Festival marks 10th year with 100 bands

Hard Working Class Heroes is a forum for new acts to showcase their music and meet with agents and managers, says Eoghan O’Sullivan

A decade ago seems like another world: Smartphones were yet to be invented, Facebook didn’t exist, and music was sold on physical albums and singles.

In 2003, the inaugural Hard Working Class Heroes festival was held in Dublin. The brainchild of Brian Carroll, it showcased 40 local bands in the Project Arts Centre over one weekend. The first line-up featured the Walls, the Chapters, and Turn.

From humble beginnings came great things: HWCH has hosted many Irish bands of note since 2003, including Fred, Gavin Glass, Delorentos, and Duke Special, as well as countless others who faded away.

After that initial foray, First Music Contact, the national information and rights resource for musicians and the independent music sector in Ireland, and its director, Angela Dorgan, got involved.

Dorgan and Carroll talked about how to make it “an industry event. We brought the all-Ireland element and we also brought the industry and convention element to it,” Dorgan says. The festival has grown year on year.

So, 10 years on, HWCH features 100 bands on its bill, ranging from acts that barely have live experience to seasoned veterans. Alongside new artists like Faws, Frank B, and Forrests are the likes of Solar Bears, Le Galaxie, We Cut Corners, and the Spook of the Thirteenth Lock. Beginning today, the festival, Dorgan says, is tipping its proverbial hat to bands that have played there and gone on to bigger things.

“Forty-six bands have never played it, which means 54 bands have,” she says. “They will have moved up to be export-ready, maybe. There’s an advancement, even if they’re playing it for the second year in a row, in their story.” Dorgan is as enthusiastic about HWCH as she was at the beginning. “I always believed we needed an event like this during the year,” she says. “It’s a non-commercial festival. It has taken its place as the litmus test, every year, to see where we are in terms of music. I think the reason we’re still here is that the bands in Ireland are so good.

“The reason the line-ups for the last four or five years have been so good is because HWCH happens every year, and, therefore, people work towards it, work towards getting their songs ready. It helps put an impetus on acts to get working and get busy, if there’s something to focus it at.

“The fact we have such amazing bands now is because, for the last 10 years, there’s been a structure for getting your music out there and HWCH would certainly be a part of that structure.”

First Music Contact runs BreakingTunes.ie, a one-stop-shop for people to hear new Irish bands. Through this site bands apply to play HWCH.

A panel of judges, both at home and abroad, rifes through the applicants and mark each band out of 10 in four categories: songwriting; songs; recording; and gut feeling. Afterwards, First Music Contact collects the scores and, Dorgan says, it’s a case of the highest scores qualify. Those that don’t make the cut — and there might not be much between the acts’ scores — can call up, find out their score, and get feedback from judges.

The selection process is just one criticism levelled at the festival. Some claim it is still too centred on Dublin bands, while others say that for a festival about new bands too many have played it at least once before.

Dorgan, who is from Cork, dismisses the criticism: “We have a national music scene and I think HWCH has made that possible.” Of bands returning, she says: “Improvement deserves to be showcased as much as newness does ... I’m happy that [the band breakdown] is about 50/50. I think that’s amazing and I think that’s how you grow and nurture a scene.”

HWCH also features industry and convention events, which help bands along the way. Panels this year focus on what managers do, or what they do not do; why booking agents are the new kingpins of the music business; and speed sessions, where acts seek advice from those in the know.

Dave McLoughlin, of Le Galaxie, one of HWCH’s returning heroes this year, says it’s a great help to new bands.

“While no one says you’re gonna walk out with a record deal at the end of the weekend, you might have a conversation with somebody that might be a booker in the UK, or knows something about distribution in the US ... You might meet somebody who can give you some help on where you’re going,” he says.

With 10 years down, is Dorgan expecting to see HWCH make it to 20? “I don’t know if my heart can take it,” she says. “Absolutely. I think it’s needed, I think it’s vital, I think it’s fun.”

Hard Working Class Heroes runs from Thursday to Saturday this week in a number of venues around Dublin. Tickets cost €20 for a day, or €45 for the weekend, and are still available.

Further information: www.hwch.net/