You've Got Male

On Saturday night we shouted at the telly when Duke Special won his Meteor Award for Best Irish Male. The fella looked properly surprised and made a right haimes of his acceptance speech. But we don’t celebrate him for his public speaking skills, rather the soul, the fun and the musicality. I’ve heard a few snatches of his upcoming Kurt Weill / Huckleberry Finn EP and it’s another intrepid dimension. His award may also make up for the sad night two years ago when he didn’t win the Choice Music Prize and his van was burgled outside the venue, costing him a stack of CDs and merchandise.

The Meteor billing for Gary Lightbody and Lisa Hannigan suggested that they were singing ‘Some Surprise’ in public for the first time. Not true. They managed this on May 5, 2007 at the Oh Yeah Open Day in Belfast. I believe there may even be a bootleg film of it out there. Here’s a still of it anyway.

Like Duke, I’m not anticipating an acceptance speech at the Irish Blog Awards on March 1 in Dublin. But I’m touched to be on the shortlist for Best Music Blog. There’s a frenzy of ideas out there, and I’d say the smart money music be on nialler9, who is batting away impressively, shaming the older hacks with all that energy.

Stu Bailie presents The Late show on Radio Ulster, every Friday from 10pm until midnight. See his playlist here.