Voting in the final of the Kilkenny 400 Busker 2009 competition got underway last week and runs until this Friday. Today through Friday we’ll be showcasing one finalist a day in the run up to close of voting.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week between 3:15pm and 3:30pm, The Edwina Grace show on KCLR96FM will feature snippets and chat from one of the buskers. Last week saw Sean Watmore, Vicky Day and Beef Supreme were featured on the show last week with performances and chat from Annie Chambers, Quintet Tarantino (above) and Fionn O’Hargain due this week.

You can register your vote at Busker2009.com until 11:59pm on Friday night. Once the votes are counted and validated, one busking act will be announced as winner and walk away with a €1,000 cash prize.

Good luck to all involved from ourselves at KKM.

Plinth, who due to car trouble had to postpone their October date, will make it to Kilkenny tonight as they take to the stage in Cleere’s from 9pm tonight.

Plinth was formed when Dan, Brian and Joe, who had been jamming together for months recruited Emmet to provide some accompaniment to Dan with his guitarness. For the first few weeks our jam sessions consisted of covers of bands such as Metallica, Alice in Chains and Tool, and eventually Emmet was appointed High Chancellor of Vocals due to his distinct ability to make noises with his mouth. But we soon grew tired of covering other bands and decided to have a stab at writing our own stuff. Fast-forward a couple of jam sessions later and our first song Knwaaybe was born. Since then we have expanded our horizons and our bumholes to the hugest of extents, branching out past a metal or rock sound into schizophrenic genre-hopping tracks such as Thrike and Skynethwayer. With the recent addition of a synthesizer, our sound has now become much like a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger, with odd song structure, time signatures, polyrhythms, harmonies and merging of genres such as metal, jazz, eastern music, drum agus bass, fusion, surf rock and minimalist techno to name a few. In early 2008, Plinth were named as one of five finalists in the Eircom Unsigned Bands Competition with our track Eakombookom.

Tonight marks Plinth’s debut in Kilkenny and admission is a mere five euro including a free copy of their new Tenzuke Chiste EP.

Joining Plinth are South, the local three-piece having gigged recently in Cork with Plinth. Their debut album Insula, well received in local circles, is available on the night and also via the band’s MySpace. Last year’s Battle Of The Bands winners released their debut album this past July alongside The Lions Mane’s Strands, which will also be available tonight.

Saving J have released (officially, today) their latest single, Everybody, taken from debut album This City Street.

Available to buy via DownloadMusic.ie, the band have also printed 1,000 promotional copies of the single for distribution. The video, shown previously on KilkennyMusic.com can be found here on SavingJ.com. Mobile users in Ireland can text music 4015 to 57501 to buy a copy of the single, priced €1 (operator and data charges may apply).

The band head to the UK in a few weeks for two or three dates before taking to The Academy 2 in Dublin at the start of December.

There are six finalists to choose from including

• Beef Supreme
• Annie Chambers
• Vicky Day
• Fionn O’Hargain
• Quintet Tarantino
• Sean Watmore

To cast your vote, visit Busker2009.com, enter your name, email address and chosen busker on the voting form and send your vote away. You will get an email asking you to confirm your vote. Note that only confirmed votes will be accepted. Voting closes at 23:59 GMT on Friday November 13th.

Beef Supreme, Carlow’s own trashcan hillbillies launch their debut album “Presents” this tonight, 30th October 2009 in their birthplace: The Castle Tavern, Carlow. Special guests include Gala Hutton, Eric Butler and Davey Nail. Doors open 9pm and Admission is free.

“Beef Supreme – Presents” is available on iTunes, Amazon, Napster and many other online music stores from the 1st of November and will be available in many record stores throughout the country in the coming weeks.

Catch Beef Supreme on the streets of Kilkenny as part of the Kilkenny 400 Busker 400 Finals tomorrow Saturday 31st of October, Le Circ Bar, Dame Street, Dublin Sunday 8th of November and The Pumphouse, Kilkenny on Thursday 12th of November.

Beef Supreme will be joined on the streets of Kilkenny tomorrow by Annie Chambers, Vicky Day, Quintet Tarantino, Sean Watmore and Fionn O’Hargain.

You can listen live to KCLR 96FM here or tune in in the Carlow / Kilkenny area on 96 and 96.6FM.

Check back through posts earlier this week for previews of your finalists for tomorrow’s Kilkenny 400 Busker 2009 final. For a full list of everything happening under the Kilkenny 400 banner as we move towards the end of the year, visit Kilkenny400.ie.

The Kilkenny 400 Busker 2009 final takes place tomorrow and here’s your fifth finalist, Annie Chambers. Annie took part in the competition over the Cat Laughs comedy weekend and will be joined in the final tomorrow by Vicky Day, Sean Watmore, Quintet Tarantino, Fionn O’Hargain and Carlow’s Beef Supreme.

For more on the competition visit Busker2009.com.

For the fourth preview of your Kilkenny 400 Busker 2009 finalists in the run up to the weekend, here’s Sean Watmore. He’ll be joined in the final on the day by Quintet Tarantino, Vicky Day, Beef Supreme, Sean Watmore and Annie Chambers. Voting will open on Monday November 2nd on Busker2009.com and the winner takes all with our final prize of €1,000 up for grabs. We’ll have more previews across today and tomorrow.

For the third preview of your Kilkenny 400 Busker 2009 finalists in the run up to the weekend, here’s Sean Watmore. He’ll be joined in the final on the day by Quintet Tarantino, Vicky Day, Beef Supreme, Fionn O’Hargain and Annie Chambers. Voting will open on Monday November 2nd on Busker2009.com and the winner takes all with our final prize of €1,000 up for grabs. We’ll have more previews across today and tomorrow.

So, the final of the Kilkenny 400 Busker 2009 competition takes place this Saturday afternoon on the streets of Kilkenny. The six finalists were chosen by public vote in the semi final round which concluded earlier this month.

For the second preview in the run up to the weekend, here’s Quintet Tarantino. They’ll be joined in the final on the day by Sean Watmore, Vicky Day, Beef Supreme, Fionn O’Hargain and Annie Chambers. Voting will open on Monday November 2nd on Busker2009.com and the winner takes all with our final prize of €1,000 up for grabs. We’ll have more previews across today, tomorrow and Friday.

So, the final of the Kilkenny 400 Busker 2009 competition takes place this Saturday afternoon on the streets of Kilkenny. The six finalists were chosen by public vote in the semi final round which concluded earlier this month.

For the first preview in the run up to the weekend, here’s Vicky Day. She’ll be joined in the final on the day by Sean Watmore, Quintet Tarantino, Beef Supreme, Fionn O’Hargain and Annie Chambers. Voting will open on Monday November 2nd on Busker2009.com and the winner takes all with our final prize of €1,000 up for grabs. We’ll have more previews across today, tomorrow and Friday.

Three days into Rockfall Festival, home after the holidays and there’s a feast of music on the cards from local acts in venues around Kilkenny tonight.

On the bill for tonight are

• The Fundamentals & Bob’s Your Uncle @ Kyteler’s
• The Uptown Band @ Ryan’s
• The Memphis Cats @ Langtons
• Apartment B @ The Clubhouse
• The Hujas @ Anna Conda’s
• Johnny Hillman @ Little Andy’s
• The Wildwood Boys @ Billy Byrne’s
• Maurice Ramsbottom / Little Black Wren @ Ryan’s
• Larry Dowd Disco @ Pat Carroll’s
• Yvonne Moriarty @ Rafter Dempsey’s
• The Weathermen @ The Pumphouse (upstairs)
• Willie Maher @ The Black Cat

Full listings for the whole weekend available at RockfallFestival.com. All proceeds from the weekend go to Enable Ireland & The O’Neill Centre.

If music isn’t your thing, The Devious Theatre Company continue their run of their latest production, Shakespeare In Bits, in Cleere’s Theatre tonight from 8pm. Three of the company’s actors, Stephen Colfer, John Doran and Eddie Murphy, started the proceedings last night by taking the audience in Cleere’s through interpretations of Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo & Juliet other Shakespearean delights over the course of an hour. Jam packed with improv, comedy, jokes, tears, laughter and lots more, the show commences at 8pm and continues tomorrow with a performance at 4pm (matinee) and 8pm. Tickets, priced €8 are available from Cleere’s bar.

The album is out, the single is out and now the video is out. Produced once again by local’s Mycrofilms, Saving J’s latest video release is that for new single Everybody taken from debut album This City Street which was released last month.

This will be the third video produced by Mycrofilms for the band, following on from Kick Off (2008) and ABC (2009). Is it all done in one take? I think so…

Saving J will be making an appearance at the Rockfall Festival this weekend as part of the bank holiday Monday afternoon lineup in Kyteler’s with music kicking off at 3pm.

From within the Republic you can text music 4015 to 57501 to buy the single from DownloadMusic.ie. This City Street is available to buy online via iTunes, Amazon, and through HMV, Tower Records, Rollercoaster and plenty of other high street CD outlets.

Those going into the final are (in no particular order)

• Vicky Day
• Quintet Tarantino
• Beef Supreme
• Fionn O’Hargain
• Sean Watmore

We’re currently arranging a sixth finalist and will be making announcements this weekend on it. We must acknowledge that Annie Chambers (harpist, round four) was also included in the initial final six but as of this morning can no longer take part in the competition. We wish her well and thank her for the music, and taking part in the competition proper earlier in the year.

We’ll have more updates during the week and we’ll be looking again at each busker.

Don’t forget that this weekend is Rockfall. It started with movie night in Billy Byrne’s last night, the annual table quiz is tonight in The Pumphouse then it’s all music and theatre between Friday and Monday to mark the 21st anniversary of the local music festival.

Colin Devlin (he of The Devlin’s) is touring the country next month to promote the release of title track Democracy of One from his highly acclaimed debut solo album.

The first date on the tour is Kilkenny with Devlin taking to the stage at Set Theatre on Saturday November 7th.The tour will see Devlin bring a fresh and individual approach to some traditional Devlin’s tracks along with innovative reconstructions of his solo work. Colin will be joined on tour by his brother Peter Devlin and Guy Rickarby.

Democracy of One (as a track) is “perhaps commercially the most outstanding on an album of powerfully evocative, atmospheric soundtracks. A beautifully crafted production by Pierre Marchand featuring drummer Matt Chamberlain and backing vocals by Emm Gryner.”

Sidenote: We love Emm Gryner and even moreso loved her solo show in Cleere’s a few years ago. Please come back.

The River Valley Band are the latest Kilkenny outfit to hit the shelves with their debut single, Kimberly, out for sale tomorrow. The single is already available via DownloadMusic.ie.

The lads are in town for the weekend, tomorrow night (Friday) taking to the Bridgebrook Arms in Thomastown from 8pm with admission six euro while you’ll find them in the back room in Ryan’s on Friary Street on Saturday night for the same monies. Anyone who downloads a copy of the single, and brings it with them on their phone on either night will get a euro off entry (reduced to a fiver).

An ole letter in the post early this morning told us that the RVB have also been picked up to perform Kimberly in the RDS, at half-time during the Leinster v Cardiff Magners League game on October 31st.

Get a listen below

” Plinth & South gig tonight is postponed due to unforseen circumstances, apologies to anyone who was coming. New date is being confirmed shortly…”

The gig was due to take place in Cleere’s Theatre tonight. You can hear a track from Plinth on the latest Playlist Mix podcast.

It’s not been an easy task this time around! Thanks to all involved for their patience and to the few hundred people who have signed up for word on the finalists – you’ll be getting an email later.

On the band – Plinth was formed when Dan, Brian and Joe, who had been jamming together for months recruited Emmet to provide some accompaniment to Dan with his guitarness. For the first few weeks our jam sessions consisted of covers of bands such as Metallica, Alice in Chains and Tool, and eventually Emmet was appointed High Chancellor of Vocals due to his distinct ability to make noises with his mouth. But we soon grew tired of covering other bands and decided to have a stab at writing our own stuff. Fast-forward a couple of jam sessions later and our first song Knwaaybe was born. Since then we have expanded our horizons and our bumholes to the hugest of extents, branching out past a metal or rock sound into schizophrenic genre-hopping tracks such as Thrike and Skynethwayer. With the recent addition of a synthesizer, our sound has now become much like a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger, with odd song structure, time signatures, polyrhythms, harmonies and merging of genres such as metal, jazz, eastern music, drum agus bass, fusion, surf rock and minimalist techno to name a few. In early 2008, Plinth were named as one of five finalists in the Eircom Unsigned Bands Competition with our track Eakombookom.

This Saturday marks Plinth’s debut in Kilkenny and admission on the night is a mere five euro including a free copy of Tenzuke Chiste.

Having performed a string of gigs about the country over the summer, including the launch of debut album Insula in Dublin, South return to Cleere’s the join Plinth. Copies of Insula, along with Strands, the debut offering from The Lions Mane, will also be available to buy on the night.

You can cast your vote until midnight by visiting Busker2009.com.