Electric Picnic 2015

Six picnics on, Electric P has metamorphosed into a compulsion - a contortion of hassle  and fun, wierdness and wonder, irritation and pure craic.

 The highlight of the weekend for me was Bob Geldof's (and The Boomtown Rats) frantic performance, all grey tossled head, gyrating and lepping all over the stage, with fab renditions of Rattrap. Don't Like Mondays, Mary of the Fourth Form, Looking after Number One and more. Afterwards, Bob chatted to the audience in the Hot Press Tent, a more relaxed version of his usual politically charged self as he reflected on his musical backstory, forty years on. 

 A bunch of student from Trinity College, the Trinitones, gave fab versions of Beatles and Black-Eyed Peas on the Salty Dog stage.

 Joe Rooney, was his usual hilarious self in the Comedy Tent.

 Ann Enright, (Booker winner for The Gathering), Mary Costello (The China Factory, Academy Street) were interviewed in the Literary Tent by  journalist Sinead Gleeson  about the short story form and both read recent short stories.

 George Ezra gave a wildly ecstatic crowd Budapest, Blame it on Me and Listen to the Man.

 Dublin Gospel Choir performed their usual Sunday morning wake up call, with fantastic versions of Stevie Wonder's Masterblaster and Sir Duke, amongst others.

 Miriam O Callaghan interviewed John Banville (Booker winner for The Sea), Colum McCann (Let the Great World Spin) and Paul Muldoon (several poetry collections) about their relationships with their fathers.

 Just caught a glimpse of George Hook as he finished his talk on his teenhood experience dating girls  (too much information, George) in the Newstalk tent. 

Would love to say that a photographer was grabbing a quick snap of me, but sadly not.




Tickets for EP 2016 go on sale on Friday.

Electric Picnic 2014

Each time I go I tell myself: this is it, my LAST Electric Picnic. This year was no different.  41,000 punters (biggest crowd ever) made for a lot of queuing - a very unpopular activity. Mindfield, for the second year in a row was without the usual packed line-up of novelists and poets. Two things that should be enough to keep me away. 

Still, Debbie Harry (Blondie) chatted to us in the Hot Press tent.

Kevin Godley of seminal 70's band 10cc, told us about his music production app www.wholeworldband.com - free to download, which allows anyone produce their own music online.

In the comedy tent, David McSavage was as frightening as ever, his mimicry of Gerry Adams, in particular, raising the roof.

A selection of bands from my formative years kept me in the front row of the Main Stage.

Seventies punk-rock band, The Stranglers, thrilled with classics such as 'No More Heroes' and 'Golden Brown' and particularly wonderful was their billing slot - 2pm - allowing this punter to enjoy them at a respectably early time!

Sinead O Connor was in fine form, belting out 'Emperor's New Clothes' and 'Take me to Church' but sadly for me, no "Nothing Compares." Still, she had her lovely daughter Roisin on stage and they sang a fabulous ballad together - surreal moment.

Simple Minds took me back years and good old Jim Kerr (although his voice is not as strong as it used to be but at 55 years of age he has to be forgiven) belted out his anthems: 'Don't you forget about me' and appropriately titled for all of us still giving it a lash: 'Alive and Kicking'.


I dropped in to see the anarchic Rubberbandits whose madcap set had a sort of unnerving aura - their song 'Spoiling Ivan' made me a tad uncomfortable - the desired affect, I suppose.

And a great sounding Cambridge electronic band, recommended by the teenagers in my house, Clean Bandit, whose catchy song 'Nowhere I'd Rather Be' was an anthem for the weekend.

As always, just being at EP is fun in itself:

especially when you spot a lampshade in a colour you were looking out for in ages,

or two Gardai whizz past you on bikes

or the sign over Body & Soul

or a legend puts his trademark stamp on it all.





The tickets for 2015 go on sale today.

As they say where I come from: 'No Comment'.

Electric Picnic 2013

One thought before I let the photographs tell it all:

Mindfield (The literary and reading section) was duller, apart from a couple of exceptions, lacking the oomph of previous years, minus a few familiar faces or even some new ones I thought should/could/might have made an appearance. Perhaps the new management are pitching the festival more towards the music/younger end of the market - the selling out of 35,000 tickets would indicate a commercial success. If Mindfield continues to shed dynamic in terms of variety and calibre of writers/performers, they will lose at least ONE punter - and that should really worry the management-(as the younger generation would say) LOL.

Inch by inch I got there - thirteen thousand extra punters does make a difference to the journey.

On the way to the main arena, red umbrellas instead of red carpet.

Stradbally Hall, in the near distance, allows the Cosby family (owners of the land) to keep an eye on proceedings.

 

Stuart Carolan (creator of RTE crime drama Love/Hate) and actor Aidan Gillen held court on Literary Stage. AG read a Seamus Heaney poem. They talked about their working life -AG said he often felt like "walking away" from it all.
 A question to SC - "Have you had any reaction to Love/Hate from the criminal world?" SC shifted around on his seat and after at least 20 seconds averting his eyes told the spellbound audience he had indeed got 'enquiries' as to whether he had inside information, so accurate was his portrayal in Love/Hate of a particular crime.

The Poetry Divas strutted their stuff on Sunday morning, telling us about shoes so high and narrow, they gather your toes and cause you to totter, about the Irish using swearing as punctuation, about shopping for jeans and seeing "an infinity of huge arses" in the boutique fitting room angled mirrors, about a passion for a red headed man. In the row in front me, three young men snoozed and rested, obviously recovering from the night before. Watching their reaction as they woke up(open mouths, wide eyes and eventual guffaws) to the sight and sound of a poem about breasts and the various names they are called - hooters, brad pitts, fried eggs, melons, with photographs to illustrate, was as entertaining as the poem itself.

Musical highlights were English band and performers of the classic "Five years Time": Noah and the Whale

Daithi - a finalist in the All Ireland Talent show - proving once more you do not have to win a competition to go on to a successful career. The Strypes, a hugely praised young band from Cavan, showed their talent - even though their sound was a tad over-produced and frantic for me.

And the Dublin Gospel Choir who fabulously roused the Sunday morning crowd with songs such as Beyoncé (Crazy in Love) David Guetta  (Titanium) and Queen (Somebody to Love)

 The washing machine installation to remind me of all that work building up at home while I was off roaming the fields in Stradbally.

 

 

 

 

 

As before the weather obliged - blue skies, thankfully, most of the time.

 

The weekend was overseen by the loftiest and most influential participant of all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Added Salt, Sugar, or Fat, Bread

Recipes are not my forte. I am not one of those lucky people who derives comfort and pleasure from culinary activities. Cooking and baking are duties, not hobbies.  However, in these days of salt, sugar and fat-loaded EVERYTHING, I really want to share a recipe.  (Makes FOUR loaves at the one time, so you are also saving on electricity.)

Ingredients:

 

 

 

 Two Pounds of Wholemeal Flour

 

8 Ounces of Pinhead Oatmeal

 

4 Ounces of Wheatgerm

 

4 Teaspoons of Bread Soda

 

4 Large Eggs

 

40 Fluid Ounces

 of Buttermilk

 

Method:

 

 Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees Centigrade

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl

 

Rub out all lumps from the baking soda before adding.

 

 

 

 

Add all the wet ingredients and stir well.

 

 

Pour the mixture into four greased loaf tins and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Bake in the middle shelf of oven for 55 minutes

Wrap in a tea towel and allow to cool for a few hours before wrapping in cling film and placing (three loaves) in the freezer.

 

Of course, you keep one out to sample immediately.
Bon Appetit!

I Love YouTube

Since February 2005 when three former PayPal employees created the video-sharing website, YouTube, the way we view has utterly changed.

As well as its massive popularity as a way to access music videos (YouTube clip of South Korean Psy's Gangnam Style has been viewed 1.7 billion times)







 YouTube is now proving more popular than television as it allows selective viewing.
So for those of us who would rather do just about anything than sit through some of Ireland's so-called chat shows (sorry, RTE) the best bits can be viewed on good old YouTube.
 instead of having to sit through a full programme.

So when I heard that the Saturday Night Show had featured Linda Martin doing a version of
Daft Punk's  fabulous summer hit Get Lucky




and better still, she was getting roasted for her version, I had to see for myself.




If there's anything I like more than being able to select the bits of telly I want to watch, it's being able to select those bits of telly that show women of  a certain age refusing to 'go gentle into that good night.' 

Okay, it's not a great version of the song, but still....

You Go, Linda!

Saying 'Goodbye' to my car of thirteen years

A relationship of thirteen years spans a range of life events. Parting is sorrowful. Okay, so my car is not human. But often I felt as if my little Suzuki Swift was a physical extension of me.  Another foot maybe. She even had a name - Suzy.

A special privacy was achieved in the solitude of my car.

In the quietness of my little space, worries were analysed, plans formulated, stories hatched. Suzy saw the arrival of my daughter, now twelve, as well as family bereavements.  She was my reliable steed during house moves, as I stuffed her little interior to the brim with furniture and fittings. She loyally transported me to readings, music sessions, meetings, festivals, supermarkets, job interviews, study days, book launches, visiting relatives, hospital appointments, schools, football matches, weddings, funerals, holidays. A constant in my life for thirteen long years.

 

Together we sped the roads of Kildare.

 

And now as she leaves me to start a new chapter in her life, I say 'Goodbye' to Suzy.