Bell X1’s acoutsic tour is coming to Ballybofey.
BY SEÁN P. FEENY
NEXT month one of Ireland’s favourite Indie bands of the last decade for what will be their third visit in the last four years.
Dave Geraghty, Paul Noonan and Dominic Philips, collectively known at Bell X1 will be performing at the centre later next month on Friday, November 23.
One of the most consistently successful and acclaimed Irish acts of the last decade, this will be Bell X1’s Third visit to The Balor having played sold-out shows in 2008 and 2010.
Ahead of this much anticipated visit by the band to Ballybofey on their current nation-wide tour we caught up with Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan.
The new tour was announced soon after the band’s performance to a rammed tent at the Electric Picnic during the summer.
Paul said the band were a little nervous about playing at the Picnic again, but were delighted when it went ‘really well’ for them.
“The whole weekend actually went really well and the festival was back to feeling special again.
“It wasn’t uncomfortably packed, there is a lot more to it than just the music and of course the weather always makes a festival, too.”
Paul said the band’s path down the acoustic route came by accident following the release of Blue Lights on the Runway, the band’s fourth studio album, in 2009.
The band subsequently did a selection of live acoustic gigs around Ireland and found it ‘refreshingly easy’ to tour in this format and so they organised a full tour for 2010 marking the tenth anniversary of the band’s debut album, Neither Am I.
“We arranged a lot of older songs for this tour and while we toured we got recordings of songs from Neither Am I, Music In Mouth, Flock, Blue Lights On The Runway and Bloodless Coup,” said Paul.
The resulting album, Field Recordings, was released in July of this year. Paul said as they recorded at nearly all of their shows, both at home, the UK, Australia and North America, the singer said there was no pressure to get it right in one concert.
“We had endless hours of material to listen to from about 40 shows, but we tried to ensure that we didn’t take more than one song per show in order to give them album a broader spectrum,” the frontman said.
With its acoustics and intimate auditorium the band consider the Balor the perfect venue for their acoustic gigs. “We really do love playing at the Balor, it’s an ideal venue for an acoustic set up so we are looking forward to the concert,” said Paul.
The band will be going back into the studio in early January and for the members of Bell X1 recording is long overdue.
Paul said: “You can get a little impatient with the whole album cycle. You have to sit on ideas for a while, during the time that you tour and promote the previous album, but the whole way of releasing music has changed so you are using online outlets more to get your music to fans.
“We have spent most of this year at home so we have been able to do a lot of writing and that’s what this year was all about, new material, and we got stuck into what will now be the new recording in 2013.”
Bell X1 cap off an impressive line-up of original music at The Balor with Declan Sinnott playing later this week on October 20 and Damien Dempsey playing November 17.
Tickets go on sale this Friday priced €27 and are available from The Balor Box Office on 0749131840 or online at www.balorartscentre.com