Mr Tayto at Croke Park- Sunday 14th July

Ah sure- we all love Tayto, and Mr Tayto is coming to everyone's fave GAA ground, Croke Park, this Sunday 14th.

The press release reads; This Sunday, 14th July, Meath GAA senior football team, sponsored by Tayto Park, take on Dublin in the Leinster Senior Football Final in Croke Park. Mr. Tayto and the Tayto Park bus will be at Croke Park handing out thousands of bags of Tayto crisps to supporters as they make their way to the grounds. 

Mr. Tayto Goes To Croke ParkThis Sunday, 14th July at 2pm in Croke Park, Meath GAA Senior Football team, sponsored by Tayto Park, take on Dublin in the Leinster Senior Football Final. Mr. Tayto and the Tayto Park bus will be at Croke Park to show some Tayto love to supporters as they make their way to the grounds. Thousands of bags of Tayto Cheese & Onion, Salt & Vinegar, Smokey Bacon and Prawn Cocktail will be handed out by Mr. Tayto and his merry band of followers.

In October 2012 Tayto Park was unveiled as the Official Sponsor of the Meath County GAA in a two-year deal. The sponsorship covers all four Inter county Football teams – Senior, Under 21, Minor and Junior.
 (Meath footballer Graham Reilly, Meath goal keeper Paddy O’Rourke, Mr Tayto, Meath Captain Kevin Reilly and Tayto Park employee and Meath footballer Bryan Menton)
 
Raymond Coyle, creator of Tayto Park and a native of Meath said today, “We are immensely proud of the Meath GAA Senior Football team.  As Tayto Park is located in the heart of Meath, this is a perfect sponsorship for us and we wish Mick and the entire senior panel the very best of luck this Sunday".
(Tayto Park employee and Meath footballer Bryan Menton, Mr Tayto, Meath Captain Kevin Reilly, Meath goal keeper Paddy O’Rourke (yellow jersey) and Meath footballer Graham Reilly)

Tayto Park receives thousands of visitors each year and earlier this week a few Meath Senior team players, including recent man of the match Graham Reilly, Meath goal keeper Paddy O’Rourke, Tayto Park employee and Meath footballer Byran Menton and Meath Captain Kevin Reilly met with Tayto Park Keeper Aishling Power.
 (Meath goal keeper Paddy O’Rourke with Barney the Barn Owl and  Tayto Park Keeper Aishling Power)

Meath Manager, Mick O’Dowd said, “To have the support of Ray and his team at Tayto Park is vital for the ongoing growth of Meath GAA ”.
 Kevin meet Kevin! - Meath Captain Kevin Reilly meets his name sake 'Kevin', the newest addition to the Meerkat family who was born in Tayto Park recently.


For Tayto Park opening hours and ticket prices log onto www.taytopark.ie

The Street Performance World Championships 2013

Next weekend (12th, 13th and 14th July) sees the 2013 Street Performance World Championships descend upon Dublin's Merrion Square. Quite simply it is a great day out, and it's free! Starting at 12noon on Friday it continues over the whole weekend with several repetitions of acts. For a full timetable see here http://www.spwc.ie/sites/default/files/Dublin_Timetable_2013.pdf


With a fairground roundabout, food areas, a buskers stage, a kid's court and a 'layabout area' as well as all the acts that are going on, it is a well organised event and weather permitting, a great day for all.

There are 16 act that will be competing over the weekend from the UK, Europe, the US and Canada, New Zealand,  Australia and Japan;

Nigel Blackstorm- a heavy metal magician!
Lords of Strut- leotard wearing eejits
Red Trouser Show- acrobatic knife and fire juggling
Rubberband Boy-facial contortions and straitjacket escape
Senmaru- a Japanese acrobat tea-pourer?
The Chairmen- something clever with white plastic chairs?!
The Doogans- a juggling duo
Zap Circus- Fire, acrobatics, circus and comedy
Alakazam- contortionist with feats of danger
Ernest the Magnifico- the name says it all, a moustachioed dangerous stuntman
Cirque No Problem- last years winners, with acrobatics, clowning, juggling and balancing
B-Xtreme- a cool hip-hop break dance troupe
Rob Torres- a silent miming comedian
Bellatrix- beat boxing world championship
Miss Behave- a sexy sword swallower
Pancho Libre- a high flying stunt man.


     

All these details and more are on www.spwc.ie

"Back to Boomtown!" - The Rats at The Marquee, Cork 5th July 2013.

The Rats are back- and with a giant BOOM! Bob and the Rats - Bob Geldof, Pete Briquette, Simon Crowe, Garry Roberts and the very talented Darren Beale, formerly of The Caves absolutely rocked The Marquee on Friday with an explosive set, great graphic backdrops and Bob sporting a sexy snake-skin suit.

(Darren Beale at Isle of Wight)
 


The crowd was buzzing and there was a good feeling up front as mature men pogo-ed and moshed their hearts out to Rats songs that many had thought they would never hear performed live again. For a band that had not played together for 27 years they were tight and performed their pants off. Geldof gave it his all, at some stages appearing to go off into some other place with the intensity he gave to it. As he acknowledged himself to his devoted crowd, some of the songs could have been written yesterday- so relevant did the lyrics seem to Ireland today. But politics aside, Geldof was the consummate front man. He danced and wriggled his hips in his Jagger-esque style for all he was worth and had the crowd eating out the palm of his hand.


Opening as they had at The Isle Of Wight with 'Eva Braun', he launched straight into the crowd-pleaser 'Like Clockwork', followed by 'Neon Heart' and the fast 'She's Gonna Do You In', causing the crowd to move into frenzied leaping and arms stabbing in the air.

Taking his first chance to talk to his appreciative audience, Geldof railed the state of the US 'Big Brother's Watching You' recent revelations, using it to prepare us well for a good chant to 'Someone's Looking at You' and followed by 'Joey's On the Street Again'. His views upon the Ireland he left well known, he put to the crowd that nothing had changed. With the most recent Bank scandal the crowd were now in his pocket and fell into 'Banana Republic' with the flick of his wrist.

'She's So Modern' transported a good majority of the appreciative crowd, if they weren't already there, to the late 70s as they moshed and shouted out "She's so...1970s!" and the reception that followed when the piano launched into the intro for 'Monday's' was electric. It was a surreal moment when the song you have heard so many times on MTV with the iconic video is played out onstage in front of your own eyes. Geldof's performance was magic holding the crowd with his extended hold on the line "And the lesson today is how-to-die...".

The performance followed with 'Close as You'll Ever Be', 'When the Night Comes' and 'Me and Howard Hughes' and at this stage jumping up and down had become an instant reaction to the increased beat - would we be able to walk tomorrow? Or back to the hotel?

But there was to be no let up. 'Mary of the 4th Form' invigorated the crowd to reach down for new reserves of energy, followed by 'Looking After No.1' and then the arrival of the sax told all that it was time for 'Rat Trap'. As everyone chanted the final "And you've been CAUGHT!' The Rats came together for their applause- the cheering was phenomenal. Leaving the stage the crowd clapped and called, and they returned for an encore with 'Elephant's Graveyard' and 'Diamond Smiles'. Leaving the stage we were happy and exhausted, but no, there was more,and what a finale it proved to be.


Returning for their second encore, the lights took on a house club movement, swirling around the audience. Geldof took the stage and the stage throbbed as he chanted 'The Boomtown Rats!'. Written like a classic club anthem, this had the crowd giving their last ounce of strength for a full on jump-in-the-air session with fists pumping to the chant. Whether written in this style as a bit of a tongue-in-cheek pop to house music, Geldof totally pulled it off and the band then took their final bow.



We left The Marquee happy, sweaty, sore-footed and on cloud nine. We had seen the Rats, reformed after 27 years; they had been tight as if they were playing yesterday, Geldof's interaction with them all on stage had been electric and it had been amazing. We tramped with the rest of the crowd back to town to have a well earned drink and a chat with fellow concert goers identifying themselves by Rats t-shirts and discussed what an all round cracking night it had been.

Tour de France 2013

I'm not a great sports fan but I love to watch the Tour de France - not just for the fine looking cyclists but the for the scenery. I love France and it has been our holiday destination for many years now. Being near to a spot where the Tour was passing one year we set off in midday scorching heat to walk for about 1.5k to get to the passing spot nearest to us. Waiting patiently, the forward cars and bikes could be heard approaching, and then the cyclists. Whizz, whizz, whizz, and in 30 seconds it was all over! Of course we cheered them on and clapped our hands sore but the reality of the speed with which it was over and the effort of getting to the place all seemed a bit of an anti-climax. Like several things in life, the realisation came that it was better on telly. There you can follow the peloton for the whole race, see the position of the teams, the yellow jersey and the dramas of bike changes etc.
  
Besides the excitement of the race, this years race start on Corsica is great. The scenery looks gorgeous and as we look over the bays it really seems to be a beautiful island. There is excellent live online coverage on The Guardian website http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/jun/30/tour-de-france-stage-two-live.
    

Today they have cycled 156k from Bastia to Ajaccio  and the Tour must have been great for increasing tourism to the island as will the television coverage. Day 4 sees the cyclists arrive in Nice for the time trail and then from Cagnes sur Mer to Marseille, Aix-en-Provence to Montpelier and then onto Albi before two days of mountain stages. For lovers of the South of France this is a great chance to see huge swathes of the Cote D'Azure, Provence and onto Languedoc-Roussillon.


For details of the full route go to http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2013/us/

Rod Stewart in Dublin June 2013

Had to share this fab picture of Rod taken last night at Shanahan's on the Green here in Dublin. Looking great as ever I'm sure he will put on a fine show tonight as always- 'Live the Life' at the RDS. Gates at 6pm, show 8pm and I hear limited tickets still available from www.ticketmaster.com

Dublin Pride 2013

If you're not on the way into Dublin yet-it's not too late! Events are going on all day. There's no point me repeating all the details here because Pride has a great website http://www.dublinpride.ie/

But basically, the parade leaves The Garden of Remembrance at the top of O'Connell Street at 2pm, people gathering there now. It snakes down O'Connell Street and on to Trinity, down Nassau Street and into Merrion Square where there is to be a right good party from 3pm onwards with music food and generally just a lot of fine people having a good time.


All evening events that are going on are on the website so, have a great day, whether you are in the parade, watching from the street or joining in the fun in the square.

Cut The Guy Some Slack! Neil Young and Crazy Horse at the RDS - Saturday 15 June 2013

I have to start this review with a comment about the number of negative comments and reviews about this gig at the RDS. Reading tweets on the train on the way home we couldn't believe the comments- had these people been to the same concert as us?



Starting the afternoon in Madigan Square Garden, the new beer garden in Horseshow House opposite the RDS, was a great start. The beer was flowing freely (not free!) and the hotplate bbq was dishing out  €5 burgers, sausages and chicken fillet burgers at a fair rate. The atmosphere was good as we all anticipated the great show ahead, buying Neil Young-style hats and crashing the men's loos when the queue for the ladies was too long ("good on ya!", "and why shouldn't ya?!" were among the comments).



The atmosphere in the RDS was also great as everyone mingled around buying chips and beers as the support bands warmed up the crowd. Now, before we go any further, this was a Neil Young and Crazy Horse concert, NOT Neil Young. Crazy Horse is Neil Young with Frank "Poncho" Sampedro, Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina.

Crazy Horse is (albums) After the Goldrush, Tonight's the Night, Rust Never Sleeps, Americana and the new Psychedelic Pill among others. From those albums we got;

1. Love and Only Love (from Ragged Glory 1990)
2. Powderfinger (Rust Never Sleeps 1979)
3. Psychedelic Pill (2012)
4. Walk Like a Giant (Psychedelic Pill 2012)
5. Hole in the Sky (new and unreleased)
6. Comes a Time (Comes a Time 1978)
7. Blowin' in the Wind (Bob Dylan cover)
8. Ramada Inn (Psychedelic Pill 2012)
9. Cinnamon Girl (Everybody Knows This is Nowhere 1969)
10. Fuckin' Up ( Ragged Glory 1990)
11. Mr. Soul (Written by Young, recorded by Buffalo Springfield)
12. Hey, Hey, My, My (Into the Black) (Rust Never Sleeps 1979)
13. Cortez the Killer (Zuma 1975)



Now this great guy is sixty-seven years old and rocking with the best of them out there. He is still writing majorly good music and lyrics as seen by the most recent release of Psychedelic Pill. His set list covered Crazy Horse tracks from 1969 right up to the new material. But what got people rankled was the extended jams between Young and his band (which he loved and the smile on his face was a sight to behold) and also the feedback session. But objectors need only look at the Crazy Horse discography to see 1991 Arc which was "a 35-minute composite of feedback, guitar noise, and vocal fragments". This is Young with Crazy Horse. Get over it. If you wanted Harvest then you came to the wrong show.