The 19th Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival 3 – 13 May 2018
F A Q C 1 SECTION HEAD
Contents and Foreword
Words & Ideas Theatre Comedy Music Sound & Vision
3 12 23 33 78
Visual Arts Special Events Artist in Residence At a Glance
84 92 97 98
The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival is one of Northern Ireland’s signature festivals. Drawing on the very best of local and international creative talent, it extends the range of excellent arts available to the public. It continues to be one of the major driving forces behind the transformation of the Cathedral Quarter into a vibrant arts quarter, and its success brings significant social, creative and economic benefits to the area and beyond. The Arts Council, as principal funder through our public and National Lottery funds, is proud to invest in the Festival and to support it in making this inspiring programme of events widely accessible to people of all backgrounds and circumstances. Roisin McDonough Chief Executive Arts Council of Northern Ireland
Booking Details
Buying Tickets The easiest way to obrtain tickets for the festival is online from www.cqaf.com. You will be able to print your tickets via any computer printer and there will be no handling charges. If you haven’t access to a printer, please bring your confirmation number. In Person Tickets can be purchased in person from the box office at the Visit Belfast Centre,9 Donegall Square North (opposite the Front of City Hall). Tel. 028 9024 6609, and at the International Airport from the Visit Belfast desk. Refunds The Festival can only refund money or exchange tickets in the case of a cancelled event.
Disabled Access The Festival aims to be as accessible as possible however a small number of venues used have restricted access. Please let us know your requirements when booking tickets. The festival offers 2 for the price of 1 in the case of a disabled attender requiring an assistant to attend an event. Please contact the box office to avail of this. Community/School Groups The Festival strives to develop new and first time arts attendee’s. If you would like your school or community group to attend, please contact Kathy Young (kathy@cqaf.com) to discuss opportunities for your group to attend. Mailing List If you would like to add, update or remove your contact details from the Festival mailing list, please email us at mailinglist@cqaf.com Age Restrictions in Venues Due to licensing laws, CQAF exercises a strict over 18s only policy in any venue that sells alcohol.
Golden Ticket Recommended for hardcore festival goers only. We’ve got a limited number of special passes offering access to all events (some exclusions may apply). Golden Tickets cost £100 and contribute to the ongoing development of the Festival. To book a Golden Ticket or for further info email kathy@cqaf.com. General Enquiries For any general enquiries relating to the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival or the Out to Lunch Festival, please contact Sean Kelly, CQAF, Unit 8, Northern Whig House, 3 Bridge St., Belfast, BT1 1LU. Tel: 028 90232403 E. sean@cqaf.com Festival Team Director: Sean Kelly Operations Manager: Kathy Young Press/Marketing: Joe Nawaz Production: Louise McElvanna, Barry Hollywood Programme Design: Tonic Design Website: Pauric McAnespy Management Committee: Noyona Chundur (Chair), Chris McCreery, Caroline Wilson, Ciara Hickey, Hilary Copeland.
S D R O W S A E D I &
Peggy Seeger Book Talk
The Black Box Saturday 5 May 2.00pm
Tickets £5.00 www.cqaf.com
Peggy Seeger is one of folk music’s most influential artists and songwriters. Born in New York City in 1935, she enjoyed a childhood steeped in music and left-wing politics – they remain her lifeblood. After college, she travelled to Russia and China – against US advice – before arriving in London, where she met the man with whom she would raise three children and share the next thirty-three years: Ewan MacColl. Together, they helped lay the foundations of the British folk revival, through the influential Critics Group and the landmark BBC Radio Ballads series. And as Ewan’s muse, she inspired one of the twentieth century’s most popular love songs, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. With a clear eye and generous spirit, Peggy writes of a rollercoaster life – of birth and abortion, sex and infidelity, devotion and betrayal – in a luminous, beautifully realised account.
6 WORDS & IDEAS
David Hepworth Uncommon People
The Dark Horse Saturday 5 May 5.00pm
Tickets £5.00 www.cqaf.com
David Hepworth has been writing about, broadcasting about and speaking about music since the 70s. He was involved in the launch and/or editing of magazines like Smash Hits, Q, Mojo and The Word among many others. He was one of the presenters of the BBC rock music programme Whistle Test and one of the anchors of the Corporation’s coverage of Live Aid in 1985. He has won the Editor of the Year and Writer of the Year awards from the Professional Publishers Association and the Mark Boxer Award from the British Society of Magazine Editors. In his most recent book is Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars, David Hepworth zeroes in on defining moments and turning points in the lives of forty rock stars from 1955 to 1995, taking us on a journey to burst a hundred myths and create a hundred more. As this tribe of uniquely motivated nobodies went about turning themselves into the ultimate somebodies, they also shaped us, our real lives and our fantasies. Uncommon People isn’t just their story. It’s ours as well.
7 WORDS & IDEAS
Paul Durcan
The Black Box Monday 7 May 1.00pm
Tickets £8.00 www.cqaf.com
Paul Durcan is one of the greatest living English language poets. He is a member of Aosdána, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Irish Book Award, and is known as Ireland’s most playful poet. A Paul Durcan public reading is like no other. Audiences come away drained and cleansed as if from a secular mass. He can be funnier than any stand-up, dramatic as many an actor, but once heard, the sotto voce incantatory style is never forgotten. His recent collection The Days of Surprise contains 67 poems on topics as disparate as the weather forecast, the war in Syria, a visit to the GP's surgery, the joys of retail therapy, clampers and the ‘starry mystique’ of the weather forecaster Jean Byrne. Perhaps the greatest surprise is the voice of the late Seamus Heaney coming down his chimney: ‘Are you all right down there, Poet Durcan?’ The Days of Surprise is proof that the great poet of contemporary Ireland is in fine fettle . ‘It was mesmerising and spellbinding and deeply affecting, each poem received in awed silence.’ – HERALD
8 WORDS & IDEAS
Liz Nugent
The Green Room (Black Box) Monday 7 May 7.30pm
Tickets £4.00 www.cqaf.com
Before becoming a full-time writer, Liz Nugent worked in Irish film, theatre and television. In 2014 her first novel, Unravelling Oliver, was a Number One bestseller and won the Crime Fiction Prize in the 2014 Irish Book Awards. Her second novel, Lying in Wait, went straight to Number One in the Irish bestseller charts, remained there for nearly two months and won her a second IBA. Tonight’s event marks the launch of third novel, Skin Deep which will be published by Penguin Books in the UK and Ireland in Spring 2018. Aside from writing, Liz has led workshops in writing drama for broadcast, she has produced and managed literary salons and curated the literary strand of Skibbereen Arts Festival in July 2016.
9 WORDS & IDEAS
Elizabeth Day
The Dark Horse Tuesday 8 May 7.30pm
Tickets £4.00 www.cqaf.com
Elizabeth Day is the author of Scissors, Paper, Stone, which won a Betty Trask Award, and Home Fires. She is an awardwinning journalist who has worked for the Evening Standard, The Sunday Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, and is now a feature writer for the Observer. She grew up in Northern Ireland, and currently lives in London. Elizabeth Day’s acclaimed new novel The Party is a taut psychological tale of obsession and betrayal set over the course of a dinner party. Two married couples, in a single evening, will come to question everything they thought they knew about each other, as the long-buried secret at the heart of their friendship comes to the surface, culminating in an explosive act of violence. ‘A terrifying, hilarious, brilliantly written original with a wit to die for ‘ - PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE, CREATOR OF FLEABAG ‘Witty, dark and compelling’ – SEBASTIAN FAULKS
10 WORDS & IDEAS
New Voices Annemarie Ní Churreáin with Wendy Erskine
The Green Room (Black Box) Thursday 10 May 7.30pm
Tickets £4.00 www.cqaf.com
Annemarie Ní Churreáin is a poet from North West Donegal. She has been awarded literary fellowships by Akademie Schloss Solitude (Germany), Jack Kerouac House (Orlando) and Hawthornden Castle (Scotland). In 2016 Ní Churreáin was the recipient of a Next Generation Artists Award from the Arts Council. In 2017, she was appointed to the Writer In Prisons Panel co-funded by the Arts Council & the Department of Justice and Equality. Ní Churreáin’s debut collection of poetry Bloodroot is published by Doire Press (2017) Wendy Erskine is from Belfast. Her short stories have appeared in The Stinging Fly and Female Lines: New Writing by Women from Northern Ireland. Her debut collection will be published by The Stinging Fly Press in 2018.
11 WORDS & IDEAS
Stuart Bailie Trouble Songs Book reading + live music from XSLF and DJ Terri Hooley
Oh Yeah Music Centre Friday 11 May 9.00pm
Tickets £5.00 www.cqaf.com
Trouble Songs is the story of music and conflict in Northern Ireland since 1968. It is told through the words of Bono, Christy Moore, The Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers, Orbital, Kevin Rowland, Terri Hooley and The Miami Showband survivors. They tell how musicians from punk, folk, rave and rock have responded to violence, bigotry and shocking events. The soundtrack includes remarkable work by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Sinead O’ Connor, The Pogues, The Cranberries and Elvis Costello. Stuart Bailie, the Belfast-based music journalist and broadcaster, has conducted over 60 interviews and reveals many untold histories. Trouble Songs is a testament to music’s value as a persuader, agitator and peacemaker. XSLF features Henry Cluney, Jim Reilly and Ave Tsarion. Expect to hear Barbed Wire Love, Nobody's Hero and Alternative Ulster along with new tracks from their album Arrup Bang.
12 WORDS & IDEAS
Will Carruthers
The Green Room (Black Box) Saturday 12 May 1.00pm
Tickets £4.00 www.cqaf.com
Author Will Carruthers comes to CQAF with tales of his chequered career, which has frequently veered from the sublime to the ridiculous and rarely lacking a sense of humour about the whole thing. Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands tells the story of one of the most influential, revered and ultimately demented British bands of the 1980s, Spacemen 3. In classic rock ‘n’ roll style they split up on the brink of their major breakthrough. As the decade turned sour and acid house hit the news, Rugby’s finest imploded spectacularly, with Jason Pierce (aka Jason Spaceman) and Pete Kember (aka Sonic Boom) going their separate ways. Here, Will Carruthers tells the whole sorry story and the segue into Spiritualized in one of the funniest and most memorable memoirs committed to the page.
13 WORDS & IDEAS
E R T A E TH
It’s Getting Harder and Harder for Me
The MAC (Upstairs) Thursday 3 & Friday 4 May 8.00pm
Tickets £12.50 www.cqaf.com
We are fizzing and popping. We cannot survive on beers alone. We cannot survive static. I want to be galactic. Ormeau Bridge, Belfast, on a Friday evening. It’s hard to keep going and these women are on the edge. It’s Getting Harder and Harder for Me builds and unravels to tell the interwoven stories of three women living on Ormeau Road. The show premiered at Dublin Fringe 2017 with a sold-out run. It's a bold and exciting production exploring contemporary & social issues. ‘powerful, moving and funny female performances.’ - IRISH TIMES
15 THEATRE
Palmyra
The MAC (Upstairs) Saturday 5 May 8.00pm
Tickets £12.50 www.cqaf.com
Palmyra is an exploration of revenge, the politics of destruction and what we consider to be barbaric, inviting people to step back from the news and look at what lies beneath, and beyond, civilization. A challenging and contemporary piece that focuses on the broader issues emerging from Syria. Palmyra was named number three in the Guardian top 10 theatre shows of 2017. Following an extended, unanimously-acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Fringe, and touring Spain with Best of BE 2017, Bert & Nasi’s Total Theatre Award-winning, “weird, wonderful and strangely stressful” piece (The Stage), Palmyra arrives at the MAC this May as part of CQAF. ‘It could be seen as a show about the West's inability to take action in Syria, but equally read as a metaphor for a personal relationship breakdown. Viciously funny.’ - LYN GARDNER
16 THEATRE
Sylvia Plath, Your Words Are Just Dust
The Black Box Monday 7 May 4.00pm
Tickets £8.00 www.cqaf.com
Fifty five years since her tragic death, aged just 30, Sylvia Plath continues to haunt our culture like a mythical, glamourised icon. Delving into the world of harrowing poet, Sylvia Plath, this debut one-woman show beckons to life the dark and daring confessions of Plath in a bewitching piece of new writing. Experience the chapters of life that the feminist icon wrote about; from the agony of grief and ecstasy of love, to the never ceasing shadow of depression. An intense and intimate performance written in captivating verse and inspired by the personal pains Plath breathed onto paper. Having gained several 5 star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival is delighted to present this Irish premiere. ‘Its poetic authenticity creates a fiercely intense piece of new writing.’- BROADWAY BABY ‘Captures the troubled mind and fractured heart of Sylvia Plath with passion and pathos: a short, sharp shocking piece of literary drama.’ – EDINBURGH GUIDE
17 THEATRE
Your Turn
Sunflower Public House Tuesday 8 & Wednesday 9 May 8.00pm
Tickets £8.00 www.cqaf.com
A riotous new comedy makes its premiere at CQAF this year. Every parent will know when it's your turn, it's your turn, except when it isn't... Relationships, stand-up, and how not to dispose of nappies all feature as a couple wake up to the reality of parenthood. Penned by Gerard Brennan, who co-wrote The Sweety Bottle with his father, Joe, the first play to transfer from The Baby Grand to the main stage at The Grand Opera House.
18 THEATRE
Hubert and the Yes Sock
The MAC (Upstairs) Tuesday 8 May 8.00pm Wednesday 9 May 6.00pm & 8.00pm
Tickets £12.00/£10.00 www.cqaf.com
Hubert Caulfield leads a solitary life. Overlooked at work, friendless, and unlucky in love. He is desperate for a change and to fit in. Could a mysterious confidence-giving sock be the answer to all his problems? Tinderbox provides the invaluable opportunity for local artists to create and develop their own ideas through our Take Away Theatre programme and we are delighted to present Hubert and Yes Sock by the brilliant Dan Leith as part of CQAF 2018. Come and celebrate being different with Hubert and the Yes Sock….
Take Away Theatre Bite-sized theatre with super-sized stories. Director: Patrick J O’Reilly Producers: Erika Clark and Jen Shepherd Writer/Performer: Dan Leith Performer: Keith Singleton
19 THEATRE
Mary Ann McCracken
First Presbyterian Church, Rosemary St. Thursday 10 May 7.30pm
Tickets £8.00 www.cqaf.com
A musical narrative telling the life-story of Mary Ann McCracken, social reformer and unsung heroine of the 1798 Rising. Local folk-singers Jane Cassidy and Maurice Leyden present a dramatic account of Mary Ann’s life and times, weaving letters and historical detail with related folk-songs, bringing both to life. Accomplished singers and broadcasters, Jane and Maurice narrate, sing, play guitar & keyboard and are accompanied on uilleann pipes, whistles and bouzouki by Jaff Píobaire. First performed at the Belfast Folk Festival in the 1980s, the play has been performed regularly in arts venues ever since, such is the appeal of Mary Ann’s story and the beautiful folk songs which illuminate it. ‘This was a most rewarding couple of hours during which the audience were both informed and entertained. The music was superbly relevant.’ – BELFAST TELEGRAPH
20 THEATRE
The Lisa and John Slideshow
The MAC (Upstairs) Thursday 10 May 7.00pm
Tickets £8.00 www.cqaf.com
The Lisa and John Slideshow tells the story of a now divorced couple interacting with an archive of photographs taken by David Moore, documenting their family between 1987 and 1988. Accompanying the exhibition entitled Lisa and John at Belfast Exposed, this deeply moving and powerful performance sheds light upon the ways in which photographs and in particular family archives both hold and question the nature of memories, stories and emotions. Using actors to perform, the verbatim script has been created using transcripts of conversations with Lisa and John as they select and speak about their own selection of images from Moore’s archive.
21 THEATRE
Quartered
Meet at the Dark Horse Friday 11 & Saturday 12 May 4:00pm, 4:30pm, 5:00pm, 5:30pm, 6:00pm 6:30pm
Tickets £8.00/£5.00 www.cqaf.com
Funny, poignant and deeply human; Quartered: Belfast, A Love Story is an audio theatre walking tour that lets you see the city from a different perspective, making familiar streets seem brand new and allowing you to experience another side to Belfast. Exploring the LGBTQ+ experience of Belfast, it opens a new conversation about how gender and sexuality inform and shape how we move through our city, and how our city moves through us. What is the LGBTQ+ experience of Belfast? When the boundaries between quarters are drawn, who holds the pen? How much power do we give ourselves to shape the city we live in? Written by Dominic Montague, directed by Paula McFetridge and voiced by Neil Keery. ‘I found Quartered to be a moving piece of promenade theatre, forcing me to look up from my own horizons to see Belfast as the canvass, the set, and listen to someone else’s story… a triumph’ – ALAN IN BELFAST
22 THEATRE
Women Troubles
The American Bar, Dock St. Saturday 12 & Sunday 13 May 8.00pm
Tickets £10.00 www.cqaf.com
Women Troubles is a hilarious look at 3 girls trying to ‘make it’ in the toughest industry in the world, the Arts. Women Troubles is a new play written and performed by actors Siobhan Kelly, Clare McMahon and Maria Quinn. It is a story about growing up female from age 13-30, performed in a physical, fast paced style with minimal set. It explores first love, first heartache, GCSEs, unplanned pregnancy, sexual harassment, deciding to be an actor, going to drama school and everything in between.
23 THEATRE
Helen Hall Inside the Speaker
The MAC (Upstairs) Sunday 13 May 7.00pm & 8.30pm
Tickets £8.00 www.cqaf.com
Inside the Speaker will take you on a journey of the senses. It invites you to step inside the speaker to experience dance and music differently and it welcomes you to the world of the speaker, partially sighted dancer and choreographer Helen Hall. This acclaimed dance piece invites us to explore what we see and what we sense when watching dance, what dance is and what it means to dance. An intimate, beautiful and provocative solo performance which will challenge the way you experience the world.
24 THEATRE
Y D E M O C
Joanne McNally Bite Me
The Green Room (Black Box) Thursday 3 May 1.00pm
Tickets £7.00 www.cqaf.com
Bite Me was postponed in our Out to Lunch Festival when Joanne made her way to the Black Box – in Galway! With Sat Nav co-ordinates duly reset, finally, we bring you – BITE ME. This is the story of Joanne’s amaaaaaaazing diet. She didn’t just lose weight though; she lost jobs, friends and fellas, but she didn’t care because she could wear bangles as belts and that’s all that mattered. Then one day, over her morning carrot, Joanne realized she’d lost her mind. Trying to entice it back became the hardest, funniest, greatest and weirdest time of her life. A major hit at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, we are delighted to present this thought-provoking comedy show. ‘Brazen, bold and beautiful, the sky’s the limit for Joanne McNally’ – IRISH MIRROR
26 COMEDY
Shazia Mirza With Love from St. Tropez
The MAC (Upstairs) Monday 7 May 8.00pm
Tickets £10.00 www.cqaf.com
Following her critically acclaimed, sell-out international tour with The Kardashians Made Me Do It, Shazia Mirza brings her brand new stand-up show to The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. ‘A show about lies and truth - or is that the same thing? Nudity and The Periodic Table, these things hold the key to the future. How much do you wear? What do you look like, and will they let you in? Oh, and don't you dare wear more than dental floss on a French beach'. Recent TV appearances include The Jonathan Ross Show (ITV), Graham Norton (BBC) and Loose Women (ITV). Shazia appeared on Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls in 2017 on Channel 4. ‘Mirza has stepped up a gear… the bravest thing you’ll see on a comedy stage this year... a remarkable finale’ - SUNDAY TIMES
27 COMEDY
Scott Capurro
McHugh’s Monday 7 May 8.00pm
Tickets £10.00 www.cqaf.com
Camp and outrageous, provocative and controversial, catty and hysterical, Scott Capurro is a breath of fresh air in the increasingly samey and stale world of stand-up. Constantly operating on the boundaries of good taste - and often straying some way over the line - Scott is a challenging comedian in the best sense of the word. This San Franciscan comedian has become a favourite on the UK circuit in the last few years, a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe and has appeared in several films such as Mrs Doubtfire. He delivers brutally honest, funny descriptions of life as a gay man in an all American family. Not for the delicate! ‘... enthralling... electric... deliciously catty.’ - THE SCOTSMAN ‘Comic equation: Larry Grayson x (Lenny Bruce + Chris Rock) = Scott Capurro’ – THE GUARDIAN
28 COMEDY
Rob Newman’s Total Eclipse of Descartes
The Black Box Tuesday 8 May 8.00pm
Tickets £12.00/£10.00 www.cqaf.com
In a world gone crazy, can philosophy help? This sparklingly brilliant new show tries to give you the answer. Rob Newman (stand up legend, best-selling novelist, Radio 4 Sony Award Winner) attempts to piece together a philosophy for our troubled times by sifting through 3000 years of thought: from Pythagoras to Artificial Intelligence by way of Pavlov’s dogs, Jane Goodall’s chimpanzees and Frankie Howerd’s trousers. ‘I am completely in awe of Robert Newman. Of his talent, his passion, his intelligence, and the way he turns them to comedy with real firepower. If this world could be saved by a Superhero whose Superpower was Comedy, that hero would be Robert Newman.’ - KATE COPSTICK, SCOTSMAN ‘He is the funniest comedian I have ever seen…A passionate, chaotically brilliant comedian.’ – SUNDAY TIMES
29 COMEDY
Bridget Christie What Now?
Festival Marquee Wednesday 9 May 8.00pm
Tickets £15.00 www.cqaf.com
Brexit. Trump. Nuclear apocalypse. Environmental catastrophe. Is rolling news affecting your ability to enjoy the simple things? Like baking, gardening and autoerotic asphyxiation? This new show from multi-award winning member of the Metropolitan Liberal Elite, and star of her own Netflix special, is for you. Join Bridget (Room 101, Have I Got News for You, Harry Hill’s Alien Fun Capsule) for a night of hope and despair. Winner of Rose D’Or, Edinburgh Comedy Award and Southbank Sky Arts Award. Bridget’s last show was The Guardian’s No 1 Comedy of 2016. ‘A masterclass’ - GUARDIAN ‘Superb’ - TELEGRAPH
30 COMEDY
Ayesha Hazarika State of the Nation - Politics, power and how we lost the plot
The MAC (Upstairs) Friday 11 May 8.00pm
Tickets £10.00 www.cqaf.com
Ayesha Hazarika, MBE, started her career as a stand-up comedian playing clubs across the country. She then took what she thought was a natural diversion into the Labour Party as a Special Adviser working for Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband. Since leaving front line politics she’s become a much sought-after commentator writing for the FT, Guardian, Evening Standard, New Statesman and Grazia. Ayesha has also returned to her stand-up roots. Her one-woman show Tales from the Pink Bus was a sell-out hit at the Edinburgh Festival and she's been in huge demand on TV and radio including regular appearances on Good Morning Britain (ITV), Sky Papers (Sky News), The Andrew Marr Show (BBC1), and Newsnight (BBC2). Ayesha lifts the lid on what life’s really like behind the scenes at Westminster with brutal honesty and humour and asks what's next for British politics. ‘Hazarika is terrific company - relaxed, mischievous and with a mind like a steel trap…go and see what she has to say.’ - THE SCOTSMAN
31 COMEDY
Sarah Kendall One-Seventeen
The MAC (Upstairs) Saturday 12 May 8.00pm
Tickets £10.00 www.cqaf.com
Nominated twice for the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show and Total Fringe Sell Out 2015, 2016, 2017. Sarah Kendall embarks on a UK tour with her latest show OneSeventeen. A blistering hour of storytelling from the creator and star of the hit BBC Radio 4 series Australian Trilogy. ‘She’ll make you laugh, she’ll make you think. And as you leave the theatre and walk out under the stars Kendall’s stories will still be running around in your head.’ - SCOTSMAN
‘Phenomenal storytelling, engagingly performed with a disarming lack of ego, funny and soulful by turns, this is comedy that restores your sense of wonder.’ - CHORTLE Age Recommendation 14+ May contain strong language and adult themes.
32 COMEDY
Rob Auton The Hair Show
Sunflower Public House Sunday 13 May 6.00pm
Tickets £7.00 www.cqaf.com
A show for anyone who has, or has had, hair and hairs. Award winning stand-up comedian and poet Rob Auton (Dave’s Funniest Joke Of The Fringe award winner, Glastonbury’s ‘Poet In Residence’) returns with another heart-felt and offbeat comedy/theatre/spoken word show that explores hair and hairs. Rob casts an introspective eye over the world of hair, underpinned by leaving his head hair and beard to their own devices until he has performed The Hair Show for the final time. Join Rob as he explores the importance of appearance and how people react to someone who looks like he has checked out. For the past five years Rob has used his command of words and distinctive unconventional humour to explore seemingly mundane subjects: sleep, water, faces, the sky and the colour yellow. These shows have given rise to a cult status at the Fringe. ‘A genuine original.’ - THE GUARDIAN ‘One of my absolute favourites.’ - DANIEL KITSON
33 COMEDY
Luisa Omielan Politics for Bitches (Preview)
The Black Box Sunday 13 May 7.30pm
Tickets £10.00 www.cqaf.com
Currently filming her BBC3 series of the same name, comedy phenomenon Luisa Omielan (What Would Beyonce Do?! and Am I Right Ladies?!) is back with her third stand up instalment. In her own words; 'I believe it is my right to have an opinion on something I know absolutely nothing about!' It’s time to wake up and start caring. Welcome to Politics for Bitches. As seen on BBC 1, Live at the Apollo, Thigh Gap joke (45 million views) and host of Comic Relief. 'The comedian British women have been waiting for ' - HUFFINGTON POST
34 COMEDY
C I S MU
The London African Gospel Choir perform Graceland
Festival Marquee Thursday 3 May 8.00pm
Tickets £15.00 www.cqaf.com
Try as you might, you simply cannot get a ticket to see this uplifting & amazing show in London. Every venue that puts tickets on sale, sells out in an instant. Thirty years after its release, 17 members of the London African Gospel Choir, backed the LAGC’s excellent band, perform their own powerful twist on Paul Simon’s Graceland album delivering the Simon’s masterpiece from start to finish. In the early 80s, Paul Simon was totally smitten by the infectious and irresistible rhythms of Township music. He travelled to Johannesburg recording with the absolute cream of South African musicians. The resulting album Graceland became a true global phenomenon and spawned the hit singles, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, The Boy in the Bubble and it’s biggest smash – You Can Call Me Al. The Choir’s rhythmic, evocative and empowering, voices have created an overwhelming musical event, we bring you… Graceland.
36 MUSIC
Barrence Whitfield and The Savages
The Black Box Thursday 3 May 8.00pm
Tickets £12.00 www.cqaf.com
A human thermonuclear device with more than a hint of demonic possession, Barrence Whitfield is the ultra-hard hitting front man of one of the most frenetic, wild and generally insane bands in the history of the world. Combining the energy of classic Little Richard with the vocal style of Wilson Pickett and Solomon Burke, Barrence and partners produce soul garage punk in a way that noone else has ever come close to. Raucous, manic, mesmerising, spellbindingly brilliant and above all else utterly unforgettable. ‘Whitfield and the Savages never let up, pummelling your heart and your eardrums with some of the rawest soul to come along since Pickett and Redding. It's a welcome assault, as soothing as it is savage, and long overdue.’ - NO DEPRESSION
‘Whitfield and his band are one of those rare groups whose latter-day post-reunion work sounds just as good as their first go-round.’ - POPMATTERS
37 MUSIC
Seamus Fogarty + support from Arborist
McHugh’s Thursday 3 May 8.00pm
Tickets £8.00 www.cqaf.com
One of the albums of 2017 for us was Irish alt-folk and electronica alchemist Seamus Fogarty’s truly magnificent second album and Domino Records debut The Curious Hand. Produced by Seamus and Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Wild Beasts), The Curious Hand elevates Fogarty into another bracket of artists doing fascinatingly skewed and modern and heartfelt things with roots-influenced and electronic music. He’s an evocative and thoughtful lyricist and melodicist as well as an inquisitive sonic explorer. For fans of Alasdair Roberts, Will Oldham and Kieran Hebden. Arborist’s debut album Home Burial has been lauded by some of the music industry’s biggest publications. Mojo music magazine gave the album 4/5 stars describing it as ‘a staggering debut of depth and substance‘. Led by singer–song writer Mark McCambridge the style could best be described as slow, smooth, melancholic Americana.
38 MUSIC
In association with Sunflower Folk Club
Sarah McQuaid
Sunflower Public House Thursday 3 May 8.00pm
Tickets £8.00 www.cqaf.com
Mellow, relaxed and sometimes haunting all describe Sarah’s singing and playing style. Accompanied by her beautiful custom-made guitar, the richness of her vocals is striking. Sarah’s music includes traces of folk, jazz, traditional, contemporary, classical and even medieval influences. Sarah’s fifth album If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous was produced by cult guitar great Michael Chapman. A staunch champion of Sarah’s, Chapman has given her his Ibanez electric guitar on long-term loan and it features on several tracks on the album, which also sees Sarah playing piano, high-strung Stratocaster and her own 1965 Martin D28 and custom-made Andy Manson acoustic guitars. The emphasis this time round is very much on Sarah’s superb writing and delivery, plus arrangements for guitar and voice of the medieval chant Dies Irae and Jeff Wayne’s classic Forever Autumn. ‘One voice, one guitar, and the wondrous reminder of the magic of music. Sarah has the gift.’ - THE HUFFINGTON POST
39 MUSIC
Asian Dub Foundation ‘La Haine’ Live Soundtrack
The Black Box Friday 4 May 8.00pm
Tickets £15.00 www.cqaf.com
Asian Dub Foundation come to CQAF with their live accompaniment to a screening of cult classic La Haine. The 1995 film follows twenty-four hours in the lives of three friends living in the volatile Paris banlieues, as riots break out following the death of a man at the hands of French police. While Asian Dub Foundation started out as a London musical project aimed at teaching Asian children the fundamentals of music technology, they quickly gained recognition as a stand-out live act, gaining widespread critical acclaim for their studio releases. This unique live show brings together a screening of the iconic film and a reimagined soundtrack by the accomplished ADF, leading audiences through a powerful journey into the intense world of the 1990s Parisian suburbs.
40 MUSIC
The Go! Team + support The Correspondents
Festival Marquee Friday 4 May 8.00pm
Tickets £15.00 www.cqaf.com
The Go! Team bust onto the scene in 2004 with their universally praised debut, Thunder, Lightning, Strike, a homebrewed collage of meticulously chosen samples and trashy live instruments assembled brilliantly by Go! Team founder Ian Parton. The Go! Team have always been cheerleaders for a better world – an outpouring of collective joy in the face of smallmindedness and dismal careerism. They rejoice in the unifying urges and the chance encounters between cultures that lead to something new. They’re a band who still have faith in the power of music to make things better. Now more than ever, we need The Go! Team. With brand new album Semicircle released earlier this year and picking up rave notices, The Go! Team are once again on the move. A guaranteed festival highlight. The Correspondents consist of a singer Mr Bruce and a producer Chucks. Both growing up in South London, they formed in 2007 and within two years had taken their hioctane genre-blending dance music from house parties to festival main stages.
41 MUSIC
Oh Pep!
Sunflower Public House Friday 4 May 8.00pm
Tickets £7.00 www.cqaf.com
Prep your ears for sometimes foot-stomping, somewhat heart-breaking original contemporary folk from Melbourne. The ‘Oh’ is Olivia Hally (guitar, vocals) and the ‘Pep’ is Pepita Emmerichs (fiddle, mandolin), two prodigiously talented young 20-somethings who met as jazz and classical music students at the Victorian College Of The Arts. They found themselves kindred spirits, drawn together by a shared love of traditional music. The common favourites that brought them together were Gillian Welch, Johnny Cash, and bluegrass – all influences that speckle the music they make today. The songs on their new album Stadium Cake range seamlessly from emotionally sumptuous to kitchen party, anchored by Hally’s candied-ginger voice — sweetness that masks quite a kick — and rhymes to match. There are great vocals here, stunning harmonies that make you pay attention. There’s also a bit of the off-beat, the singular, reasons why they’re already racking up nominations and awards.
42 MUSIC
In association with Real Music Club
Mary Gauthier
Waterfront Studio Saturday 5 May 2.00pm
Tickets £16.00 www.cqaf.com
A Louisiana-native turned Nashville-resident, Mary Gauthier has led an extraordinary life. A teenage runaway who found her first shelter among addicts and drag queens, struggled with drug addiction and became a chef/owner of three restaurants in Boston before selling them in 2001 to become a full time songwriter. Mary’s songs have been praised by both Bob Dylan and Tom Waits and recorded by the likes of Jimmy Buffett, Blake Shelton, Boy George, Tim McGraw and Candi Staton. Today’s Festival show will feature songs from Mary’s new album Rifles and Rosary Beads, possibly her most important, and best, work to date.
43 MUSIC
Kimmie Rhodes Radio Dreams Tour
Waterfront Studio Saturday 5 May 8.00pm
Tickets £12.00 www.cqaf.com
Radio Dreams is a 'duet memoir' which invites readers into the unique and private world of platinum-selling songwriter and recording artist Kimmie Rhodes and her deceased soul mate, beloved radio personality Joe Gracey, Jr. Weaving her own poetic prose with wry and witty words from his journals, Rhodes returns him to the conversation to tell the fascinating story of their three decades together. Riding with fellow outlaws Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Emmylou Harris, and other famous and infamous characters, they helped make American music history before facing Gracey’s final cancer battle. Through triumph and tragedy, grief and gratitude, these pages express the extraordinary life and inspiring love they shared. We’re delighted to welcome BBC Radio Ulster’s Ralph McLean and Kimmie to a special “In Conversation With” show where, no doubt, a few songs will also be forthcoming.
44 MUSIC
In association with Strange Victory
Peter Perrett
The Black Box Saturday 5 May 8.00pm
Tickets £15.00 www.cqaf.com
When Peter Perrett's band The Only Ones exploded onto the late 70s post punk scene with the glorious sucker punch of debut single Lovers of Today, the impact was immediate and enduring. A string of stunning singles (including instant classic Another Girl, Another Planet) followed, before, as the legend goes, The Only Ones disintegrated in a tsunami of drugs and acrimony. But now, one of rock n roll's great survivors (and the man whom Johnny Thunder's once begged to "take it easy") isn't just clean, he's also gone and released the album of his career. Last year's How the West Was Won, isn't merely a return to form; it's a tour de force of the scabrous wit and uncanny ear for melody that's remained with Perrett, even in his darkest days. You just can't keep a good musical legend down... ‘Surpasses even his former band’s legacy.’ - THE QUIETUS ‘Perrett has pulled off something genuinely remarkable here, an astonishing twist to his story.’ - GUARDIAN
45 MUSIC
Ciara O’Neill
The Belfast Barge Saturday 5 May 8.00pm
Tickets £10.00/£8.00 (BYO) www.cqaf.com
Ciara O’Neill is one of Northern Ireland’s best loved artists and CQAF is delighted to launch her eagerly awaited second album Arrow. Conceived during a creatively fertile period while travelling back and forth to Nashville TN and produced by Michael Mormecha in Lisburn’s Milbank Studios, Arrow skilfully sidesteps that all too difficult “second album syndrome,” and showcases a songwriter at the peak of her powers. Comprising of ten alternative folk-tinged tales, it features lots of light and shade and explores themes of loneliness, lost love, anxiety and the dark side of social media while also offering encouragement, comfort and catharsis.
46 MUSIC
Nightmares on Wax
Festival Marquee Saturday 5 May 8.00pm
Tickets £15.00 www.cqaf.com
Iconic Warp mainstay Nightmares on Wax announced his long-anticipated return in January with new album Shape The Future. The marriage of soul, hip-hop, dub and timeless club sounds that N.O.W. has been mutating and perfecting for years finds perhaps its most fluid form yet on Shape The Future. Energized by globetrotting runs of studio sessions and DJ sets, this latest salvo is a masterpiece of contemporary and classic genre-blending that solidifies Nightmares On Wax’s place as an inspirational electronic music figurehead. Nightmares on Wax is one of the most influential artists of a generation, his music has inspired many musicians and producers across the globe over his quarter decade career. As Warp’s longest serving active artist, he has broadened the sound of the label and paved the way for artists such as Flying Lotus, Hudson Mohawke and Mount Kimbie.
47 MUSIC
Strange Victory & CQAF present
Jeffrey Lewis
The Black Box Sunday 6 May 2.00pm
Tickets £10.00 www.cqaf.com
Acclaimed indie-rock songwriter Jeffrey Lewis began recording homemade cassettes at home in New York City in 1998, before coming to the attention of Rough Trade Records and releasing his first album in 2001. Now with seven official albums on Rough Trade, Jeffrey Lewis has toured the world and developed a devoted following from Los Angeles to London, Chicago to Shanghai and beyond. Jeffrey is also a celebrated comic book writer/artist and includes his own illustrations in live concerts to accompany certain songs (like The History of Communism or The Creeping Brain). Jeffrey’s most recent release is Works by Tuli Kupferberg (1923-2010), Interpreted by Jeffrey Lewis & The Deposit Returners, out worldwide in 2018. ‘Ramshackle and beautiful noise… Lou Reed’s natural successor as punk poet of the New York streets’ – LOUDER THAN WAR
‘Really great and impressive and inspiring and exciting... There's not a lot of people that can tell a story and use language like that in music.’ – WILL OLDHAM
48 MUSIC
!!! (Chk Chk Chk)
The Black Box Sunday 6 May 8.00pm
Tickets £16.00 www.cqaf.com
We’re beyond excited that New York based dance-punks !!! (Chk Chk Chk) are set to make their Belfast debut at CQAF - and in the Black Box no less! Joining the welcome re-emergence of mid-00s alt-dance this year, including contemporaries LCD Soundsystem, the announcement comes after the release of their seventh studio album, Shake The Shudder, which came out in May. The album harks back to their punk roots, blurring the boundaries between genres, incorporating elements of high energy disco and European electronica, yet lyrically leans towards the self-reflective as opposed to the political, as we see on previous offerings. This will be sweaty and magnificent and a guaranteed sell out show.
49 MUSIC
Jimmy Webb
Festival Marquee Sunday 6 May 8.00pm
Tickets £20.00 www.cqaf.com
A true living legend of songwriting, Jimmy Webb has been crafting amazing songs, many of which have become cherished standards, for some forty years. And he’s still doing it. Now on tour with his newest album, Still Within the Sound of My Voice Jimmy Webb is engaging his audiences like never before. Though some might still not know his name, they know the songs: Wichita Lineman, By The Time I Get To Phoenix, Galveston, The Moon’s A Harsh Mistress, All I Know, The Highwayman, Up, Up and Away, MacArthur Park, and many more. And those are just the famous ones. Webb is one of those rare songwriters who manages to bring a genuine measure of magic to everything he touches. ‘People ask why nobody writes songs like they used to. Fortunately for us all, Jimmy Webb still does.’ - AMERICAN SONGWRITER MAGAZINE
50 MUSIC
The Blasters + support by The Sabrejets
Oh Yeah Music Centre Sunday 6 May 8.00pm
Tickets £14.00/£12.00 www.cqaf.com
The Blasters exemplify the best traditions of American music, performing with passion and honesty that for over three decades has won the hearts and souls of fans worldwide. Composed of founding members vocalist-guitarist Phil Alvin, drummer Bill Bateman and bassist John Bazz with Keith Wyatt on guitar, they carry on a hard-won legacy as one of the most recognizable and credible bands in American Music. Their influences range from the likes of George Jones and Carl Perkins to Ike Turner, Howlin’ Wolf, James Brown and Big Joe Turner, all blending into a sound that ignores the lines between Rock & Roll, Country, Blues and Rockabilly. Fun On Saturday Night (Rip Cat Records) is the Blasters' sixth and latest studio album. Fronted by Phil Alvin's powerful vocals, the band follows through with spontaneity, power and grit that make their live performances into experiences not to be missed.
51 MUSIC
Moving on Music in association with CQAF present
The MAC (Upstairs) Sunday 6 May 8.00pm
Tickets £14.00/£10.00 www.cqaf.com
Ingrid Laubrock’s Anti-House 4 Ingrid Laubrock: tenor and soprano saxophones, Mary Halvorson: guitar, Kris Davis: piano, Tom Rainey: drums Jazz will always retain its capacity to surprise as long as groups like Ingrid Laubrock's Anti-House 4 are performing and recording. Laubrock, Davis, Halvorson and Rainey are among the most sought after creative musicians on the NY scene today. This group's quicksilver-like and imaginative blend of strong individual voices with Laubrock's compositions makes for a thrilling live show. This is music that is both relentless and essential, and refuses to look back. We are delighted to welcome Ingrid Laubrock’s Anti-House 4 to the UK and Ireland for the very first time. ‘Her sponge-like imagination seems boundless. An absorbing trip through an aural hall of mirrors.’ - CHICAGO READER
‘Fresh ideas and inspiration.’ - THE GUARDIAN ‘A cascade of gritty beauty.’ - ALL ABOUT JAZZ
52 MUSIC
Strange Victory and CQAF present
Michael Nau + support Robyn G Shiels
McHugh’s Sunday 6 May 6.00pm
Tickets £7.00 www.cqaf.com
Michael Nau is a musician from rural Maryland who, with his playfulness and tendency to jump from one style to another, brings to mind eccentric Seventies songwriters such as Harry Nilsson and Tim Buckley. Nau’s acclaimed new album, Some Twist was released in June on Suicide Squeeze and is the follow up to 2016's brilliant collection Mowing. He has received extensive BBC radio play and been selected as a 6 Music Recommends pick. One-off single Love Survive cracked the Top 50 on Spotify's Global Viral Chart. The first single from Some Twist, Good Thing, debuted via The FADER. Bright piano and fingerpicked guitar weave together throughout the song with a chorus that swells with feedback fuzz and crashing percussion. Nau’s everpresent sense of humour, one of the hallmarks of his songwriting, gives the song a wry sense of purpose amidst its reflection. ‘His masterful instinct for arrangement, along with his reedy voice, earns Nau a place in the rock’n’roll underdogs’ Hall of Fame’ – PITCHFORK
53 MUSIC
In association with Superfly Soul and Funk Club
Smoove & Turrell + The Organauts and DJ’s Gazfunk & Pete Brady
The Belfast Barge Sunday 6 May 7.00pm
Tickets £20.00 (BYO) www.cqaf.com
Smoove & Turrell came about by the joining of forces between DJ/ Producer Smoove and singer John Turrell. A chance introduction and a plan to do one record together quickly grew into a band that has played massive festival stages worldwide and become one of the UK’s most loved soul acts. It’s through their dedication to live performance that Smoove & Turrell have really built solid foundations though. Playing at some of the biggest festivals in the UK and Europe plus support slots with the likes of Nile Rodgers and Charles Bradley, and worldwide tours in 2015, 2016 and 2017 that has allowed the band to gain a huge and dedicated fan base that only hard work can deliver. With new album Mount Pleasant, Smoove & Turrell have cemented their position as one of the UK’s most exceptional soul acts with their innate ability to deliver hard times social commentary in a dancefloor friendly medium. ‘To say Smoove & Turrell are the greatest modern Soul act to emerge from the UK would be an epic understatement!’ – CRAIG CHARLES (BBC 6 MUSIC)
54 MUSIC
The Deep Dark Woods + support from Kacy and Clayton
The Black Box Monday 7 May 8.00pm
Tickets £8.00 www.cqaf.com
The Deep Dark Woods’ newest album was borne in a fever – scarlet fever, to be medically specific. A disease of the last century is a fitting backdrop for songs that dig bare handed into the loam to unearth the corpses of old English folk and country blues. Yarrow is Deep Dark Woods reimagined by leadman Ryan Boldt . With Appalachian soil under his fingernails, Boldt writes in a deep tradition of bleak and forlorn storytelling, drawing lines from Ireland to Tennessee, the Oxford Girl to Folsom Prison. The music of Kacy and Clayton (Canada) exists outside of time, and burgeons with beautiful contradictions. It’s psychedelic and traditional, contemporary and vintage, melancholic and joyous. All at once, it showcases a slightly psych-folk sound of Linda Perhacs, Fleet Foxes, and First Aid Kit; rare country blues records and English folk tunes; and 1920s disaster songs and murder ballads.
55 MUSIC
Camille O’Sullivan The Carny Dream
Festival Marquee Monday 7 May 8.00pm
Tickets £15.00 www.cqaf.com
Be drawn into a world of dark, light, circus and dreams as Camille O’Sullivan performs her intensely dramatic interpretations of the songs of Brel, Cave, Radiohead, Bowie and more. In 2017 the singer took The Carny Dream show across the UK, selling out the Union Chapel in London, and recorded the CD Camille Sings Brel live at Wilton’s Music Hall. She also performed in front of the President of Ireland at The Aras and at the 50th birthday of The Pogue’s Shane McGowan, alongside Nick Cave and Johnny Depp. Dark, sexy, fierce, amusing and mesmerizing, Camille transforms each song she performs into an intense, emotional and theatrical experience. Expect joy and pure passion. ‘A cross between Sally Bowles, Patti Smith and P J Harvey… a major star .’ – THE SCOTSMAN
56 MUSIC
An Evening with Molly Tuttle & Rachel Baiman
The Green Room (Black Box) Tuesday 8 May 8.00pm
Tickets £8.00 www.cqaf.com
Touring as co-headliners, Molly Tuttle and Rachel Baiman will join one another for their respective sets, making both sets a duo performance. Molly Tuttle was the first woman in the 27 year history of the International Bluegrass Music Association awards to be nominated and win ‘Guitar Player of the Year’. Blazing a trail Stateside with appearances at top tier festivals and on programs such as A Prairie Home Companion, Molly has expanded her audience in the USA and is about to do the same in the UK. Nashville Americana songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Rachel Baiman was one half of the excellent 10 String Symphony and has played fiddle for numerous other artists, including Kacey Musgraves. Rachel will be showcasing songs from her debut solo album, Shame. Inspired in equal parts by John Hartford and Courtney Barnett, Rachel’s influences span a wide range, but years spent playing traditional music shine through in the album’s firmly rooted sound.
57 MUSIC
Robyn Hitchcock
McHugh’s Tuesday 8 May 8.00pm
Tickets £10.00 www.cqaf.com
Robyn Hitchcock is one of England’s most enduring contemporary singer/songwriters and live performers. A surrealist poet, talented guitarist, cult artist and musician’s musician, Hitchcock is one of alternative rock’s father figures. Since founding the art-rock band The Soft Boys in 1976, Robyn has recorded more than 20 albums as well as starred in Storefront Hitchcock an ‘in concert’ film recorded in New York and directed by Jonathan Demme. Blending folk and psychedelia with a wry British nihilism, Robyn describes his songs as ‘paintings you can listen to’. His most recent album is self-titled and marks his 21st release as a solo artist. The album is produced by Brendan Benson (The Raconteurs) and has received rave reviews from UNCUT, Rolling Stone, Paste, Tidal and more. ‘A gifted melodist, Hitchcock nests engaging lyrics in some of the most bracing, rainbow-hued pop this side of Revolver.’ – ROLLING STONE ‘Beloved of everyone from Led Zeppelin to REM, Hitchcock has only enhanced his status with this wonderful outing.’ – HOT PRESS
58 MUSIC
Kate Rusby
Festival Marquee Tuesday 8 May 8.00pm
Tickets £20.00 www.cqaf.com
Of all the stars in Folk Music’s wondrous firmament, few shine as brightly as Yorkshire’s Kate Rusby. A career which spans over 25 years in music showcases her as one of the finest interpreters of traditional folk songs and one of our most emotive original songwriters. Kate’s beautiful, expressive vocals never fail to connect the emotional heart of a song to that of her audience. The crossover appeal Kate enjoys is unprecedented for a folk singer and has been achieved without resort to compromise. Audiences will be treated to a truly remarkable and unforgettable concert experience featuring Kate’s choice of classics from her back catalogue stretching over her two decades of music making together with a selection of songs from her most recent studio album Life in a Paper Boat. As ever, Kate will be joined on stage by the cream of British folk musicians who form her select band. ‘Everybody loves and respects Kate Rusby, not just for her lovely voice, but for the way she has moved folk forward while remaining true to tradition’ – SUNDAY TIMES
59 MUSIC
This is the Kit
Voodoo, Fountain Street Tuesday 8 May 8.00pm
Tickets £12.00 www.cqaf.com
This Is The Kit - the musical project which holds exceptional Paris-via-Bristol songwriter Kate Stables close to its heart have earned the adoration of peers including Guy Garvey, The National and Sharon van Etten. Recent album, Moonshine Freeze, is undoubtedly their most compelling and accomplished to date. Produced by John Parish (PJ Harvey, M Ward, Perfume Genius), it began in the immediate wake of its predecessor, Bashed Out, when Stables and her band headed into Geoff Barrow’s Invada studios in Bristol. Aaron Dessner of The National also features on six of the album tracks. Moonshine Freeze is a beguiling mixture of great musical sophistication and something more guileless — children’s games, incantations and snatches of nursery rhymes. Stables’ voice too is a remarkable thing: in its angles there lies an exquisite strangeness reminiscent of Will Oldham, Magnolia Electric Co, Robert Wyatt, Karen Dalton.
60 MUSIC
Linley Hamilton ‘Making Other Arrangements’ Album Launch
The Black Box Wednesday 9 May 8.00pm
Tickets £12.00 www.cqaf.com
Linley Hamilton has been a part of the Irish music scene for over thirty years during which he has juggled a career as a trumpet player with being a BBC Jazz Broadcaster and an educator. There have been many career highlights in the past with significant performances or recordings with Paul Brady, Van Morrison, Foy Vance, Jacqui Dankworth, ASIWYFA and Gareth Dunlop to name a few. His Radio Show enters its tenth year on Friday nights on BBC Radio Ulster, Jazz World with Linley Hamilton, which has been shortlisted twice for the Irish Radio Awards. His current project, Linley Hamilton: Making Other Arrangements, has been recorded and is due for release in May 2018. It features Linley as the Soloist with his own 21piece band – full rhythm section, woodwind and a 12-piece String section. The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival is delighted to launch one of the most important Irish Jazz releases in many years.
61 MUSIC
In association with Alcohol and Irony
Beans on Toast – ‘Sitting on a Chair’ Tour
The Black Box Thursday 10 May 8.00pm
Tickets £10.00 www.cqaf.com
The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival is delighted to present Beans on Toast on his aptly titled Sitting on a Chair Tour which will see the enthusiastic songwriter playing seated theatres and venues rather than pubs and clubs. He's promising a unique evening of stories about his travels and songs from his huge nine album back catalogue. Love songs, protest songs and drinking songs are intertwined with the stories behind the songs and the random adventures they've led him on. The tour coincides with the release of Drunk Folk Songs his first book. A collection of ten, short, true-life stories about songwriting, travelling and drinking and featuring the likes of Billy Bragg, Banksy and The Cookie Monster. From Glastonbury to Wembley via The Bahamas, these first-hand accounts of drunken escapades, car-crashes, recreational drugs and burning pubs are full of humour, grace and honesty – just like his music.
62 MUSIC
Joanne Shaw Taylor
Festival Marquee Thursday 10 May 8.00pm
Tickets £20.00 www.cqaf.com
British blues rock guitarist and singer Joanne Shaw Taylor has been a force to be reckoned since she was discovered at age 16. Her debut album White Sugar mixed rock riffs with blues influences and Joanne’s career has since gone stratospheric, including breaking the notoriously hard-tocrack US market. Joanne has beaten the stereotypes of her age and gender, gaining acclaim from critics and peers alike. 2017 has seen outstanding performances on Later… With Jools Holland, BBC’s Glastonbury coverage and great reviews for her latest album, Wild. Fans include Joe Bonamassa, Tedeschi Trucks, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Wilko Johnson and John Mayall to name but a few. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to catch the brightest star in the British Blues firmament.
63 MUSIC
Bedouine
McHugh’s Thursday 10 May 8.00pm
Tickets £8.00 www.cqaf.com
Also known by Azniv Korkejian, Bedouine has just released a debut album that sounds like the work of a songwriter with dozens of LPs to her name. Released via Matthew E. White's Spacebomb Records, Bedouine is a sparkling collection of captivating folk songs, showcasing Korkejian's crystalline vocals, carefully refined sonic aesthetic (she did, after all, study sound design), and shrewd storytelling. Born in Aleppo, Syria, but raised across the globe, the current Los Angeles resident didn't choose the name Bedouine lightly: her music is informed by her myriad experiences, offering a much-needed new perspective to the folk canon.
64 MUSIC
I’m With Her
First Presbyterian Church, Rosemary St. Friday 11 May 8.00pm
Tickets £15.00 www.cqaf.com
I’m With Her is Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan. From their early contributions in bands such as Nickel Creek and Crooked Still, these three musicians are noteworthy for their recent and extensive solo career successes, including several Grammy awards. An impromptu show in 2014 at the Sheridan Opera House in Telluride, CO, sparked the formation of I’m With Her and sent the trio touring the world together the next year. Along the way, I’m With Her formed a special, family-like chemistry, garnering acclaim for their unique blend of instrumental interplay combined with their indelible harmonies, as the New York Times describes, “... that could be sweetly ethereal, or as tightly in tandem as country sibling teams like the Everly Brothers, or as hearty as mountain gospel.” Their debut album, See You Around, was recorded in Bath, England, with Ethan Johns at Real World Studios and will be released in February 2018.
65 MUSIC
In association with Old Flat Top
Michael Chapman
The American Bar, Dock St. Friday 11 May 8.00pm
Tickets £15.00 www.cqaf.com
Michael Chapman first became known on the London folk circuit in 1966. Playing a blend of atmospheric and autobiographical material, he established a reputation for intensity and innovation. Signed to EMI's Harvest label he recorded a quartet of classic albums. LPs like Rainmaker and Wrecked Again defined the melancholic observer role Michael was to make his own, mixing intricate guitar instrumentals with a full band sound. Chapman is known as one of the UK’s best finger picking style guitar players, part of a continuing musical lineage that includes the likes of Ralph McTell, John Martyn, Davey Graham and Bert Jansch. Collaborations with Thurston Moore, John Fahey, and Jack Rose and appearances on recordings with Hiss Golden Messenger and Steve Gunn has cemented Chapman’s position as pivotal figure in roots, folk and acoustic guitar playing over the last 50 years. ‘This is the sound of a real songwriter who's lived a real life and all that entails.’ – Q MAGAZINE
66 MUSIC
The Barbiturates, Invaderband, Tuath & Will Carruthers (ex -Spacemen 3)
McHugh’s Friday 11 May 8.00pm
Tickets £7.00 www.cqaf.com
From the wilds of Ireland’s Atlantic north west, Donegal’s festival of the avant-garde and psychedelia - Distorted Perspectives - showcases 3 acts from across the lo-fi, psychedelic and shoegaze spectrum with DJ sets by DP DJs and former Spacemen 3 bass player Will Carruthers. Invaderband are a garage/artrock band formed in 2012. Since then the band has enjoyed radio play throughout the UK & Ireland and has twice been 6Music Recommended by Steve Lamacq. The Barbiturates are a D.I.Y Neo-Psychedelic anti-pop band based in Derry. Having released 5 E.P's, two mini albums and a free soundtrack recording since 2013 they are currently working on their debut long player. Donegal’s own experimental psychedelic and ambient outfit Tuath launch their latest EP Youth, with a series of Irish dates culminating in this DP Belfast special.
67 MUSIC
Ben Folds and a Piano + support Matt Holubowski
Festival Marquee Friday 11 May 8.00pm
Tickets £20.00 www.cqaf.com
Ben Folds is widely regarded as one of the major music influencers of our generation. His enormous body of genre-bending music includes pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums, and collaborative records with artists from Sara Bareilles and Regina Spektor to William Shatner. His most recent album is a blend of pop songs and his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra that soared to #1 on both the Billboard classical and classical crossover charts. For over a decade he’s performed with some of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras, and was recently named as the first ever Artistic Advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Centre in Washington, DC. Folds continues to perform with symphonies and also recently returned to solo touring reminiscent of his earliest years, delivering a high energy rock performance using the intimacy of just a piano.
68 MUSIC
The Pee Wee Ellis Funk Assembly
The Black Box Friday 11 May 8.00pm
Tickets £16.00 www.cqaf.com
After making his name as the vortex of James Brown’s JB Horns alongside Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley, at the age of 77 Pee Wee Ellis maintains the forceful blowing style that has marked his career in funk, jazz and rhythm ‘n’ blues from the seventies to the present day. His remarkable story spans six decades and features a stellar cast of jazz legends. From Sonny Rollins (who became his teacher and mentor) to playing alto in James Brown’s sensational Revue. He was Van Morrison’s bandleader for five years, arranging the horns on albums such as Into the Music, and Common One. His versatility has led figures from all areas of music, such as Van Morrison, Ali Farka Touré, Jimmy Cobb, Dr. John and George Clinton, to hire him for some of their projects and tours. But the true Pee Wee Ellis is the one we see now, with everything he has experienced and absorbed, generating his own irresistible sound.
69 MUSIC
The Savage Five
First Presbyterian Church, Rosemary St. Saturday 12 May 2.00pm
Tickets £10.00 www.cqaf.com
The Savage Five make beautiful new music for voice and strings. Irish soprano, jazz vocalist and songwriter Suzanne Savage has joined forces with a unique contemporary string ensemble from the Netherlands and Germany to create songscapes - vocal music where anything is possible. The project is the brainchild of co-writers Suzanne Savage and NZ/NL cellist Hugo Smit. While their musical influences as broad as Cole Porter, Björk and Bartók, The Savage Five occupy their own sonic world. These players have performed with stellar ensembles such as the NNO (Noord Nederlands Orkest) and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Suzanne Savage cut her teeth touring internationally as Principle Soprano Soloist with Riverdance. She has gone on to make music with the likes of Irish music legends Paul Brady and Van Morrison. She was awarded the N.Ireland Arts Council SIAP for work on her critically acclaimed solo album Jellymould. The Savage Five are an exciting new voice in contemporary music - music for the soul.
70 MUSIC
Bone Machine play the music of Tom Waits
The Black Box Saturday 12 May 2.00pm
Tickets £10.00 www.cqaf.com
For the past year Irish audiences have witnessed an incendiary show performed by Bone Machine, that captures the character and musical genius of Tom Waits. An exhilarating performance that’s playing to packed houses of increasingly adoring fans. The world of Mr Waits is uniquely presented with total authority. Bone Machine are a band of internationally renowned touring and recording musicians that perform a firebrand, melancholic, and punk jazz set of Tom Waits songs. The band comprises Jack Healy on vocals, Martin O’Malley on guitars, Jon O’Connell on bass and Adam Shapiro on drums and rhythmic karma. A show with Bone Machine will reinforce your belief in the songs of Tom Waits. From Martha to Downtown Train this band bring the heart, atmosphere and sweat to each performance. Ladies and gentlemen let us present... BONE MACHINE.
71 MUSIC
David Rodigan 40th Anniversary Tour + support from Explosion Sound System DJs + The Skallions
Festival Marquee Saturday 12 May 8.00pm
Tickets £14.00 www.cqaf.com
David Rodigan MBE celebrates a remarkable 40 years in the business as both a prolific broadcaster and DJ. Performing his acclaimed DJ sets, running through his 40 years in reggae and related genres, we’re delighted to have David join us at CQAF for a masterclass in roots and reggae music. Rodigan’s love of music started at the tender age of 15 when he started DJing at school dances and youth clubs and it’s kept growing ever since. His Roots Rockers show on Capitol Radio cemented his reputation as one of the most knowledgeable and talented DJs on the scene. In 1990 Kiss FM relaunched as London’s first legal 24-hour dance music station and it was David that they turned to represent all things roots and reggae on the station. In recent times he has taken his legendary show to BBC 1Xtra where he continues to share his passion for both cutting edge bass and classic reggae, ensuring that it remains a vital and paramount part of urban bass culture.
72 MUSIC
King Creosote
The Black Box Saturday 12 May 8.00pm
Tickets £15.00 www.cqaf.com
King Creosote is one of Scotland’s most acclaimed and prolific singer-songwriters - a squeezebox troubadour with a cosmic wordplay fetish, whose voice leaves gentle devastation in its wake. We’re delighted to welcome King Creosote to the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival for his Standing on Steptoes tour. His 2016 record Astronaut Meets Appleman, explores the tension and harmony between tradition and technology – between analogue and digital philosophies – and also invokes a feeling, of “being caught between heaven and earth”. The album follows King Creosote’s breakthrough record From Scotland With Love (2014) and his Mercurynominated collaboration with Jon Hopkins, Diamond Mine (2011).
73 MUSIC
‘La Donna Abbandonata’ Songs of Sadness and Madness
Ulster-Scots Centre, Victoria Street Saturday 12 & Sunday 13 May 1.30pm
Tickets £10.00 www.cqaf.com
Spark Opera is proud to present internationally renowned Irish American soprano Marielle Murphy in her Belfast debut. Murphy performs a varied programme of despairing arias and famous mad scenes from opera. Featuring such popular favourites as Sempre Libera (La Traviata) and Il dolce Suono (Lucia di Lammermoor), this promises to be thrilling show of coloratura prowess and emotional pathos. Ticket price includes tea & coffee and light refreshments.
74 MUSIC
Honor Heffernan The Whistling Girl
The Belfast Barge Saturday 12 May 8.00pm
Tickets £12.00 (BYO) www.cqaf.com
‘I shall stay the way I am, because I do not give a damn!’ – DOROTHY PARKER
Composer Trevor Knight and singer Honor Heffernan are delighted to present The Whistling Girl, featuring new musical settings of the poetry of the great Dorothy Parker. Audiences can expect a darkly sardonic evening’s entertainment in which the American wit and critic’s words are given a sonic face-lift fusing ‘dirty’-cabaret, electronicvaudeville, rock and jazz. A band of top Irish musicians including Garvan Gallagher/bass, Tom Jamieson/drums, Ed Deane/guitar and Trevor Knight/keyboards, will be fronted by internationally acclaimed vocalist and actress Honor Heffernan.
75 MUSIC
Connla
The Black Box Sunday 13 May 2.00pm
Tickets £10.00 www.cqaf.com
Connla are one of the most exciting forces in Irish music right now with strong traditional roots as well as influences from across the globe. They have already gathered a big following in the UK, Ireland, Europe and the USA for their sensitive and innovative arrangements of traditional and modern folk songs and tunes. Songlines magazine made Connla their ‘must see act’ for the tour of the UK and stated ‘A band this young shouldn’t be this good’. Hailing from the cities of Armagh and Derry, they are Ciara McCafferty (vocals), Ciaran Carlin (whistles), Paul Starrett (guitar) and Armagh siblings Emer and Conor Mallon on harp and uilleann pipes. Today’s show will mark the release of new album The Next Chapter, one of the most eagerly awaited new trad albums in recent years.
76 MUSIC
Moving on Music present
Conor Caldwell Solo Album Launch
The Green Room (Black Box) Sunday 13 May 7.30pm
Tickets £7.00 www.cqaf.com
Conor Caldwell is a traditional fiddler and composer from Belfast. His music takes a contemporary approach whilst remaining reflective of his roots in the Donegal and Northern fiddle tradition. Exploring the capabilities of the fiddle and with the use of electronics, his music blends old and original tunes with sympathetic harmonies, textures and space. Aside from his solo work, he plays in a duo project with fellow fiddler Danny Diamond (Slow Moving Clouds), with whom he released the critically acclaimed album North in 2016, nominated by the Irish Times in its 'Best Traditional' category for that year. A current recipient of the Moving On Music Emerging Artist Programme, Conor will launch his debut solo record during the CQAF with the help of a few special guests.
77 MUSIC
In association with Duncairn Arts Centre
Lankum
Festival Marquee Sunday 13 May 2.00pm
Tickets £15.00 www.cqaf.com
As punk in attitude as they are traditional in sound, Lankum are one of the most talked about bands to come out of Ireland in decades. Nominated for a clutch of BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2018, they combine distinctive four-part vocal harmonies with arrangements of uilleann pipes, concertina, Russian accordion, fiddle and guitar. A typical Lankum set will include humorous Dublin musichall ditties and street-songs, classic ballads from the Traveller tradition, traditional Irish and American dance tunes, and their own original material. The band’s two albums Cold Old Fire and Between the Earth and Sky have won universally glowing reviews. Key influences are Irish legends such as Frank Harte, Planxty and The Dubliners mixed with subtle traces of the group’s collective loves, from American old-timey music, ambient techno and psychedelic folk, to black metal, punk and rock n’ roll.
78 MUSIC
Georgie Fame (Family Trio)
Festival Marquee Sunday 13 May 8.00pm
Tickets £20.00 www.cqaf.com
We know how to end a festival. With his much-loved blend of Jazz and Rhythm & Blues, Georgie Fame has consistently worked in the highest musical circles and has become a true icon of the British music scene. So far there have been more than twenty albums and fourteen hit singles, including the Number 1’s: Yeh Yeh, Get Away and The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde. Add to this a long list of collaborations with some of music’s most famous names, including Muddy Waters, Gene Vincent, Bill Wyman, Eric Clapton and Van Morrison, and in Georgie Fame you have bona fide music legend!
‘Sends us home happy to have been in the presence of genuine cool.’ - THE GUARDIAN
79 MUSIC
D N U O S & N O I VIS
Neil Young Journey Through the Past
The Green Room (Black Box) Sunday 6 May 3.00pm
Tickets £4.00 www.cqaf.com
It would’ve been easy for Neil Young to follow up his smash hit album Harvest with a crowd-pleasing concert film and a string of similarly middle-of-the-road country-rock records. Instead, he embarked on a series of noisy, mostly uncommercial LPs, and spent a pile of money on an art movie that combines “day in the life” scenes with inscrutably freaky imagery. Journey Through the Past intercuts intimate scenes such as Young playing with backing band The Stray Gators in his barn, jawing with Crosby, Stills, and Nash backstage, hanging with his then partner Carrie Snodgrass, and wearing a hard hat and sitting in a Nashville junkyard full of old cars, where he sips a Budweiser and rattling off anything that comes to mind. Journey through the Past is an often bizarre, but wholly indispensable trip through the mind-set of one the greatest singer-songwriters of the 1970s.
81 SOUND & VISION
Lost In Translation
Bullitt Hotel (The Good Room) Thursday 10 May 8.00pm
Tickets £5.00 www.cqaf.com
Unbelievably, 2018 marks the 15th anniversary of Lost in Translation - everybody’s favourite Tokyo hotel-based romantic-comedy-drama starring Bill Murray! To celebrate, we’re delighted to be able to screen one of the very best movies of the 2000s in – where else? – one of the coolest hotels in Belfast. Grab something from mini-bar and join us for an evening of cool postromance in ‘The Good Room’ of the Bullitt Hotel, and prepare to get ‘Lost in Translation’.
82 SOUND & VISION
The Ballroom of Romance
The Green Room (Black Box) Friday 11 May 1.00pm
Tickets £4.00 Includes free sandwich www.cqaf.com
Born 90 years ago this month, this perfectly rendered naturalist feature is adapted from writer William Trevor’s short story The Ballroom of Romance. The film explores the deadening atmosphere of 1950s Ireland through the figure of the unmarried Bridie (Brenda Fricker). ‘Spinster’ Bridie goes to the country ballroom, where as a young woman she danced and dreamed of a happy marriage, to desperately try one last time to find a husband. Respectable men prove to be thin on the ground and loneliness threatens to drive Bridie into the arms of drunken, foolish Bowser Egan (John Kavanagh). Trevor supplied the script for this adaptation himself, with Pat O’Connor crafting it into a courageous look into the paralysed heart of rural Ireland.
83 SOUND & VISION
Go Betweens Right Here
The Green Room (Black Box) Saturday 12 May 3.00pm
Tickets £4.00 www.cqaf.com
When Robert Forster first met Grant McLennan at the University of Queensland in the mid-70s, he knew they were going to form a band almost immediately. Right Here charts the music and life of a band who, like The Velvet Underground before them, didn’t sell a lot of records, but everyone who heard them was irrevocably altered by their sound. A sensitive and intimate portrayal of Brisbane’s greatest musical export, from early local success through seminal albums such as 19 Lovers Lane to the tragic, untimely death of Grant McLennan, aged just 48, in 2006. Peppered with anecdotes and asides from former band members and famous fans, Right Here is a beautiful and fitting eulogy to the power and the poetry of The Go Betweens. ‘Love and thunder on film…those for whom the GoBetweens are part of the architecture of their lives will love it. For casual watchers, it might introduce them to something special.’ - THE GUARDIAN
84 SOUND & VISION
Troubled: Films from the Archive
The Green Room (Black Box) Sunday 13 May 3.00pm
Tickets £4.00 www.cqaf.com
Second Chance Cinema and the Black Box are joining up for a series of events screening archive films from Northern Ireland made during and/or about the Troubles. We want to showcase some of the weird, wonderful and insightful films made from the 60s to the 90s that shed some light on complicated times. As our first event is part of CQAF we’ve selected two rarely seen films focusing on the arts. Cross the Line made in 1980 is a profile of new wave punk band from the Shankill Road, Ruefrex. They never hit the heights of fame that some of their contemporaries did but shared their strong anti-sectarian stance. Anything that Makes a Noise from 1990 focuses in on musician, sound sculptor and experimental instrument maker, Henry Dagg.
85 SOUND & VISION
L A IV SU S T AR
David Turner More Ordinary Leaders: Unofficial Portraits
The Green Room (Black Box) Thursday 3 – Wednesday 30 May Thursday, Friday & Saturday 5.00pm – 11.00pm
Viewing by appointment at other times Tuesday Saturday 028 9024 4400
Belfast-based artist David Turner exhibits his unique portraits of famous world leaders as ordinary young people created using Lego bricks or Hama Beads. With these original works the artist draws upon and rejects the portrait tradition of the great and powerful as he “deidealises” their representations, and confers on them a private and playful quality.
David Turner, Che, 2017
Through these pieces Turner continues to explore political themes which are at the core of his work. The artist invites viewers to imagine the leaders as more ordinary, at an age when different life paths were possible, before their decisions shaped their career and their involvement in conflicts. The exhibition is curated by art consultant Francesca Biondi www.francescabiondi.com For sales and enquiries, contact Francesca at kaleidoscope.no1@gmail.com
87 VISUAL ARTS
Cathedral Quarter Art Trail
Bullitt Hotel, Church Lane Café Torino, Royal Avenue Clements, Rosemary St and Royal Avenue Thursday 3 – Wednesday 30 May
Featuring Jane Rainey at the Bullitt Hotel, Grace McMurray at Café Torino, Lisa Ballard & Kevin Miller at Clements Coffee, Royal Avenue, Trina Hobson at Clements Coffee, Rosemary Street. Opening receptions on Thursday 3 May Bullitt Hotel, 6-9pm, Café Torino 7.30-9.30pm Art Trail tour with the curator on Saturday 12 May, 11.00am12.30pm starting from Clements Coffee in Royal Avenue. Free. Grace McMurray, Blue Ribbon Wave, 2017
The Art Trail takes art lovers on a journey through the Cathedral Quarter to discover exciting works by accomplished artists based in the quarter and other studios in Belfast.
Kevin Miller, Donning, 2017 88 VISUAL ARTS
For sales and enquiries, contact Francesca at kaleidoscope.no1@gmail.com
Lisa Ballard, Pink Light White Sands, 2017
Jane Rainey, A View from Bellow, 2017
Trina Hobson, The Adventures of Gustav H, 2017
This unique trail showcases original pieces by award winning painters Lisa Ballard, Trina Hobson and Jane Rainey, and innovative artists Kevin Miller and Grace McMurray working with non-traditional materials. Viewers following the trail will discover diverse art works, from Ballard’s evocative landscapes, to Hobson’s representations of intriguing characters and stories, and Rainey’s fascinating imaginary worlds. Viewers will also see on display Miller’s captivating acrylic objects and McMurray’s delicate fabric and paper patterns. The Art Trail is curated by art consultant Francesca Biondi www.francescabiondi.com
89 VISUAL ARTS
Lisa and John
Belfast Exposed Photography Gallery 1 & 2 Friday 4 May – Saturday 16 June Open Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 5pm
Artist Talk with David Moore: Friday 4 May, 1pm Public Preview: Thursday 3 May, 6-9pm
Lisa and John tells the story of two subjects from David Moore’s 1980’s series Pictures from the Real World, documenting working class communities in the photographers’ home-town of Derby. This exhibition re-presents the project in a new form through an immersive installation of photographs, 3D maquettes, audio-visual works and a public performance of ‘The Lisa and John Slideshow’ at the MAC Belfast on Thursday 10 May. Collaborating with Lisa and John, Moore seeks to question and discuss the nature of representation through photography and archives.
90 VISUAL ARTS
Botany of Silence Samantha Brown
Thursday 5 April – Thursday 17 May PLACE, 7-9 Lower Garfield St.
Join us for a discussion with the artist on Thursday 3 May at 6pm. Refreshments served.
Samantha acted as a witness, documenting evidence of the Clark’s shoe factory being taken apart. Fallen roofs, walls and windows are eerily quiet at the end of the day. Machinery has settled into silence, leaving behind traces of activity. Scrap turned into random piles, giving form to the various materials - metal, concrete, glass and wood that disappear on the back of trucks. A representation of the passage of time. Finally all that remains is an electricity substation sitting in the carpark. Join us for a discussion with the artist on Thursday 3rd May at 6pm. Refreshments served. PLACE has also developed a built environment themed bookshop and giftshop stocking books and journals, plaster pieces from Model Citizen and textile work by Deborah Toner, as well as our own publications. Call in Mon - Fri 10am - 4pm! placeni.org
91 VISUAL ARTS
Transactions
Marilyn Arsem – Regrouping Thursday 12noon - 6pm Front of Castle Court Shopping Centre. Daniel DeLuca – Moving Messages Friday 4 May 12noon - 6pm From Markets area to Tigers Bay.
Sandrine Schaefer – Pace Investigations No.9 Saturday 5 May sunrise to sunset Exchange Place.
Mari NovotnyJones – Passage Thursday 10 May 12noon - 8.30pm Beginning Exchange Place and moving about.
Anna Wexler – Tracks and Tracts Saturday 5 May 11am - 5pm Custom House Square and Queen’s Bridge (Big Fish) area.
Milan Kohout – Stolen Public Space Friday 11 May 3pm - 6pm Lombard St.
Bbeyond Performance Saturday 12 May 12 noon Writers Square. Jimena Bermejo What Not to Do in Belfast? Saturday 12 May 4pm - 5pm Anne St Underpass.
Transactions is an exchange between two prominent experimental artists’ groups, Mobius Artist Group in Boston and Bbeyond in Belfast, Northern Ireland. 7 Mobius artists, Marilyn Arsem, Jimena Bermejo, Daniel DeLuca, Milan Kohout, Mari Novotny-Jones, Sandrine Schaefer, and Anna Wexler, have come to Belfast to perform new works specifically created for presentation in outdoor, pubic space. Marilyn Arsem
This exchange, which emphasizes Boston and Belfast’s relationship as sister cities, provides opportunities for artists working at the helm of experimental practice in live performance to learn from each other, share audiences, work across national and cultural contexts while building connections through the creation of new works. In September, artists from Bbeyond will be travelling to Boston in order to complete the exchange.
92 VISUAL ARTS
Dave Sinclair Exhibition
Artcetera, Rosemary St. Thursday 3 May – Friday 1 June Monday – Friday 11am – 6pm Saturday 11am – 5pm
Artcetera
Photographer Dave Sinclair began photographing his home town of Liverpool, the people, derelict factories, docks and protests in the 1980s. He started working for the Militant newspaper in 1984.
Public Preview: Thursday 3 May 6 – 9pm
In 1988 Dave visited Belfast to document that year’s May Day rally and other events. The show will consist on 60 original prints. The spine of the exhibition is the archive of May Day 30 years ago. A unique quality record of the only non-sectarian public event of the time, which resisted the attempts of others to claim it. The exhibition is sponsored by NIC-ICTU, NIPSA, UNISON and UNITE. ArtCetera will host a series of public talks during the month of May.
93 VISUAL ARTS
L A I C E SP S T N E EV
Donegal Night Oíche Thír Chonaill
Áras Mhic Reachtain 283-289 Antrim Road Aoine 4 Bealtaine Saturday 5 May 8.30pm
Tickets £10.00 www.cqaf.com
Bígí linn i gcuideachta scoth na n-amhránaithe agus na gceoltóirí chun traidisiún saibhir amhránaíochta Ghaeltacht Thír Chonaill a cheiliúradh. Join us in the company of the choicest singers and musicians to celebrate the rich singing tradition of the Donegal Gaeltacht. Clann Mhic Ruairí
With; Clann Mhic Ruairí, Doimnic Mac Giolla Bhríde, Noel Ó Dúgáin (Clannad), Noeleen Ní Cholla and Maria Ní Chumhaill. CLANN MHIC RUAIRÍ: Four brothers, Tony, Aodh, Sean, Dónal and Tony's daughter Megan make up this lively, impromptu traditional Gaelic singing group from Rann na Feirste in the Gaeltacht of North West Donegal. They perform traditional songs with a contemporary innovative and inspirational approach retaining the traditional purity and integrity. ‘Together, these five individuals create a beautiful sound like only a family of voices can, singing in their native tongue." - SEAN P FEENEY.
95 SPECIAL EVENTS
Anúna Singing Workshop
Áras Mhic Reachtain, 283-289 Antrim Road Saturday 12 May 2.00pm - 5.00pm
Tickets £5.00 www.cqaf.com Ages 16 years and older Refreshments provided
Join us for a workshop led by two singers from the Irish vocal ensemble Anúna. The workshop will focus on how we sing – using the Anúna method of breathing together, the physicality of singing and unifying the natural sound of each person’s voice as a group to create the Anúna sound. Established in 1987 by its current Artistic Director and composer, Michael McGlynn, Anúna is Ireland's flagship a cappella vocal ensemble representing the beauty of Irish musical heritage and literature all over the world. This workshop is ideal for those with some singing experience and the ability to read music is an advantage. We will use pieces in Irish and English from the Anúna repertoire and the workshop will be delivered bilingually. About the facilitators: Fergus Cahillane is from Dublin and a graduate of the NUI, Maynooth, with a degree in English and Music. He has been a member of Anúna since 2016. Ellie McGinley is a native of Co Donegal. She is a music graduate from Dundalk IT, a specialist in sean-nós singing and a fiddle player.
96 SPECIAL EVENTS
What Next for the Arts? Discussion and Book Launch
Community Arts Partnership, The ARC, 7 Donegall Street Place, Saturday 12 May, 2.00pm – 6.00pm
Admission free
The arts sector in Northern Ireland is in crisis. After years of funding cuts and issues around governance and strategy, the sector is teetering on the brink of collapse.
Image: Stephen Pritchard
Recently the entire edifice of public subsidy for the arts has been brought into question. The forum will feature speakers from the world of arts management and cultural policy, and promises lively and informed debate. The event concludes with a book launch and wine reception for the recently published, Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art by Alison Jeffers and Gerri Moriarty Guest Speakers: Prof Ele Belfiore, Dr Steven Hadley (Chair), Dr Alison Jeffers, Gerri Moriarty, Dr Stephen Pritchard, Conor Shields. Admission free. Tickets offered on first come first served basis and can be reserved by contacting gabri@capartscentre.com
97 SPECIAL EVENTS
Stewart Parker’s Northern Star
First Presbyterian Church Rosemary St. Wednesday 9 May 6.00pm
www.cqaf.com
Tickets £12.00 Set in a crumbling cottage on the slopes of Cave Hill in the aftermath of the 1798 Rising, Northern Star, by Stewart Parker, returns to the ‘Golden Age’ of late 18th century Belfast, when the city had been a harbinger of radical thought. Northern Star is a masterpiece of modern Irish drama and dialogue. Presented in association with Kabosh.
Henry Joy McCracken
98 SPECIAL EVENTS
CQAF 2018 Artist in Residence Joshua Burnside
We're thrilled to announce that this year's CQAF artist in residence is none other than Joshua Burnside who we regard as one of this island's greatest young songwriters. Most recently, he delivered a pitch-perfect, jaw-dropping set in support of folk legend Shirley Collins at Out to Lunch in January. His debut album Ephrata was released last year to universal acclaim. An intoxicating collection of stumbling beats, vocoder, banjo, robots, lightning and dark matter, it effortlessly scooped the 2017 Northern Ireland Music Prize. A fragile yet commanding and utterly unique performer, catch Joshua Burnside during the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival and prepare to be astonished. ‘Rumbling, brooding, powerful, magnetic’ - THE IRISH TIMES
99 ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
At a Glance THURSDAY 3 MAY Joanne McNally 1.00pm The Green Room p24
London African Gospel Choir presents Graceland 8.00pm Festival Marquee p34
Barrence Whitfield & The Savages 8.00pm The Black Box p35
Asian Dub Foundation La Haine Live S/track 8.00pm The Black Box p38
Oh Pep! 8.00pm Sunflower p40
It’s Getting Harder 8.00pm MAC (Upstairs) p13
Peggy Seeger 2.00pm The Black Box p4
Ciara O’Neill 8.00pm The Belfast Barge p44
Peter Perrett 8.00pm The Black Box p43
Donegal Night 'Oíche Thír Chonaill' 8.30pm Áras Mhic Reachtain p93
Mary Gauthier 2.00pm Waterfront Studio p41
Kimmie Rhodes 8.00pm Waterfront Studio p42
Palmyra 8.00pm MAC (Upstairs) p14
David Hepworth 5.00pm The Dark Horse p5
Nightmares on Wax 8.00pm Festival Marquee p45
Seamus Fogarty 8.00pm McHugh’s p36
Sarah McQuaid 8.00pm Sunflower p37 It’s Getting Harder 8.00pm MAC (Upstairs) p13
FRIDAY 4 MAY The Go! Team w/The Correspondents 8.00pm Festival Marquee p39
SATURDAY 5 MAY
SUNDAY 6 MAY Jeffrey Lewis 2.00pm The Black Box p46
Michael Nau 6.00pm McHugh’s p51
Jimmy Webb 8.00pm Festival Marquee p48
The Blasters 8.00pm Oh Yeah Centre p49
Neil Young Film 3.00pm The Green Room p79
Smoove & Terrell 7.00pm The Belfast Barge p52
!!! (Chk Chk Chk) 8.00pm The Black Box p47
Ingrid Laubrock 8.00pm MAC (Upstairs) p50
MONDAY 7 MAY Paul Durcan 1.00pm The Black Box p6
Liz Nugent 7.30pm The Green Room p7
Deep Dark Woods 8.00pm The Black Box p53
Scott Capurro 8.00pm McHugh’s p26
Sylvia Plath 4.00pm The Black Box p15
Camille O'Sullivan 8.00pm Festival Marquee p54
Shazia Mirza 8.00pm MAC (Upstairs) p25
Elizabeth Day 7.30pm The Dark Horse p8
Rob Newman 8.00pm The Black Box p27
Robyn Hitchcock 8.00pm McHugh’s p56
Your Turn 8.00pm Sunflower p16
Kate Rusby 8.00pm Festival Marquee p57
Molliy & Rachel 8.00pm The Green Room p55
This is the Kit 8.00pm Voodoo p58
Hubert and the Yes Sock 8.00pm MAC (Upstairs) p17
Hubert and the Yes Sock 6.00pm & 8.00pm MAC (Upstairs) p17
Linley Hamilton 8.00pm The Black Box p59
Bridget Christie 8.00pm Festival Marquee p28
Your Turn 8.00pm Sunflower p16
Annemarie Ní Churreáin 7.30pm The Green Room p9
Joanne Shaw Taylor 8.00pm Festival Marquee p61
Mary Anne McCracken 7.30pm First Presbyterian Church p18
Beans on Toast 8.00pm The Black Box p60
Quartered Various The Dark Horse p20
Ben Folds and a Piano 8.00pm Festival Marquee p66
TUESDAY 8 MAY
WEDNESDAY MAY 9 Northern Star 6.00pm First Presbyterian Church p96
THURSDAY 10 MAY Lisa and John Slideshow 7.00pm MAC (Upstairs) p19 Lost In Translation 7.00pm Bullitt Hotel p80
Bedouine 8.00pm McHugh’s p62
FRIDAY 11 MAY Ballroom of Romance 1.00pm The Green Room p81
Pee Wee Ellis 8.00pm The Black Box p67
FRIDAY 11 MAY CONTINUED I’m With Her 8.00pm First Presbyterian p63
Michael Chapman 8.00pm The American Bar p64
Distorted Perspectives 8.00pm McHugh’s p65
Ayesha Hazarika 8.00pm MAC (Upstairs) p29
Stuart Bailie Book Launch 9.00pm Oh Yeah Centre p10
SATURDAY 12 MAY Art Trail Leaves Clements 11.00 p86
2.00pm CAP p95
3.00pm The Green Room p82
8.00pm The American Bar p21
Will Carruthers 1.00pm The Green Room p11
The Savage Five 2.00pm First Presbyterian Church p68
Quartered Various The Dark Horse p20
Sarah Kendall 8.00pm MAC (Upstairs) p30
David Rodigan 8.00pm Festival Marquee p70
King Creosote 8.00pm The Black Box p71
Honor Heffernan 8.00pm The Belfast Barge p73 Women Troubles
SUNDAY 13 MAY
La Donna Abbandonata 1.30pm Ulster-Scots Centre p72 Anúna Singing Workshop 283-289 Antrim Road 2.00pm - 5.00pm p94 What Next for the Arts?
Bone Machine 2.00pm The Black Box p69
Go Betweens Film
La Donna Abbandonata 1.30pm Ulster-Scots Centre p72
3.00pm The Green Room p83
7.30pm The Black Box p32
Connla 2.00pm Black Box p74
Rob Auton 6.00pm Sunflower p31
Women Troubles 8.00pm The American Bar p21
Lankum 2.00pm Festival Marquee p76
Conor Caldwell 7.30pm The Green Room p75
Helen Hall 7.00pm & 8.30pm The MAC p22
Troubled: Film
Luisa Omielan
Georgie Fame
8.00pm Festival Marquee p77
WWW.CQAF.C
OM