On the Town:What happens when a soul diva teams up with a dub musician and trip-hop producer inside a travelling tent?
That's what the hordes of happy punters turned up to find out when Marlena Shaw was joined by Mad Professor at the Spiegeltent this week, as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival. For the Spiegeltent's producer, Louise O'Reilly, it was a perfect example of the imaginative ventures the venue is offering this year.
"This year it's not only the hottest music location in Dublin but also it is unique in terms of the acts. This Marlena Shaw gig with Mad Professor is exclusive, a Spiegeltent-only gig," she explained.
Shaw, who was the first female artist signed to Blue Note Records when the company took her on in 1972, was unfazed as she waited backstage for her first-ever duet with Mad Professor.
"I got an e-mail that suggested this and I thought: 'What? OK, let's see how it goes!' " she said, and if the rapture of the revellers who piled on to the dancefloor was anything to go by, this particular collaboration was another Spiegeltent success.
The roving pavilion has been playing host to some of the Fringe's most exciting acts this year, and many of those involved were on hand for the Marlena Shaw show. Brett Haylock, creative producer of the critically acclaimed La Clique circus/cabaret which had performed earlier in the same venue, said his show was also going down well. Part of the reason for its success, he said, was the fact that "a Dublin audience is up for the craic".
Also in attendance were the cast of the show, Score - Quentin Ogier, Henri Ogier, Dominique Montain, Liz Claire, Laurent Fraunie and Markus Schmid - who arrived for Shaw's late-night gig fresh from their own opening performance at the Project Upstairs.
Wolfang Hoffmann, director of the Fringe Festival, and Jenny Jennings, the Spiegeltent's programme manager, were also on hand to ensure the smooth running of the evening's entertainment, which was opened by singer Laura Izibor. Conor Bereen was busy overseeing the Spiegeltent bar, although he admitted to being slightly distracted by Shaw's powerful performance.
"I can't really do my job very well while she's singing!" he said.
Brian Crosby, of Bell X1, and singer Mundy were also at the show, as were Caoimhe Derwin and Paula Cullen of The Chalets. Having played in the Spiegeltent themselves, Derwin and Cullen were particularly enthusiastic about the venue.
"It has a festival atmosphere but you're seeing someone in a small venue," said Cullen.
Tribute of a showband survivor On The TownFiona McCann
It was a trip back in time at Eason Hanna bookshop in Dublin this week as former showband musicians and members of the 1960s showbiz scene packed into the store for the launch of The Miami Showband Massacre: A Survivor's Search for the Truth, by Stephen Travers and Neil Fetherstonhaugh.
The book is the story of Travers's efforts to come to terms with the events of July 31st, 1975, when the bus his band were using was stopped by the UVF, who gunned down the band members, killing Tony Geraghty, Fran O'Toole and Brian McCoy. For Pat Lynch, one-time singer with showband The Airchords, the impact of the killings was still being felt 30 years on.
"I find it hard to talk about it at times, but it was dreadful. It had such an effect on everyone," he said.
Margaret Urwin, of Justice for the Forgotten welcomed the book's publication. "We would see anything that throws a light on those atrocities from the 1970s as a positive thing. So many people today don't know these things happened," she said.
Also at the launch were Ray Millar, The Miami Showband's drummer, whose decision to drive home on the night of the shootings saved his life. Musicians Brush Shields, Richie Buckley and Jim Farrelly were also there.
Speaking to the packed room, Fr Brian D'Arcy recalled the highs of the showband era in Ireland. "These men came and broke all boundaries. They were travelling jukeboxes," he said.
Travers said he was delighted with the huge turnout. "I think it's a great tribute to the lads. It was a difficult process but I had a good companion in Neil . He accompanied me to hell and back again, but I had to fulfil my obligation to Tony, Fran and Brian. I knew they would have done the same for me."
His co-author Fetherstonhaugh said the book had been intended as a piece of reportage about the showband. "It developed into a quest for truth and justice. I didn't think it would work, but as it turned out, it's a better book for it."
As former taoiseach Albert Reynolds told the gathering: "Any proof that was ever needed about what The Miami Showband meant is answered here tonight."
The RHA goes to the wall
The walls of the Royal Hibernian Academy's Gallery I revealed their new look this week, with the opening of the new Alice Maher show, The Night Garden.
As well as her individual charcoal on paper images and pencil drawings, Maher has used two of the gallery's white walls as a canvas, drawing her charcoal figures inspired by Geronimo Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights directly on to the gallery walls.
"They're totally impermanent," the artist explained as her show opened, adding that the gallery was due for renovation the week after her show closes, and that these pieces will inevitably be painted over, as if to underline their impermanence. As the charcoal rains down over her bestiary figures, the concept of changing states is further underlined in the work.
Fellow artists were impressed by the new collection, in particular by her commanding use of the gallery space.
Artist Richard Gorman, whose exhibition, Kite, is showing at the Graphic Studio, Dublin, said he found the work's physicality particularly striking.
"I think it's an extra physical piece of work where you can see the process, an extra process to control the space, without being monolithic," he said.
Artist Amelia Stein, a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy along with Gorman, paid tribute to Maher's work. "It's elegant, and dynamic, and is just about as good as you can get anywhere," she said.
For artist Robert Ballagh, the pencil drawings held a particular appeal. "There's a whimsical quality, a surreal quality about them that I find attractive," he said.
Photographer and tutor Emma Haugh described the new show as "striking" and compared it to the work of American artist Kiki Smith.
Opening in the Royal Hibernian Academy's Gallery II and III were two film installations by Finnish artist Salla Tykka, the Cave trilogy and the Irish premiere of her work Zoo.
"My work deals a lot with power positions in our society," explained the artist.
Cartoonist Tom Mathews, set designer Joe Vanek and artists Cecily Brennan, Dermot Seymour and Jeanette Doyle were also at the opening of Maher's show, which runs till October 28th
The model is the message
Responses to an advertisement she placed in newspapers in Reykjavik were the springboard for Sarah Browne's first solo exhibition in Dublin, A Model Society, which opened at the Lab in Dublin's Foley Street this week. Browne was looking for knitwear models, and the respondents were then asked to complete a short survey about life in Iceland, the answers from which were knitted as words into the traditional Icelandic lopi jumpers she made for them.
The work's centrepiece is a series of photographs of the models and their sweaters, where phrases such as "The Bank Owns Us" and "Safe Jobs/High Taxes" are carefully worked into the intricate patterns.
"Part of the project was to examine people's ideas about what it would really be like to live in Iceland," explained Browne. "It's promoted as a perfect place, and in the photos they're in this perfect, beautiful image, but the text is quite negative."
The exhibition also includes examples of the jumpers themselves, as well as a Map of World Happiness, and a transcription of a conversation Browne had with a professor of anthropology in Iceland about parallels he found between the artist's knitting patterns and genetic coding, which is printed on the back of a knitting pattern.
Fearghus O'Conchuir, Dublin City Council's dance artist in residence, who is about to head off to Beijing, China, to perform in the DaDao Live Art Festival, paid tribute to Browne.
"What I have really enjoyed with Sarah's work is how she's made something for the gallery space, but she's referring to an experience that goes much wider," he said.
Artist Sean Hillen was also on hand to lend his support, paying tribute to what city arts officer Jack Gilligan has created in the Lab.
"I really like what Jack does here. It's a beautiful space and very well managed, and he's very respectful of artists. It's ideal," he said.
What's Behind Your Eye?, a sound and video installation created by Gayle Anderson, Kevin Gaffney, Frances Hayes and Alan Burns, known collectively as Cotillion, also opened in the Lab this week, with an exhibition of photography by CX Hayden, called Enclose, showing on the gallery's mezzanine.
• Sarah Browne: A Model Society runs at the Lab, Foley Street, Dublin 1, until Oct 2