The Beat Groups: A Tale of Two Cities

Rock and Popular Music in Ireland: Before and after U2, 2012

Chapter 1 of the book, 'Rock and Popular Music in Ireland: Before and After U2', looking at the early years of popular music in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s, the influence of Irish showbands and the emergence of rock music following 1963's visit of the Beatles to Dublin.

Popular Music History, 2017

This document may differ from the final, published version of the research and has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies. To read and/or cite from the published version of the research, please visit the publisher's website (a subscription may be required.) 'How Belfast got the blues': Towards an alternative history Noel McLaughlin and Joanna Braniff 'We gotta get into this place' The decision to return to Belfast in 1965 was surely based on what the Stones (and their management team) had experienced there the year before. While similar scenes of riotous enthusiasm at the band's performances had occurred almost everywhere they played (and were widely reported with the requisite moral outrage), it was the otherness of Belfast, and Northern Ireland's residual conservatism (Belfast and Ireland's apparent 'primitivism' to the Stones' 'modernity') that may have attracted the group in cinematic terms. Charlie is My Darling, in this regard, is replete with very specific images: horses and carts in the streets; the presence of a member of the clergy in the audience; and a young male in the front row, weeping uncontrollably, in one of Whitehead's long, unbroken takes, 'the boy's preconceptions about everything' in Victor Coelho's words, 'being systematically dismantled' (Coelho 2011: 179). The response of the Belfast audience in 1965, therefore, did not break the trend, and resulted in front-page 'public order' news (Nixon 1965). This was, after all, a time when popular music-beat, R'n'B and blues-were little covered in the mainstream press. As with the Beatles earlier appearance in 1963, the Stones' debut concert played a pivotal role in folding Belfast into the broader burgeoning beat scene narrative. Indeed, these two visits by the group in 1964 and 1965 were to be, if anything, more important to the city's scene than their Merseyside rivals; with the Stones' appropriation of the blues forming the most influential template for local bands. To set the scene for what follows, it marks the fact that this contentious capital and trade port was both a vibrant rhythm and blues city and a place apart with a distinctive identity. It was also one with an audience that evidently 'got' the blues, was increasingly 'plugged-into' a rapidly-internationalizing British-led 'beat' culture and possessed, an albeit small, yet enthusiastic beat group scene. The majority of these groups, like Whitehead's rarely-screened film, are barely known outside of their locale, having been eclipsed by the 'big bang' moment, and our second, and more important reason, for claiming 1964 as the pivotal year. This is the moment when the city bequeathed Them and Van Morrison to national and international renown, and furnished Belfast (and Northern Ireland) with a prominent presence-performing representatives, as it were-in the broader 'British Invasion' movement (as well as inaugurating Morrison's long-standing international career). Thus, the spring and summer of 1964 is celebrated in the current context, over five decades later, as the city's seminal popular musical event.

Irish traditional music is an integral part of Irish culture and identity, enjoyed and performed by large numbers of people around the world in a variety of spaces and social contexts. This paper traces the changing geography of Irish traditional music in the twentieth century and examines the processes and power geometries involved. It examines concepts of regional styles in music and the connection between Irish traditional music and places in Ireland. It argues that the concept is, in part, an urban myth, generated by a new urban audience in the 1950s. The impact of social movements, economic change and various organisations is also assessed in an attempt to understand the geography of Irish traditional music at the start of the twenty-first century. This paper focuses on the growth of an urban context for a tradition popularly perceived as rural and, in particular, the development of Irish traditional music in Dublin. Throughout the paper, the 1950s is presented as a key period in the evolution of the geography of Irish traditional music, particularly in relation to the ‘sense of place’ place in Irish traditional music.

Popular Music, 2000

2015

The thesis explores the formation and development of the popular Irish rock band U2. The first chapter is concerned with the band's history, as well as the members' personal biographies. The second chapter is aimed at the evolution of genres, styles and themes across their complete studio production. The third chapter occupies with the analysis of three selected songs which might be easily misinterpreted without knowledge of the important political context. As the band is engaged in many projects, including foundations fighting extreme poverty or AIDS, the final chapter deals with their most significant achievements and participations in benefit concerts, campaigns and organizations.

Popular Music History, 2015

He has written extensively about Irish rock and popular music. Noel's most recent book is Rock and Popular Music in Ireland: Before and After U2 (with Martin McLoone, Irish Academic Press, 2012) and he is currently co-editing a special edition of Popular Music History with Sean Campbell exploring Irish popular music in Britain. Alongside this, Noel is working on a new monograph, The Rock Musician on Film, as well as developing an article about popular music, city space and gentrification. He currently lives in west London.

Études irlandaises, 2021

This article analyses the development and the characteristics of the contemporary jazz scene in Northern Ireland with a special focus on Belfast. Jazz was introduced in Ireland in the early 20th century when the country fought for its independence, leading to its partition in 1921. In the Irish Free State, the music was originally seen as subversive within a morally conservative state, while in Northern Ireland, its traditional form was firmly rooted until the 1970s. While the Dublin scene became a hub for musicians by the late 1960s, the Belfast scene picked up from the 1990s on. In order to better understand the development of the music in Northern Ireland, an ethnographic approach that involves the researcher with the object of his study is necessary, thus allowing to penetrate a small but vibrant community that created its own subculture.

Leonardo Music Journal, 2013