Scene and Heard

MUSIC NEWS: David Bowie (inset) caused quite a stir with his recent release of a single on his 66th birthday, and over the next few weeks we’ll get a proper chance to see if the Brixton boy still has some talent, or whether he should just make the most of his free travel pass.

Another new track, ‘The Stars (Are Out Tonight)’, will be available from Tuesday, and that’ll be followed by an album, The Next Day, on Mar 11. For the younger set, Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z have confirmed an appearance at the Wireless Festival at Olympic Park in London on Jul 13, raising hopes that one or both may also make it across the Irish Sea. Finally, Michael Jackson’s son Prince Michael has been named as the new on-air correspondent for US TV show Entertainment Tonight. Jackson beag will be interviewing celebrities for the hugely popular CBS programme.

GIG WISE: Live at the Marquee in Cork received further boosts to an already impressive line-up this week when both the Boomtown Rats and the National were added to the bill. Bob Geldof and his cohorts — an awesome live force in their heyday — are priced from €35 + booking fee for their Jul 5 gig. The National, a New York-based outfit that originally hail from Cincinnati, are priced at a similar level for their Jun 28 appearance. Also in Cork, Beth Orton has added another gig at the Triskel on Monday, Mar 25, following her sold-out concert the previous night. At the Pavilion next Saturday, a gathering of Irish talent includes Dublin outfit Ghost Estates and Cork band Slow Motion Heroes. The Ruby Lounge on Leeside has variety night Funk N Something doing its Disco Burlesque thing tonight in aid of the children’s unit in Cork University Hospital. Laura Whitmore has cancelled her planned DJ set at Havana Brown’s in Cork tonight due to “television commitments”. Dublin model Louise Kavanagh will now launch the venue’s DJ Series instead. In Dublin city centre, the beautiful Iveagh Gardens is to host a number of gigs this summer, including Grizzly Bear on Jul 18 and Beach House on Jul 20. Bruno Mars has announced a gig for the O2 on Oct 3.

FILM TIPS: The Cork French Film Festival has been punching above its weight over the past few years, and returns from Mar 3-10 with another impressive line-up of classic and contemporary offerings. Among them is a showing of Carl T. Dreyer’s 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral with live musical accompaniment. At Triskel Christchurch this weekend, the monthly Twisted Celluloid programme has been expanded to a mini-festival over the weekend with 15 horror films on offer, including the Irish premiere of Maniac, starring Elijah Wood (left) as a psychotic serial killer. Subscribers to UPC/Chorus may be interested to hear of the provider’s new deal with Irish production company Element Pictures. Element’s work will now appear on the UPC on demand system on the same day as its release in cinemas. For instance, from today, viewers will be able to access Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, the moving documentary on four deaf men’s attempts to overcome the Catholic Church’s cover up of the abuse they were subjected to as children by a priest.

VISUAL ART: IMMA in Dublin has just opened its Analysing Cubism exhibition, featuring the work of such celebrated artists as Albert Gleizes, Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett. Remembering Light and Stone, an exhibition of new paintings by Cork-born brother and sister, Cormac & Caitriona O’Leary, opens at the Doorway Gallery in Dublin next Friday. In Cork, it’s the last week to see the Terry O’Neill exhibition at Wandesford Quay.