Where is Tony Wilson when you need him? It's eight years to the day since the Factory man airlifted the In the City music industry roadshow into Dublin. With it came hundreds of bands, dozens of showcases and a certain amount of substance abuse, writes Jim Carroll.
Music industry legends such as Clive Davis and Donald Passman told us everything they thought we wanted to know. Bands like The Stereophonics went from playing in Fitzsimons Hotel to boring the world with their lumpy rock. For a couple of days and nights, the city was awash with music industry yadda-yadda. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Then, with a collective clicking of the fingers and a swish of a wand, In the City packed its Prada bags, trilled "ta-ra, darlings" and moved back to Manchester (same weather, different accent). Dublin went back to being Dublin, a city where mediocre bands are celebrated, a city where bands with any semblance of ambition, chutzpah or attitude are stubbed out like a cigarette outside a down-at- heel bar, a city where the same godawful bands can change their name three times and no one notices that they're still hawking the same tardy, unpalatable schlock as before.
Eight years on and you'd be hardpressed to remember what the fuss was about. For In the City and the music industry, it was a change of scenery and an opportunity to see if Ireland had anything to offer beyond U2. For Dublin, it was a few giddy hours in the spotlight, like the MTV Awards but without Puff Daddy squaring up to one of Boyzone.
And for Irish rock? It's hard to know what In the City meant for the nation's rockers and rollers. For the likes of The Frames and Mundy, acts who played the festival that year, it was another step on a strange and bizarre journey which is still continuing and now takes in headlining Marlay Park and selling thousands of albums. For other acts, it was another rung down the ladder. These bands probably moaned and groaned that playing In the City didn't bring them overnight stardom. These bands didn't realise that In the City was something of a reality check.
You can be sure that some bands playing this weekend's Hard Working Class Heroes festival in Dublin are secretly hoping that their performance is the first step on an escalator ride to the top of the tree. After all, they think, 500 bands wanted to play and we are one of the 100 who were selected ... Wow, we're going to be famous! We're going to be like Pete Doherty! We're going to be the new Kula Shaker!
Poor sods. Every single night of the week, there are untried, untested and unsigned bands playing on stages around Dublin. You don't read about them in The Ticket, you don't hear them on the radio and you don't see them on TV.
Having patrolled the A&R circuit in a previous life, I can sadly confirm that 98 out of 100 of these bands are rubbish - albeit energetic, well-meaning, determined rubbish.
What beanos like In the City and HWCH do is showcase a certain number of bands which the organisers and a judging panel think are worth being seen by a bigger audience than would normally go to see new acts. Remember that the organisers and judges are humans, so bias, taste and nepotism are in the mix. What you get at the end of the process is a brighter spotlight pointed at the margins for a short period of time.
This weekend, then, is a
chance for rising Irish acts to enjoy some time in the sun. Some will disappear within months, some will be back next year, and some may become the new Stereophonics and be slagged off by smart-alecs for years to come.
If you're looking for tips on what bands to see and hear at HWCH, check out The Chapters, Life After Modelling, La Rocca, The Waiting Room, Ellison 9 and Ten Past Seven. If you're looking for Tony Wilson, you'll find him in Manchester, getting his suits dry-cleaned for this year's In the City.
For more on Hard Working Class Heroes, go to www.hwch.net
