TAKE BACK THE CITY - HEARNG WHERE WE ARE IN THE SONGS OF BELFAST SONGWRITERS

“Now we are here…”

It is just a joining line between more significant lines in Joby Fox’s rewriting of Energy Orchard’s classic song Belfast but it is a perfect line for this year’s 4 Corners Festival with the title NOW. HERE.THIS. Of all our events this Festival this is perhaps the one that excites me most, for a whole plethora of reasons.

This is an event that I have been trying to put together for the last few Festivals. This idea that we could hear where we are now through the songs of our own Belfast songwriters. I thought that would be a helpful listening. Listening has always been a word we hold precious at 4 Corners. We are always more keen on keynote listeners than keynote speakers!

To have Iain Archer back at the Festival after his great performance last year is a treat. His song When It Kicks In is perfect fodder for such a night. That is the song of a young man looking back to what he went through during The Troubles, more than a little frustrated at the speed of our journey to healing, but in the end hopeful that the potential of shalom is up ahead.

Then Joby Fox. Energy Orchard’s debut album was a significant commentary into the Belfast of the late 80s. Oh how I loved that record. Sailortown, Somebody’s Brother and Belfast. Joby has rewritten a post conflict version of Belfast and again a listening will cast insights like shards of light across our tentative steps forward.

I have following Ursula Burns’s music for a long time and delighted that she too will bring her imaginative uniqueness in sound and content. Tony Wright is another strong name on this bill. Singer songwriter with VerseChorusVerse he is also the founding member of And So I Watch You From Afar.

As if the music isn’t strong enough it is all held together and unpacked by world renowned rock journalist Stuart Bailie. Stuart is just about to finish writing a book about music and the Troubles so he is a rich seam of knowledge on our subject. 

I cannot wait to hear, in the songs, where we are now!