. . . listening to:Suede's first three albums in anticipation of their comeback gigs at the Olympia in Dublin in May.
. . . watching
The Life and times of Tim, a crudely drawn, but fine animated series about a New Yorker’s embarrassing adventures. From HBO, it’s in a late-night slot on RTÉ2 (Thursday, 11.25pm)
. . . seeing The Script at the O2 A winning formula, nearly
It’s a salutary tale: three Dubliners who couldn’t get arrested two years ago now sell out two nights at Ireland’s premier indoor venue. Next stop? A sold-out summer gig at Aviva Stadium.
"Decent blokes achieving major success in the face of initial indifference" has a good Rocky ring to it, yet with just two albums under the belt buckle there is a nagging doubt that the surge in the size of their audience has happened far too soon.
For starters their singer Danny O’Donoghue, guitarist Mark Sheehan and drummer Glen Power still look as if they don’t believe their luck. They aren’t helped by a sparse stage set that, perhaps unwittingly, draws attention to the basic nature of their performance; quite a few songs (mostly from their 2008 self-titled debut album) are so generic it’s amazing they got past the demo stage (Rusty Halo is abysmal, We Cry comes a close second).
And then you have a genial frontman, in O’Donoghue, who doesn’t yet own a stage as large as the O2’s as much as he thinks he might.
Yet when the songs are good (most of these are from the second album, last year’s Science Faith) you can see why The Script have the capacity audience eating out of their hands.
Although still shaped by formula, songs such as If You Ever Come Back, Long Gone and Moved On, For the First Time and Nothing are as cohesive examples of a band finding their creative touchstone as any you'll hear. Not fully cooked yet, then, but getting there.
TONY CLAYTON-LEA
. . . saying
"I didn’t idolise any Scandinavian crime writers. Actually I didn’t read any Scandinavian crime writers2.
Norwegian thriller writer Jo Nesbo, in yesterday’s Life Culture, on being the “next Stieg Larsson”
. . . reading
Eoin Colfer's Plugged, his first book for adults. Keep the Artemis Fowl fans away from this one.
Axecop:"Written by a five-year-old and illustrated by his 29-year-old brother." The most crazily imaginative comic you'll read. Axecop.com.
Ed O'Loughlin's forthcoming novel Top Loader– black farce sci-fi set in a near-future Embargoed Zone, aka the Gaza Strip. Hilarious stuff – very Dr Strangelove.
. . . planning
To go along to Wednesday’s tour of the Jack B Yeats exhibition by one of the curators at the Model in Sligo. No booking needed. Just turn up at the reception before 1pm.
