Festival season got underway last weekend in Ireland and the Forbidden Fruit Festival (now in its third year) is guaranteed to satisfy those with a more musically developed pallet. This year’s festival promises to be even bigger, better and LONGER.
The organisers announced today that the party will continue into the wee hours with bands like Four Tet and Mykki Blanco performing again at Meeting House Square and the Button Factory. There will also be live music in the IFI Foyer and Screen 1 will be showing the iconic concert film ‘Stop Making Sense’, featuring Talking Heads. Entry to the Forbidden Fruit Night is FREE for Sunday and Weekend ticket holders only and on a first come first served basis, so be sure to grab your seat on the FREE Bulmers bus which will take you to Temple Bar straight after the festival.
Unlike Adam and Eve you will be safe in the knowledge that you can return home for a shower and a good night’s kip in your own bed after being expelled from this garden of musical splendour.
Here NewsFour writers whisper like the snake to tempt you to taste the best bits of this year’s Forbidden Fruit in the lush grounds of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.
PRIMAL SCREAM
Sunday
Original Stage
21:30-22:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR7l__Florc
While the experimentation of albums Vanishing Point and Exterminator have long since been left behind, Primal Scream are one of those rare acts who can combine the sweat and excess of the dance floor to the neck bracing brawl of a festival, leaving punters grinning and spinning from the fist pumping, leg thumpin delirium their multitude of diverse hits out in a crowd. CK
CHIC
Sunday
Original Stage
1930-20.45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW8UnXzP3ms&list=PL1AECD04E56058F5E&index=1
Nile Rogers has been winning at this music malarkey since the mid-seventies. As founding member of Chic he gifted the world ‘Le Freak’, ‘Good Times’ and ‘Everybody Dance’. As songwriter for Sister Sledge he gave us ‘The Greatest Dancer’ and ‘We Are Family’. He’s the man behind the biggest hits in Bowie, Diana Ross and Madonna’s career, penning amongst many, many others –‘Like a Virgin’, ‘Material Girl’, ‘Let’s Dance’, ‘I’m Coming Out’ and the B-52’S ‘Love Shack’. And we’ve him to thank for the summers most insidious sound; Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’, which you are guaranteed to be should you hit up the main stage Sunday. CK
MYKKI BLANCO
SUNDAY
Lighthouse Stage
15.25-16.10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSgVZEGpo6U
A transgendered rapper whose roots bloomed from performance art, Blanco is part poet, part punk. A prodigious talent whose sarky, spit fire raps come draped in a fierce drag aesthetic, he takes that fine line between the genres hyper-masculine swag and the loud and proud gaudiness of the gay underground and twists it like a boa. CK
LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY
Saturday
Undergrowth Stage
21.45-22.45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy2xshUutdQ
If Bob Marley was still alive, you’d go to his show wouldn’t you? Don’t miss Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. It’s easy to take the greats for granted while they’re still with us but, more than most, Lee Perry the Upsetter deserves your attention. He was the producer of the first records by Bob Marley and the Wailers, as well as other founding voices of modern reggae. In the 70s, he casually invented ‘Dub’ by larking around with modern recording methods without a manual, changing the course of world music from a shack in his garden in Jamaica. ROC
FIGHT LIKE APES
Saturday
Original Stage
15.50-16.25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9KFT5ImlxA
Fight Like Apes have been performing since 2006, with a witty unpretentious approach to rock and roll that has been described as ‘gloriously p*ssed off’ by admiring commentators like British author Warren Ellis. The band balances punk irreverence with wide appeal. They’ll get a crowd going, especially a home town crowd making some new fans too. ROC
FOUR TET
Sunday
Undergrowth Stage
19.45-20.45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyi7F1yrVTc
Prolific and much-admired, Four Tet is the performance name of Kieran Hebden, electronic turntablist from South London. Sure to be one of the bigger draws off the weekend, Four Tet has been making waves with both his studio albums and his extensive back catalogue of mixes of other artists, such as Aphex Twin and Explosions in the Sky, as well as collaborations with Burial and with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. ROC
JAMES BLAKE
Original Stage
18.10-19.10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2kXzP7-UTc
If you fancy heartfelt lyrics with some serious beats James Blake’s your man. His haunting cover ‘Limit to Your Love’ speaks about the deafening limitations of love, his use of words creating a mood that will be familiar to those of us who figured out early on that love and lust are two distinctly different feelings. His songs are filled with mixtures of dub-step, seeds of dance and echoes of indie rebellion. He makes us think of that time when we stumbled in love, but we didn’t fall, just listened. LC
LE GALAXIE
Lighthouse Stage
21.55-22.45
Epic 80’s synth music meets banging dance tunes – Le Galaxie are one of Ireland’s best live dance music acts – don’t say we didn’t warn you when you find yourself giving it socks to these guys on Saturday. GB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HQ5D2byR3Y
HOT SPROCKETS
The Lighthouse Stage
19.30-20.10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EdFoHXwju0
Swamp music/bluesy rock with an occasional country twang – you’ll be foot stomping along to the Hot Sprockets. GB
NEON NEON
Original Stage
20.15-21.15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4lZqDmCO9c
Neon Neon is another incarnation of the musical genius Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals fame. He works alongside producer Boom Bip and a host of guests/collaborators. You can’t pin them down to a particular style or genre – each song takes you somewhere new depending on who they have at the mic. GB
KORMAC’S BIG BAND
Saturday
Original Stage
16.50-17.40
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtGKZSRtzJ4
If you haven’t seen these guys doing their thing then go check them out. Kormac works hard revving up the crowd and manning the turntables while his barber shop quartet, brass section, double bass, guitar and drums fill the stage. Expect electro swing happy beats to bop to, perfect music for a sunny afternoon. GB
By Karen Keegan, Gemma Byrne, Caomhan Keane, Ruairi Conneely, Liam Cahill
