Emergenza reprieve: There's still time to enter Emergenza, Europe's unsigned band competition, and be in with a chance to win an all-expenses trip to Hamburg to compete in the European finals. Fill out the entry form in Music Maker on Exchequer Street before next Friday, and the world could be your bratwurst.

New mob in town: Irish ska band Gangsters will be launch- ing their debut album, A New Beginning, with a skanking show at Eamonn Doran's on Sunday night. The album comes out on Washington- based Beatville Records.

Tap into Japan: Riverdance arrives in Tokyo tonight for a preview show at the International Forum, featuring principal dancers Breandan de Gallai, Joanne Doyle and Maria Pages. Moya Doherty's mega-successful extravaganza should rake in the yen over the next couple of weeks, which is nice.

Soundbites got a teaser letter from some ornery cuss calling himself Jack Lawless, alluding to "three gals makin' a name for themselves in show-business". Judging from the letter's country & western style, I suspect he's not referring to cool Dublin band Chicks, but to that awful American trio, Dixie Chicks. I'm warnin' ya, Jack come any closer and I'll shoot.