A Little Solidarity

A Little Solidarity will most certainly be remembered by most music lovers in Northern Ireland for a very long time. This mega-event organized by the ASIWYFA bunch truly was a celebration of unity and solidarity in the music scene of this country; a showcase of the best bands these shores have to offer and the success locally and nationwide most of these bands have managed to achieve in the past year, and let me tell you, whoever wasn’t there missed quite something! The line-up was perhaps the most ambitious possible, but in the end it was the strong point of the whole experience offering to everyone a different mix of styles and bands. There were many occasions for people involved in music making to get talking with promoters and record labels, with the chance of a demo drop-in. The atmosphere was positive throughout with a great aura of friendship surrounding the event.

All the bands delivered first class performances giving 110% on stage. The memorable performances are many: like hip hop machine Team Fresh setting the crowd in a part mode at only 4pm, LaFaro setting the Speakeasy on fire and relentlessly demolishing it with their energetic performance, Tony Wright called on vocal duties by Axis Of for their Fugazi cover and Fighting With Wire with their Nirvana cover, indie rockers General Fiasco showing why they are one of the most talked about Northern Irish acts in Britain of the moment and masters of ceremony ASIWYFA themselves delivering perhaps the best performance of the week-end that truly was a nearly spiritual experience and sending the clear message that they are the best live band in Northern Ireland. But all bands in different degrees left their mark on this big music feast.

The objective ASIWYFA set out to achieve was to put on an event that would show the strength, harmony and cohesion in the Northern Irish music scene stressing how despite there may not be particular interest from the big players in music in mainland Britain, the scene here is as healthy as it has ever been and is on a constant growth. It feels like this event cold be in the long term a turning point for the music scene here, perhaps giving energy to this tide of excellent bands in order to put Northern Ireland back on the map of big players with a bang.

By Bob Biondo