King Coma takes BT Sounds Like Summer 2009 title!

After tough competition on the night, Strabane's King Coma (left) took the title of BT Sounds Like Summer Champions 2009 on August 21st, in what the judges saw as a mind blowing performance which had the crowd calling for more. The five piece band from Strabane beat rivals Fiona McCaughey, Ross and the Wronguns and Derry's The Wonder Villains to walk away with the converted music industry prize.

The band now get the chance to record their own music video, record a CD, get a professional photo shoot and receive BT Broadband for 1 year.

The final was a spectacular event with strong performances from Fiona McCaughey, The Wonder Villains (next big thing out of Northern Ireland, pictured below, click here to hear the addictive Oh Peter), Ross and the Wrongens and King Coma. With excellent sponsorship and support from the NWIPP and BT, the Alley presented a strong, fun and cutting edge musical festival, which accommodated fans from thrash metal, acoustic, indie and electro pop under one roof.

 

The is Year 2 of Sounds Like Summer, so what is expected in Year 3? At the present time the staff are debriefing about the festival to management, what went well, what could be tweaked, what shouldn't happen again. On a quick note, and you would expect me to say this, the marketing for the event was spot on. We went down several different avenues from traditional print to more cutting edge approaches like our podcasts, facebook and twitter pages. The 5 nights of music offered a great stage for unsigned bands in the island of Ireland, with a number looking to be heading for great things in the next few years. Exhausted but delighted with the festival, I cannot wait to get started on the next one.


After the event, John Kerr, Alley Theatre Manager stated "The BT Sounds Like
Summer Festival has been a great success, attracting bands and fans from across the island of Ireland and further afield, including finalists Ross and the Wrongens from Kent (pictured right). We would like to thank our sponsors, NWIPP and BT for making this festival the great success it was and thank the bands for performing some wonderful gigs. We can't wait to see what next year has to bring!"

"We are delighted to have come on board this year as the BT Sounds Like Summer Festivals main sponsor" stated Tony Sheehan, BT Shop
manager, the Richmond Centre. "From the quality of the entries, it's clear to see that there is an enormous pool of talent in Northern Ireland and we're delighted, that through this competition, the creativity and commitment of our local musicians can be recognised and encouraged. The success of BT Sounds Like Summer has far exceeded our expectations and we're excited about the future of this inspiring event."

Personally I feel for all three organisations, BT, NWIPP and the Alley, all benefited tremendously from the success of BT Sounds Like Summer and I personally look forward to next year! For a full festival report click here.

Hiding in Plain Sight via You Tube

The Alley Theatre has a wonderful gallery space which has welcomed numerous artists over the last 3 years to display their work in Strabane. Now with a growing reputation, the amount of applications we receive to exhibit at the Alley is growing dramatically on a yearly basis.

From the world famous Felim Egan, glass artist Sean Campbell, the Northern Ireland Press Photographers Association to the local arts Group, the Alley has offered an exceptional space and support for professional and amateur artists alike. The venue offers regular exhibition launches, an art club and regular podcasts with the exhibiting artists, all aimed at raising the profile of the artist and the gallery space.

This year the Alley also embarked on establishing a second gallery space within the Linton and Robinsons department store in Strabane, funded by Arts and Business. From a wonderful launch in a newly refurbished 2nd floor area, the North West Artist Gallery, based in Lintons' has became a commercial success!

The superb success of our exhibitions clearly demonstrate how the Alley is leading the creative arts in not only the North West, but across Northern Ireland, pushing the boundaries and getting more people interested in viewing/buying art.

However our new exhibition, "Hiding in Plain Sight" made me stop and think about how we should approach new artists in the future.


Our new exhibition, "Hiding in Plain Sight" is by a Strabane photographer, Raymond McCarron, a highly complex man whose passion for street photography is endless. He has a god given gift to capture that lost or stolen moment on the street which when seen through the lens offers more than a thousand words to the observer. From the gritty streets of Belfast, a Halloween trip in Derry, an old women hunched in a windy high street to an almost "Darwin -ist" portrait of an old man walking the dark narrow back alleys in Edinburgh, Raymond can certainly be hailed as one of Ireland's leading street photographers and is worthy of having his work put into a book format (any publishing houses reading this?)

For his new exhibition, "Hiding in Plain Sight", the Alley has developed press releases, interviews with regional newspapers, twitter updates, designed invitations, web updates, e-news letters, planned an official launch night, a Facebook events page, got David Oliver to play at the launch and completed a hit podcast.

However one piece of marketing gold we missed out in producing was a You Tube presence for the exhibition. We shouldn't have worried, Raymond had already completed one himself without telling us and boy was it good. This stunning exhibition on You Tube, mixed with a killer soundtrack simply took my breath away it was that good.

I have to admit my jaw dropped when I first saw it listed on You Tube, how could I have missed this? What a great way of exhibiting the work to potential journalists and patrons. Why hadn't he told me? More importantly, why hadn't I asked? However my frustration over missing this golden opportunity to further promote his show was very short lived, as I began soak up the music and enjoy the wonderful images which were flowing in front of my eyes.

So this weeks comment from the Alley, when you are planning your campaign, make sure you have a good chat to the performer/artist about what else they have done and maybe you might find a hidden gem! To watch for yourself the wonderful work Raymond has produced on You Tube click here.

I hope you enjoy it as much as me.