THE generosity of music lovers from far and wide is helping to save a highly anticipated release of a vinyl record capturing the magic of a very special concert in Ennis.
Last year The Clare Champion spoke with Sinéad Nic Síoda of the Record Break vinyl store and cafe about her plans to release a record of the concert in St Columba’s Church in memory of her late partner Shaun Meates, sharing with us they had always dreamed of releasing their own vinyl.
While the concert and recording was a success, with a number of well known musicians giving their support to the planned album, Sinéad was stunned when the manufacturers went into liquidation earlier this year.
Despite this set-back, she is determined to make her and Shaun’s dream come true and a fundraising campaign aimed at saving the album release was launched.
Sinéad has been thrilled with the response to the online fundraiser, which at the time of going to press has raised over €2,100.
She has expressed her appreciation to everybody who has supported the fundraising effort which remains open to donations. She has been working with new manufacturers and she now hopes to be in a position to launch the recording in the near future.
The Ennis concert was held last September with Malbay Studios capturing the performances of live music acts Clare Watts, Grá C, Senan M, The Davies Brothers and Emma Langford for the planned album titled ‘All Rise’.
Sinéad describes the night as “so beautiful and personal” with a “wonderful” interaction between musicians and the audience.
As well as the musical acts who performed on the night, five pre-recorded songs by the well known Luka Bloom, Gráinne Hunt, Su Hammond, The Robin BiBi Yorkestra were prepared for inclusion in the album as well as a recording of Shaun’s very own music.
The audio files were sent to Dublin Vinyl, Ireland’s only vinyl records manufacturer, last year with Sinéad happily looking forward to seeing her and Shaun’s dream become a reality. However, she was then devastated when she learned the manufacturer was going into liquidation putting the planned release of the vinyl at risk.
She recalls, “one can only imagine, the let down experienced.” She continues, “Martin O’Malley of Malbay Studios had sent over the audio files in late November, and I had paid a decent deposit to DV in January of this year, having chosen to work with an Irish company to produce with. I had not seen it coming, how could I? My record shop was going to suffer because what I had invested thus far into this project as a whole, I was now unable to recuperate. Yet I needed to invest further as I could not let it slip away. This was about Shaun, about music, about community, about spirit, I had to do something to save it.”
In addition to working to get her record stampers back from the liquidised manufacturers, she decided to create an online gofundme fundraiser calling it, ‘RB Record All Rise – Vinyl LP Launch’. Since being launched donations have flowed in from music lovers.
Remembering last September’s concert she says, “The acoustics are phenomenal in this church, in fact, renowned, but the visual aesthetics, the art and sculptures, along with the spiritual energy, made it the perfect performance space for an album, I was creating in memory of my late love, Shaun Meates. The concert was so beautiful and personal. The interaction between audience and performers was wonderful. there was a real sense of oneness. I truly believe that music has the capacity to unite us!”
Explaining where the idea behind the concert and the recording she outlines, “County Clare is immense with really talented musicians, Shaun was a musician, and County Clare, was most certainly, his spiritual home. I have Shaun’s music composition, I retrieved from his laptop which will feature on this vinyl record. That, along with our dreaming out loud conversations, in Tuamgraney, of one day, making our own record and his untimely passing, was the catalyst and inspiration for pressing this vinyl. I wanted to show the music world what ingenious musicianship and song writing is taking place in our small corner of it.
The album contents have been specially crafted and compiled by Sinéad, who thanks Kevin Copeland for “being a rock and mentor” to her throughout its planning. It includes a booklet of lyric sheets and photographs and the inner sleeves are ant-static. “I wanted to make our record ‘All Rise’, named by Kevin incidentally, with a high standard. This record means a lot to me!”
Speaking about the reaction to the fundraiser she says, “Instantly people got on board and funded it. The first fund came from a good friend of Shaun’s Pete Brown and within hours there was a few hundred euro. The number of people supporting this is really encouraging and inspirational to me. It really demonstrates how I am not alone in my thinking and my music endeavour of making records of independent song writers, and putting these records on the independent record shop shelf.
“The support is coming from people that love music and back this dream of mine and Shaun’s. I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who has supported this cause so far. I won’t name everyone out, they know who they are but a special thank you to Tony Milan, of the ‘With The Lights Out’ Nirvana cover band, for pledging €350 and for believing in me! Thank you to the anonymous supporters and to just everyone for pledging big and small, it all counts towards reaching our financial target and not forgetting, adding momentum, and assisting towards the materialisation of this forthcoming record.
“We are presently working with a new manufacturers. Our campaign is still open and we hope to be planning a launch date very very soon. If you pledge €50 or more, there will be a record from the first ever RB record press, offered to you at this launch. I look forward to seeing you there!”
Donations to the fundraising campaign can be made at gofundme.com.