This Saturday Belfast's longest-running electronic music promotion celebrates its twentieth birthday with a heavyweight roster of acts who have graced its club nights over the course of its tumultuous two decades.

An institution of nightlife in Northern Ireland, Shine has been a bastion of underground techno, house and other forms of cutting edge dance music since 1995, aiding in the rise of countless DJs in the process.

Two such artists forming part of this weekend's packed line-up are Phil Kieran and Jordan McCuaig. Representing the younger, more fresh-faced side of the dance scene, McCuaig runs house and techno night Nocturne as well as The Night Institute, a recently-launched residency at Aether and Echo.

Kieran meanwhile is a well-established and respected, homegrown fixture in the world of contemporary dance music who landed a residency at Shine at the age of 19 and for many years was its backbone. Ahead of Saturday's celebrations both share their thoughts and experiences of the legendary club night.

What was your first experience of Shine? How did you first come across the night?

Phil: I actually think the first time I played Shine was at its third birthday. I’d already played two or three gigs that month, under the name Igloo, I think it was, and Shine gave me the slot to play, which was a great opportunity so early on in my career.

Jordan: I think the first time I went to Shine I was still in my teens. I’d been DJing around Ireland doing more high-energy dance stuff for a few years prior to that, but it was long before I started going out clubbing myself as such.

I remember the Audio Bullies were playing, and it was a massive eye-opener; the crowds were a bit different, the music wasn’t so obvious or in-your-face.

So there was that, and I remember the first time I went by my own choice Derrick May was playing, and Joris Voorn...that was intense. That was one of the first nights that introduced me to after-parties as well, and the rest is history from there.

Do you feel Shine was particularly influential or important for getting you and your generation into dance music?

Phil: For meeting other DJs and gaining experience insofar as playing live it was great, yeah. It was a really fun time. I was young, it was a really good platform which gave guys like me a chance to perform and it also taught you very fast how to produce and perform directly in front of a crowd.

I suppose the first couple of times I played formed a good learning curve that allowed me to learn what worked and what didn’t live – some things which sounded great on a stand-alone recording, or in the studio, end up falling flat on their face in the context of a live show.

What made it fun too was that people knew your tunes, and playing them for that crowd at the time still sits in my mind as a positive experience.

Jordan: Yeah. For myself and my friends, and the people who are now running parties, or even just general clubbers, Shine was instrumental in getting us into the house, techno, and even the electro scene at the time.

You would go to the Stiff Kitten on a Saturday or you would go to Shine once a month and see or bump into the same people. It was a massive community and they really have earned their respect in that capacity.

Do any performances from down the years (seen or playing) still stand out as special?

Phil: One particular show does stand out. When Orbital played in 2004/5 (they hadn’t played the city since around the time of the 'Belfast's release in 1991), they asked me to sign my own record, called 'Vitalian House', for them. So obviously that was pretty amazing. I’d grown up listening and looking up to those guys and for them to ask me that just before going on to play that night was just an incredible feeling, and still remains a great memory.

In fact, friends of mine had been driving the Orbital boys around the city all those years before and, while they were viewing everything that was going on, they had the demo on of what would later become (signature track) 'Belfast'.

I think the experience of listening to the song in its early form, and seeing how the city was, ended up being a big pushing force in what motivated them to name it as they did. So all those threads kind of tie together on that one.

Jordan: The first time I opened the Mandela Hall, before Huxley and Sasha, was personally very memorable because obviously I could remember being on that same dance floor myself years before and sort of thinking –"Flip. That would be an achievement".

But then also at Halloween last year I started off at the Bunatee, which is of course the room everyone comes into before the Mandela opens, and the whole place was buzzing, the atmosphere was great.

Club nights can be passing, short-lived things at the best of times, and the media is currently replete with stories about clubs facing closure or severe restrictions imposed on them by local councils. What do you think has been the key to Shine’s staying power?

Jordan: Shine is more relevant now than ever before, I suppose. They’ve moved with the times. Maybe years ago they had line-ups with lots of underground techno. But in the years since they've expanded and aligned themselves with some of the larger changes in dance music.

From 2006 - 2008 in particular you would maybe have electro-house one week, then your Carl Coxes or Ritchie Hawtins the next. And now, it’s still very much in line with what’s going on at the moment – you’ve got the likes of Bicep; Heidi; Skream; Jimmy Edgar – people who really are at the forefront of what they do, respectively. 

Phil: I guess shrewd business practice would be as important a factor as any – ticket prices, bookings, venues and the like. They’ve also adapted well to the changes that have taken place in dance music over the past twenty years, and haven’t just kept on booking the same old boring acts. So, in that respect, they’ve moved with the times.

For readers who don’t know much about Shine’s birthday events, what can be expected on each night?

Phil: Well, (Saturday is) supposed to be a classic night, so the expectation is for most of the fare to be made up of old stuff. But I’m not too into that as an absolute approach, you know. If you overdo something like that it can be a bit sickly sweet.

I’ve got something that’s coming out on Cocoon in November, so I might like to give that a spin. Some people will expect certain tunes which I might have to play, I suppose. But I guess it’s about getting that balance in between the older classics people will recognise and some of the fresher, to me, more interesting new stuff – which hopefully I’ll manage to hit.

Jordan: As far as the October 31 line-up is concerned, Northern Ireland’s biggest dance music export, Bicep, are heading the bill, with Heidi from Radio One – who also has her own Jackathon series, which is just good, fun electronic music.

On the local front, there’s myself, Swoose and Cromby – who were Shine residents for years and continue to play when they’re home – and then there’s Ryan Elliott from Panorama Bar, who is also just a really nice guy. Finally the DSNT lads are in room three doing their banging techno-artsy-visual thing. So something for everyone.

Where do you see Shine‘s place in terms of the Northern Irish dance music landscape now? Will we be talking about Shine twenty years from now?

Phil: Christ. That sounds like a scary concept. To be honest I don’t really think I can say much about the longevity or mileage of the night in the face of coming times.

Like I said, I’ve played it a good couple of times over the years and the memories are fond ones, but I just can’t really speculate at this point as to how the future of the event will pan out.

Jordan: Absolutely. I mean, even if not purely through Shine productions, then the night will continue through the generations of clubbers and musicians who went along to the events and have gone on to carry the torch, so to speak, in their own way.

I think all the independent club nights which have been springing up over the past few years are very heavily inspired by Shine, and all those guys running the nights have been on the Shine dance floor at one time or another.

Queen's University Belfast Student's Union hosts Shine Classics this Saturday (September 5) while Shine celebrates its twentieth birthday proper at the same venue on October 31. Tickets are available to book at www.shine.net.

In terms of giving scarcely-seen, true artists a rare platform in Northern Ireland, the Moving On Music folk tend not to disappoint.

On this, the third and final night of their Beat Root alternative roots music festival in the Crescent Arts Centre, we see two vastly contrasting artists who both, to various extents, fall under the wide-ranging banner of 'folk music'.

It’s a genre that has unfortunately, ever since dilution became a possibility, become an increasing parody of its once-championed authenticity. Fortunately, one of our acts tonight is a master craftsman making the most out of folk while operating within its boundaries, while the other reimagines and reinvigorates the very notion of what folk can be, avoiding its trappings at every turn.

The first of the two-act bill is the familiar presence of Kilrea journeyman Robyn G Shiels, who takes to the stage with regular foil, banjo player James Heaney – as well as select accordion accompaniment.

Opening with one of his lighter numbers, 'Open Road', his restrained-yet-throaty voice silences the crowd instantly for its duration, before letting us know he’s about to cover a song by Rose Tattoo: 'Australian hard rawk band, nineteen eigh’y wan/eigh’y two'.

It’s obvious he relishes this as he throws a knowing glance into a member of the audience; it’s something he does a lot of – and it’s increasingly difficult to separate artist with performer.

Indeed, as far as enigmatic Northern performers go, Shiels is top of the heap, regularly injecting doses of black humour into what could easily be a solemn performance of doom-laden Americana. Even his poignant closer 'Underneath the Night of Stars' is prefaced with a cautionary childhood tale, comical in both its innocence and Portrush reference points.

As he has proven on last year’s NI Music Prize-winning full-length Blood of the Innocents, the strength of his reasonably conventional songs is not just that they’re wonderfully framed within the context of his character, but that they’re infused with a sense of knowing. His 'bout ye’s' and 'yer ma's' are fooling no-one – we can hear the lyrics.

In any case, it’s a testament to his craftsmanship that each of his performances could feature any lineup or instrumental configuration and have something to offer in each iteration, without ever ceasing to sound like Robyn G Shiels.

There are several essays that could be written about what happens after the round-faced, grey haired 33-year-old with the young eyes shifts onstage, charming the diversely populated room with his affability from the onset. Richard Dawson shuffles around, deciding whether to venture toward the mic stand or guitar, with all the sensibilities and rapt attention of a stand-up set from the hugely respected, seldom-seen comedian Daniel Kitson – beard and trucker hat included.

After breaking the ice with a self-deprecating story about an encounter with a fellow man of size – 'People in stone houses shouldn't throw glasses' – he successfully invites the polite audience to join him in a casual dialogue for the entirety of his performance.

For his first act, Dawson moves down to the crowd. With perfect pitch, he subverts the 'passionate mic-less a capella' cliché with a vocal performance reminiscent of Jeff Mangum’s pure, sustained, emotive bellow for a song he wrote in the Bardic tradition. It’s taken from his 2013 album, The Glass Trunk, inspired by his studies about old Newcastle culture and based on items from the Tyne & Wear museums.

Dawson's eye condition makes objects appear less defined and can induce a hallucinatory-like state, to put it simply. To some it would be a hindrance, but Dawson uses it to paint a vivid psychedlia, guiding us through these crystal-clear reveries.

If there were any reference points for Dawson’s kind of concept-melding guitar work, it could be the British folk wistfulness or or exploratory, meanderings of Bert Jansch, but that sells short the thrashed-out quasi-punk aggression and discordance he capably channels through his undersized, pawn shop electro-acoustic.

The oft-cited folk parallels drawn with Captain Beefheart’s deconstruction of the blues ring true, as the tiny fragments of vision in his narratives add up to a more complete, universal whole, where folk is merely the platform for his ideas to take root.

Dawson never lets one idea linger too long; instead, he gives the audience just enough before continuing upwards, never falling into a predictable resolution or resting on what could be perceived as a hook.

A special subset of great artists throughout history have often had an unquantifiable air of knowing – a hint that they’re not quite showing their hand and that they know something we don’t, without ever being too explicit. Dawson, too, manages to possess this quality, despite the detail that characterises his work. 'Poor Old Horse', an interpretation of the 220 year old poem, is a prime example, once more subverting the convential folk ballad.

Be he playing an instrumental, singing solo on the floor or simply conversing, each aspect of Dawson’s set complements each other in a way this writer has never seen before. His genuine passion for the bardic tales is not an act, with the narrative thrust never losing momentum through the peaks and troughs in any of his pieces.

Closing out the night, the title track from latest album Nothing Important is contextualised with the story of the son his parents lost at just seven days old, prior to his own difficult birth. The piece stretches fifteen minutes in length, giving us oneiric-yet-lucid accounts of childhood from varying family members in a peerless performance.

Such is the singularity of his vision, Dawson turns a repeated refrain of 'I am nothing/You are nothing/Nothing important'– casting the band from his ring finger mid-song – into a life-affirming statement that resonates deeply on into the night and doubtless the thoughts of those in the audience.

Richard Dawson has brought us down into the root issues of what folk is about on its most human level. As he returns to the stage, the audience cheer. He humbly apologises and thanks the audience, explaining that a logical endpoint has been reached.

This review was commissioned through Culture NI's partnership with somewhereto_, the UK-wide social enterprise which helps 16-25 year olds access free physical and digital space to explore their creative pursuits. To find out more or be hooked up with free space in your area contact joe.c@somewhereto.org.

After a week of online speculation Irish rockers U2 have confirmed their first Belfast gigs since their PopMart Tour came to Botanic Gardens in 1997.

The band will play the SSE Arena, formerly the Odyssey, on November 18 and 19 as part of a string of homecoming shows rounding out their sold out iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE European tour. Tickets go on sale this Monday, September 14, from 9am.

It is the first time Bono and co. will perform songs from their most recent album Songs of Innocence live to Irish audiences as well as their first time in the north in 18 years. Before Snow Patrol played Ward Park in 2010 it was the highest attended concert in history in Northern Ireland, with 40,000 ticket holders and thousands more watching from nearby vantage points.

Launched in support of their 1997 album Pop, the tour's elaborate stage design memorably featured a 165-foot wide LED screen, a 100-foot-high golden arch and a large mirror-ball lemon, in stark contrast to the modest set-up of previous visits a decade earlier.

Their first album in five years, Songs of Innocence was controversially made available to all iTunes digital customers at no cost, as part of an Apple product launch event in 2014. Unlike 'Sunday Bloody Sunday', closing track 'The Troubles' is claimed by the band to not have been written about the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile the group gave full creative license to Omagh-born filmmaker Aoife McArdle last year to shoot an accompanying short film for single 'Every Breaking Wave' in Belfast's New Lodge area. 

Songs of Innocence charts U2's earliest experiences of growing up in Dublin influenced by '70s rock, punk and early '80s electronica, and gives insight into how and why the members came together.

Following a £3 million revamp the newly-named SSE Arena now boasts 9,000 new seats as well as improved technical specifications which will have been a deciding factor for the band in their venue search.

'Finding venues to take this show is actually quite tricky and we’re grateful to our overworked crew who finally cracked the reconfiguring to fit these venues' said guitarist The Edge.

Tickets for U2's iNNOCENCE + Experience tour go on sale at 9am this Monday, September 14, priced from £30 to £165, available from the SSE Arena box office and online.

A little over two years since she first began to make waves in the music world, the first full-length album by Derry songstress SOAK is finally live for all to hear.

Preceded by two self-released EPs and all manner of singles, remixes and covers since signing with Rough Trade Records last September, Before We Forgot How To Dream comes long-awaited to those who've followed the teen's rise from her beginnings.

Just this month the 18-year old, real name Bridie Monds-Watson, previewed tracks from the album in a debut appearance on BBC 2's flagship music show Later...with Jool's Holland. Internationally renowned artists Paul Weller and Father John Misty featured on the same edition of the decades-spanning programme.

Earlier this year, Culture NI named Before We Forgot How To Dream amongst its list of Northern Irish Albums To Get Excited About. Writer Chris Jones wrote: 'It was recorded with Villagers man Tommy McLaughlin at his Donegal studio, and if the re-recorded 'Sea Creatures' is anything to go by, it promises to be lush and full-bodied, but intimate too.'

Meanwhile, SOAK – who has always been open about her sexuality – was in full support of the successful Yes marriage equality campaign in Ireland, commenting on her Facebook page: 'There are tears in my eyes. Congratulations Ireland! It's your turn Northern Ireland' on news of the result. A day later she performed at BBC Radio One's Big Weekend in Norwich, just two years after her home city of Derry played host to the event.

Stream Before We Forgot How To Dream now on NPR First Listen.

Tickets went on sale this morning for U2's first live concerts in Northern Ireland in 18 years. Fans queued through the night for the chance to see the band play two recently-announced shows at Belfast's SSE Arena, part of a string of Irish dates rounding out their iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE European tour.

Though the former Odyssey Arena's recent revamp means up to 40,000 could be in attendance across the two nights, the same number of people made Bono and co's last visit the single biggest gig the country had ever hosted – a record only broken by Snow Patrol's Ward Park homecoming in 2010.

Taking place on Tuesday, August 26 1997, the gig came as part of U2's mammoth PopMart world tour – featuring a 100 foot golden arch, giant LED screen and a massive lemon – and with the Good Friday Agreement imminent, making it a landmark moment for Belfast and Northern Ireland.

One particularly brave crowd member managed to film the entire performance using the kind of handheld camcorder synonymous with the era, before waiting until 2013 to finally upload the footage online. Despite the video quality being typical of the time, the two-hour recording unquestionably documents a momentous occasion for the city. Watch it in full below.

Tickets for U2's concerts at the SSE Arena on November 18 and 19 are reportedly now close to selling out. For up to date information on allocation and booking visit the venue website.

With their idiosyncratic interpretations of classic pop, rock and soul tunes, and no frills approach to music-making, Discobeard have taken the live music scene in Belfast and beyond by storm.

Featuring Ross Maguire on sweet, soulful vocals and finely-plucked guitar and Gareth McCreevy on precision drums, the band will be familiar to revellers aplenty, having secured residencies in The Dirty Onion, The Anchor Bar and elsewhere.

The bearded beauties took time out from rehearsing new tunes – plucked from every conceivable genre, including country, hip-hop, R&B and ska – to chat about the rise and rise of the cover band.

How did you two bearded boys meet?

Gareth: I was working in one of the local bars in Newcastle, County Down, the Harbour Inn, and Ross was playing a solo set. I really liked his sound and the way he constructed some of the songs musically and rhythmically. Ultimately, I thought it would sound better with drums, but it wasn't a bad effort by himself.

Ross: Gareth approached me after the gig and we chatted. We decided to have a jam, just for fun, but it did work pretty much instantaneously, to the point of laughter. We're still like that now.

When did you officially form Discobeard?

R: The birth of Discobeard took place on a blustery February evening in 2014. We had played together once or twice before then, with no solid entity. We decided to really give it a go. On that night, we gave this musical lovechild a name.

Why Discobeard?

R: We had only played about three times without a moniker and people were interested in booking us. We thought 'Ross and Gareth' sounded a bit ridiculous, so we went for an even more ridiculous name. I'd say one word, then Gareth another, until two words came together: Discobeard. You're lucky, we could have been called 'The Beardy Beardy Heartthrobs'.

Which bands where you in before?

G: I still play with [the] Rupture Dogs, a much heavier and aggressive rock band. So Discobeard was a 180 for me and a nice chance to work on something different and show my versatility.

R: I was in a band called Eskimos Fall a few years back, pop/rock driven. More recently, I was part of a project called Native Men, which had a chilled out, ambient vibe.

Where did you start playing?

G: We started in Newcastle, in The Anchor Bar and O'Hare's Front Bar. A few tester shows and the interest and ability grew from there, so we took our equipment up to Belfast and played a few more shows to generate interest. We haven't looked back since.

What do you love about Discobeard?

R: It's a great musical outlet for us. I feel that it's both entertaining for music lovers and satisfying for musicians. There is enough to keep everyone entertained, and it's musically intricate enough for us to feel that we're putting on a show for those seeking a bit of proper live music instead of the run of the mill three chord wonders.

For the uninitiated, how would you describe the act?

G: We touch on many genres and styles of music. It depends on the audience what our performance will be, but we usually start off relaxed, playing slower tempos and making it sound more spacious. By the end of the night, it's 100 MPH, "what the hell just happened?" kind of vibe. 

People will have heard you play soul versions of Metallica tracks, for example, or reggae twists on country classics. How do you come to flip each song? 

R: We just hear songs out and about and something clicks in our heads. Immediately, we'll think, "Oh that would sound good like this". (Cue: Musical beatboxing and melody.)

We try and take the best bits of songs and disregard the rest. We hear the potential in that small fragment and from that, we try and make the song better than the original. That's the aim.

You play a lot of shows these days, which you regularly post about on your Facebook page. Where can people catch you?

R: We still play in Newcastle, but now we're based in Belfast, mainly in such establishments as The Harp Bar, The Dirty Onion and The Empire, to name a few. We've played shows in London, Prague and New York also. Sadly, not on a weekly basis, but never say never.

Your shows are all about the party atmosphere. Do you consider yourselves entertainers first?

R: We are very much musicians. We really enjoy when everyone has a good time and let loose. We love that people get a lot of joy from our performances. It can be very rewarding at times.

We don't go out with the mentality to solely entertain, we take the audience into consideration and select our songs from there to suit the atmosphere. That's why every Discobeard show is different and always will be.

Discobeard play Cuckoo Live in Belfast every Wednesday night from 9pm. Follow the band on Facebook for regular updates on other shows as they're announced.

View a selection of musical performances in venues and spaces throughout Belfast this month, with a packed line-up of exciting gigs and more from emerging artists and international names.

More Than Conquerors, David C Clements - October 2 at the Mandela Hall - Book tickets

The much-loved Belfast band play their final show, having recently announced their split after six years delighting audiences with acclaimed releases and tireless touring.

PORTS - October 2 at the Black Box - Book tickets

The former Little Bear four-piece play Belfast as part of an Irish tour in support of new single 'Gameplay', the first release from debut album The Devil's a Songbird, which the band spent most of 2014 recording.

Girls Names - October 2 at The Empire - Book tickets

Belfast alternative/post-punk quartet Girls Names launch their third album Arms Around a Vision with support from psychedelic side-project Documenta.

The Lemonheads - October 4 at The Limelight - Book tickets

With nine album releases spanning an almost 30 year career, including the hit single 'Mrs Robinson', reformed US alt-rock luminaries The Lemonheads return to Belfast with iconic frontman Evan Dando.

"Weird Al" Yankovic - October 7 at The Limelight - Book tickets

Now in his fourth decade as a recording artist, the Grammy award-winning parody master brings his 2015 Mandatory World Tour to the Northern Ireland capital.

Andy Sheppard Quartet - October 9 at The MAC - Book tickets

Sheppard and previous collaborators, Michel Benita (bass) and Polar Bear rhythm master Seb Rochford (drums) have once again combined forces. The addition of guitarist and electronic artist Eivind Aarset adds a backdrop of ambient drones and electronic textures, giving Sheppard and co more space to explore. The result is an incredible piece of work built on subtlety, groove, control, and a deep understanding of one another.

Lulu - October 10 at the Waterfront Hall - Book tickets

The legendary Scottish singer, actress and television personality is back with her first album since 2005 - performing her hit songs that have influenced her life.

The Piatti Quartet - October 11 at The MAC - Book tickets

Prize-winners at the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, the Piatti are amongst the UK’s foremost young ensembles with a host of awards and critically acclaimed recordings. Catch them on tour this October as they perform works by Webern, Wolf and Beethoven, along with a new commission by young British composer Joseph Phibbs.

Gretchen Peters - October 16 at the Fitzroy Church

Real Music Club presents a special performance from the New York country artist, following on from her latest album Blackbirds which features contributions from Glenarm singer-songwriter Ben Glover.

Johnny Marr - October 16 at The Limelight - Book tickets

The one-time Smiths guitarist, Morrisey co-songwriter, NME Godlike Genius and UK indie icon returns to Belfast for another much-anticipated solo show.

One Direction - October 20 - 22 at the SSE Arena - Book tickets

Pop's biggest boyband play their final string of Northern Ireland shows before their much-publicised forthcoming hiatus.

Father John Misty - October 23 at the Mandela Hall - Book tickets

Having last played Belfast in 2011 as part of the Open House Festival, the former Fleet Foxes drummer returns as a successful solo act with second album I Love You, Honeybear in tow.

Shine 20th Birthday - October 31 at the Mandela Hall - Book tickets

Shine celebrates the landmark 20th birthday with a heavyweight line-up featuring underground house and techno music’s elite, delivering one of the biggest bills to grace the iconic event in recent years.

RELATED: Shine Through the Ages - Figureheads of Belfast dance culture past and present reflect on its longest-enduring club night turning twenty

Acclaimed County Down musician, songwriter and producer David Lyttle has been recognised by one of the UK’s most prestigious music institutions with a nomination for this year’s MOBO awards. He is the first Irish artist to be shortlisted in its 20-year history.

The renowned instrumentalist and collaborator, who currently operates as Musician-in-Residence at the Nerve Centre in Derry~Londonderry, is one of five nominees in the Best Jazz Act category and will go up against Polar Bear, Courtney Pine, Julia Biel, and Binker and Moses at the award ceremony on November 4 in Leeds.

The annual MOBO Awards has become one of the most televised music shows in the world and showcases the best British and international urban music talent. Previous winners have included Rihanna, John Legend and Sam Smith.

Perhaps best known as a prodigious jazz drummer in his early career, Lyttle has gone on to be described by Irish music magazine Hot Press as a 'one-man industry' for his work as a performer, producer and record label owner.

His diverse collaborations range from hip hop visionary Talib Kweli to jazz icon Joe Lovano to Irish recording artist Duke Special, who all feature on his third album Faces recently described by Rolling Stone as 'one of the best, robust listening experiences you're likely to have all year'.

Speaking about his nomination Lyttle said: 'Music of black origin has shaped popular music for the past 100 years and popular music today is still heavily indebted to the contribution of black artists. I have a deep love and respect for black music and I'm deeply honoured to have been nominated for a MOBO Award.'

As Musician-in-Residence at the Nerve Centre he has been collaborating with a range of musicians, songwriters, bands and producers from across Derry and the surrounding area to create and perform pieces of original music.

Martin McGill, Music Programme Manager at Nerve Centre congratulated the artist on the nomination: 'David is an outstanding artist and we’re delighted that he has been recognised by the MOBO awards. Since April, David has been working tirelessly with over 30 local musicians, songwriters and producers, from breakthrough talent to more established local acts, to produce a completely original work due for release and showcasing at the end of 2015.

'He has also delivered a host of interactive music masterclasses and talks to over 1,000 young people across the Derry and Strabane areas already this year – a feat in itself. We’re encouraging everyone to vote for him so he can bring his MOBO award back to the Nerve Centre.'

The Nerve Centre’s residency is funded by the PRS for Music Foundation, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Derry City and Strabane District Council through the City of Culture Legacy fund and the National Lottery via the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

James Hannam, Senior Grants Manager at PRS for Music Foundation said, 'We’re delighted that David has been nominated for a MOBO Award, which is testament to the high quality work he has produced in the jazz scene. This exciting nomination will also enhance the current Musician-in-Residence programme at Nerve Centre, which we are proud to be supporting.'

Ciaran Scullion, Head of Music, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, commented: 'Congratulations to David on this prestigious MOBO nomination. To be recognised in this way is both an honour and is well deserved. The Arts Council is delighted to support this talented, innovative musician through the Derry Legacy Fund in a project that reaches out to local musicians across the city, developing their musical skills and talents. I encourage everyone to get online and vote for one of the finest musicians we are lucky to have in the region.'

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Cllr Elisha McCallion is encouraging the public to get behind David. 'This is a huge achievement and I am absolutely delighted that David Lyttle’s unique talent has been recognised. David Lyttle is one of our best-loved jazz musicians and has a long association with the City of Derry Jazz and Big Band Festival.

'Securing a nomination in the MOBO awards is a major achievement and we are one hundred per cent behind him to secure the Best Jazz Act category award.'

The winner of each category is decided by a public vote. Voting is now open via www.mobo.com.

Main image by Paul Brown.

Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody will return to Belfast for an intimate homecoming show at the Waterfront this December.

The announcement follows a string of similar stripped down performances which have recently kept the frontman occupied on the West Coast of America.

Tickets for his December 22 gig at the Waterfront are seated and go on sale this Friday, October 16 at 9.00am from the Ulster Hall box office and online.

Lightbody has been vocal of late in support of Ireland's sporting success in both the Rugby World Cup and the Euro 2015 qualifiers, while Snow Patrol's long-awaited first studio album since 2011's Fallen Empires is reportedly on the cards for the next year.

The Alley Theatre in Strabane is delighted to be hosting the 20th Anniversary of C.R.A.I.C. with the ‘Johnny Crampsie Song and Dance Music Festival’, with concerts and workshops taking place throughout this weekend.

In 1995 under the name CRAIC (Cultural Revival Among Integrated Communities), a group of people got together with the aim of reviving the old cultural traditions. After holding successful trad music weekend in 1997, CRAIC set up an annual event dedicated to the respected local musician, Johnny Crampsie who was a versatile fiddle and saxophone musician that played trad and a wide range or other types of music.

The opening concert of the festival will take place in the Alley Theatre on this Friday night with CRAIC in Concert with Special Guests Tom Byrne and Friends, with an evening of traditional Irish and Folk music, hosted by the well-established local group.

The Johnny Crampsie Music Workshops will take place on Saturday with tutors from the fabulous group Beoga, followed by an opportunity for participants to perform on stage as part of the Beoga Concert, taking place later that evening.

Beoga (Gaelic for ‘lively’) have become one of the most exciting, popular and influential groups in modern traditional Irish music. Their unique sound features the twin dueling accordions of Damian McKee and multi-instrumentalist Seán Óg Graham, pianist Liam Bradley, four times All-Ireland bodhrán champion Eamon Murray and Niamh Dunne, on vocals and fiddle. Shortlisted for a Grammy nomination in 2010, Beoga are described by the Wall Street Journal as ‘the best traditional band to emerge from Ireland this century’.

Over the festival weekend, the ever popular trad CRAIC Late Night Sessions can be enjoyed by all in the Stables of Sion Mills, while finishing off with the Closing Session with CRAIC on the Sunday evening.

CRAIC is also celebrating their 20 year anniversary with an exhibition in the gallery space in the Alley Theatre with audio, video, photographic and artefact displays from the many events through the years. This will be an opportunity for the hundreds of people who have taken part or just enjoyed their experiences with craic to relive those memories.

This promises to be another exciting and memorable weekend for all those culture vultures out there so come along and enjoy.

Tickets for all events are now available at the box office and online.

Derry star SOAK has been named amongst the nominees for this year's Mercury Prize, which annually recognises the best album from the UK and Ireland.

The singer-songwriter's debut Before We Forgot How to Dream is in the running alongside releases from Glastonbury headliner Florence + the Machine and elusive producer Aphex Twin, whose first album in 13 years is also the first of his to ever receive a nod from the prestigious panel.

After signing with seminal indie label Rough Trade, SOAK aka Bridie Monds-Watson released her album to much critical acclaim and mainstream popularity earlier this year and subsequently made appearances at festivals around the world as well as BBC 2 institution Later... with Jools Holland.

'Life is crazy' tweeted the 19-year old artist upon the announcement on Lauren Laverne's BBC 6 Music show today, adding 'THANK YOU!'

Prior to the album's release we predicted it would be as 'lush and full-bodied' as lead single 'Sea Creatures', recorded with Villagers man Tommy McLaughlin at his Donegal studio.

SOAK recently returned to her native Derry to play a free show at the Playhouse Theatre as part of the city's Culture Night programme. 

The winner of this year's Mercury Prize will be revealed on November 20. For the full list of nominees visit www.mercuryprize.com.

Since 2005 Radar has given a pronounced platform for local artists in the form of regular, free-to-attend shows in the heart of Belfast, at Queen's University's Students Union.

Whether on the Speakeasy stage or the Mandela Hall, the long-running night has consistently connected bands from Northern Ireland with large audiences, and with all the productio marks of a ticketed event. 

As Radar gets set to bow out on Thursday, October 22 with a final sendoff featuring Mojo Fury, Oh Volcano, Hot Cops and Jealous of the Birds, longtime promoter Damian McAdams takes a stroll down memory lane and recounts his standout shows from the decade past.

Damien: Picking 10 memorable gigs spanning hundreds of shows across 10 years is pretty daunting. I probably could have picked 50 and still forgotten a few classics. It’s been a lot of fun thinking about though and it's threatened to bring a tear to my eye on occasion if truth be told.

Since the final show was announced lots of people have asked why it's ending and I think the best way to sum it up is that now just feels like the right time.

It’s been an amazing 10 years and it's something I never dreamed would last this long. I was only ever thinking show to show.

The reason for its success was the people; the musicians who played on the stage, the people who worked at it and most importantly the people who kept showing up.

The First One: V//Formation, Mojo Fury, Panda Kopanda, Fast Emporors - September 29, 2005

I can remember the first one vividly. We didn’t know what to expect and no one had done a proper gig in the Speakeasy in a few years but we made it work. Then show time the place was packed with hundreds of people. A really great gig, it laid down a marker for not just the rest of the shows but also the whole scene in Belfast.

John Peel Night: Tracer AMC, The Zoo, Oppenheimer, Civilian - October 13, 2005

This was a mammoth line-up on such a special night as Radio One broadcasted from different gigs all over the country. It was a real eclectic mix of acts that all just worked.

We had a full house and everyone got an amazing reception. Rocky from Oppenheimer fell down a hole in the stage. He still reminds me of it.

General Fiasco, Two Door Cinema Club, The Good Fight - January 31, 2008

How could a line-up like this be anything but memorable? It certainly wasn’t the busiest show on this list but it encapsulates exactly what Radar was about, showcasing fantastic Northern Irish acts in the hope that they go on to be something. And these two showed that local bands could go as far as they dared dream.

Ed Zealous, The Black Tokens, The Benjamins – March 13, 2008

It's fair to say Ed Zealous were Radar favourites over the years and I could have picked any number of shows that they played. Every time they did if felt like a real party.

This one sticks out as I’m pretty sure we had to close the doors. They really were on top form and came out to an encore of 'For The Fishes'.

Team Fresh, NI Soul Troop, Axis Of - October 15, 2009

Every time Team Fresh played the Speakeasy it almost felt like a riot was going to break out. A really awesome, Buckfast fuelled, sweaty riot.

The place was packed and there was so many musicians on stage most of the band were diving from the PA, and most of the audience too. Axis Of opened and suddenly people started to take notice of them.

More Than Conquerors, Good Fight, NI Soul Troop, Captain Cameron - May 13, 2010

This was the night the scene witnessed the birth of something special with the young bucks More Than Conqeuerors. They had supported A Plastic Rose a few months before and I knew they had to headline.

This was an EP launch and I’d never seen a band put so much work into a show themselves. Lights, sound, and performance. This wasn’t a gig. This was a statement.

Panama Kings, Ed Zealous, Alice Kona Band – November 4, 2010

The last ever gig by Panama Kings. They had played two amazing headline shows previously which were just as memorable but here was a band going out at the top.

For whatever reason it didn’t quite work for Panama Kings but every time they played Radar it was magical. They had their haters but their influence and impact was something special.

Pocket Billiards, Tied To Machines, Chocolate Love Factory - September 20, 2012

The very first gig in the revamped Speakeasy. I guess everyone was a little nervous before hand. Basically a new room and a new stage. It was strange for all the crew working and I guess for the bands and punters too.

We needn’t have worried. Pocket Billiards did the thing they always do and raised the roof. Turns out you could crowd surf just as easy too!

The Dead Presidents, Pretty Child Backfire, Howl - March 7, 2013

I hate the word the ‘scene’. I never saw Radar as part of any scene, and I think we gave everyone a chance. But people will always throw it about as a derogatory term.

The Dead Presidents could certainly never be labelled a ‘scene’ band. Four hundred odd people packed in to witness something truly special. Funky, soulful, smooth and utterly refreshing.

Robocobra Quartet, Val Normal, Escobar - November 6, 2014

The only one in the list not to take place in the Speakeasy as it was in Sub, and the most recent but it has to make it. Two amazing support bands and then the most unique act Belfast has seen in a long time. People came intrigued, and left as converts. Exciting, innovative bands, local bands. The reason we started in the first place I guess.

Radar bows out with Mojo Fury, Oh Volcano, Hot Cops and Jealous of the Birds at Mandela Hall, Belfast on Thursday, October 22. Admission is free.

Image by Carrie Davenport Photography

Around Queen's Students Union last Thursday night, all the talk was of 'the end of an era'. Radar, the free weekly showcase for Northern Ireland's best up-and-coming bands, was drawing to a close after 10 years, with one final farewell.

There was a pleasing symmetry to the line-up, in that headliners Mojo Fury had played the very first Radar back in 2005, but it felt like the end of more than just one club night. It felt like the curtain was finally coming down on a banner period for the Belfast music scene.

During its decade-long lifespan, and especially from 2008-2012, Radar was at the heart of an exciting time. We watched Two Door Cinema Club and And So I Watch You From Afar graduate from small rooms in Belfast to arenas and festival main stages on the other side of the world.

Meanwhile LaFaro, Girls Names, Fighting With Wire, The Wonder Villains, Mojo Fury, General Fiasco, Cashier No. 9, Not Squares, Axis Of, Panama Kings, Kowalski and many more graced the Speakeasy stage on their way to big things – or so it often seemed.

Musically, these bands often had little to nothing in common, but they were tied together by the camaraderie of people around them, and the sense that, collectively, we were punching above our weight.

Radar founder Dee McAdams put the bands in front of eager, boozy, usually heaving crowds ('non-students welcome', as the posters emphasised). Entry was free and cheap drink flowed, and the professional production values showed them off to their best advantage.

And it was far from the only live band night to support the array of young, local talent. Two Step at the Limelight, Up In The Attic at Auntie Annie's (RIP), Gifted at the Empire, Club AU and SONI at Lavery's, and more I've no doubt forgotten about helped to nurture the bands and foster the scene. Gigantic at Lavery's became its unofficial club night – Animal Disco and Radio K too. Afterparties were legendary.

Outside Belfast, Glasgowbury and Forfey were festivals that gave over their stages to new bands, put them on with heavyweights like Therapy? and Ash and encouraged them to think big. Alternative Ulster magazine (full disclosure: I edited it for two years), did something similar in its lovingly designed pages, and there was radio support from Rigsy and Paul McClean on Across The Line and Rory McConnell and Jimmy Devlin on Radio 1 Introducing.

Not every band was a potential world-beater though, and some of the best never got close to fulfilling their potential. There were moments of triumph and moments of hubris. And those of us covering the scene had our share of detractors – which occasionally included the bands themselves.

Plus, everyone was skint, as much of this was going on in the midst of the financial crisis, and most of the people involved were either students, on the dole or in low-paid jobs. But there was a febrile energy, and an abundance of creativity and talent. I remember it as an exciting time, ripe with possibility.

For the last three or four years, for local fans of guitar music at least, things haven't looked so rosy. Most of the bands that shone brightest during the boom times have either outgrown the scene, split up or moved on, creating a vacuum that has never been adequately filled.

Something similar can be said for the punters. Looking around the room on Thursday night, it was sobering to think of all the people who would have been there had they not moved to London, Berlin, Glasgow or Dublin in search of better things.

Meanwhile, the support network has shrunk. At AU, we published our last issue in March 2012, undone by funding cuts. BBC cutbacks led to the end of Rory McConnell's Radio 1 show. Two Step, Up In The Attic and SONI are all long gone, and while Animal Disco has made a semi-regular return, there are fewer than ever showcases for new bands. Local band nights are an infinitely harder sell now than they were five years ago – especially during the week. 

At the start of the boom, in 2008, And So I Watch You From Afar – supported by Radar – put on a two-day festival at Queen's Students Union with a stellar line-up of Northern Irish bands and called it A Little Solidarity, epitomising the spirit of the time. It's hard to imagine something similar happening now.

But this isn't about hand-wringing. Times change, people move on, settle down, have kids. Musical trends tend to be cyclical. These days, all the energy, creativity and talent that was once a hallmark of the indie fraternity can be found fuelling Belfast's booming house and techno scene, which had its own version of A Little Solidarity in this summer's superb AVA Festival.

For ASIWYFA, read Bicep. For Therapy? and Ash, read Phil Kieran and Timmy Stewart. Indie rock just isn't in vogue any more, no matter where you are (take a look at the recent list of Mercury nominees or – heaven forbid – recent NME covers for unscientific evidence of that), so by-and-large guitar bands struggle to attract the interest they once did.

There's still plenty of talent around – take Hot Cops and Jealous Of The Birds, who both played the final Radar, Ryan Vail, Autumns, Documenta, Girls Names, Ciaran Lavery, R51, Robocobra Quartet, Malojian, Sea Pinks and Mercury nominee SOAK.

And there have been positive developments like music website The Thin Air, which rose from the ashes of AU, and mentoring schemes run by the Nerve Centre, Oh Yeah and Generator NI, which have helped young artists become more industry-savvy.

What has gone is a time and place symbolised by figureheads like ASIWYFA and Panama Kings and all those around them – AU, Two Step, Glasgowbury, Radar, the familiar faces; that energy. It's not coming back – it's over to the next generation now.

So as we raised our plastic pints last Thursday night to toast the end of Radar and give thanks to Dee McAdams for a decade of great service, it felt like the curtain was coming down on much more than just a club night. It felt like the last remnants of those heady years were finally ebbing away.

Saturday, November 21, 8pm

Down Arts Centre

Cinema Paradiso offers a special evening of romantic and inspiring music from uplifting films including Chocolat, Amélie, Titanic, Twilight, The Mission and Cinema Paradiso itself of course, played by internationally renowned flautist Karin Leitner and accompanied by Irish pianist Mary McCague. Expect to hear beautiful music by famous composers such as Ennio Morricone, much-loved favourites and well-known pieces from major film hits.

Karin Leitner is touring worldwide playing popular concerts, as well as composing her own music. Her career to date includes playing Principal Flute in the Stage Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera and Principal Piccolo in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She played in the Irish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Mozart Players and in the London West End Production of Phantom of The Opera.

Mary McCague is an acclaimed pianist and violinist originally from Dundalk, now living in Cork. She has won numerous awards and has toured extensively throughout America with her group, Affinití with whom she has recorded three albums. Mary has worked both as an orchestral pianist and as violinist with all the professional orchestras in Ireland and has performed as piano soloist with the RTE Concert Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra for The Irish Times 'Music in the Classroom' series.

Images from U2Start.com

It's a long time since U2 last played Belfast. Babies born in May 1998 are doing their A-levels next summer. It was three days before the Good Friday Agreement was ratified by referendum; three months, even, before the Omagh bombing.

And it doesn't take Bono long to acknowledge the omission: 'A lot has happened since the last time we were here,' he declares after a quickfire, decades-spanning rattle through 'The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)', 'The Electric Co', 'Vertigo' and 'I Will Follow', to a spartan backdrop – the better to emphasise the band's post-punk credentials. 'You are heroes to us. Thank you for your patience.' 

With all that has happened since – and Bono's famous appetite for grandstanding – the worry was that Bono would use the band's return to Belfast as an opportunity to step into the pulpit; to channel his religious upbringing and preach. He has his moments – this is Bono we're talking about, after all – but for the most part his judgement isn’t too far off, and sermons are kept to a minimum.

In the run-up to the gig, all the talk had been of the planned segue between 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' and 'Raised By Wolves', the band's latest Troubles song. Far from inspiring a riot – as UUP councillor Jim Rodgers farcically warned – it is handled sensitively and even-handedly using the enormous video screens to convey the message, a mix of animation, images of victims and stark lettering asking us to remember all victims of violence – 'ALL' doubly emphasised.

You could argue that any attempt to directly address The Troubles at a rock concert is folly, or born of hubris, and you might have a point. Rightly or wrongly, U2 – perhaps still the biggest band in the world – have never shied away from the big issues. On this occasion it strikes the right note, and is unexpectedly moving.

Elsewhere we get the hits – good and bad – mixed with newer songs and some fan favourites – 'Until The End Of The World' sizzles and 'Pride' soars. Meanwhile, Bono stays true to the latest album Songs Of Innocence by examining his personal story more closely than usual, although this predictably causes the biggest lull of the evening.

A segment focusing on his late mother and Dublin childhood strays too far into sentimentality, but a spare piano version of 'Every Breaking Wave', dedicated to his wife ('my first love and my last') far surpasses the overproduced studio version.

Somehow, the singer remains in magnificent voice. That aside, the overriding feeling is that this is a political show from a political band. What is most impressive about the U2 live experience is the way in which they weave together songs from their catalogue and set them to arresting imagery on the huge video screens, making connections and telling stories.

Thus, they manage to address the destruction of Syria and the European refugee crisis via a bravura sequence that joins the dots between 'October', a fired-up 'Bullet The Blue Sky', 'Zooropa' and 'Where The Streets Have No Name'.

From there, 'Pride' and a transcendent 'With Or Without You' take the main set to an exultant climax. After an encore in which tribute is paid to the victims of Paris via 'City Of Blinding Lights', Bono barely has to sing a word of 'One' by himself.

You can (and I will) quibble with the setlist and the staging – 'The Sweetest Thing' has no business being anywhere near a setlist in 2015, 'Beautiful Day' remains trite nonsense and the entire 'Cedarwood Road' sequence, with Bono literally walking through an animated depiction of his childhood home, is frankly laughable.

But ultimately this is rock and roll as theatre from a band that – for all the hubris and their waning powers in the studio – still remains able to deliver live when it matters. When U2 really hit the mark, it feels like nothing less than communion. All these years on, Belfast can still use a bit of that.

U2 play the second of their two Belfast shows tonight (November 19) at the SSE Arena. Tickets are sold out.

Tickets went on sale this morning for U2's first live concerts in Northern Ireland in 18 years. Fans queued through the night for the chance to see the band play two recently-announced shows at Belfast's SSE Arena, part of a string of Irish dates rounding out their iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE European tour.

Though the former Odyssey Arena's recent revamp means up to 40,000 could be in attendance across the two nights, the same number of people made Bono and co's last visit the single biggest gig the country had ever hosted – a record only broken by Snow Patrol's Ward Park homecoming in 2010.

Taking place on Tuesday, August 26 1997, the gig came as part of U2's mammoth PopMart world tour – featuring a 100 foot golden arch, giant LED screen and a massive lemon – and with the Good Friday Agreement imminent, making it a landmark moment for Belfast and Northern Ireland.

One particularly brave crowd member managed to film the entire performance using the kind of handheld camcorder synonymous with the era, before waiting until 2013 to finally upload the footage online. Despite the video quality being typical of the time, the two-hour recording unquestionably documents a momentous occasion for the city. Watch it in full below.

Tickets for U2's concerts at the SSE Arena on November 18 and 19 are reportedly now close to selling out. For up to date information on allocation and booking visit the venue website.

After almost a year as Musician-in-Residence at the Nerve Centre your tenure is soon drawing to a close. Can you give us an outline of what the year has involved?

David: I've been collaborating with a wide range of people in the city, from rock, jazz, singer-songwriters, and they've been coming up to my studio to write, record and have a space where they can try to create something a bit different from what they normally would.

Did you have a plan in mind going in?

It was always going to be about that initial idea so we've kind of stuck to that in that we've been trying to do something special - not trying to change the face of music but trying to do something that's a little bit more unusual, for them and for me.

Have you found yourself having to work far outside of your comfort zone?

I'm always trying to do that, I think you do that with anyone different that you work with and I don't find writing with people to be difficult. I like all sorts of music and as far as chord progressions and melodies go, they're fairly universal across all sorts of genres. It's when you start adding things, the feel of the music and what instruments are used, those are what can define the style.

So the writing process for me is never really an uncomfortable challenge, but because I'm a producer as well when it comes to taking a song and doing something unusual with it production-wise I'm always trying to leave my stamp so that it reflects what I'm into as well. So I suppose the challenge has been balancing that with creating music the people I've been working with get something out of as well, so that it doesn't just sound like one of my songs but reflects that up-and-coming artist.

How has the experience of working with and mentoring emerging musicians and young novices compared with the collaborations you’d be used to with more distinguished names?

To me it's all the same. Younger people are obviously less experienced and aren't so sure of what they want, which can be a challenge as well. There was a couple of them where I thought I'm not going to go down the road I'd like to go down, because I feel that it might not be good for them. They might like it now but in two years time feel like it doesn't represent them, and that's a difficult thing as an artist as it takes a while to evolve and work out who you are.

All of the young people I've worked with have been very talented and forward-thinking in the sense that they're happy to do something a bit different with me. But then they're very open-minded and their parameters are so wide that you have to decide what might be good for them as an artist down the line, because I want them to feel this represents them and not just as someone singing a song with me.

How have you found the Nerve Centre as a space for music development and creativity?

Brilliant because they've trusted that I was going to work hard and do good things, and have left me to it. Whenever I've got ideas they've always embraced them and as a result I've been coming up here much more than we both thought I would, and that's because I've got a great place to work out of and great people to help me structure the whole year. It's been a very positive experience.

With the residency and your own career, as well as your record label and various other things, how have you managed to maintain so many projects at once?

It's been demanding of my time, definitely, but at the same time if I wasn't doing this I would probably just have been promoting my album, which I have been doing. I don't think I've sacrificed anything in that way. I've been a lot busier than I would've been, but it's kept me in a creative mode and kept me writing. When you do an album the tendency then is to sit back.

I spent a year making the album and releasing it, there's overseeing that then touring it and then there's been things like the award nominations. They've been great but it requires time to maximise the exposure from something like a MOBO nomination, and as I'm the label, again I'm overseeing that. So in a creative way it's definitely been my best year.

You've been working on original music with both emerging and established artists throughout your residency. Can you tell us what shape this will take and when the public might be able to hear it?

We're going to release a compilation album of all of the tracks we've recorded, and it's going to be very diverse. There's some stuff that's coming out of hip-hop, there's some coming out of jazz and some based in singer-songwriter pop, which I've tried to put all together with coherency.

We'll probably bring that out on vinyl but at the minute we're doing things like working out what the artwork will be, as we want that to be very much in the same spirit of the music. So we're trying to find designers and artists to collaborate together on that. There is a retro element to my own music so this project has been about bringing people back to that slightly more interesting approach of how it was in those days.

Will your experiences there have any resonance on your own career down the line?

I think creatively I've used a few approaches on this project that I'll definitely use again. I don't usually work with singer-songwriters either and from this year evolved an album and a live project with singer-songwriter VerseChorusVerse, Tony Wright. For me that's different and lots of new and exciting things have developed from it.

Your set at Stendhal Festival of Art in August featured many of those you've worked with at the Nerve Centre. How did that then translate to such a unique live setting?

It was quite unusual and very diverse but I really enjoyed it and I think the audience did too. It can sometimes be a bit weird with so many different people, and it's kind of what my live band is like as well, though they aren't quite as diverse.

So sometimes you're wondering if that was too much or if the audience was really into it, but that gig was good as it was the first time performing those songs live and it gave us the opportunity to make adjustments before recording them.

Amongst your standout moments this year are surely the nominations for both a MOBO and an Urban Music Award. Were you disappointed not to have won or were the nods alone ample recognition?

I was just really happy to have been nominated. It would have been nice to have won but I wasn't disappointed. It was quite tense leading in to it because initially I thought "This is great, I've got nominated, lot of exposure", and then the pressure started getting to me as I found out I was the first person from Ireland to be nominated and a lot of people wanted me to win, probably more than I did. So thankfully the jazz category was announced first at the ceremony so I just enjoyed the rest of the night.

But the nomination has been great for next year. We've booked a lot of dates abroad and though winning probably would've bumped things up a level, it wouldn't have been much more. At the same time I don't want everything to be happening in a short space of time. I don't want to be hitting 40 and have achieved everything already, so hopefully the next album will be even bigger to give us something to work towards.

You sharing the stage with Neil Cowley was significant in that it was a collaboration between past and present Musicians-in-Residence. Did that feel special to you?

Neil's a very talented and creative person and similar to me in that although he comes out of jazz he doesn't call himself a pure jazz musician and does other genres. But he embodies the spirit of it as well as rock music and collaborating, working with Adele and all these different people.

I really like that because when I was getting into jazz I was sort of surrounded by purists and elitists who didn't like this idea of the music being watered down as they saw it. But what I'm trying to do is be me as a jazz drummer but also do other things and Neil totally understands that.

What can audiences expect from your end of year showcase in Derry on Saturday?

They're going to hear a lot of different things, it's very much like a variety concert and I really like that. There's a lot of very different people across ages, across profile level, some established, some rising stars. There'll be stuff from singer-songwriters, a larger group performing some of the hip-hop material, you're going to hear some pure jazz as well plus some totally improvised, free music that me and Neil are going to do.

Cowley saw his time as Musician-in-Residence as both the biggest challenge and honour of his career. How does the past year sit amongst your canon of work to date?

It's a great honour to be trusted for a year with the job of encouraging creativity, which is essentially what it's been about. To be encouraging people to be active and inspiring people in my own way, as well as just being a part of people who are going places and hopefully leaving an impression. 

It's definitely been a challenge. I've done residencies before but not for a full year, and for a year you really have to maintain the momentum. It's flown in and I haven't at any point felt like we're off the tracks. Plus on a personal level it's been nice to be based in one place for a length of time and to feel part of a scene. So in many different ways it has been a career highlight for me as well.

David rounds of his year as Musician-in-Residence with the grand finale showcase 'David Lyttle Presents...' on Saturday, December 5 at the Nerve Centre, Derry~Londonderry. Doors open at 7.30pm and tickets, priced £10 plus booking fee, are available to purchase through the Nerve Centre box office and online.

It’s hard to believe that The Undertones’ 'Teenage Kicks'– legendary DJ John Peel’s favourite song – burst onto the airwaves thirty seven years ago. Or that The Undertones, the progenitor of Irish punk, are about to celebrate their fortieth anniversary.

That the Derry band still tours every year, playing some of the biggest pop and rock festivals in Europe, attests not only to its enduring popularity but also to the enjoyment that its five members still take in thrashing out killer riffs and singing, as only these Derry punks can, of love, relationships and summer days.

For the man who wrote 'Teenage Kicks', guitarist John O’Neill, The Undertones’ longevity surprises even him. 'We certainly didn’t expect to still be doing it,' says the fifty eight year-old songwriter. 'Like any band when it starts off you’re just doing it for the fun.'

Back in the mid-seventies there wasn’t a lot to be cheerful about in Northern Ireland. 'It was such a horrific time,' recalls O’Neill of a brutally torn society. 'For us there was just football and music, you know? There wasn’t anything else to do.'

Luckily, O’Neill, his brother Vincent (the band’s guitarist soon to be replaced by sibling Damien), bassist Michael Bradley, drummer Billy Doherty and singer Fergal Sharkey, put most of their energies into the latter past-time.

'Music was our life,' says O’Neill. 'We timed it so well with punk happening; it just chimed with all the things we were feeling ourselves.'

Though the teenage angst that fuelled the band’s early music has been replaced by middle-aged wisdom, The Undertones still relish the live arena as never before. 'When we go on tour it’s like reliving our youth,' enthuses O’Neill. 'Anybody who sees us live can see how much we enjoy it and I think that translates to the audience. We’re playing better than we ever have.'

The next chance for Irish fans to witness The Undertones’ stomping energy is in St. Columb’s Hall, Derry, on December 27, and for O’Neill, there’s nothing quite like a hometown gig to stir the blood.

'There’s always something special about it, you know? It’s like a big family event. You know most people in the audience and the children of our friends are there. It is a very special atmosphere. People come from all over whenever we play Derry because they just love the atmosphere so much.'

Time has certainly marched on in Derry, as elsewhere, from the heady, early days when The Undertones were learning their stage craft in The Casbah, a small but important music venue in Bridge Street. 'Well, obviously the whole music industry has changed, the way technology has taken over. I’ve been to a couple of weddings this year and it’s just one man with a drum machine,' says O’Neill, with perhaps just a hint of nostalgia.

'There are bands in the conventional sense of drums, bass and guitar but it’s hard,' O’Neill acknowledges. 'There’s a band who are coming up called The Gatefolds, who are a really great band. If they’d been going in the ‘70s or ‘80s they would definitely have been signed by a major label – there’s no doubt about it. Now they have to put out their records themselves and do their ordinary day jobs and just do music as a pastime.'

Technology has changed and so too have the means of earning a crust. Long gone are the days when records sold in the millions of units and a hit single was all a band needed to catapult it to fame and fortune. 'Live gigs and merchandise are definitely more lucrative than record sales, that’s for sure,' says O’Neill. 'If the Clash or the Sex Pistols were coming out now they probably wouldn’t sell as many records as they did back then.'

Perhaps largely for this reason The Undertones haven't recorded an album of new material since 2007's critically acclaimed Dig Yourself Deep, though O’Neill cites geography as a major barrier. 'It’s quite difficult with [singer] Paul [McLoone] living in Dublin and Damien in London, so getting together to rehearse and work is not that easy. We keep talking about getting another record out. There are a few songs knocking about and hopefully we’ll try and record them.'

The Undertones' story could very easily have run into the ground in 1983 when singer Fergal Sharkey left the band, but after a-sixteen-year hiatus the call of the stage proved irresistible to the other founding members. And, as O’Neill relates, it was a return born of a sense of collective ownership of the music.

'Obviously we were really aware that Fergus not being in the band was a bit of a problem in the sense that he was who people identified most with,' says O’Neill. 'But we wrote all the songs so we felt we were entitled to reform the band. They were our songs.'

The unenviable task of replacing Sharkey fell to Paul McLoone, though as O’Neill relates, the chemistry was immediate. 'When we were thinking about reforming we knew that it made sense to get someone that we knew and Paul was from Derry. He was brilliant. We knew the first time we were in rehearsal with Paul that it was just perfect and it’s worked out that way.'

McLoone has, without a doubt, brought his own inimitable sound to The Undertones. For many years now, he has also presented a successful radio show that promotes lesser known, up-and-coming singer-songwriters and bands who maybe struggle to get mainstream exposure elsewhere.

Having been in that boat himself, O’Neill is keen to share his wisdom with any young, aspiring musicians just starting out. 'Obviously you hope you’re going to get a career from it but do it for the love of the music and work and work and keep working,' he urges. 'The more you play the better you get. It’s like anything really – the more hard work you put into something the more benefits you get out of it eventually.'

Nor should any new band feel that some venues are beneath them, after all, The Undertones' first gig took place in, of all places, a Scout hut. 'Oh aye, yeah,' remembers O’Neill. 'Fergal was one of the Scout leaders. There were a few friends and Scouts and local people from Creggan, you know?'

It sounds like a lost scene from 'Spinal Tap, but if The Undertones were bottom on the bill beneath an exhibition of reef-knot artistry O’Neill isn’t saying.

He does, however, extol the virtues of constant gigging to young bands starting out, regardless of the circumstances. 'That’s how you learn. You only become a better band by playing live in front of people. You can rehearse all you want but it’s not the same thing as playing in front of people.'

Forty years on, with dates for the anniversary tour filling up a lot of 2016, fans will inevitably wonder if Fergal Sharkey might play a part in the celebrations. Clearly, however, the prospect is a remote one.

'Fergal just severed all ties with us when we broke up. He just went his own way,' says O’Neill. 'The reality of it was always that as tensions arose within the band towards the end it was obvious he just didn’t want anything to do with us anymore and I don’t think that’s changed really. I don’t even know what he’s doing now to be honest.'

Unlike punk contemporaries Stiff Little Fingers, The Sex Pistols and The Clash, The Undertone’s music was rarely politically barbed and even the significant changes in Northern Ireland these past fifteen years or so haven’t drawn O’Neill down the song-writing path of cutting socio-political commentary.

'I have tried but I’ve never really been able to do it,' he openly admits. 'When I’m writing I always try to be instinctive and let the song write itself as much as possible. They always just seem to be about relationships. It’s easier for me to write songs about individuals and personal things.'

Writing from the heart has arguably set The Undertones apart from many of the punk bands who strutted their stuff at the tail end of the 1970s.

'Reading England’s Dreaming [Sex Pistols and Punk Rock], the Jon Savage book on punk, you realize just how contrived the Sex Pistols and The Clash were. We were very naive and idealistic,' says O’Neill of his then teenage bandmates in The Undertones. 'There was no pretence. You wore your heart on your sleeve. That’s just the way we were then.'

For O’Neill, however, there are some regrets. 'We got signed up after 'Teenage Kicks' came out and the record label obviously wanted us to make records that were going to be hits. Some of my favourite bands from that era are bands like Gang of Four, Josef K and Joy Division – the more avant-garde and less commercial bands.

'I sort of wish we’d had a bit more confidence in ourselves to push boundaries a bit more. I definitely regret trying to appease record companies a bit too much.'

The band’s early gigs in the days before they were signed, before fame and the weight of commercial expectation, still trigger happy memories. 'We do talk about the early days in The Casbah,' says O’Neill. 'They were probably the most special.'

Forty years on, there is remarkably perhaps, still juice in The Undertones’ tank. 'Every year I wonder if it’s going to be the last year,' O’Neill laughs. 'We do a two-week tour every year and all the other shows are mainly at weekends.

'The summer is obviously busy with festivals but I don’t think anybody would want to do it full-time. The way we do it keeps it fresh for us. It’s more honest; we’re doing it for the right reasons.'

The Undertones play St Columb's Hall, Derry on December 27 and Limelight 1, Belfast on May 20, 2016, as part of a full UK and Ireland anniversary tour. Tickets for St Columb's Hall are on sale from Cool Discs on Foyle Street, and from Ticketmaster, Katy's Bar and www.limelightbelfast.com for Limelight 1.

One of the world’s top music producers is to visit Belfast next year to inspire those working in the industry here.

Steve Albini – who has worked with the likes of Nirvana, Pixies, Manic Street Preachers, The Stooges and dozens of others – will be the keynote speaker at Belfast City Council’s second Output Belfast conference, which takes place at The MAC on Thursday, February 18.

It will be his only speaking engagement in Europe in 2016, thus offering a unique opportunity for a Belfast audience to gain insights from one of the most acclaimed and respected figures in the music business.

The conference is expected to be attended by around 350 local artists, businesses and students, and will address the challenges and opportunities that the music industry presents, highlighting the key role that music and performance plays within Northern Ireland’s buoyant creative industries sector.

Councillor Deirdre Hargey, Chair of the council’s City Growth and Regeneration Committee, said: 'The economic and cultural contribution and potential of the creative industries is widely acknowledged.

'The council is committed to supporting those working in the fields of film, music, digital media and design to achieve their true economic and creative potential. This unique one day event is designed to provide a high quality, internationally recognised conference and showcasing event that will help to underpin and accelerate the development of skills, networks and market opportunities for artists and businesses in Belfast’s burgeoning music industry sector.'

Organised by Belfast City Council in partnership Generator NI, the conference will include panel discussions, music sessions, workshops and speed networking events as well as keynote speeches from award-winning musicians and managers of globally recognised talent.

At night, the emphasis will switch to live music, with a series of free pop-up gigs at venues across the city centre.

Known for the DIY philosophies behind his day-to-day practice and for speaking his mind on grievances with the industry, Albini is responsible for engineering some of alternative rock's most influential recordings, including Nirvana's In Utero and Pixies'Doolittle. He also fronts the band Shellac.

Full details of the conference speakers will be announced mid-January. Registration is now open at www.outputbelfast.com.

A play set in a bathroom, on the anniversary of a stillbirth, when a husband and wife, traumatised by loss, experience their marriage painfully disintegrating.

Such is the scenario of Jack Thorne’s harrowing two-hander Mydidae, which received its Northern Irish premiere last October courtesy of local theatre company Prime Cut Productions, in the Ulster Bank Belfast International Arts Festival.

The solemn mood-music for Rhiann Jeffrey’s staging was provided by Belfast composer Martin Byrne, whose soundtrack is now available commercially as a 20-minute E.P. release on iTunes and other digital platforms.

Byrne is a highly eclectic musician, performing as vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player in a range of styles including electronica and heavy metal, while also producing, engineering and editing. He also recently completed a Masters degree at the cutting-edge Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Some of that technical know-how is deployed in 'Mydidae Theme 2' and 'Drowning Part 1' from the album, where the sound of gurgling pipes and slushing water commingle with sampled beats and swaths of synthesiser in a complex collage, mirroring the multi-layered psychological murk in which the characters are floundering - 'dark and emotionally fraught', as Byrne himself puts it.

Darkness, and what Byrne calls 'something sort of dazed and confused, with an air of melancholy', also suffuses 'Drowning Part 2', where a musing acoustic guitar theme is underlaid by the subterranean thrum of electronic pulses.

The contrast between the two iterations of 'Mydidae Theme 1' is particularly striking, the tune confident and warmly cossetted by string treatments on its first appearance.

It’s stripped of comfort, though, in the reprised version, a ghostly 'Third Man' zither-shard contending with heaving vocal overlays - a gasping for breath, possibly, or the struggle of a voice to cut through layers of long-suppressed feeling and achieve expression.

'Theme 2' is also bleaker on its reappearance, the melody spat out on a forwardly balanced acoustic guitar. Its jagged edges - perhaps emblematic of the species of stinging flies who give the play its title - are raw and menacing, while slashing electric chords deeper in the mix scythe through the emotional undergrowth.

'Leaving Flowers' marks a solitary moment of partial respite amid the concentrated intensity of Mydidae’s action, its layered acoustic guitar textures suggesting that a residual tenderness and sense of normalcy might still be possible, even as the husband and wife’s relationship is slowly imploding.

That this was merely an interlude is confirmed by the uneasy harmonies of 'Mydidae Ending', a wordless chorus keening its disquietude as the curtain falls on Thorne’s bathroom-bound drama.

This is not Martin Byrne’s first music for a theatrical production, and it shows in his ability to swiftly distil the essence of a dramatic mood or situation in economical musical gestures, and cloak them in psychologically revealing instrumentations.

The fact that Byrne plays all the instruments himself, and did all the recording and production in his own Belfast studio, adds further coherence to the finished product.

Relatively few soundtracks bear scrutiny beyond the visual context of the action they’re meant to illustrate. Byrne’s Mydidae does, and makes you wonder what he might be capable of given an even broader canvas to work on, in film or documentary.

Mydidae by Martin Byrne is available now to stream on Spotify, or purchase via iTunes, Amazon and various other digital music retailers.