U:Mack, one of Ireland’s most respected independent promoters, celebrates 15 years in business this December and is planning a birthday bash to remember. Experimental US rockers Battles will headline the shindig at Tripod on Thursday, December 10th.
“It’s going to be a proper party, not just a pile of bands,” said head honcho Paul Timoney. The gig will go on “until really late”, and a number of other acts will be added to the bill in the coming weeks. Australian instrumentalists Dirty Three will also play a gig at Whelan’s on December 9th, for a “party of sad music”.
U:Mack are a small promotions company, but have become synonymous with booking well-respected underground acts often overlooked by the bigger Irish promoters. It has its roots in a record label of the same name, which was established in 1994. Around the same time, Niall McGuirk of Hope Promotions was winding up his own company and passed on his list of contacts to Timoney. They soon began to run alternative club nights, and eventually began booking a wide range of left-field musicians, film-makers and comedians to perform in Dublin.
“Niall’s word was 100 per cent golden in all the world’s great underground music scenes, and within weeks I was asked to put on gigs for bands like Fugazi, Killdozer, Neurosis and No Means No,” says Timoney. “I booked the headliner for our 20th birthday a few months ago as a statement of intent.”
www.umack.com
