CHIC Live at Electric Picnic 2009

By far the best gig I saw last year was the legendary Nile Rodgers and the current touring line-up of THE greatest Disco group of all time CHIC. They played the headline set on the Saturday night at last years Electric Picnic festival in Ireland, and I never thought disco would go down THIS well in my home country!





It was the first time I've ever seen them, even though they've been touring for the past year, and it was definitely one of the best shows I've ever seen. Hair-raisingly good (I still get tingles watching the clips). And not just because the tunes are so great (surely everyone knows that by now) but also because the crowd reaction was just so enthusiastic. Here's a taster of how good the crowd response was:





I was surprised at how much genuine love the Irish audience showed the band. I get the feeling a lot of people went along not knowing what to expect and were blown away by the non-stop excellent music and musicianship. I heard people talking about it as their festival hichlight for the rest of the weekend. This was my highlight - I wasn't expecting them to play it but am I glad they did!

PHOTOS BY KEPA

My good mate Kepa Rasmussen took some promo shots of me a few months ago capturing really nice late summer light coming in the back door at Che Camille. There's about two hundred of these, but here's my three faves:

"The Classic"


"Big Pimpin'"


"Brendan Grace"


Kepa was also responsible for the group shot at Che Camille used below. You should check out his site (kepa.co.uk - how cool is that?!) and prepare to be amazed!

Rocking CHE CAMILLE

Photo by Kepa Rasmussen

Hmm, forgot about this one, which is why it is out of chronological order! At the start of May I compéred three fashion shows over three days for my good friends at Che Camille. At the shows, backed by dancing models wearing specially designed Little Rock t-shirts, I premiered a new track called "Rock The Shop". This tune tells the story of Che Camille from the beginning til now - from day one when they moved into the floor under us in the Chateau, to their current position on the top floor of the Glasgow shopping landmark Argyle Arcade.

Photo by Chris Anderson

We've even managed to film a series of adverts for the shop, the final one of which is an actual pop video for the track "Rock The Shop" itself! My first video - woohoo! It's gonna look great, I know as I have seen the rushes. For now though, here's a VERY low quality download of the track to listen to:

NIALLIST "Rock The Shop" 64bt

And here's a wee video of the event itself:

DISSIDENT R.I.P.

I got an email from Andy Blake this week, the head of Dissident Distribution label (who have released two 12" by me this year), stating that he has decided to shut it down. Apart from the worrying fact that every label that I put out a record with goes bust, I think it's a bold and great move, and in fitting with the ethos of the label. Dissident release on vinyl only (barring 3 compilation CDs) in limited edition runs of 150-200, and each 12" is one sided. Those 12" then sell for 8-9 pounds, and in the past two and a bit years they have released about 60 singles. Dissident refuse to have a myspace/facebook/online presence, and so have maintained a tight air of mystery. This is both good and bad - for someone like me who is trying to build a bigger profile it is frustrating, but I am hoping that it will pay off in the long term, possibly by moving on to a bigger label. If you want to find out more about Dissident, read this piece on Resident Advisor, and if you wanna see all the singles released by them, check out their Discogs page.

Dissident / Niallist 2

In early October my second 12" on Dissident Distribution was released - a cover of "Remember" by Gino Soccio, produced by Julius Seizure. It's a one-sided, one track 12 this time, limited to 200 copies. There's still some on sale, if you want to get a copy I recommend either Juno or Flexx, who will ship it out to you. If you wwanna listen to it first:

Remember w/ JULIUS SEIZURE by theniallist