A Special Relationship? Irish Popular Music in Britain

An interdisciplinary conference hosted at Northumbria University in conjunction with the Centre for Media Research at the University of Ulster 27 – 28 June 2012

Conference Programme

Tuesday 26th June 7.30pm Welcome Event and Book Launch of Rock and Popular Music in Ireland: Before and After U2 by Noel McLaughlin and Martin McLoone. The event takes place in Popolo, 82-84 Pilgrim Street, Newcastle NE1 6SG. Directions here

Wednesday 27th June 9.30 Tea and Coffee Foyer of Lipman Building.

9.45 Room 0026 Lipman Building: Welcome Address: Dr Noel McLaughlin (Northumbria University)

10.00 Room 0026 Panel 1: Folk roots and Pop routes: The Irish in Britain Dave Laing, Freelance writer and academic, ‘Clare to Here: the Irish dimension of the English Folk Revival’

Professor Rebecca Miller, Hampshire College, Massachusetts, US ‘Hucklebucking at the Tea Dances: Irish Showbands in 1960s Britain’ Q&A/Discussion

11.15 Tea and Coffee Room 032 Lipman Building

11.30 Room 0026 Panel 2: Van Morrison: The Dweller on the Threshold? Professor Stephen Regan, Durham University ‘The Allusive Van Morrison’

Dr Peter Mills, Leeds Metropolitan University Paper title: ‘Song of Home - Van Morrison and the idea of exile’

1 Q&A/Discussion

1.00 – Lunch Room 032 Lipman Building

2.00 Panel 3. The Irish in Britain in the 1970s: The ‘Popular’ and the ‘Serious’. Dr Gerry Smyth, Liverpool John Moores – [email protected] Paper title: ‘The interesting case of Val Doonican’

Dr Matteo Cullen Paper title: ‘From The Clifton Grange to Ladbroke Grove and the Isle of Wight: Irish Rock and Britain, 1968-78’ Q&A/Discussion

3.15. Tea and Coffee Room 032 Lipman Building

3.45 Panel 4. Music, politics and contact zones Anthony Walker, University of St Andrews. ‘Piping in a Time of Peace - The influence of terrorism on Irish Traditional Music’

Gareth Dylan Smith, The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, London. ‘“Everybody's Welcome to the Hooley! A haon, do, trí, ceathair!”: A case study of a London-Irish trad/punk musician’ Q&A/Discussion

7.30 Dinner at El Torero Restaurant, Milburn House, Side City Centre, NE1 1PR. Directions here

2 Thursday 28th June

9.30 Tea and Coffee – Lipman Foyer

10.00 Opening Keynote: Dr Sean Campbell, Anglia Ruskin University. Q&A/Discussion

11.30 Panel 5: Over-views and Comparative Contexts Professor Martin McLoone, University of Ulster ‘Authenticity and Hybridity in Irish Popular Music’

Professor Richard Ekins, University of Ulster ‘“Dying Embers”, Maintaining Authenticity and New Orleans Jazz Revivalism: The Case of Liverpool's Merseysippi Jazz Band’ Q&A/Discussion

1.00 Lunch Room 032 Lipman Building

2.00 Panel 6. Irish post-punk in Britain Dr Claire Monk, De Montfort University ‘The Virgin Prunes in England’

Dr Kevin J. Donnelly, Southampton University

‘“Heresie” or “A New Form of Beauty”: the Inassimilable Virgin Prunes’ [email protected] Q&A/Discussion

3 3.30 Panel 7. On the Edges of Irishness? Dr Noel McLaughlin, Northumbria University ‘Peripherally Queer: Inbetween-ness and Mary Cigarettes’

Michael Waugh, Northumbria University ‘“Jynweythek Ylow” (“Machine Music”): Futuristic Braindance, Celtic Pastoralism & Hybridised Irishness in the Aphex Twin Myth’ Q&A and Closing Round table.

Directions to Campus Lipman Building is number 15 on the Campus map below