NORTHERN IRELAND is on a musical roll these days, with Two Door Cinema Club, Not Squares, and Japanese Popstars - showing that some of the best Irish bands right now are from up north.
Another Ulster band who look like being added to this list is Magherafelt, Co Derry, trio General Fiasco, who play the Róisín Dubh this Tuesday at 9pm.
General Fiasco - Owen Strathern (lead vocals/bass ), Enda Strathern (lead guitar/vocals ), and Stephen Leacock (drums ) - released their debut album Buildings in March.
“It’s all quite upbeat, poppy and rocky, but the contents are all pretty bleak,” says Owen. “It was being aware of everybody wrecking themselves and not realising it.”
Owen put the band together in 2007, roping in his brother Enda and schoolmate Stephen and relocating to Belfast. Their first gig as a three-piece was at Glasgowbury 2007, Northern Ireland’s biggest unsigned music festival.
A demo in the summer of 2008 landed them a spot on the BBC Introducing Stage at that year’s Reading & Leeds festival. Their debut single ‘Rebel Get By’ was released in November 2008 and their second single ‘Something Sometime’ became Zane Lowe’s ‘Hottest Record In The World’.
In the past 12 months General Fiasco have played the BBC Electric Proms and supported Snow Patrol, Fighting With Wire, The Pigeon Detectives, The Answer, and The Enemy.
Tickets are available from the Róisín Dubh and Zhivago.
