Kristen Sinclair

Source: @snowpatrol on Instagram Getting a thirteen-piece band together to rearrange twenty-five years’ worth of songs for a two-and-a-half-hour set is no mean feat. Incorporating strings, brass, slide guitar and an intermission, this is no ordinary gig rehearsal. For founding Snow Patrol member and drummer Jonny Quinn , it’s just part of his day job. “We have about over a hundred songs to learn, but it’s good fun,” the Bangor native tells the Gown from his home in London. “It’s great to reimagine the songs for ourselves, as well as the people who really enjoy hearing them in different ways.” Following a seven-year hiatus, last year’s gold-certified Wildness was their last LP since 2011’s Fallen Empires . Now, the NI legends are back and jumping in at the deep end with a new album and tour. To mark their 25 th anniversary, the five-piece are releasing Reworked , a re-imagining of thirteen of their classic tracks, as well as three new songs. Fans were teased with two Rewo

The dark upstairs room of an old sports bar in Belfast is an unassuming venue for a revolution. Against a backdrop of silver streamers and placards from the pro-choice rally that has just taken place, a small crowd gathers as Sister Ghost blast out a rendition of Nirvana’s ‘Love Buzz’. Vocalist Shannon Delores O’Neill sings in impassioned yelps, continually falling to her knees, eyes closed, and dropping the microphone at the end of the song. Nirvana played the track at the first ever Rock for Choice benefit in Hollywood, California, in 1991. Sister Ghost are performing it at a fundraiser for the same cause. One of many placards in the Ulster Sports Club Amid the threat posed by Brexit, civil rights struggles and a paramilitary resurgence, the political situation in Northern Ireland remains fragile. The country is gasping in a political vacuum without a functioning government since 2017, after disagreements between the two main parties, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and

'The North is Next' as it appears in print (Source: my own) “The North is Next” read the sign held aloft by Sinn F é in’s Michelle O’Neill and Mary Lou McDonald as the landslide victory of Ireland’s Repeal the 8 th referendum was announced at Dublin Castle earlier this year. Though for some, there was the underlying feeling that not all Irish women had reason to celebrate. Whilst the Republic’s constitutional ban on abortion would now be lifted, the six north-eastern counties of Ulster remain faced with some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. In the last few years, the Republic has been a leading light across the world for becoming the first country to legalise same sex-marriage by popular vote and also electing an openly gay Taoiseach. A once devoutly Catholic state has become a liberal and progressive society, dwarfing its conservative and backward northern counterpart. The four small words that make up that alliterative slogan – “The North is Next

A small, rough-and-ready zine I made at GRSNI & UsFolk: Zine Workshop as part of Belfast's International Women's Day celebrations (9th March 2019). The zines made in the workshop were based on the theme of women that inspire you, so I chose to focus on some of the wonderful female acts on the local NI music scene.

F*EMS (Females* for Equality Making Stuff),  as it appears in print At first glance, it may not be that noticeable. When festival season comes around each summer, something is almost consistently missing from lineups across the globe: women. This is never clearer than when festival posters are displayed with only acts featuring at least one female member, and the results are dire. That’s where Lineups Without Males comes in. The Australia and New Zealand-based Instagram account of the same handle (@lineupswithoutmales) highlights the gender disparity and male-dominated festival scene in Australasia, which is reflected across the world. The account posts edited versions of festival posters with the male acts removed, juxtaposed with the original to draw attention to the huge empty spaces in many lineups. The account creators crunch the numbers to caption each post with the percentage of artists which feature a non-male member on each bill. Some of the findings are especially