Top of the early April to ya! Lets not be too hasty, the cold weather will kill off germs they said…. Snow in March!? Well at least the folk at Cadburys, for Easter, had something to do other than get shipments of stock out…But anyway enough of that. Check out some epic new releases and upcoming gigs!

Billy Bragg, who charted in both Ireland and the Uk upon the release of his new album Tooth & Nail has picked up some credible acclaim from MOJO -“Bard of Barking gets personal, goes universal, makes his best album.”  Q MAGAZINE “….superb vocals and measured lyrics…” and THE GUARDIAN- “His classiest-sounding album to date. Impressive.”   While Eleanor McEvoy enjoyed the front page cover of The Sunday Times Culture Magazine as she released her new album If You leave, which was also Rte radio 1 album of the week. Eleanor plays in The Cork Opera House on April 19th.

Just in time for Record Store Day April 20th 2013, The Hot Sprockets will release ‘SOUL BROTHER’ Single (April 19th official iTunes release date). Hailing from the delta blues mecca that is…Dublin. They are five friends who came together with a shared love of Rock N’ Roll music. Their music has been used on everything from Bulmers ad campaigns to BBC’s comedy “Fresh”, Irish film “Stitches” and RTE’s “RAW”. The band recently beat off 1000’s of bands to make it to the Hotpress “Play on the Day” final and got to grace the cover of Hotpress magazine. The bands video for “Cruisin’” was nominated for “Best video” & “Best group” at the Irish Music Television Awards. Check out the new video, Tarantino would be proud! 

Dine Alone Records have announced the upcoming City and Colour album, The Hurry and The Harm, which will be available June 4, 2013. Pre-order begins April 9 on iTunes. Visit www.cityandcolour.ca for more info. Dallas recently supported Biffy Clyro in Dublins o2 to an epic receptive audience.

Alison Moyet will be releasing her new album The Minutes on May 3rd. She just released new single When I was Your Girl and you can view the music video here. Moyet will also be playing in Ireland on the following dates:  30 Sep Ireland Cork Opera House, 01 Oct Northern Ireland Belfast Waterfront Hall & 02 Oct Ireland Dublin Olympia Theatre!

LA/Irish band Friends Of Emmet will be playing in The Sugar Club, Dublin on April 11th. Having just returned from Canadian Music Week in Toronto where they played on Canada AM National TV Show to over 3 million people. Check out their performance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeDPBczEgS4&feature=youtube_gdata_player The band seem to be on the up when some of their album tracks were placed in Eastenders and British Tv Drama Hollyoaks.

In other gig news: Tickets for the FM104 Help a Dublin Child go on sale tomorrow at 9am. If you buy a ticket for the May 31^st gig tomorrow at 9am and send FM104 in a photo of the printout receipt, They will give 5 lucky listeners an exclusive Cuddle Mug before 10am tomorrow. Already confirmed to perform are Original Rude Boys Ryan Sheridan with at least another 3 acts to be announced. Giving them a hand on the night will be PJ Gallagher, The Strawberry Alarm Clock team and the FM104 Phoneshow. There are only limited tickets for this event! It’s four hours of some really special performances and surprises on the night. Tickets start at €35.00 with all profits from sales going to FM104’s Help a Dublin Child for the ISPCC

Finally well done to Madness  MADNESS Go Gold! Their latest album ‘Oui, Oui, Si, Si, Ja, Ja, Da, Da’ hits the 100,000 mark! It has  been confirmed that Madness’s latest studio album ‘Oui, Oui, Si, Si, Ja, Ja, Da, Da’ has smashed through the 100,000 mark, making it officially gold status. The album was released on the 29th October 2012 and has had two singles released from it, with the third, ‘How Can I Tell You‘ coming on April 8th (Now on the BBC Radio1 playlist!).