The Stunning frontman slams Arthur's Day 'smugness'

grenache · 27-09-2012 02:18AM #1

Fair play to Steve Wall i say. Guinness/Diageo say it's a day not only to remember Arthur Guinness, but also promote Irish culture. Can't do that if you have no headline Irish acts lads!

http://thedailyedge.thejournal.ie/arthurs-day-criticism-steve-wall-610812-Sep2012/

Lead singer of The Stunning slams Arthur’s Day ‘smugness’

THE FRONTMAN OF The Stunning and The Walls Steve Wall has lashed out at tomorrow’s Arthur’s Day campaign, organised by Diageo, calling it an insult to Irish artists.

In several posts on Facebook he’s called Arthur’s Day a “cynical exercise in pulling the wool over Paddy’s eyes” and says that the advertising execs behind the day “must be having a right old laugh”.

Arthur’s Day is pitched as a celebration of music and the black stuff, and has brought massive names to Dublin and the rest of the country over the past few years. However, the event is coming in for some criticism for failing to promote Irish acts.

Of the eleven main artists listed on the Arthur’s Day homepage, none are Irish. Writing on Facebook Steve Wall notes that the Irish acts who are involved “won’t feature on the TV coverage or the radio or on anything really… just like last year”.

AlmightyCushion · 27-09-2012 02:33AM

Who?

Yellowblackbird · 27-09-2012 02:35AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

starviewadams · 27-09-2012 02:36AM

Just a marketing stunt that people bought into,can't believe it's lasted 3 years now.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 27-09-2012 02:37AM

I don't think 'Paddy' is for one minute fooled by the Diageo marketing ecexs. People just see it as an opportunity for a good pissup and a chance to hear a bit of live music. Both consumer and company benefit.

Granted though, not featuring any current or emerging Irish acts on their media coverage is appalling.

say_who_now? · 27-09-2012 02:41AM

Yellowblackbird wrote: »

[Bill Hicks Video]

What's so damn great about this Bill Hicks guy that in almost every single thread we have a "This is what Bill Hicks says about so and so". Why not offer your own damn opinion instead of me having to bother my árse sitting through however many minutes of a youtube clip when how long did it take you to read this sentence and by now I've got my point across?

J. Marston · 27-09-2012 02:42AM

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Who?

Google, motherfúcker! Can you use it?

chrissb7 · 27-09-2012 02:43AM

He's damn right! I've been to a few homegrown festivals and have seen some quality Irish bands that are pounding up and down the country in nothing but a van and their instruments.Need to promote these kinds of artists.Course that said there is also alot of crapola that are around on the local scene.Maybe some sorta filtration process to get the good acts in.Of course that said get all the big Irish names on stage.We aren't short : u2, cranberries, glen hansard, damien rice, bell x1 etc. and don't say we couldn't get them to perform.If bono can spare to go busking on grafton street for the craic he could surely get u2 to bang out a couple of songs for one night.That said I hate Arthurs day.Another excuse to flood dublin with vomit and trouble makers galore (a lesser paddys day basically).Hate this.Pointless day.Now a tayto day! that'd be the best.Tayto trucks all over the place lashing out the bags of cheese and onion......alas, if only.

Casillas · 27-09-2012 02:44AM

You're all insanely angry tonight!

Yellowblackbird · 27-09-2012 03:04AM

say_who_now? wrote: »

Why not offer your own damn opinion instead of me having to bother my árse sitting through however many minutes of a youtube clip

Why would my opinion be any more or less interesting or valid than hicks. Why would you read either. Why are you on boards. Does anyone have anything interesting to say about anything at all? No.
Yourself for example. You're an uninteresting, uninsightful, unoriginal, uninspiring turd. Who should probably be asleep right now. How you going drink ten pints of Guinness tomorrow night if you're doing fk all on line at 3 o clock in the morning.

Wee Willy Harris · 27-09-2012 03:10AM

Brewin' up a storm in a teacup, tbh

fasttalkerchat · 27-09-2012 03:17AM

I didn't know the guy or his band either, maybe that's why they're not putting his name on the posters!

DingChavez · 27-09-2012 03:27AM

These ****ty Irish indie rock bands that begin with a "The" already get enough special attention. How about bands that actually play some kind of Irish influenced music?

say_who_now? · 27-09-2012 03:31AM

Yellowblackbird wrote: »

Why would my opinion be any more or less interesting or valid than hicks. Why would you read either. Why are you on boards. Does anyone have anything interesting to say about anything at all? No.
Yourself for example. You're an uninteresting, uninsightful, unoriginal, uninspiring turd. Who should probably be asleep right now. How you going drink ten pints of Guinness tomorrow night if you're doing fk all on line at 3 o clock in the morning.

See? Your own opinion was far more interesting that Bill Hicks effort!

B.A._Baracus · 27-09-2012 03:33AM

Let me translate that post:

Joe Nobody (I dont type that as a dickhead, just what is fact, he is unkown) complains about arthurs day to get his name out there. Thus, trying to market himself. While Arthurs day is a marketing tool by Diageo to get suckers into buying Guinness.

Reality: Both Joe Nobody and Guinness wanna make money. While I agree the idea of Arthurs day is a joke. A child could see past both aspects.

Wee Willy Harris · 27-09-2012 03:35AM

DingChavez wrote: »

These ****ty Irish indie rock bands that begin with a "The" already get enough special attention. How about bands that actually play some kind of Irish influenced music?

I agree, not so stunning / not so special but what do you want em to do throw a few tin whistles in there... tired tales of Irish folklore

Rock, and manhood needs to boldly go. Leave the true girly men to keep it real back at the cozy homestead we long for some escapism from

Rothko · 27-09-2012 03:45AM

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Let me translate that post:

Joe Nobody (I dont type that as a dickhead, just what is fact, he is unkown)

Just because you haven't heard of him doesn't mean that he is "unknown".

Wee Willy Harris · 27-09-2012 03:49AM

Is a soft rock even a rock at all

B.A._Baracus · 27-09-2012 03:49AM

Suas11 wrote: »

Just because you haven't heard of him doesn't mean that he is "unknown".

Oh yes.
Please forive me. I Just looked at his wikipedia page.

1998 to Present. Man, he and his band has been rocking those major venues and making some serious money the last few .... oh wait.

Rothko · 27-09-2012 03:54AM

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Oh yes.
Please forive me. I Just looked at his wikipedia page.

1998 to Present. Man, he and his band has been rocking those major venues and making some serious money the last few .... oh wait.

Have you never heard this song?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4l9QsjcemA

Wee Willy Harris · 27-09-2012 03:58AM

And if that date included the year, it might say 1987

batistuta9 · 27-09-2012 04:04AM

Suas11 wrote: »

Have you never heard this song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4l9QsjcemA

so he's a member of a one hit wonder band

22 years & counting, some milk outa that

Wee Willy Harris · 27-09-2012 04:34AM

that's what Mark McCabe will be saying as the plebs continue to lap up irelands fastest/biggest selling single ever. Think he lifted a finger, for like three minutes of his career

pro musician these lads have been grafting away all that time n then some for a living, regardless

Executive Steve · 27-09-2012 05:17AM

He's got an excellent point.

It's not as if there's even any imagination in the acts they're bringing over - Fatboy Slim? Texas? It's got all the hallmarks of some morketing deportment tool in his 40's spending the massive unlimited Diageo morketing budget on booking the first five names that turn up on the 19 year old morketing interns iPod and then booking two more names he can vaguely recollect getting drunk to when he was in college.

Zero imagination on display, and I quite like Arthur's day.

Evil corporate sponsorship aside, it's just a mini-Paddy's day without all the cringey ****ing shamrocks and tractors and yanks all over the shop. Sure Temple Bar is an absolute nightmare but who in their right mind ever goes there for a pint anyway?

DonLimon · 27-09-2012 06:09AM

batistuta9 wrote: »

so he's a member of a one hit wonder band

22 years & counting, some milk outa that

You can use that one hit wonder to wash out your eardrums after the tinie tempah gig.

Auldloon · 27-09-2012 06:28AM

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Suas11 wrote: »

Just because you haven't heard of him doesn't mean that he is "unknown".

Oh yes.
Please forive me. I Just looked at his wikipedia page.

1998 to Present. Man, he and his band has been rocking those major venues and making some serious money the last few .... oh wait.

Ignorance is no excuse. The stunning were huge in the early 90's. Their debut album, Paradise in the Picturehouse, and their second album Once Around The World, both reached the #1 spot in the Irish Albums Chart.

Wee Willy Harris · 27-09-2012 06:31AM

It's all about the buck for these modern kids.. via trickery.

savagecabage · 27-09-2012 09:11AM

this is not all that surprising really. the most important day of the year for celebrating our irishness, march 17, is celebrating some guy who isnt even irish

kunst nugget · 27-09-2012 09:32AM

Yellowblackbird wrote: »

Why would my opinion be any more or less interesting or valid than hicks. Why would you read either. Why are you on boards. Does anyone have anything interesting to say about anything at all? No.
Yourself for example. You're an uninteresting, uninsightful, unoriginal, uninspiring turd. Who should probably be asleep right now. How you going drink ten pints of Guinness tomorrow night if you're doing fk all on line at 3 o clock in the morning.

I tell you what the problem with that Hicks video is. By now it's been linked by so many people trying to show that they're cool because they're above all this marketing bullsh¡t that it has become a complete yawnfest. Wow, a thread on marketing and look, that Bill Hicks video, again. Oh Bill, even after seeing this video linked 3,000 times before I still find this clip so edgy and out there. I must thank that user for reminding of that clip. I mean a thread had started about marketing and goddammit, if I didn't nearly get sucked into it. But that user posted THAT Bill Hicks clip AGAIN and it made me realise how phoney marketing is, AGAIN.

Dravokivich · 27-09-2012 10:07AM

It's a stupid sensationalist moany rant and nothing else.

Why don't they put up new emerging bands? No-ones heard of'em. Can't go around booking something you don't know about or never heard before for a big event now can you?

Bands need to make themselves known to booking agents and show they draw a big and steady enough crowd. If they can't they'll never get into events like this. Because all you'll end up with is a load of unknowns playing together in front of friends/family.

That'll make the whole thing a farce. A lot of the excitement in Arthurs Day is looking to find out who'll be playing where. "Who" as in a big name act brought in from abroad.

But for what it's worth, I'm heading to an event tonight that was organised by a bunch of unknowns to latch into the whole Arthurs Day thing. Bands have to put themselves out there and they've a great opportunity to do so tonight, if they take it up themselves.

You can't expect someone to come up and had you a gig on a fúcking plate. This IS a great opportunity for the Irish Music Industry and for local bands, if they've got both the skill as musicians and the drive to manage themselves.

opinion guy · 27-09-2012 10:21AM

Shocking how all ye young people know nothing of a great Irish band. FFS educate yourselves would ye ?

The Stunning frontman slams Arthur's Day 'smugness'

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