This November saw Belfast’s very first (hopefully first of many) Solidarity Festival, hosted by the very beautiful Belfast 4-piece And So I Watch You From Afar.. Over three days, in four different venues around the city, the locals were entertained by over 20 Northern ireland acts, signed and unsigned, all playing on the same bill in the spirit of cooperation, solidarity (funny enough) and to showcase the greatness of the N. Ireland music scene to the world. It wasn’t just bands in attendance, but alos artists and other creative types. Graham Smith showed some of his photographs, while community station NVTV had some pictures to show. There was also a weird tepee outside the Mandela Hall.
Bandwidth was in attendance throughout, and left with a sore head and some truly legendary footage. So, in 3 installments, feast your eyes and ears on:

Here Comes The Landed Gentry – getting silly backstage at the Oh Yeah centre

General Fiasco – Owen chilling out in the bar (noticing a theme here?) after their Mandela Hall gig

Cara Cowan – a fabulous newcomer winning over her crowd with Jefferson Airplane covers, again at Oh Yeah.

Enjoy the shows, and to meet the people responsible, visit here.

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Owen Strathern from General Fiasco – ‘Please Take Your Time’ (Acoustic)

Download for iPod (19.5MB)

Fresh from a storming set on the final night of the Solidarity gigs, General Fiasco were buzzing and ready for a little more. Owen, main vocalist and bassist of the band, grabbed Johnny Black from La Faro’s guitar (shhh) and played ‘Please Take Your Time’ while we waited for our Guinness to settle (look out for Enda, General Fiasco’s lead guitarist, at the end of the clip)

You may remember Bandwidth’s work with General Fiasco waaaaaay back for the ATL TV spot on an early demo version of their breakthrough hit Rebel Get By. The guys have come along way since then – working crowds and winning them over night after night on a support slot with One Night Only – and gathering a small army of well deserved fans while they’re at it. But put an acoustic guitar and a pint in front of them and you realise their enthusiasm for live music only gets stonger with time.

That’s the spirit of Bandwidth – the essence of the performance and the performer shining through. That magic of a live gig bottled and youtubed. Who else coudl do it better? Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to bring you… one guitar and a guy from General Fiasco… Magic.

Director: Will McConnell
Sound: David Donnelly

Bandwidth 2008

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Here Comes The Landed Gentry – Whiskey Town

Download for iPod (33 MB)

The opening night of the Solidarity festival featured A Plastic Rose, Here Comes The Landed Gentry and Ed Zealous on the same bill at Belfast’s Oh Yeah Centre, not to mention a Graham Smith photography exhibition. It seemed fitting that, in the spirit of Solidarity, the after party ballooned into a free for all jam session (perhaps fuelled by those sneaky trips across to the Duke of York between acts) featuring members from each of the night’s best acts.

Here is just a snippet from a looooong night. Here Comes The Landed Gentry are a quite brilliany indie-cum-rockabilly act from Derry. You remember their previous incarnation Red Organ Serpent Sound, but think twice the volume and ten times the attitude.

Gawd bless the Landed Gentry. And damn that man who brought the whiskey backstage.

Director: Will McConnell
Sound: David Donnelly

Bandwidth 2008

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