Hozier puts song online in advance of new album
The Wicklow singer’s album is due on September 19 and his appearance on the cover of Aer Lingus’s inflight magazine Cara is an indication of his already burgeoning status overseas. Hear it at hozier-inaweek.com. Meanwhile, given Simon Cowell’s reported donation last year to a charity supporting members of the Israeli defence forces, it’d be interesting to hear what he made of the #freepalestine tweet from his young charge Zayn Malik (inset) of One Direction. The 1D star got several hundred thousand retweets for the message, but also got plenty of flak from Israelis and others who said he didn’t understand the situation in Gaza. At the time of writing, that tweet on Monday was Malik’s last activity on his Twitter account, but he hasn’t taken followed the path Rihanna took when she had second thoughts about a similar message and soon deleted it. There’s also ongoing conflict in the state of Led Zeppelin, with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page taking potshots at each other over delays in a proposed reunion. In the meantime, the band are to release ‘deluxe’ editions of two more albums, Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy.
Corkonians not going to Indiependence can catch a rare home gig from the Sultans of Ping when they play Cyprus Avenue in the city tonight. The same venue has lined up ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ outfit Wheatus for October 8. Mick Flannery is also back on home ground for Coughlans Live Festival at the Douglas Street venue on September 24-29. Guinness Amplify is the event that replaces Arthurs Day, and as it moves around the country in September and October, bands appearing will include Bastille, Disclosure, Jess Glynne, Kodaline and Ellie Goulding.
Two of the biggest names in British dance music play in Ireland on Sunday, with Judge Jules doing his thing at the Savoy in Cork, and Sasha appearing at the Button Factory in Dublin. Hopefully the Savoy can fill some of the void left by the loss of the Pavilion, and among the other DJs on their roster over the next few weeks is Swedish producer Otto Knows.
The final instalment of the drawn out but enjoyable Hobbit trilogy doesn’t land until December, but the first trailer for The Battle of the Five Armies is already available online. Another eagerly anticipated biggie is the Sin City sequel, due on August 22, with the creators promising that the improvement in blue screen technology since the original should make for even better visuals. The roster at Triskel Christchurch in Cork from Sunday includes Mr Morgan’s Last Love, with Michael Caine, Clémence Poésy and Gillian Anderson; and French/Belgian offering A Promise, with Alan Rickman. In Dublin, the IFI has a selection of ‘films maudits’ — the French term for cursed or overlooked movies. Among themare Orson Welles’s 1942 flop The Magnificent Ambersons and Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate from 1980.
A production of Enda Walsh’s The Small Things is at the Granary in Cork until tomorrow, and the venue closes its summer season with We Make Gods from Tuesday to Saturday. Ray Scannell (inset) is touring with his Sir Henrys-based play Deep at the moment, with venues including Cleere’s Theatre in Kilkenny from August 9-10 and 13-17; and Half Moon Theatre, Cork, October 17-18.
