The Meteors 2010: Hanging Out Backstage and Such

I was lucky enough to get to head along to the Meteor Ireland Music Awards last Friday. It's hard to believe the show is now in it's 10th (!) year but there you go. It's fast become a key part of the Irish music calendar attracting lots of press and international stars. This year's heavy hitter was no doubt Florence and the Machine. Everybody was talking about her, in the backstage media area she made many stop and gawk while she rehearsed her soundcheck. She looked like a knock out too. The Temper Trap, Dizzee Rascal, Pixie Lott, The Script were all there too.





Thanks to IMTV I got to head down to the show and do some interviews and help the team out in nabbing as many celeb interviews as possible. The Orange Carpet was actually great fun. It was a tad stressful but I did like how polite everyone was. There was none of the shoving/elbow in the face drama I had been expecting! 


It was a bit weird seeing the array of local and international celebs (of varying degrees of fame) in the flesh. Many of them looked better than on the telly. I'm not going to go into the who looked best in what when it was covered with such wit on Stylebitches but I will say this: Grainne Seoige looked HOT. That is all.


The media room was totally different though, at times a bit of a nuthouse. Lots of "PIXIE ONLY HAS TWO INTERVIEWS SCHEDULED, PLEASE STEP AWAY" moments (I'm of course exaggerating, I don't envy PRs and their ridiculously tough jobs at all) and then loads of people who'd happily amble over for a chat. Wallis Bird was a good example, a real sweetheart and in obvious shock about having won again. 


I really enjoyed it I must say. The lovely Helen O' Reilly nabbed some interviews with the likes of The Coronas, Bell X1 and Una Healy of the Saturdays (at one point I thought they were going to go to the bathroom and do their makeup together, they were getting along that well!). Katie Smyth of Limehouse magazine, who is doing presenting work with IMTV, was hilarious too check out her interviews when they go up, she had me in stitches.


I was lucky enough to do some interviews too, starting off with Katherine Lynch on the Orange Carpet who I made a complete tool of myself in front of. Honestly, I thought I'd peaked when I started singing S Club 7 before the celebs arrived (I'm. Not . Joking) but that interview was even worse. Following that I had a chat with a few others. 


Ray Foley of Today FM, who won his category AGAIN (nice one) who was very sweet and seemed a bit nervous. 


Mark Feehily of Westlife was very polite but kept saying things and looking off into the middle distance. I.e. "Well, I would say to Jedward and them to just enjoy it because it went awful fast for us and we didn't really get to enjoy it like .." *middle distance gaze* I kept thinking I was going to have to pat him on the shoulder. It was odd.


Inside the interview bunker (as I've now christened it) I grabbed some face time with Michelle Heaton who was actually very nice. She came across like a real grafter and she obviously missed her days with Liberty X. Alphabeat were very polite and friendly and awfully beautiful (the cheekbones! honestly). Their new album is also AMAZING, just to point out. There was also a hilarious "interview" I did with Louis Walsh and Sinitta who were clearly out for a good time and not really a chat. Sinitta's legs are incredible, that was all I really took away from our brief time together.


There were other classy moments throughout the evening including eating too many mini sandwiches and indulging in antics like this with Blanaid Hennessy:

Overall I had a fantastic night and can't wait for the next one. The show itself was slick and enjoyable and I think all involved should be commended for keeping this show running for so long and with such success. And for not kicking me out for singing S Club on the orange carpet. How nice of them. And for letting me spend my Friday night getting up to this kind of carry on:

The videos will be going up over the course of the next few weeks but you can see the first of the interviews below where I have a natter with Alphabeat about Lady Gaga, DJing and the 90s sounds on their current album:





(photos nicked from Straywave CEO Stephen McCormack's iPhone snaps)

Marina and the Diamonds: Album Launch and Brief Encounter

At this stage I'm sure many of you have heard of Marina and the Diamonds, one of the 2010's most exciting musical prospects. Brainy, quirky pop with a powerful mix of mainstream appeal and individual charm it wouldn't surprise me if her album The Family Jewels became something of a chart behemoth this year.





A sure sign of the impact of Marina on her already wide group of fans, Dublin club night Listen | Love are holding an album launch tomorrow night (Thursday the 18th) at the Chocolate Bar in Tripod. Organised by fans for fans (old and new) it's a chance to hear a genuinely great new pop album in the rather lovely settings of the Chocolate Bar. There'll be two plays of the album, tunes selected by Marina herself (I've had a sneak peek and she's picked a typically interesting but rather good mix!) and plenty of guest DJs including the wonderful Joey Kavanagh and Eimear Fitzmaurice of Come As Soon As You Hear taking over duties in the Chocolate Bar post Marina album (expect more than a fair share of great remixes and hidden gems). 


Not only that but I'll kicking off things in Crawdaddy from 11pm with a bit of a DJ set, followed by other fab DJs including Rich JC of Supersuperdisco (who I'm playing with this Saturday, do come along!), Aine Macken of Áit Ait and Peter Fingleton of C U Next Tuesday. There is also a bucket load of cheap booze, lots of Marina goodies and a general air of all around mischief.

If all that weren't enough (you greedy sod) there is also this rather lovely promo that myself and Helen O'Reilly of IMTV shot with the lady herself last week in Dublin (with thanks to both Listen | Love and Warner Music Ireland for having us in). We only had Marina for a brief few minutes in a rather hectic press day. She was very polite, professional and seemed very focused. I caught her talking to her PR about her other interviews that day. She was gracious and friendly but also wary of interviewers trying to portray as something she wasn't. It was nice to see that the intelligence of Marina's music was more than evident in person. And all that and she is awful pretty too. You can't quite see it in the video but her outfit was pretty fierce also.


Anyway enough droning on, check out the video below and do say hello if you make it to Listen | Love tomorrow!