Munster venues: How Dolan's, St Luke's and DeBarra's are getting back on track
Munster's venues are getting back on track.
One big former church that was built in 1883 - 400 seated capacity. The PA is an EV line array from Murt Whelan Sound.
The positives are many. The Live Venue Collective is a really great thing as we now have a voice. It's all the venues that, previous to Covid, never got funded because the Arts Council et al deemed us to be commercial entities. The irony being that many of us lose on a load of shows of new and upcoming acts. It's all the great spots like Coughlan's in Cork, DeBarras in Clonakilty, Connolly's of Leap, Levis' in Ballydehob, the Spirit Store in Dundalk, Roisin Dubh in Galway, to name a few.
Also we did a load of outdoor shows, like our festival in Trabolgan, It Takes a Village; 21 shows in the courtyard of O’Mahony’s of Watergrasshill; and the series we produced in summer and winter for Cork City Council, Magic Nights by the Lee. Outdoor is here to stay, which is great.
The low point of the whole 21 months was the lack of information. There didn't seem to be any roadmap. People don't just buy tickets when they have no idea are these shows going to happen. We had another venue downtown, the Kino, that we had to let go as it was impossible to justify having it when we had no idea when we could reopen.
I'd say it will take a number of years for full confidence in the market to go back to 2019 levels. Indoor was not an option for most of 2021. We only got open in November 2021, did Grandbrothers, Lost Brothers, John Grant, and Hermitage Green, and had to close again. Fifty per cent capacity was not realistic for venues and promoters that don't get funding.
We are lucky to have a great relationship with Cork City Council who own the building. We are hoping, going forward, to do more shows per year than we did from 2014-2019. It's a building with a lots of soul in an area where the whole village joins in.
We did in November 2020 a series of shows with no audience in the venue we had downtown... Being honest, I nor Ed [O’Leary] really enjoyed it. No audience is so sterile. It's not something we would be interested in. Fans and audience reaction is what it's all about. It's a primal emotion when you get Lankum singing ‘Salonika’ in St Luke’s and the whole crowd singing along. Damien Dempsey walking off the stage with everyone singing at the top of their voices "It's all good" could never be replaced by watching on a screen.
As mentioned, it will take a few years to level out. Our colleagues in the nightclub business really got a hammering. I hope they drop for good the €410-a-night licensing fee or we will end up like Galway where there are no nightclubs left. People want to be entertained and enjoy themselves. That will never change but it will be a different playing pitch going forward.
I've known of the lads since they were kids playing in their first band, the BFG. Considering they played on Letterman, recorded with George Harrison, they have had a brilliant career. Can't wait to hear ‘Sparkle’ with members of the White Horse Guitar Club and Gospel Choir joining them on the night.
Corkman Graham Cooney has that magic touch of just writing these delectable pop ditties. No filler, all killer. He really is a rising star now, hanging with the Soft Boy posse from the big smoke. Always brilliant live.
The last time she played solo. When you see an act that has definitely done her 10,000 hours and holds your attention for the whole show, you know you have a real international talent in front of you. Such a simple yet mesmerising show last time, so well worth a look. Her version of Prince's ‘Kiss’ is amazing, taking that tune into areas that you might not have believed.
The bar and 180-year-old building have long been a central part of the music scene in West Cork. At DeBarras, they tipped away through the pandemic when restrictions allowed, with streamed performances, and seated gigs in the beer garden.
Lockdown had its many low points and if I had to compile a top 10, I would have to put existential despair in at number one. My family kept me going - my wonderful wife and two small kids - and for sure it was magic to spend so much time with them. However, I often wondered what kind of version of their dad/husband were they hanging out with over the last two years.
When you not only lose your livelihood but also in essence your identity and your self-worth, are you really you? Anyways… cooking helped too. My kitchen was a safe place where I had some kind of agency when the whole world seemed to be spiralling out of control. I loved cooking for my family and having regular meals together.
We went straight to live streaming concerts from our Facebook page in March 2020. We did a stream a day until the middle of June, almost without fail. We offered participants a small fee for this. We did 100-plus shows online. Many acts were performing their first-ever live stream, even our resident DeBarras traditional musicians, some in their 70s, performed individual live streams, continuing a DeBarras tradition of hosting traditional Irish music every Monday for the last 30-plus years.
While it was far from the real thing, these shows offered a great sense of camaraderie and connection to our community of musicians and music lovers all over the world and there was a kind of comfort in the consistency of our gigs also.
As restrictions eased we began live streaming in HD from the Folk Club and different corners of the building, with DeBarras becoming a production house of sorts. With our brilliant technical team, John Fitzgerald and Sean Phair from Ambiguous Fiddle, and some amazing performers and artists, we like to modestly think we tipped the clouds of high art with several of our productions.
Yes, I’m a positive person by nature and eventually began to start my days with the mantra ‘things can always be worse’. Also by the last lockdown, in contrast to most of the rest of the world, it was pretty obvious to me that Ireland was in a real place of privilege as regards vaccinations and financial supports.
I'm confident things will get up and running again but hopefully we've all learned from the pandemic. I know for myself having had the time to re-evaluate and reflect, there are many practices, certainly regarding work, that I will not be bringing with me forward into the future. Also, there are many things that I will not take for granted.
Our session was traditionally on a Monday night for the last 30 years, however due to ongoing staffing issues, it is currently housed for the rest of February on Sundays at 8pm in our front bar.
John resumes his never-ending DeBarras residency, playing the first Thursday of every month.
It's not just music, and this is one of a number of comedy gigs over the next few months.
Dolan’s is home to three separate music rooms, and John Hennessy is one of the main music bookers for the venue.
Kasbah @ Dolan’s (120 cap) is 'the baby', Upstairs @ Dolan’s (130 cap) is the ideal songwriter room, and Dolan’s Warehouse (380 cap) is the jewel in the crown. It has featured gigs from the likes of Denise Chaila, Joe Jackson, and Mercury Rev.
PA-wise, they use Seeburg and D&B systems.
Cliche alert but our industry was the first to close and the very last to reopen. Anyone who says that didn't cause mental health strain is lying. So that's the low point. There are people who aren't here anymore as a result of the way the industry was gaslit. It often felt that we were being asked to do things that had no basis in science and were not helpful in reducing Covid numbers.
On our darkest day I still knew Dolan’s would survive and thrive when this was over. Mick Dolan, his family, and staff have spent 25 years building and tweaking this space for artists and fans to come together and celebrate live music and the people of Limerick have had our backs through all this.
Dolan’s is fortunate to have a brilliant technical staff who early on got stuck in and helped create some of the most arresting live streams. I remember in particular Hazey Haze's being outstanding! I would say definitely do it in the future, but for right now, I'm all about people coming to experience live shows. To me, a 'show' is when there is an act and audience together.
One of the peculiarities of the live business is that you rarely get to do any 'serious work' other than maintenance when the venues are operational every night. So we looked at what would improve upon each venue and tackled it accordingly. Personally, I've been caught admiring some work done in the Warehouse more than once. That feeling you get when you know both artists and audience are going to have a better experience due to work done. It's just brilliant.
There's a line in a Bob Dylan song 'I Contain Multitudes' he released during lockdown that pretty much sums it up for me: "I go right to the edge, I go right to the end/I go right where all things lost are made good again." As with the best of things, it's not helpful to overexplain. I hope people come to the shows and I hope it helps their lives. That's it!
Been a dream of mine since seeing them at Primavera Sound one year to have Shellac come to Limerick. M(h)aol are pretty special too!
File this under wow! Could not be more excited!
