Nialler9

Kate Nash is one of the most interesting artists working in British and Irish music right now.

 

You might know her from 'Foundations', the debut single that went to number one in the UK in 2007, or maybe winning a BRIT Award for Best Female Artist in 2008 or the excellent Netflix TV show GLOW on Netflix about female wrestlers. 



But the Kate Nash of the last few years is an advocate for artists who kicks against the pricks of the music industry and the world at large. 



In the last couple of years alone she has given testimony before a UK parliamentary select committee about the economics of touring, losing £26,000 on a European tour leg and covering those losses by selling photos of her arse on OnlyFans.



She's travelled around London on a fire engine visiting the offices of Live Nation and Spotify as part of her Butts for Tour Buses campaign. She is a patron of the Music Venue Trust speaking up for grassroots venues. She's been one of the founding members of the Featured Artists Coalition since 2009.  She played the Trans Mission show at Wembley. She's been to Leinster House. She also released trans ally anthem 'GERM'.



Nash  grew up in North Harrow going to Irish dancing at weekends, listening to Christy Moore and the Dubliners at home, spending summers in Ireland.



Last month, Nialler9 debuted her cover of Sinead O’Connor’s Famine - a song that serves as an introduction to her dual Irish English heritage.



So there is a lot to talk to Kate Nash about.



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This month's best of the month podcast guest is Manchester-based Irish BBC 6 Music presenter Deb Grant.


Deb started out  with Jazz FM in Dublin before moving to the UK at 19 where now based in Manchester, she has been a regular BBC Radio 6 Music presenter since 2023, currently presenting the New Music Daily Fix show with Nathan Shepherd from Monday to Thursday from 7pm to 9pm.



Deb will be in Ireland over the coming months in her role as ambassador for Heineken Greenlight.



Music discussed and chosen on the episode from Angine De Poitrine, Wax Head, Avalon Emerson, Shortstraw, Baalti and Lapgan, Hannah Peel and Beibei Wang, Isa Gordon, Carol Maia and Jeremy Gustin, The Scratch and Rua Rí.



Plus Deb talks about being a judge on the Choice Music Prize, seeing Madra Salach in a tiny venue, and David Byrne's live Who Is The Sky? tour.



My Best albums of March piece.

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The 1998 album marked a turn for the trip-hop visionary band's to the dark side.
Niall is joined by Craig Fitzpatrick discuss the record in front of a live audience at at Listen Closely, our series of monthly album listening parties in the Big Romance.

Massive Attack - Mezzanine (1998)
The third album from the British pioneers radically reshaped the band's own bright trip-hop, soul and hip-hop with darker tones of electronic, industrial, and gothic distorted guitars. 

Mezzanine eschews the band's trademark warmth for magnified atmospheres drawing on paranoia, negative space, and whispered vocals to create a mood that mirrored the anxieties of the digital age.

The album caused internal drama. The dark, guitar-heavy vibe of Mezzanine pushed the band into new territory, but it also led to major tension.

We revisit the record and talk about the band's career's highs, lows and live shows in The Big Romance with a live audience.

 

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The debut album from Bloc Party remains a seminal record of a key time in UK guitar music.


Niall is joined by author and writer Dean Van Nguyen discuss the record in front of a live audience at Listen Closely, our series of monthly album listening parties.



Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (2005)


Bloc Party’s debut album quickly became a seminal indie record of the 2000s with big frenetic indie zeitgeist hits like ‘Helicopter’, ‘Banquet’, ‘This Modern Love’ and ‘Like Eating Glass’.



Silent Alarm presented a poppy spin on taut post-punk, edgy pop and alternative ballads, with Kele Okereke’s lyrical explorations of matters of the heart, modern anxieties, intimacy and alienation.



Silent Alarm felt like a manifesto. It bridged rock and dance culture before LCD Soundsystem and others made that fusion mainstream. We discuss its beginnings, its impact, what came after for the band and some recommended further listening.



We revisit the record in The Big Romance with a live audience.



Dean's book about Tupac is recommended.

  

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This month's best of guest is Cork pop culture writer Mia Tobin Power who joins Niall for episode #309.

In the recommendations corner this month are albums from Mitski, Cardinals, Charli XCX, Archive, Jill Scott, Vegas Water Taxi, Puma Blue, Nashpaints and David DeBarra. Plus a song from new Cork band Maicín.



Plus some chat about the phenomenal Industry Season 4 and some other films and TV we've enjoyed this past month.



I wrote about my choices here this week.



Follow Mia on Substack.

 

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* Support Nialler9 on Patreon, get event discounts, playlists, ad-free episodes and access our Discord community.