Limerick will again enjoy an action packed June bank holiday weekend as the Spiegeltent returns to Arthur’s Quay Park for Culture & Chips 2015. It’s a food and culture carnival with a difference, taking place in an authentic, specially transported 1920s’ Spiegeltent right in the heart of the city.
by Eric FitzGerald
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MICK Flannery, Eddi Reader (of Fairground Attraction), Brad Pitt Light Orchestra and Hermitage Green are just some of the musical acts bringing their live shows to the Spiegeltent. Also featuring is Printer Clips which is the side project of Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan accompanied on the night by multi award-winning artist Gemma Hayes. On Friday night May 29, Saved by the 90s will bring all the pop and dance anthems of the 1990s to the Spiegeltent after Mick Flannery’s show. 2fm’s Will Leahy will bring his legendary 80s’ Disco Electric Dreams to the same venue on Sunday May 31.
Printer Clips
PRINTER Clips is the title of Paul Noonan’s (from Bell X1) solo project. Talking to Limerick Post this week, Paul described Printer Clips as his pet project.
“I’ve been chipping away at it for years, anytime I could between the Bell X1 albums.”
It is a collection of songs Paul wrote as duets. He has been taking a simple recording set-up to hallways, basements and apartments in Montreal, New York, Dublin and London to commit these songs to tape. The resulting album in 2014 featured the voices of Joan as Policewoman, Martha Wainwright, Lisa Hannigan, Gemma Hayes, Julia Stone, Amy Milan, Cathy Davey, Danielle Harrison and Maria Doyle Kennedy.
“It’s the simplicity of two guitars and a girl and boy’s voice,” explains Paul.
“Bell X1 got into electronic music, lots of layers and very involved recording sessions and as an antidote to that I wrote a bunch of songs that could stand up in that very simple duet setting. The record was made in a very organic way, I’d pack up my laptop and my microphones. There was no big palaver about a recording studio or anything, the songs have a casual intimacy to them as a result.”
The live incarnation of Printer Clips is Paul Noonan with Gemma Hayes taking on the duties of all the female counterparts.
“I know Gemma Hayes for a long time, I was her drummer for a while in another lifetime. Our voices have always worked really well together, there is great intuition there and she is a great guitar player, far better than me, so she takes the lead and I take the rhythm parts,” he laughs.
The intimate Printer Clips performances have been a real joy for the duo.
“It’s just the two of us. It was wonderful, the simplicity to just rock up and play guitar and sing songs. We are looking forward to doing that in the splendour of the Spiegeltent”.
As well as tracks from the Printer Clips album, expect to hear a couple of Gemma Hayes songs, a few Bell X1 tunes and a few choice covers, Bell X1’s ‘Rocky took a Lover’ being one song that they are enjoying in the set.
Paul explains, “‘Rocky took a Lover’is about two people sleeping under the stars. There is a male voice and a female voice. It is the way I always wanted to do it and it takes on a very different dimension to the band version. It becomes more of a conversation.”
Printer Clips: Paul Noonan (BellX1) and Gemma Hayes play Spiegeltent on Saturday May 30. Support comes from alt country duo Hidden Highways, Tim V. Smyth and Carol Anne McGowan who released the well received ‘Old Hearts Reborn’ on Out on a Limb Records.
The Brad Pitt Light Orchestra
HAVING had the pleasure of gracing the Spiegeltent stage for the inaugural ‘Culture and Chips’ in 2014, The Brad Pitt Light Orchestra is back on Monday June 1 as the exciting quirky festival enters its second year.
It has been a busy time for the band who, last November, enjoyed their world premiere of ‘The Unlucky Cabin Boy’. This musical theatre project saw their songsmith, David Blake, write songs and lyrics for the show with a script written by Mike Finn and directed by Paul Meade of Gúna Nua – as part of Limerick City of Culture 2014. The band performed and acted alongside actors to tell this tragic and moving true story. It has been confirmed that the show will tour in November 2015 in Limerick, Cork, Galway and Dublin.
The band will also be touring ‘Moondance: The Morrison Project’ which will see them playing them music of Van Morrison translated into the Irish language alongside Liam Ó Maonlaí and Hilary Bowe.
Catch one of the city’s finest treasures, Brad Pitt Light Orchestra, at Spiegeltent on Monday June 1.
Saved by the 90s
SAVED by the 90s is Dolan’s monthly tribute club. Expect all the big pop hits, boyband favourites and monster club bangers of the decade. You bring the club gear, the baggy pants and DJ Screech will bring the party with music from Whigfield (pictured), Snap, MC Hammer, Backstreet Boys, S Club 7, Spice Girls, Culture Beat and Prodigy. Saved by the 90s’ happens at Spiegeltent on Friday May 29 from 11pm till late.
