MUSIC Bell X1 and Blondie for Galway Arts Festival’s Big Top

Bell X1 and Blondie for Big Top


Bell X1 and Blondie are among the top attractions at this year’s Galway Arts Festival Big Top. The iconic tent will once again be located in Fisheries Field in the heart of Galway city centre for the duration of the festival, which started yesterday and runs until July 24.
Bell X1, who have a well-earned reputation as amazing live performers, will play this Saturday, July 16. No doubt there’ll be plenty of tracks from their highly anticipated new album, ‘Bloodless Coup’ – as well as older tunes from the hugely successful ‘Blue Lights on the Runway’, which included the massive hit single ‘The Great Defector’.
Bell X1’s latest single, Velcro, already a huge radio hit, has been generating an international buzz for the band on a level not seen before, suggesting that the world is about to switch on to a band that Ireland has already taken to its heart.
Playing support to Bell X1 this year is Belfast’s much-loved Duke Special – A fervent performer who matches the lost art of the popular song with the found sound of swirling pop, rock and symphony orchestras.
Iconic pop-rock band Blondie, fronted by the inimitable Debbie Harry, make a welcome return to Galway Arts Festival on Wednesday, July 20. The band’s 2008 performance has gone down in the festival’s history as one of its most memorable gigs ever, so this is definitely one to try and see. Galway audiences are surely set for another dazzling Blondie performance at the Festival Big Top on Wednesday July 20th
With a string of worldwide hits, including ‘Heart of Glass’, ‘Hanging on the Telephone’, ‘Call Me’, ‘Atomic’, ‘Denis Denis’, ‘One Way or Another’, ‘Maria’ and ‘Sunday Girl’, Blondie created a soundtrack for much of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. Inducted into the prestigious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, Blondie emerged as the great icons of New York’s celebrated late-1970s new-wave punk scene and Debbie Harry went from the pages of Punk magazine to being on the cover of just about every mainstream publication on the news stands. The rest is pop history.
Other events in this year’s festival include the world premiere of a new play by Enda Walsh, ‘Misterman’, starring Cillian Murphy; a major new exhibition by Hughie O’Donoghue called ‘The Road’; an unmissable double-bill with American hip-hop legends De La Soul and big-band-jazz musicians Hypnotic Brass Ensemble; two Shakespeare productions from Ed Hall’s Propeller Theatre Company –  ‘Richard III’ and ‘The Comedy of Error’; a new play by Mike Bartlett, a comedy called ‘Love, Love Love’; ‘The Devil’s Spine Band’, a multi-disciplinary performance and installation under the direction of Trevor Knight, in a stunning visual setting by Mayo-based artist Alice Maher, featuring an international cast, including the extraordinary performer Olwen Fouéré; AfroCubism, featuring Toumani Diabaté and Eliades Ochoa; and a literary programme that includes Willy Vlautin, Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibín, Emma Donoghue.

For more information on the Galway Arts Festival, or to book tickets, visit www.galwayartsfestival.ie. Tickets can also be booked by calling 091 566577 or dropping into the Festival Box Office at the Galway Tourist Office, Forster Street.