German guitarist Rolf Munkes and his band Empire released 4 albums between 2001 and 2007 with a host of musical guests. The Pride & Joy label is in the process of re-releasing all four albums – possibly ahead of something new from the band. The first album re-released on 24th February, was the debut “Hypnotica” from 2001and I played the track “Fool In Love” from that album on the Friday NI Rocks Show back in January and “Bad, Bad Boy” in February. Empire’s second album “Trading Souls” was re-released on 26th May and I featured the track “One in a Million” on the Show on 12th May.
I’ve been a big fan of Aussie rockers Airbourne since their album “Runnin Wild” appeared in 2007 and I’d been at 5 of their 6 previous gigs in Belfast. So when I was asked if I wanted to record an interview with the band ahead of their latest show in Belfast on the 7th June, I jumped at the opportunity. The interview with drummer Ryan O’Keeffe was recorded in The Limelight and featured on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 9th June. That Show is now available from our MixCloud page - https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interviews-with-devilskin-and-airbourne-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-9th-june-2017/
We chatted about the latest album, the band’s new guitar player, the tribute to Lemmy, the likelihood of some kind of “best of” album, a future live album and more. Also on the Show is an interview with New Zealand band Devilskin who were supporting Airbourne.
Read more: NI ROCKS Interview with RYAN O'KEEFFE from AIRBOURNE
The first track that I ever heard from New Zealand band Devilskin was “Little Pills” sometime around 2013/14 and it was one of those tunes you love instantly. I’ve followed the band since then and was delighted to find out that they’d been added as support for the Airbourne gigs in Dublin and Belfast in June 2017. I arranged to meet with the band to record an interview when they arrived at The Limelight for the gig on 7th June. I chatted with “Nail”, Paul and Nic about the band’s two albums (“We Rise” from 2014 and “Be Like The River” from 2016), touring, future plans and more.
There are two NI Rocks Shows each week on Rock Radio NI. These are the playlists for those shows for the month of May – all of which are still available from the On Demand Player. There are tracks by about 120 different artists on the Shows this month. Playlists for April were published previously and these Shows are also available via the On Demand Player – http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/news/rrni-updates/3122-ni-rocks-playlists-for-april-2017.html
On the Friday NI Rocks Shows in May there were interviews with Liv Jagrell (Liv Sin) and Harry Hess from Harem Scarem - http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/interviews.html