MacD on Music: Gigstory: Past, Present and Future, Book I

There’s always something musical happening in this fine city. With the amount of incredible talent we’ve got, there’s something for everybody. This week, I’m going to be taking a look at highlights from the past few months, the best things happening now, and the best of what’s yet to come. Yes, it’s time for A MacDonMusic Carol.

Part I: Past

The Derry gig scene is always buzzing. On any given weekend, it’s almost guaranteed that there’ll be something happening somewhere. It could be an up-and-coming group playing in Bennigan’s or T’Pau playing Ebrington, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a night without music. Here’s some of the best of recent times:

Gig For Gaza

Let’s start with the most recent one. At the end of August, the artists of Derry came together to host another fundraiser for the people of Gaza as they continue to face genocide at the hands of Israel. The gig raised a lot of money for an excellent cause and featured some of the best artists we have to offer, including The Suite, The Switch, Touts, Peter Cunnah and headliners the Undertones.

Stendhal

Going back a month, we have this year’s Stendhal festival. This year’s line-up had plenty of representation on the Derry front, including great sets from Parker, Reevah, Tessio, Little Kings and CHERYM (possibly the best I’ve seen of them live, which is really saying something).

Also featured this year was Heather Small of M People, Klyda, Banshee, the Zutons and many, many more.

CHERYM’s Debut Album

Back even further, February this year saw the release of what ‘may be the album of the year’, CHERYM’s ‘Take It Or Leave It’ (available now in Cool Discs). The album features one amazing song after another, including ‘Binary Star’, ‘Taking Up Sports’ and ‘Alpha Beta Sigma’, and is up for Album of the Year at the NI Music Prize. If you haven’t heard it yet go down to Cool Discs and buy it now. You won’t regret it.

Part II: Present

Next, we look at some of the best things currently happening here. New releases have been coming thick and fast recently so here’s some of the best:

August ended on a high note with the new song from Parker. ‘Eleanor’, their most recent release, may also be their best so far. The track, which draws influence from the Smashing Pumpkins, came out at the end of August and is their second single this year, following ‘Generic Indie Bands’ a few months ago.

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August/September also saw not one, but two releases from TRAMP. ‘The Birds (Lowered Suspension)’ and ‘Skeletons Surfacing’, both taken from their much-anticipated upcoming EP, have reminded the world why this “happy four piece” are one of the best groups to come from this corner of the world in recent times.

Now, we close the present with The Suite, who have recently released their third single, and first from their upcoming EP, ‘Wanna-Be’. So far, each song they’ve brought out has been better than the last, and that trend shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.

On the reporting front, NuMuze has been making a splash on Instagram (@_numuze_) with artist interviews, news and (soon) gigs, as well as ‘Song of the Week’ every Monday. It’s a great page to discover new artists so go check them out.

Part III: The Future

Finally, we look to the future. The next few months look to be an exciting time for music lovers. We’ve got gigs, EPs, albums and more. Here’s some things to keep an eye out for:

TRAMP’s EP

First up is the aforementioned EP from TRAMP. When I started writing this column almost three years ago, they had yet to release a song and were opening for Parker and General Fiasco. Now, they’ve got four singles (plus a Girls Aloud cover on Bandcamp), have closed out Stendhal and won the BBC Introducing ATL Artist of the Year at last year’s NI Music Prize.

Their debut EP has been hotly anticipated for a long time and, if the first two singles are anything to go by, will not disappoint.

NuMuze Presents: Lord Jane

October 25^th will see the first official gig put on by NuMuze (see above). The gig will be in the (new) Casbah and features the incredible Lord Jane as headliners. Also on the bill are The Capris, Ciarzo and The Vandees. Tickets are £8 and doors are at 8. With a line-up like that, this is going to be one you don’t want to miss.

And that’s it for this week. There’s a lot of artists mentioned, and it would take another full article to get all the socials in but almost all of them can be found on Facebook, Instagram or both.