Peggy Sue first arrived in Belfast from sunny Brighton in September last year for the city’s Open House Festival – which in my humble opinion is the greatest thing to come here since running water.

Since then, Peggy Sue have been back twice, including last week with Local Natives. This is a reminder of he first time, when I was allowed the rare luxury of spending a whole afternoon with them on a quiet Saturday morning in the Cathedral Quarter area of Belfast.

I was their host in the city for 2 hours. So where else to start than straight to the pub – the grand old ‘Duke of York’ to be exact:

Peggy Sue – Hatstand Blues

Download for iPod (74 MB)

The Cathedral Quarter in Belfast is a mixed up kind of place, caught up between council-funded gentrification and a genuine desire for artistic diversification, in a place populated by artisans and craft workshops, right beside hotels and travel agents. In short, amongst the cloy wine bars there’s still a few wee gems in the area, like the Safehouse Gallery – the entire ground floor of which has been a dedicated artist’s studio for the past few years. Play spot the icons.

Either way, this space really made an impression on the band, and we even got an audience for a while staring in through the windows..

Peggy Sue – Milk and Blood

Download for iPod (31.6 MB)

The reverb in this space was incredible – a long nondescript alleyway behind – you guessed it – a hotel, than really could be good to good use one day. A week later it was transformed into a ‘nightmare alley’, with montage clips from horror movies projected onto its white spaces But that’s another story. For now it would have to make do as a makeshift concert space for the unsuspecting office workers.
Not that they didn’t appreciate the distraction.

“Thank you. Now shut up.”

Peggy Sue is currently touring with Local Natives before heading to Europe in April with Archie Bronson.

Peggy Sue – Watchman

Download for iPod (50.9 MB)

Filmed by Will McConnell
in Belfast, September 2009

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