neilmcgrath.com

New video for "Mo Chairde Go Léir"

2012-01-24T14:06:00.000Z

Directed & Edited by Colm Williamson & Rory Thompson...filmed by Matthew Reilly & Rory...

...some of you will probably remember this track as it is quite an old song now...the reason we only did the video for it now is because I've had a huge increase in hits to my YouTube page since my appearance on "The Voice of Ireland" so I wanted to have one of my own songs for people to listen to when they visited the page...and because it's YouTube you can't have really have audio without some sort of visual so I asked Colm Williamson if he could help me out with making a video to accompany the song...luckily for me he dropped everything he was doing on his own site (www.waterfordwhispersnews.com) and we arranged to shoot the video on Friday 13th...

...Matthew Reilly did the filming on the day and as chance would have it myself and Colm met my old friend and well known local film-maker Rory Thompson on our way in to collect Matthew so he joined us on our trek around Waterford City looking for highpoint locations where we could shoot in order to get the tilt-shift effect...for the Waterford City scenes we would like to say a big thank you to City Square Shopping Centre and the Tower Hotel for allowing us to use their premises to film. The scene on the Quay would not have been possible without using the top floor of the Tower Hotel and so again thanks to them for allowing us access :)

Filming on the day took place in City Square, The Quay, The Guillamene, Tramore Beach and Dunmore. Special thanks to an old friend Ricky Flavin & his cousin David Whelan for being the two guys who walk behind me in the scene with the big bucket and spade because that shot wouldn't have worked without people moving while I stood still ;)

Big thanks to Matthew for doing the filming and I am forever indebted to Colm & Rory for spending the next 3 days editing the footage together into the finished video. Thanks also to Rory for supplying some of his own stock footage (the timelapse cloud scenes among others) which was just too good not to use alongside the footage we had from Friday...

Many thanks also to the various local tourist pages on Facebook that shared a link and helped to promote the video...and of course WLR (click the link for their news article about the video) for their huge support both on-air and via their website and Facebook page...because of the promotion the video had over 2,000 hits in the first 3 days which is an incredible reaction compared to what I was expecting...I will need to revisit this post and list all the friends that gave massive support by sharing links to the video, liking the posts I made and in general just sending best wishes and congratulations...but straight away I need to thank Seán Ó'Briain, Niall Roche, Liam Sinnott, Brian Kennedy, Aisling McGrath & John Mahony for their promo campaign on my behalf over the last week or two...I know a lot of the hits on all of my pages were due to links that ye shared and bombarded everyone with because ye knew I was useless with self-promotion hahaha...I appreciate it and I love ye dearly ;)

The song itself "Mo Chairde Go Léir" is pretty old now but I chose it because I think the lyrics still hold up and although I don't think it's my best song, it's definitely the best recording of one of my songs. It was recorded as part of a WaterfordCityCouncil/IRMA project and I got the chance to work with Ivan O'Shea (of the famous Grouse-Lodge recording studio) and some brilliant local Waterford musicians Alan Shanahan and Mick & Gavin Burke. And last but not least Clonmel man and my on/off songwriting/recording/messing partner Mr. Eamon O'Malley ;)

Next step is to get some more stuff recorded and online, and of course get back gigging so I hope you will all come and see me soon :)

WLR interviews with Billy McCarthy & Ian Noctor

2012-01-23T12:40:00.001Z

I've uploaded 2 of the radio interviews I did last week onto my Soundcloud page...

Neil McGrath - DeiseAM Interview 2012-01-16 by NMcG

Neil McGrath - Noctor Til 6 Interview 2012-01-19 by NMcG

...myself and Richie Hayes [@richiehayes2012] did a quick phone interview with Billy McCarthy on the morning after my blind audition was shown on TV and I did a few more interviews at the station on Wednesday...so far I only have the interview with Ian Noctor from that day but I will post the rest as soon as I can get the audio files...

The Voice of Ireland - Claire chats to Neil backstage

2012-01-16T12:24:00.002Z

Rabbit in headlights moment lol...I had literally just come offstage after doing the audition when I got nabbed to do this interview...my brother Killian is just off camera laughing at me trying to think of answers to these questions off the top of my head hahaha...

The Voice of Ireland - Blind Audition

2012-01-16T12:17:00.000Z

I'm currently taking part in The Voice of Ireland which is being shown on RTÉ 1 at 6.30pm every Sunday...here's the video for my blind audition...

Beta Testers

2011-09-20T23:55:00.000+01:00

Many thanks to Liam, Natalie, Neil & Miranda (oh and of course Alan Mc) see you tomorrow nite...bring yer own cans ;)

BandWagonTV

2010-05-05T17:42:00.003+01:00

I'll be doing a song and quick interview on BandWagonTV on the 15th

Click here for the BandWagonTV website...great idea for a site so looking forward to it I must say :)

They have a YouTube channel too if you'd like to check out some of the previous acts that have appeared...

Save 24hr Search & Rescue Helicopter Cover in South-East

2010-03-23T03:19:00.002Z

Please sign the Petition @ http://www.petitiononline.com/sar01/petition.html

Please join the Facebook Group also.

Ether The Net

2010-03-22T22:34:00.002Z

I'll be posting some new music and videos and stuff pretty soon, waiting on a new laptop to arrive and have a few other bits and pieces to set up so I can record in some sort of decent quality...

I've also set up another blog so I'm trying to use my spare time to get some content up on that aswell:

Ether The Net (http://www.etherthenet.blogspot.com) (Shoutout to NaS and network cables)

Soon as the laptop comes I'll get sorted for doing a lil gig on uStream and will post details here...

Songwriting 101 - Nicki Minaj verse on Sweet Dreams [Remix]

2009-12-15T04:23:00.022Z

Yo, Young Money right here,
Bike here, throw it up, no high chair,
Cold like a white bear,
Freddy Krueger I'm a rap bitch nightmare,
And I’m rich I could buy you,
Kill bitches leave ya body in a bayou,
More brain than an IQ,
More head than a dread...[My yout],
And my bank account ain’t hardly empty,
That's why I come through in a Barbie Bentley,
But please mamacita, please no envy,
When you come around it reads "No Entry",
Who’s next to go,
My flows so flexible,
Get gas, then get at me, Texaco,
Shoot yourself in the leg, Plaxico
White Jag with the twisted lip,
I aint Mike Jack but This Is It!
b- b- b- boo I'm everywhere,
You're like Balloon Boy mama you was never there!
I am the Kung Fu Panda,
Fuck all o’ ya blogs, fuck all o’ ya propaganda,
Good for the goose then its good for the gander,
Nicki aint a rapper, Nicki is a brander,
Please you can never compare to me,
All these bitches is scared of me,
I am who they couldn’t even dare to be,
So That's All Folks!! [Ba de ba dee]
I go hard, PAUSE,
Hospital flow get more gauze,
I'm a bad bitch on all fours,
The president be like "It's All Yours",
Weezy and Nicki bring the A-game, high stats,
Go together like Ricky and his eye patch,
Go together like a team in the gym,
Kareem in the ring, the Queen and the King.

Pop Culture
- Young Money
- Freddy Krueger
- Texaco
- Plaxico Burress Leg Shooting Incident
- Michael Jackson's This Is It!
- Balloon Boy Hoax
- Kung Fu Panda
- Looney Tunes
- Porky Pig Stutter
- Pause or [||] (formerly "No Homo")
- Slick Rick
- Kareem Abdul-Jabar

Simile
- Cold like a white bear

Allusion/Pun
- Freddy Krueger I'm a rap bitch Nightmare
- More brain than an IQ
- More head than a dread...[My yout]
(Large head because of dreads..dreads popular hairstyle of Yardies.."My yout" being Yardie slang for "My Youth"...head and brain as metaphors for fellatio...)
- Get gas / Get gassed...Texaco
- Hospital flow get more gauze

Two-Syllable / Polysyllabic Rhyme
- And I’m rich I could buy you, Kill bitches leave ya body in a bayou

[To Be Continued]

New Google Profile

2009-12-03T02:27:00.010Z

I created a profile for my Google account because I have so many different Google related sites (Blogger, YouTube etc.) and things tied into each other that I thought I might as well have a main page to link from...more for myself than anything really but I did want to share my Google Reader page which is how I ended up getting to the create profile page...

...I've be banging on about Google Reader to a few people lately and if your wondering what all the fuss is then I will explain it in a nutshell...

There's about 20 different sites that I visit daily. Instead of having to visit each one individually Google Reader lets me view them all on a single page in this format:

All the sites I subscribe to are listed on the left hand side and then when I click each one I get a list of every new story published on that site since I last clicked in here and read the articles.

The layout of just the title of the article and the first 3-4 lines of the story is so handy because you can just scroll down quickly through all the articles and when you click on the one you want to read it opens the article in a new window on it's actual website page. So for example although there might be 300 new articles in The Telegraph today I might only want to read 10-20 of them so instead of going to their website and searching through the site for articles of interest, I can just scroll straight down through them in Reader and click what I want. Or add a "Star" to the article and then go to my Starred Items section at the top right later on and read a personal pick of the days news.

BTW, to "Subscribe" to a website you just have to look for this RSS logo listed somewhere on that site:

Click on that and you will get asked which RSS Reader you would like to add it to...in this case it's the Google Reader...

I would recommend this to anyone with a google email address but if you are too lazy to set it up then here are links to my shared reader pages:

Click "View All" to open them in their Google Reader window

And that's about it really...I gotta hand it to them because I'm loving all the integration possible with the Google stuff (enough to rave about it here when I'm not on their payroll)...like when you share something on your shared page it will post it to Twitter also, or when you upload a pic in Twitter it will show on your Google profile etc.

Another of my personal favourites is having my Firefox homepage set to iGoogle:

So when I open Firefox the homepages lets me Google Chat with my friends on the left, I have the weather for Waterford, a search box for Wikipedia, a currency converter and the days headlines from a couple of sites...beautiful eh?

I'll save the talk about Google Wave for another day but if your on it you can add neilmcgrath1@googlewave.com if you like tho to be completely honest I don't have any particular use for it at the moment so I have no idea what we will do together on it that we couldn't do on normal Google Chat...

New video for "Artist Of The Century" on YouTube

2009-11-09T05:28:00.005Z

There is a low quality version of the video for "Artist Of The Century" on my YouTube page. This will be replaced by the HD version in a couple of days...

I recorded this back in March with my friend Rory Thompson doing the filming. The project came about for two reasons; I've been wanting to put my music on YouTube but I didn't want to upload anything without a visual accompaniment because I think that's boring for new music. I don't mind listening to old or obscure songs on YouTube that don't have a video (because it's really just the song I am looking for in that scenario) but for a medium like YouTube I think new music MUST be presented with a visual accompaniment to catch and retain your interest in a song you haven't heard before. If you just want to promote your music without video then there a million different places online to do so, but when it comes YouTube I think most people are primarily looking for something to actually watch and not just listen to.

And the second reason? Rory got a new HD camera and wanted to test it out on something ;)

So we recorded the footage for the video a couple of months ago and then Rory had a couple of other "real-projects-that-you-get-paid-for-doing" which came in, so for the sake of paying the bills (but at the loss of my illuminating company) we put things on hold until Friday night...

...when Rory turned up at the door with 6 cans of Carlsberg and the finished video on DVD...

The sound and picture quality of the DVD is excellent, we watched it on a 47" HD television connected to digital surround sound and it was great quality. For some reason tho, it doesn't seem to have transferred as well to AVI format. I used Xilisoft DVD Ripper to convert the DVD but the .avi that it created seems to have very very high volume levels on the audio which is causing distortion at the peaks. I'm not sure what went wrong as I use this software quite often without problems; thankfully tho the version on the DVD is perfect quality so I'll just have to rip it again. I'll try rip it again when I get up later today and hopefully replace the current version with a fixed version.

Either way it's only a temporary version, the video itself was recorded in HD but Rory just stuck a PAL version on DVD so he could bring it up to show me on Friday. It takes quite a bit of time to render a HD version of the same video so he's gonna try and get that done some time during the week and I'll be able to put the finished HD version online before next weekend.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the video, the finished version was entirely edited and produced by Rory with no input from me so I can't take any credit for that. I basically just directed the video on the day we recorded it by suggesting the shots we took and the angles etc, but Rory was the one who took all the footage and put it together last week into this finished project. I'm delighted with the finished result and very grateful to him for spending the time and effort to get it right.

We have plans to do videos for a couple more of my songs and then after that I'd prefer to do them for new songs instead of the "new video for an old song" thing that we're doing at the moment. Like I said earlier the purpose of these ones is just to get my stuff onto YouTube in a way that not only lets you hear the music but also (as Philly would say) "check out the visuals"...

The M Bizzle Rough Guide to Converting MP3's

2009-11-03T03:34:00.004Z

(Links to Wikipedia and other relevant articles are included throughout. Please note also that this is a first draft of an article about what can often be a highly debated topic so tweaking, editing and revised opinions on the information contained within are to be expected...)

Highest Quality Data Source -

- The Actual CD -
The original source of the data is on the CD itself...most music nowadays is recorded digitally in .WAV format and added to the CD in this format. There is of course mastering etc. before it reaches the CD but that is another story for another day.

Lossless Formats (formats which are EQUAL to the data on the CD...)

- FLAC -
This is a lossless format. That means that it takes the EXACT data from the CD without losing any data. Because of this you will notice the size of the albums to be much bigger (300-500mb) which is nearer* to the size it would be on an audio CD (which can store 700mb of data).

*They are always smaller because FLAC files are kind of like Winzip for audio; they can make the files smaller (sometimes by more than 50%) but without losing any data (how this works is too complicated to explain and again is another story for another day)...

Pro's
Having a album in FLAC format is equivalent to owning the actual physical CD. There is NO loss in sound quality whatsoever. Converting to MP3 from FLAC is the same as converting from the CD itself.

Cons
FLAC files will not play thru xBox, Media Player, iTunes or on an iPod. Therefore you will probably have to convert them to MP3. They will play in VLC media player, however unless you have a good sound card and a high end stereo system connected to your PC you will not be able to hear the true quality of FLAC. In other words there is no real need to have music files at this quality unless you have a system that will give playback at this quality.

- Apple Lossless -
Apple Lossless files are the Apple equivalent to FLAC. Again there is absolutely NO loss of quality compared to the original source data on the CD.

Pro's
This format WILL play in Apple iTunes or on an iPod.

Cons
Again, unless you have a high end system connected to your laptop you wont notice a difference. If you just play music thru standard speakers on a mid-price range laptop for example, you wouldn't notice any difference between an MP3 and a Lossless file. In fact the MP3 would be a better option because it would take up much less room on your laptop.

The other con about the Lossless format is that the playback on iPods themselves is not actually that great. I don't know about the highest priced iPods but the iPod Nano playback is definitely not good enough to hear the true quality of a Lossless file. The headphones aren't good enough either. So basically if you fill your iPod Nano with Lossless files you won't be able to store half as many albums as you could in MP3 and not only that but you won't be able to hear any difference in the quality compared to a decent MP3 version anyway.

Lossy Formats...

- MP3s -
First of all a little about MP3's. An MP3 is basically a compressed version of an original sound file. However, unlike the Lossless format of FLAC, MP3 uses Lossy Compression. The purpose of compressing it is to make it smaller in size and therefore more portable and economical.

For example, if you were in a recording studio recording a song, you would record it onto the studio PC as a .WAV file. By doing this you are basically recording the sounds that are being fed into the microphones exactly as they are. Again it is important to understand that an MP3 is a compressed version of a raw sound file such as .WAV

If the song was 3 mins long, the .WAV file you record to the hard drive might be about 70mb in size (this is just an example figure, it would depend on how much instrumentation you are recording etc.)

As you probably know, a 3 minute MP3 file would probably only be about 2-5mb (depending on the quality of the MP3 bitrate which we will talk about in a moment). 2-5mb is obviously a lot more practical for MP3 players etc. because you could fit about 200 MP3s on a 1GB MP3 player compared to about 15 .WAV's on the same size player.

So how do you compress a 70mb sound file down into a 3mb sound file?

There is only one way and that is to DISCARD some of the information. Now that doesn't mean that the MP3 format of the song will have no drum track or no guitar solo in the middle LOL. In reality the majority of these are high and low end frequencies that are out of range to the human ear so you won't even notice unless you have super human hearing.

However...there are many different types of MP3 quality that you WOULD be able to notice the difference with:

Bit Rates

- MP3 @ 64kbps -
This is about the lowest rate you can create an MP3 at. It is acceptable for human speech only (a podcast or an audio book etc) but for music it is absolutely fucking AWFUL. It will sound like the song has no EQ and the better the system you play it on the more you will notice how tinny and hissy and shitty it sounds.

- MP3 @ 128kpbs -
This is ok for shitty laptop speakers and MP3 players but on a decent system it will sound sub par. You would definitely notice if you played the same music from the original CD on the same system.

- MP3 @ 192kbps -
This is what I would consider an acceptable MP3. It is listed as "CD Quality" on a lot of converters (iTunes etc.) and to be honest it is acceptable to most people with average hearing and average sound player equipment. If you are just a casual music listener and you don't concentrate on things like the EQ of a snare drum or the clarity of bass etc. then this is usually sufficient. MP3s at this bitrate are usually a nice small size and perfect for people who want quantity rather than quality of music on their systems. Again tho like I said, this quality is quite acceptable and calling it otherwise is just snobbery :)

- MP3 @ 256kbps -
This is getting closer to the quality of a FLAC or LOSSLESS file. At this bit rate, very little information is discarded. 256 kbps MP3's will be a bit bigger compared to the 192 kbps versions for this very reason.

- MP3 @ 320kbps -
This is the closest you can get to the quality of a FLAC file but in MP3 format. Only the most non-essential information is discarded when converting into MP3 and therefore the file retains as much of the original information as possible. As a result, these will be the biggest sized MP3 files.

*** To let you judge for yourself, I will take a FLAC music file soon and convert it into each of these formats, then I will post a link to every version including the original FLAC so that you can download and listen to each one to see if you can notice any difference on whatever your system of choice is.

And now just to make things MORE confusing:

There are two different methods for converting a file into MP3: CBR or VBR. There is a third called ABR but I'm going to leave that one out for the moment.

CBR
CBR is CONSTANT BIT RATE. This means that if you convert to MP3 at 320kbps CBR then the MP3 will be 320kbps for the ENTIRE song. Every second of the song will be at 320kbps.

Now here is the thing...does every single second of the song NEED to be at 320kbps? Some parts of it might definitely need to be, and some songs in their entirity might need to be. But if for example there is silence in the song, how could you possibly notice the difference between silence at 320kbps or silence at 192kbps. You are listening to SILENCE!!

So whereas 320kbps is definitely the ideal bit rate for an MP3, the fact is that not every song (e.g. songs with minimal instrumentation and sound) needs to be at 320kbps. As I mentioned before, the 320kbps MP3 files are the largest in size, but if the song doesn't need to 320kbps for every single second of the song, then you could be creating an MP3 which is larger in size than it needs to be. The sound quality will be perfect of course, but like I said it may make the file larger than it needs to be. Unless you do need to listen to silence @ 320kbps of course...

VBR
VBR is VARIABLE BIT RATE. This is self explanatory; the bit rate varies based on the how much it can be compressed without compromising data.

There are 9 different quality settings for VBR:

-V 9 - POOR - Estimated Bit Rate: 70kbps
-V 8 - POOR - Estimated Bit Rate: 80kbps
-V 7 - POOR - Estimated Bit Rate: 100kbps
-V 6 - POOR - Estimated Bit Rate: 120kbps
-V 5 - POOR - Estimated Bit Rate: 130kbps
-V 4 - MEDIUM - Estimated Bit Rate: 100kbps
-V 3 - MEDIUM - Estimated Bit Rate: 170kbps
-V 2 - STANDARD - Estimated Bit Rate: 190kbps
-V 1 - HIGH - Estimated Bit Rate: 220kbps
-V 0 - EXTREME - Estimated Bit Rate: 240kbps

-V 0 would be the ideal setting to get the best possible quality MP3 but at a smaller size than a 320 CBR. In other words, if it NEEDS to be 320kbps then it will be but if it can be less then it will be.

Example

Converting "The Long & Winding Road" from FLAC to MP3
[FLAC filesize is 19.3 MB]

1. FLAC to MP3 using 320kbps CBR

Result: The MP3 file is 8.16 MB in size with a bit rate of 320kbps

2. FLAC to MP3 using -V 0 VBR

Result: The MP3 file is 5.44 MB in size with a bit rate of 213kbps

So as you can see, you could rip the track at 320kbps if you want absolutely consistent high quality, but the song only needs to be at 213kbps and as a result it is about 3MB smaller. Also, it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that you would be able to hear any difference in the two versions with 90% of music systems and 90% of human ears.

How do I convert my MP3's?
So my own personal preference is to either download albums in FLAC format or convert them to FLAC from my own CD collection and then convert them to MP3 in -V 0 VBR format. This means my MP3 collection has probably the best balance between having the highest possible quality of sound with the smallest possible size of MP3 (without compromising quality to achieve that small size)

However, the majority of my MP3 collection (20,000+ songs) is NOT at this quality and won't be until I like the album enough and listen to it enough to go and get a better quality version. A lot of my collection is reference material or things I listen to purely to check out a certain genre of music and maybe learn something from. The stuff that I listen to a lot is all I am interested in hearing at this level of quality because I know the music so well that I would hear the difference on a decent system*

*I store my MP3's on a laptop which is wirelessly connected to the XBox360 using Windows Media Player Sharing. The xBox is connected to a Logitech 5.1 surround system using a fibre optical digital cable (TOSLINK). You NEED to be using this sort of equipment and cabling to be able to hear the quality of higher bit rate MP3's, if you are using a standard AUX audio cable (left and right red/white cables) then you won't hear the difference in quality (maybe between a 64kbps and a 220kbps or something extreme like that).

Conclusion

As long as the MP3 is at LEAST 192kbps it will sound fine on pretty much any system.

For lower quality systems you could probably even go as low as 128kbps but NO LOWER with music.

If you have a good sound system and want your MP3's to be as close to the quality of sound that you would get on a CD then you should convert either the CD itself of the FLAC version into MP3 using -V 0 VBR. You could also use 320kbps CBR but as I mentioned before you will have larger sized MP3 files when they might not need to be. (Note: The best program to use for converting to MP3 is dBpoweramp)

If you want to make a virtual backup of your CD collection then you should convert them to FLAC format and store them on an external hard drive. That way, if anything should happen to your CD collection in the future, you will have EXACT virtual replicas of them on your hard drive and you can then use this as your root source for converting to MP3. Because of the huge size of FLAC files, I would only use them in this scenario. If I am just looking for one album online then I will download it in FLAC format, convert it to MP3 and then delete the original FLAC version to save space on the laptop hard drive. The reason I download it in FLAC format instead of just looking for the MP3 version is because most MP3 versions are ripped badly using poor converters. There is an online group called DarksideRG which have strict quality standards for ripping so if I saw an album with DarksideRG in the filename or details I would trust it but the majority of everything else out there is sub standard.

There are a couple of other things related to creating and maintaining your MP3 library which I will post articles about soon:

ID3 Meta Data - The information embedded into the MP3 (Song Name, Track Number, Artist etc.) that displays in your media player of digital screen on your MP3 player.

C2 Error Correction - To avoid hissing and popping transfer and to rip scratched CD's.

Useful Links
Hydrogen Audio - The be all and end all of audio info
stevehoffman.tv - The meeting place for audiophiles
What the hell is an "audiophile"?
7 Facts Audiophiles Need to Know About Digital Music
The World's 15 Sexiest Speakers Put Your Girlfriend to Shame
VBR vs. CBR
ABR (left out of article)
How MP3 works

Not so smart NOW Facebook are ya???

2009-11-02T22:45:00.002Z

Facebook are blocking people from posting the following link on Facebook pages to try and stop you from using Facebook Purity. They can't block a link to a link tho. Idiots.

http://steeev.freehostia.com/wp/2009/03/19/facebook_purity_cleans_up_the_facebook_homepage/

uStream without a paddle...

2009-10-28T03:09:00.002Z

Going live soon...

New Video on my YouTube channel

2009-03-30T23:47:00.002+01:00

I did this cover of Rory Gallaghers version of Leadbelly's "Out On The Western Plain" last Friday down in Rory Thompsons house...he got a new HD Video Camera with 5.1 sound recording and all sorts of cool stuff on it...sound seems good on playback from what I've heard but the picture isn't as good as I've seen it purely because it was starting to get dark and we never bothered to switch on a light :)

Did a good few takes of it..this was the best overall one..I thought I played some bits a lot better in other takes but then I made a small mistake further into it or whatever and just scrapped it..it's a little bit fast but that's how I would probably play it at a gig..I'm thinking of re-recording a slower version with a bit more emphasis on the clarity of the notes etc...all in all tho I'm pretty happy with it as a little rough idea of what I'm about :)

Myself and Mr. Thompson did some more recording a couple of weeks ago for another one of my songs; we will be putting together a video with the footage pretty soon and putting that up too (and hopefully some more in the near future)...I'm holding off on putting my studio recorded songs up on YouTube until I have a visual accompaniment for them because I think people get bored listening to new and unheard music on YouTube unless it has video to go with it...so the plan for the next couple of weeks is to do some more filming and all that sort of jazz ;)

No plans for Turkish tour dates in the foreseeable future...

2009-03-04T04:16:00.005Z

Absolutely no idea what I did to piss off a Turkish militant group enough to hack my website forum "for Turkey"...but as my old music teacher once said to me..."You haven't made it until an entire country hates you"

neilmcgrath @ reverbnation

2009-02-20T07:08:00.001Z

I'm now on ReverbNation...there's some cool widgets which allow you to embed a music player on sites like the one below [or the one I stuck on the side of this blog]:

music is @ http://www.myspace.com/neilmcgrath

2009-02-19T13:31:00.000Z

Listen to my music ---> HERE <---

[edit: There is a ReverbNation player on the Facebook page now...]

downloadmusic.ie

2009-02-19T04:12:00.000Z

Right now I've only got one track for sale on downloadmusic.ie which you can link to by clicking on the picture above this text

Here's some more links and details also:

Click HERE for my main music sales page on downloadmusic.ie

Buy Mo Chairde Go Leir for €1 :

- PC Download @ http://www.downloadmusic.ie/?pc=2479

- To buy this track with SMS, users should text music 2479 to 57501 (Texts cost €1, which includes operator revenue share. Republic Of Ireland ONLY.)

- Mobile Download @ http://www.downloadmusic.ie/?m=2479

- To buy this track with SMS for Direct to Mobile download, users should text music 2479 m to 57501 (Texts cost €1, which includes operator revenue share. Republic Of Ireland ONLY.) Operator Data Transfer fees also apply for mobile downloads.

- Click HERE to buy this track from the UK

So basically you can get the track 3 different ways:

1. Go directly to Downloadmusic.ie and pay for it online, then download it.
2. Text music 2479 to 57501 and pay for it with your phone credit/bill, you will receive a text back with a PIN number. Visit Downloadmusic.ie, enter the PIN and then download the track.
3. Text music 2479 m to 57501 and pay for it with your phone credit/bill, you can download the track directly onto your phone.

So there you have it, please go and buy it immediately!!

Neil

Guess Who's Back? Who? You were gone somewhere?

2009-02-19T02:44:00.000Z

Hello again...

In the unlikely event that you've ever heard of me before now, it's been a long time and it's good to be back...and for the majority of you that have no idea who I am; nice to meet you and I hope that you enjoy my music :)

So after years of resistance to selling out and promoting myself online I've finally decided to drop all the pseudonyms and aliases and create some Neil McGrath sites to promote my music. I'm still gonna be keeping my alias profiles on Facebook etc. to chat with just my friends but for all things Neil McGrath related I'm gonna be whoring myself @ the following locations:

(This) Blog: http://neilmcgrath.blogspot.com/

Website: http://www.neilmcgrath.com

ReverbNation: http://www.reverbnation.com/neilmcgrath

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/neilmcgrathDOTCOM

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/NeilMcGrath

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/neilmcgrath

Bebo: http://www.bebo.com/neilmcgrathDOTCOM

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Neil-McGrath/65205277848

Buy My Music: Click here for my main sales page on Downloadmusic.ie

I'm going to be selling my music on Downloadmusic.ie and iTunes (when I set it up)

For the moment I am just selling one track "Mo Chairde Go Leir" and I'll post a second blog in a moment with details on how to buy it online or with your mobile phone.

Oh and finally if anyone sends emails anymore or if anyone wants to offer me a $1,000,000 record deal then you can write to me at these email addresses:

info@neilmcgrath.com or NeilMcGrath1@googlemail.com

I think that's everything for now anyway...I'll be creating a fan page thing on Facebook soon so I'll post that up aswell... [*Update* I just added the link to the Facebook Fan Page now]

And lastly, thanks to everyone and anyone that encouraged me or supported my music along the way...I really appreciate it and I hope to see you all soon when I get back to playing gigs this spring :)

Neil

Pretay good...pretay..pretay..pretay..pretay good

2007-10-18T07:21:00.001+01:00

Not so good it seems....having some odd problems with this blog at the moment I dunno what's goin' on...will try get it sorted later this evening...

Blue Moon

2007-03-24T19:28:00.001Z

Still alive. Watch this space...

Please vote for me in the Pringles Unsung competition!!

2006-11-24T09:46:00.001Z

http://www.pringlesunsung.com/submissions/view/205

Hello there,

If you get a chance today, please vote for "An Angel In The Sky" on the Pringles Unsung competition website :)

It only takes a second to do, basically just click the link below and when the page loads, click on the "Nominate" button. It asks you to enter a 5-digit code (just to prove your not a programs set up to submit cheat votes) and press "ok". And that's it!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE !!

I'd really appreciate if you could take a moment to do this, it seems like a good competition so I'd be very grateful for any support with my entry :) And of course if you like the song enough, please tell others to vote for it aswell.

Thanks for your time and hopefully your votes!

Regards,
Neil

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR ME IN THE PRINGLES UNSUNG COMPETITION !!

I'm on WLR doin the Top 5 at 8pm tonite!!

2006-10-13T19:41:00.001+01:00

Ok idiot boy here forgot to tell anyone he was doing the show this week, so with 25 minutes to go I'll announce it now..

Mark Graham (you may remember I said he was my favourite Waterford musician on my last Beat102 interview) who hosts "Sideshow with Mark Graham" on WLR every friday nite between 19:30 and 22:00 asked me to come on the show to play and talk about my top 5 favourite records and I was only DELIGHTED to accept...

How cool is that tho seriously, I love the show and I've only been DYING to pick my top 5 since I heard about it, you get to talk about why you like the songs and that aswell so can't wait ;)

My top 5 songs (not my life or death definitive top 5 cos that was IMPOSSIBLE) are as follows:

1. Make Your Own Kind Of Music - Mama Cass Elliot

2. That Close To You - John Prine

3. Inside Of Me - Steve Van Zandt

4. Nevertheless - Brian Jonestown Massacre

5. Baby, Let Me Follow You Down - Bob Dylan

Tune in and check it out if you can...it's on WLR FM and you can stream it live online from here:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DYLAN!!

2006-10-05T02:18:00.001+01:00

Happy 6th birthday Dylan...daddy will be home in few hours to play with the new castle with his best buddy ;)

Long lost memories...

2006-10-05T01:58:00.001+01:00

Dya remember the time when I raided my own house!!! Oh my god I only thought of this tonite for the first time in about 5 years...it was just after my dad died and my mother was gone to visit her sister for the weekend...me and Killian decided to throw a party in the house while she was away and invited all our mates over...

Later on in the nite, I went out to the garage and put on my fathers old security guard jacket and hat from his old job (they are almost identical to the yellow garda jacket and the garda hat) and snuck around the side of the house to the front door...I started banging on the front door and as soon as someone answered (I think it was Phelo or Noel Curran maybe) I burst in the door shouting about warrants and the like...What are you holding in your hand mister!! WHAT ARE YOU HOLDING!!" I made such a commotion that nobody spotted it was me at first, the colour just drained from everyones faces and nodges were fired in all directions around the sitting room. Absolutely scared THE LIVING BEJEUS out of everyone at the party for those couple of seconds, once they realised it was me it brought the fucking house down, we were still laughing about 2 hours later...

Good days, good friends and good memories. I have a million more of them all stored in my head, ready to bring a smile to my face when I dig them back out again and reminisce :)

It's the funny stuff that happens along that way that keeps me going. And in the small town of Tramore, I've met more funny people and seen more funny things than I ever thought could be possible in a place this size. I just can't wait to find out what the next thing is going to be ;)

Stingray not to blame...

2006-09-06T02:48:00.004+01:00

Go Shawty..

2006-07-18T03:35:00.002+01:00

Well. And well enough to say it. Yep, the summer is definitely here right about now and the girls in Tramore are just unreal. Really tho. I'm not making that up. The town is just bursting with little hotties. Locals too I might add. I love girls girls girls...girls I do adore...

Anyway, I'm gonna be burnin it up this weekend like it was 1666..my favourite group "Correkt Minds" are playing The Baldy Man this weekend, and having prioritised my priorities that's top of the priority list. Who knows, we might even throw someone down a well afterwards and if they float then they must be a witch.

urban intelligence & correckt minds. baldy man. friday. 22nd july. 10pm.

the place will be hopping. the hotties will be bopping. dom p poppin. chocolate sprinkle topping. over spending money meant for next weeks shopping.

So come one, come all..not since the glory days of Rome I tell ya, has mankind known such valent mysteries...

Tra Fest / 3 Songs from "First Thoughts" finished and ready to download...

2006-06-26T05:17:00.003+01:00

Myself and Eamon are playing in the Shanty for this years Tra Fest. The gig starts at 10.30pm in The Shanty Bar on Friday, 30th June, 2006.

Full listings for this festival can be found here.

The McGrath's were said to be from the descendants of Brian Boru's brother Ahearne, and were appointed to be bards and historians. This we know from many sources and from the many appearances in the Irish Chronicles listing the McGraths as bards, historians, poets, chroniclers, antiquarians, singers, story tellers, and termoners.

3 songs from the album are done. well whatever next eh...

Edit: There seems to be an issue with the www.myspace.com/neilmcgrath link. The page is there and you can locate it inside of myspace if you are a member or a friend but for some reason that direct link is not connecting to the page. I've mailed them about sorting it out but for now they are all available to download free here:

Vision Inc. - http://www.speedyshare.com/801802499.html

An Angel In The Sky - http://www.speedyshare.com/863487702.html

First Thoughts On Forever - http://www.speedyshare.com/998624894.html

I hope you enjoy them :)

And if you are reading this Niall you will be ready for my call tomorrow about getting them up on this site asap ;)

needless to say, none of this would have been possible without the help and guidance of my trusted sidekick and pal mister Eamon "Malso The Magnificent" O'Malley. These songs have been with me a long time and they are both important and dear to me, if that doesn't sound too corny. They are like old friends but Eamon has given them new life and they are closer to the sounds and ideas I had in mind for them before I ever had anyone to play other instruments on them..

As you know, I'm not too keen on the myspace music aggressive marketing initiative currently sweeping the net and so I won't be promoting this thing to death or in your face too much..I will probably send out a bulletin and also a mail from my own mail account but there won't be any ridiculously large Neil & Eamon posters plastered on your comments section for all your friends to see. If the songs are any good, you'll tell them yourself like you do with any new music you find and like..and they might just like the songs too...

the only other thing i wanted to say is that you should check out the lyrics too if possible and if you can't get them from this page (tho hopefully you can as i uploaded them with the songs) then you can get them from my website (there's a link to it on my profile)..

thanks to everyone who supports our music

Charity Gig in aid of Cancer Research...

2006-03-29T22:39:00.002+01:00

There's a charity night in The Forum, Waterford on Saturday, April 15th which is the Easter bank holiday and it would be great if you all could show some support for a great cause. It's a cause close to my own heart as I lost my own father to cancer so it is an honour to be invited to play and be involved..

Bands on the night include Relish, The Answer and myself and Eamon amongst others so expect a top quality nite of musical entertainment!

And lastly, please tell anybody else you think might want to come along on the nite :)

Thanks,
Burger

R.I.P. B.I.G.

2006-03-09T01:46:00.000Z

Christopher George Letore Wallace
21st May 1972 - 9th March 1997

R.I.P. The Greatest MC of ALL TIME...

Movin' On Up :)

2006-03-01T07:51:00.002Z

good grief i cant believe i havent updated this thing in so long, truth be told tho i haven't had a whole lot to talk of on the music front of late, but with pretty good reason...i've been busy buying a house and going through the million and fifty things that go along with buying a house..never stopped to think really of how much stuff has to be done in order to make it all go thru and the stress levels have certainly been fluctuating from day to day...

...but it's just about done now and all i can say is i'm absolutely delighted, it's a lovely big house and we should have the keys for it next friday..honestly cannot wait :) :) :) needs a good bit of work so we'll be painting n stuff for a couple of days but sur that will be half the fun...

...and of course that's the reason why the oul recording has been on hold recently, i'm a couple of hundred grand in debt at the moment so haven't really been able to afford any studio time, what with solicitors fees, deposits, valuers, surveyors and oh my god we've only started on the furniture and fitted kitchens and stuff like that and oh my god i was living in 1987 as regards prices of things...nearly had a heart attack the first day we went shopping hahaha but i'm recovered from the shock now and really starting to get into the swing of it lol...

i hope to be in the house in the next two weeks or so, everything should be finalised this week so i'll be trying to get back into the studio asap...i know it prob seems like i have been putting this off forever or at least about 15 months or so but fuck it what can i say, these things take time n money and i only have so much of each...i'd rather hold off until i feel it's done properly instead of rushing it out as cheaply as possible, it just doesn't work that way...trust me if i was signed to a label and had them paying for studio time, we'd be on our fourth album by now, it would be a double album and Eamon would already have his own solo box set out aswell..but as it is we just have to keep plugging away, it will get there tho don't worry ;)

on a positive note (and to be honest i can't get much more positive than the house right now) i had a listen to the album recently as it is now, i stuck all the tracks in their current state on a cd in their current order and im currently still happy with it. so there ya go...sur have a listen to some samples on the music page here or on my myspace site...

talk soon, sooner than last time anyway ;)

Burger

hApPy nEw yEaR...

2006-01-16T06:43:00.001Z

the new year is here and we gotta get this album finished off but before I talk about that let me first of all take this opportunity to laugh at Malso the Malfunctional for breaking his laptop within 7 days of purchasing it..he was only using my laptop for about 20 minutes over xmas and it stopped working for about the same amount of time..anywayz his replacement has arrived and I'll be taking small bets in the forum section of the site on how long this one will last him...

...anyways we've both been taking it easy over xmas on the musical front, I had a good few days holidays left to take from work so I had a couple of weeks at xmas to just chill with friends and family, we only did the one gig which was xmas eve and from there on it was pure munchies, cubase and the xbox 360 (yep..we got one. yep. we booked it in July) until Jan 8th when the fun finally had to come to an end...

...highlights were xmas nite and new years eve spent in the O'Sullivan residence...that's as much as I can say about that for now but those who were there know ;)

So now it's back to work and back to recording again very soon..the tracks are all recorded at this stage so we just gotta spend a couple of weeks polishing them up (i.e. making them sound like they were recorded in Poland) and adding final vocals and that sort of stuff..I'll be putting up the album cover pretty soon aswell and the album itself will be available to purchase in the very near future too..(or The Very Near Future II)

Once the recording is out of the way we are looking forward to getting around the country a bit more in 2006..Galway and Cork are big plans on the big plan board but I want every town small or big (or even biggie smalls) in the country to know our faces and hear our songs (and eventually put pictures of us in their windows when we are coming to town) so expect to see us pop up at any occasion from a housewarming to a deportation...

Thanks to everyone who supported me in 2005: people at gigs, people who sent emails, posted in the forums, asked me for a copy of the demo or told someone else about it...it's a long way from the bottom to the top but it all helps and I appreciate it...

...and if one person that likes your music turns in to ten people that like your music..and if ten people turn into a hundred people and a hundred people turn into a thousand then a lot of that has to do with the ones that were down with you from the very start...and if that thousand turns back into ten people then your music career is f**ked hahahaha....

Death by Caffeine...

2005-12-14T07:38:00.000Z

http://www.energyfiend.com/death-by-caffeine/

F-izz-irst Th-izz-oughts on For-izzle EP-izzle

2005-11-10T06:57:00.002Z

Well well well...

...what can I say?? Thanks to everyone who is appearing weekly in my new docu-sitcom-rom-drama "Hi-B Corner Uncovered" which is written, directed and even filmed by my self on Nokia's 6630 camera phone..thanks of course to the cast: Fla, Bruno Martelli, Chad Nixer, Steve-O, Tommy T, Ken Kunnife (from Conneticut), James Mór Scrunch, Sarah-Ann the Hood Rat, MC Mook, Cookie, Tucker, the Swedish one from Cork, Fat Neck, The Gardai (drive-thru cameo), Part Two McGrath & Noely C...will keep you posted on the Season 1 box set...

...Anyways back to the other little project of mine which is this album...things are shaping up nicely I have to say..in my possession is a rough cut of the entire album and tho rough it's definitely heading in the right direction now..

..so yeah all the tracks have been recorded now..we even re-recorded Vision Inc. to make it sound more like a part of this album and I think that's worked out very well..Eamon is doing a super little riff on the acoustic which is a little like the older version but I have to admit I like this new one more..hope you do too :P

All thats left to do now is work through each song individually polishing them off, replacing the guide vocals with final ones and choosing the final mix of instruments on each..I'm too mysterious to put a finish date on it as of yet but we are definitely approaching the light now..Eamon's piano and string arrangements has really brought the songs to life and made them bigger so I can't stress his contribution enough...

Ladies & Gentlemen: EAMON O'MALLEY

By day he is a mild mannered musical genius:

But nite he is the Bohemian and Near Alcoholic Nihilistic Anarchist Stoner (B.A.N.A.N.A.S)

1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th Thoughts...

2005-10-11T02:00:00.001+01:00

There are 4 track samples from First Thoughts on the Music & MP3 section now...check them out and post your feedback in the forum...

LOST...but at long last...

2005-10-04T02:17:00.001+01:00

First Thoughts Sample Tracks - Click Here To Download

...things are coming together with the ep..and what has been the delay you might ask??? well having looked at some other bands sites and projects and interviews and bla bla bla I see that everyone always has such a "musical" excuse for going nowhere fast ("We've been tweaking eq's".."Some of the drum tracks had to be re-recorded" etc etc ad infinitum) so instead of me harping on about family and work and the real world and all that sort of nonsense let me just say - I was tuning my guitar.

Yep. Four and a half months tuning the guitar. It was finally tuned last Tuesday and once I finished I had a quick tuna sandwich and a cup of tea. Then I rang Eamon and we booked the studio for the weekend. Isn't it mad the way things happen.

So myself and Eamon were recording this weekend and after I write this I'm gonna post samples of some of the tracks to give you an idea of how things are coming along, they aren't final cuts or anything but they will give you a definite idea of the kind of sound I am looking for on this record..

..I'd also like to take a moment to gloat (before anyone has even heard it) about being right to include An Angel In The Sky..

...so there it is...hope you enjoy the tracks and thanks to those who continue to encourage and support thru the four and half month tuning periods..it is definitely A.P. Preciated.

The tracks won't be available in the music section until tomorrow nite, in the meantime you can download them here..3 sample tracks which are about a minute long each..they are An Angel In The Sky, Artist Of The Century and Turn My Name Away..the download is in .zip format so you'll need www.winzip.com to open it if you don't have winzip and the file is less than 3mb in size so it should download quickly regardless of your connection type..Enjoy!!

First Thoughts Sample Tracks - Click Here To Download

more recording next week..catch ya later ;)

Burger

Recording...

2005-09-29T07:01:00.001+01:00

...myself and Eamon go into the studio this Friday to begin recording the First Thoughts ep...will keep you posted...

4 8 15 16 23 42

An Angel In The Sky

2005-08-31T02:37:00.001+01:00

Yep folks...that's the name of the late inclusion on the "First Thoughts" ep...I know ya'll thought I had dropped off the face of the earth and I must admit I had a kinda strange August to say the least but I'm alive and well so not to worry...as if you would...

So yeah this new song..it's actually quite old...I was fooling around with the guitar the other day and something just made the song pop into my head..I think I wrote it when I was about 17 and I haven't played it in a couple of years...anyway I started playing what I could remember of it and after a few run throughs I had it down...and I admit I had to chuckle at myself for having enough songs at this stage to forget older ones...anyway I really think it fits where I will be coming from with this ep and personally it is one of my favourite songs..I'll get it posted on the songs section of the site in a couple of days and maybe a rough demo version too..

...as I write this Kanye's new album is blaring from the speakers..it only came out today but I gotta confess I couldn't wait and I've had my "preview" copy for about 2 weeks now..tho I'll still be picking up the original cd from the music store on the way home from work in the morning..still can't decide whether it's just a superb album or an actual masterpiece but either way it's the only thing I've been listening to...and not to mention managing to get both Jay and Nas on your album..well for some eh...

That's it for me tonite folks..talk to you soon ;)

El Burguerre

The L.A. Test

2005-07-27T03:00:00.004+01:00

Ok so the latest updates on the musical front...I unfortunately had to postpone the recording session at the end of June due to studio availabilty..basically I had booked a couple of days there and TooSkin had arranged time off from work to do the recording on those dates..studio rang back at short notice and said they weren't available for the dates after all...so needless to say I was a little stressed after the lads getting time off for it etc...anyways we move onwards and upwards and should be doing some recording in the first week of August...

...as regards the recording I am contemplating some changes to the original plan..as you probably know myself and Eamon are gigging as a duo at the moment..we are getting great feedback on our sound with just the guitar, harmonica and piano..so I am leaning towards the idea of using the same sound for the ep...that's not to say we are never going to record another "Pull Me Up" or "Charles" again..as you know I love my 4 piece band set up more than anything...I'm just personally enjoying the vibe of what we are doing at the moment and it would probably show on the ep if we were to record in the same way..we'll just have to wait n see I guess..

so that's where it's at for the moment...thanks to those of you attending the shows..am really enjoying them and I plan to do as much gigging as possible this year whatever the line up may be..

...the good news is there is a new love in my life...I bought a Takemine last week and I have barely put the thing down since..joy is all I can say..

and last but not least...shout our to my partner in crime and one of the famous five..Keith "Thanks Harry" Harrington...gone back to live in Thailand again for another while...thinkin' of ya buddy ;)

see u soon

Burger

The Birthday Bash

2005-07-21T07:14:00.001+01:00

Ok folks if you are around this weekend I am having a bit of a party in The Vic Cafe...it's my birthday so you better be there ;)

I'll be kicking off about 10ish..Eamon will be with me on the nite too so that in itself is an excuse to come along...not sure where the "after-show party" is but I'm sure we'll all end up back to mine in the early hours of the morning...

btw the support slot with The Devlins went amazingly well...very big audience but they seemed to like us a lot..myself and Eamon did all our own tracks for it, finishing with Psycho Killer (like the version on StopMakingSense) which if I do say so, blew the roof off the joint hahahahaha...

The Devlins were pretty sound too, spoke with them for a bit afterwards and they seemed pretty down to earth...was most impressed with the drummer tho, he played some brilliant beats during their set..

so thats it for the mo, only other news is this new guitar i'm getting on friday, it's the Takemine i borrowed for the Devlins gig..fell in love with and decided she had to be mine...and so she will be..

right im falling asleep here on my last nite in work this week...7:14am now and i'm wrecked...talk to you soooozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Tra Fest 2005

2005-06-14T05:29:00.001+01:00

July 1st - 3rd in Tramore..a weekend of live music both indoors and out..I'm gonna be playing on the Saturday nite (the 2nd) in The Seahorse on Main Street..am delighted to announce my fellow TooSkin BlooSkinner Eamon "Malso" O'Malley as guest for the evening..he will be joining me on keyboards for the evening so be sure to stagger in at some stage during your drunken trail around the town...

For those of you not familiar with Tramore, here is a picture of it from space:

Friday, 3rd June @ The Cape, Tramore

2005-06-02T03:43:00.001+01:00

Just to let you know I'll be doing my unplugged set here on Friday nite with the usual 10:30pm start...see you there ;)

SATURDAY 28TH MAY @ THE SHANTY BAR, TRAMORE

2005-05-24T05:17:00.001+01:00

...will be playing from about 10.30 so come early for those comfy chair kinda seats at the front...

...looking forward to the gig after the warm reception there last time and i'll be using this opportunity to play a pretty revised set of songs which i'm gonna test out and hopefully use for a while..

NO COVER CHARGE so no excuse for not coming ;)

Burger

MySpace ruined my life...

2005-05-19T09:07:00.002+01:00

Cool gig last weekend in the Vic Bistro out in Tramore..it's a restaurant but they have a special salsa nite with all sorts of finger foods so you don't have to get a 3 course meal just to hear me play..

..because of the setting I got to play a really mellow acoustic set, stuff I could never play in the pub because it would just be too quiet..so if ya wanna hear me doing the John Prine fingerpicking, the Dylan D-Tuning stuff or indeed my own songs from the ep etc. then this is the place to go on a Saturday nite..I'll keep you posted when the next one is...

btw..may I recommend the house white wine..was my first time drinking this year, the place was hot and the sweat was rolling off me so I quenched the thirst with about two bottles..barely even remember leaving the gig to go and meet Harry and Fla in the Vic..and as for the antics when I did catch up with them..apologies to Derro for spitting hardcore raps in his ear..ya know the way Derro..and if ya don't know well now ya know..

here's where I sign off for another couple of days..I gotta go and get the press release sheet printed this morning and and a few other bits n pieces..try and locate my speakers after the last gig..get the mic stand back from Gorbachov..try and flog two old speakers to John Palmer..you know the deal..

see u next week...

The MAIN BURGER

Free Promo CD's

2005-05-12T08:21:00.001+01:00

hello hello...

this plan of giving away the free promo cd's got a little side tracked as i had to go to hospital the day after i collected them..

..anyways if you want a free copy of the First Thoughts promo cd, all you have to do is go to the forum on the interact section of this site and post a request for it in the "Free CD's" thread..

..have given heaps out in the last week, hope you all enjoyed it and that it's got you just bursting to spend your hard earned cash on the album in July ;-)

lastly, if you asked for a cd and you're not likely to see me (being in a foreign country etc.) then log onto the forum and send me a private message or email with your address and i'll mail it on, or turn up at your door for dinner...

right it's 8.18am and it's thursday morning which means only one thing...i just finished work n I ain't back again til Sunday nite...let's see what sort of mad episode unfolds this weekend, you don't even want to know what happened last weekend but thanks to those of you who came to the two gigs..and the "STORM" that unfolded after on saturday..

shout outs to Barr for starting it, Sweeney for taking the hit, Flah for hitting the floor, Harry Snr. for calming Harry Jnr. and special thanks to Nailers for giving us somewhere to go and chill after...

and of course THANKS HARRY...even if it's just cos me an' u didn't get a box in the head when all the rest of em did hahahahaha...

i'm gone..have a good weekend and i'll talk to you sunday nite

the main burger

Upcoming shows...

2005-05-05T13:04:00.001+01:00

back again...long long story involving tubes being put into me and everything but i'm home from hospital now and ready to roll...

..will be playing support to Gorbachov in the Gingerman tomorrow nite..I'll be going on about 9.30ish I suppose and doing a few tracks from the ep and probably a cover or two n all...

...Saturday nite I'm in Tramore in the Shanty..kick off there is about 10 or so and I'll be doing a full solo set..plenty of originals and no doubt more covers..

right I gotta go quick..Barr is waiting outside and I'm in Barry's print shop getting this message up quick, I'm off home now to get the strings on the guitar and write a set list for tomorrow nite..

PS: Apologies for the delay on the promo cds. I was in bits.

Important Site Update

2005-04-18T20:15:00.002+01:00

Hi folks,

Neils is in hospital for a few days - nothing serious so relax. Then again Neil always accepts cash donations so like if you want then send him money.

Seriously though he is laid up for a while in hospital and he just wanted me to let you know that he won't be able to get those CDs out to you for a while based on this.

I'll keep you posted.

Stay sound.

Niall
[Site Admin]

* NEW AUDIO *

2005-04-14T04:14:00.001+01:00

Just stuck up demo versions of 2 of the songs from the ep...go to the Music & MP3 section and take a look or even a listen...you will need RealPlayer to listen to them as they are streamed only..

think of these as first thoughts...it's on the way ;-)

First Thoughts... New Promo Disc

2005-04-13T07:48:00.008+01:00

Collecters beware: to begin promo for the July debut ep "first thoughts on forever" this week I'm gonna be pressing about 100 copies of a single called "first thoughts..."

This single is not for sale...it's something I'm gonna be sending around to radio, labels and attractive female fans as a build up to the ep launch..the tracks are already available for download on the site, the listing is as follows:

1. Mo Chairde Go Leir
2. Pull Me Up
3. Vision Inc.

Of these 3, only Vision will be included on the ep itself..this disc is really just an introduction to my music for those of you who haven't already been introduced..I'll tell you when to start ringing WLR and Beat100-102 demanding plays ;-)

There will definitely be a bunch of copies set aside for the people who were first to join up on the forum..it's growing quickly and I really appreciate the interest, and there is a memberlist so I won't be forgetting who was there for me when I had a forum and I needed people to join lol..first in line are those who have posted something :-P

And last but not least...here's a preview of the cover for it..I'm still not 100% on the one I'm using as a working design for the ep but this one will do nicely to begin with methinks..btw if anyones any good with design I'm accepting any submissions for the ep cover :-)

Here it is..100 copies only..instant collectible

PS: Thanks to Cephas Jacob for the artistic direction ;-)

Eamon Thomas McGrath

2005-04-10T22:15:00.001+01:00

13th August 1953 - 10th April 1999

The latest...

2005-04-07T07:17:00.001+01:00

Thanks to everyone who has signed up to the forum...don't forget to stick a little avatar (that's a pic to you and I) up on your profile n' if you're too lazy send a picture on to me and I'll resize it and stick it up for ya (as if I don't have enough to be doing)...

so what have I been doing...well I've been rehearsing a little with my cousin as I hope to have him play on a couple of the tracks on the ep...I've been passing my driving test (FOURTH TIME AROUND)...I've been writing a little bit more of The Boy Who (with some excerpts on myspace profile, might stick 'em in the forum too tho I kinda keep it seperate to the music) ... I've been organizing some more studio time to get more done (now that the cash flow crisis is over) ... I've been setting up some real audio versions of the songs from the ep so I can stream them on the site... I've been replying to your kind and bizarre comments on the forum (love it) and some of the mails too...

so that's the latest...I'm gonna go to bed now in about 40 mins time and when I get up I'll get the wheels in motion and the show on the road so I'll have something to report back on Sunday nite when I'm on again...

http://www.myspace.com/neilmcgrath

2005-03-21T06:58:00.006Z

Monday morning...6:58am...none of you are even awake yet and I'll be heading home to my bed in 62 minutes just as you're getting into the car to go to work...so here's what I have to say while you snooze...

...First up I will be posting some of the demo tracks this week to give a taster of what the songs on this ep are gonna be like. Will be just me n the acoustic as a sampler, I'll be streaming the final versions of the songs later on down the road...

Not a whole lot to report this morning, in the last few days since I posted I have been working on getting my name out there on the web..promoting the site and getting people to come visit etc. Thanks a lot to the first 20 registered users on the forum btw..you are all duly noted in my little notebook under the section "people to remember when I am rich and famous"...it's a refreshing change for me aswell as I'm usually adding names to the "people to have disappeared" list lately..

Things are going pretty well with the promo so far, I'm listed 3rd, 4th and 19th in a google search for my name thanks to me being a featured artist on Bearshare and Unsigned Ireland..this might not sound very impressive to many but those of you who are familiar with search engine ratings etc. will agree that I have been a very lucky boy to get that highly ranked in such a short time..

..I'm now on MySpace also..I have an official-ish profile in the music section which I am using to promote my songs and link to this site..it's available at www.myspace.com/neilmcgrath... I also keep a seperate profile where I can post absurd blog entries and other random shoals of nonsense that are too bizarre for posting on this website..that one is available by clicking here

...Don't know if you're a MySpace registered user but if not you should check it out, it's a good laugh meeting all the other nutcase faces with their MySpace places..

Right I'm gonna grab myself a cup of coffee..oh one last thing..if you are visiting the site because you saw a link to it at another bands forum called "Check it out" or something similar, then I can only apologize on behalf of the ex drummer/current tea maker (Big Mac on this sites forum)..Macco took it upon himself to bombard other bands sites with messages telling them to visit this one so I can only imagine how popular I am with them now lol...He texts me (proud as punch) to tell me he's doing this and then I tried ringing him to tell him to at least put the message in an APPROPRIATE forum and not into another bands GIG LISTING forum but most of the damage was done at this stage...so apologies all round if my name appears on your site...lol nah I ain't a bit sorry really cos it's just too funny but I have to say so don't I...anyways I'll try and keep the Big Mac on a tighter leash and I can only offer my own message board to any affected bands as a promotional tool which they can use...if they've got similar DEMENTED fans willing to go on a posting frenzy...

www.unsignedireland.com

2005-03-15T23:06:00.002Z

Hello again folks...

...great to be back after my recent battle with the vomiting bug..it kicked in about 10pm on Friday night and I'm only coming around now..I'd love to be more dramatic about it and give you a really detailed description but I'll save that for my memoirs..thanks to Barr for treating me like a leper during the entire episode..wouldn't even collect the bike from the house for fear of infection..who brings him in to get the dodgy pedal looked at this afternoon tho...exactly.
Anyways the real reason I'm posting this is to say that I got accepted on unsignedireland.com over the weekend, so I am pleased to join only a handful of acts around Ireland being promoted from their site. Gotta say I'm really pleased to be included on this one, the site itself is excellent for what it does in promoting unsigned artists but aside from that I'm excited about being listed amongst some fantastic irish acts..there is some seriously hot competition out there at the moment and if you get a chance then definitely check out a couple of the acts on this site...the only others ones that are from my part of the world are Duped and Robert O'Connor, both are very popular here in the south-east and I have a great deal of respect for them myself because they're real people with some great songs..so yeah check out this site and watch me rub cyber shoulders with the top of the pops...

http://www.unsignedireland.com

PS: I'll be back on later to reply to some of those beautiful forum postings that some of you beatiful people (and Macco) posted...had almost forgotten the "Queen St. Sessions" until someone voted "Eatin' Crisps" in their top 5 of my songs...will have to try and get that up on the site for a while this week...

The FORUM is up...

2005-03-10T01:32:00.003Z

Check out the new forum on the Interact section of the website, register and leave a posting too if ya get a chance...

...my new contact mail is there aswell... info@neilmcgrath.com or neilmcgrath1@gmail.com if you want to contact me directly for anything in particular...

R.I.P. B.I.G.

2005-03-09T04:51:00.003Z

First up I wanna take a moment to pay homage to one of my musical heroes, Christopher Wallace a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G. who passed away 8 years ago today. Biggie was without doubt one of the most talented lyricists ever (aswell as the greatest emcee of all time) and probably one of my biggest influences since John Prine or Bob Dylan when it comes to songwriting...I doubt you will hear it very much in my music as I am obviously not a gangsta rapper but anyone who is close to me will testify that they have heard "Party n' Bullshit" or "I've Got A Story To Tell" at least 150 times whether they wanted to or not...

...so if ya don't know, now ya know...

Secondly, thanks to those I was speaking to for all the positive feedback on the site..the message board should be here this week so you can post on that...unless the feedback takes a turn for the worst between now and then, in which case I'll have the extra expense of bribing people to go on the board and say nice complimentary things about me..not that I'd be the first one round these parts to think of such a thing ;)

How and ever...as regards the music I think I'm back in studio this weekend, if not then next...I'll stick the "Artist" demo on the site this week anyway...as for a live performance I believe I'm doing a night very soon with both Gorbachov and OneFortyNine, will let you know where and when that's happening as soon as I know myself...speaking of OneFortyNine just saw their pics from the Bar Fly gig in Liverpool last weekend, I hear they went down very well there and the pics look like it was a good nite...g'wan the international local bands...that's something else I gotta get on this site aswell..a links page of local bands because I'm hearing some seriously good music lately from local bands..the competition these days is hot as balls to say the least..

..and on that note I'll exit..back soon with the message board...

First Thoughts On...

2005-03-07T06:44:00.007Z

o.k. just to elaborate a little more on that first posting and let everyone know what the plan is for the coming weeks and months...

Recording: I'm currently recording the ep with Dave Howard in Kilcullen Recording Studios...the way we've been recording so far is for me to lay rhythm guitar and guide vocals over a click track..after that then we can add in Alan's drums and Jim's bass and whatever other instruments are on the track..not sure if we are going to be doing all seven songs this way, will see how it goes for 2-3 and look at things after that..also I am considering a different studio for some of the tracks, the main reason I have gone with Dave Howard is to get that warm and intimate acoustic sound that comes from recording there, it was absolutely perfect for the songs that I wanted to have that feel but I am not sure if that's the sound I want to get on all of the tracks...again I'm gonna see how it goes with that one and think a little bit more about it...

In the next week or so I'm gonna put some rough cuts of the songs up just as samples, 2 or 3 of them with just acoustic guitar and vocals to give an idea of how things are coming along..am pretty happy with how Artist Of The Century is sounding so far so will probably put that up first..

first thoughts on forever ep: the ep will have 7 songs and will be on sale for about 7 euro, you'll be able to buy it here on the site and also at gigs. The ep is basically an introduction to my music, aswell as selling it I will be hoping to either negotiate some kind of distribution deal for it or better still some interest from record labels...needless to say there will be copies sent to radio stations around the country and anything else I can do to promote it really..

Realistically speaking I am looking at a summer launch, probably sometime in mid to late July this year...I will be speaking plenty more about the ep in the next few posts anyway so I will literally keep you posted..

live performance: At the moment I'm doing some support slots for a couple of bands I know...a 40 minute set before the band...just me with the acoustic and harmonica playing the tracks from the "first thoughts" ep with a couple of covers thrown into the mix also...feedback has been pretty good so far with regard to the songs, I do plan to have the band join me for the gigs pretty soon but I will be sticking with the acoustic set for the next couple of gigs anyway..

Thanks to Gorbachov and OneFortyNine for the last two supports slots, and apologies to OneFortyNine for having to pull out of the gig in Philly Grimes...as you could see during the soundcheck I was struggling with the flu..nice one to OneFortyNine singer John O'Hanlon for filling the slot with an impromptu acoustic session before he went on with the band...looking forward to the next gig :)

neilmcgrath.com: gotta say I'm pretty pleased with the site so far, we had a couple of major changes in design during the month of February, and really it was just a case of getting ANYTHING up asap in order to meet the deadline...in the next week or two we hope to put on a couple of more sample tracks to listen to, a forum for visitors to leave their messages, some listings for live performance dates and a bit more artwork and design around the menus and pages etc. All in all the site is a work in progress at the moment but it's coming together nicely now...

..and that's it for tonite/this morning...back with more soon

take care

Welcome to the new website...

2005-03-05T23:00:00.004Z

Ladies and sentimental men welcome back to the new neilmcgrath.com...has been a long time coming I know (and I know it's 5 days late too) but here we are so let's not dwell...

Firstly, I cannot thank Niall Roche enough for getting everything up and running, he has been at this for about the last 10 hours now and is pretty much ready to kill me if I say another word to him...

...Secondly I just wanna say thanks to everyone who has been hounding me for months about what I'm doing and when I'm gonna get it done, I really appreciate the interest and encouragement, I just hope I can deliver the goods in the coming months and make a decent record everyone enjoys..

..so about THIS RECORD...I'm basically recording a seven track ep called "First Thoughts On Forever" which will be launched independantly and available from this website and wherever else I can arrange...it's gonna be a solo effort as far as the songwriting is concerned, but I have enlisted the services of my fellow TooSkin BlooSkin members to play on the tracks themselves...

In the meantime, check out some of the older demo's myself and the band have done in the Music & MP3 section...I'll be back tomorrow with more updates about the site and the ep and everything else that's going down...

take care..

PS: Thanks Harry, you know who you are...

neilmcgrath.com

New video for "Mo Chairde Go Léir"

WLR interviews with Billy McCarthy & Ian Noctor

The Voice of Ireland - Claire chats to Neil backstage

The Voice of Ireland - Blind Audition

Beta Testers

BandWagonTV

Save 24hr Search & Rescue Helicopter Cover in South-East

Ether The Net

Songwriting 101 - Nicki Minaj verse on Sweet Dreams [Remix]

New Google Profile

New video for "Artist Of The Century" on YouTube

The M Bizzle Rough Guide to Converting MP3's

Not so smart NOW Facebook are ya???

uStream without a paddle...

New Video on my YouTube channel

No plans for Turkish tour dates in the foreseeable future...

neilmcgrath @ reverbnation

music is @ http://www.myspace.com/neilmcgrath

downloadmusic.ie

Guess Who's Back? Who? You were gone somewhere?

Pretay good...pretay..pretay..pretay..pretay good

Blue Moon

Please vote for me in the Pringles Unsung competition!!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR ME IN THE PRINGLES UNSUNG COMPETITION !!

I'm on WLR doin the Top 5 at 8pm tonite!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DYLAN!!

Long lost memories...

Stingray not to blame...

Go Shawty..

Tra Fest / 3 Songs from "First Thoughts" finished and ready to download...

Charity Gig in aid of Cancer Research...

R.I.P. B.I.G.

Movin' On Up :)

hApPy nEw yEaR...

Death by Caffeine...

F-izz-irst Th-izz-oughts on For-izzle EP-izzle

1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th Thoughts...

LOST...but at long last...

Recording...

An Angel In The Sky

The L.A. Test

The Birthday Bash

Tra Fest 2005

** Friday, 3rd June @ The Cape, Tramore **

** SATURDAY 28TH MAY @ THE SHANTY BAR, TRAMORE **

MySpace ruined my life...

Free Promo CD's

Upcoming shows...

Important Site Update

*** NEW AUDIO ***

First Thoughts... **New** Promo Disc

Eamon Thomas McGrath

The latest...

http://www.myspace.com/neilmcgrath

www.unsignedireland.com

The FORUM is up...

R.I.P. B.I.G.

First Thoughts On...

Welcome to the new website...

Friday, 3rd June @ The Cape, Tramore

SATURDAY 28TH MAY @ THE SHANTY BAR, TRAMORE

* NEW AUDIO *

First Thoughts... New Promo Disc