group The Array also came to enjoy the party.
Drawing attention to "an imbalance" in the radio play charts in Ireland, Stokes said, "there's a challenge for Irish programmers" to play more Irish artists on air. As the former chair of the Independent Radio and Television Commission, he's aware of the difficulties, but "there's an imbalance between the radio play given to international musicians and Irish artists", he said. Irish artists represent about 10 per cent of radio play currently. "The truth is that stations could do a whole lot better."
Colm Ó Snodaigh, of Kíla, chatted to one of the youngest guests at the gig, Stoke's son, Rowan Stokes (13), who plays the guitar and piano. Others who came along included Ciarán Kennedy, a proud Corkman (listing Roy Keane as one of his heroes) and producer of Sirens, an album featuring the work of 18 female singers including his wife, Maria Doyle Kennedy. The Sirens "lured men onto the rocks and ate them alive", he said, relishing the prospect, as the Sugar Club's own entertainment got under way with the arrival of a range of singers to do some luring of their own.