Ireland

Formal apology on behalf of the United Kingdom to the people of the European Union regarding Brexit and a gesture of hospitality

Mark

Dear People of the European Union, I am writing this letter for and on behalf of the United Kingdom to extend our heartfelt apologies for the impact of Brexit on the people of the European Union, and for the personal insult, distress and uncertainty it has caused. I didn't vote for Brexit, I voted to remain and I have had to learn to respect and accept the outcome of the referendum and it's consequences. On the day of the results, back in 2016, I was driving a French News crew around London. Pierre the TV News programme producer turned to me at 4am as the crew prepared their equipment for the…

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Sinead O’Brien – European Tour 2022

Mark

“You have seen nothing yet”, asserts Sinead O’Brien in single Girlkind – and you are inclined to believe her. Building on her arresting releases since 2018, the multifaceted Irish poet, songwriter and performer is ascending into new territory with her debut LP, Time Bend and Break the Bower, released via Chess Club Records. Demanding a visceral response from her audiences, O’Brien issues a challenge to those who would box her music inside a notion of tradition. Instead, the artist’s poetry – a constant, active absorption of how people speak, communicate and clash in the era we are living through – is an essential clarion call heard in the future. Communing at…

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Transglobal Underground – A Gathering of Strangers 2021

Mark

Unity Beyond Borders A Gathering of Strangers 2021 by Transglobal Underground and our European Friends As people move away from their homelands out of necessity or choice, their stories of family, traditions, sorrows and joys travel with them, beyond the borders they cross. Transglobal Underground (one of the bands I have worked with closely in recent times) went on a mission a few years ago across Europe to find songs of migration and emigration which was first released as a 2010 project called U.N.I.T.E. (Urban Native Integrated Traditions of Europe) funded by an EU arts grant. This album is now being re-released in 2021 with re-mixes on “I Left My Sweet…

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John Murry – Monday 3rd February 2020 at The Slaughtered Lamb, London. Doors 7pm, Music from 7.30pm

Mark

John Murry was adopted at birth into the family of William Faulkner. Some have speculated that the Faulkner blood might also run in his veins, but that should be left for a Southern Gothic novel yet to be written (or perhaps re-written). Raised in Tupelo, Mississippi, in the shadow of Elvis, his undiagnosed autism led to troubles at an early age that led to prescribed medication, which led to un-prescribed medication, which led to being institutionalised for addiction and mental health issues at a too young age. Eventually, discarded onto the streets of Memphis, he found music, which became the one constant positive force in his life. Memphis led to San…

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Flinton Chalk – 111hz Cairn T Soundtrack

Mark

WARNING! THIS TRACK CONTAINS 111 HERTZ WHICH MAY INDUCE A STATE OF TRANCE PLEASE LISTEN RESPONSIBLY. The soundtrack to the Cairn T film and art installation composed and produced by Flinton Chalk (also of the band TC Lethbridge), performed by The Barrittones choir in the prehistoric chamber of Cairn T, Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland. 111 Hertz is the average resonant frequency of the Neolithic monuments archaeoacoustically tested by Cambridge University. Medical pilot trials to date have established that this frequency increases activity in the right prefrontal cortex of the human brain whist reducing activity in the left prefrontal cortex. In 1996, Cambridge University and Princeton University USA published the results of…

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