Annie Mac

Hello there, I can't believe December has come around again! This year has absolutely flown by.. It seems like a few months ago that I landed in Dingle, sleepless and delirious after 3 days of gigs, not knowing which end of me was up. I DJed in Sheffield till 2am and then drove straight to the airport and got into a car at Cork and got gently woken up by my lovely driver just as we were driving into Dingle at 6am. The sun was coming up and cast a pink glow over the whole town and it looked like something out of a fairytale. The next 5 days proved to be some of the most enjoyable I’ve ever spent in Ireland in the last 10 years, maybe it was because I was living in London and was starved of the warmth and cheer that you take for granted when you live in Dingle, but I was bowled over by the people and the place. Then there was the work, not that it felt like work as i spent the whole week laughing my arse off from the jokes of the camera crew, interviewing amazing musicians in Dingle hotspots; James Morrison in the bowling alley, Richard Hawley in the bookshop, Jape in the pub where they sell rat poison and bicycles as well as pints, and nursing hangovers after too much Guinness after the gigs in St James Church. Aah the gigs. What makes Other Voices so special as a TV show is that it's not a contrived atmosphere that is created on account of the cameras, it is a genuinely soulful musical experience between the artists and the 60 strong audience that is captured by the cameras and brought to you at home. The musicians come from all over the world to play there and when you're sitting squeezed into a pew on the balcony upstairs watching Elbow and Richard Hawley laughing their way through a mind-blowing rendition of 'The Fix', Other Voices feels like the best kept secret in the world. That church is still the best gig venue I think I’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting in. And so to Other Voices 2010! I know what to expect this year. I’ll be resting before I get there cos I'll be a wreck by the time the week is over.. I’ll be bringing umpteen layers of warm woolly clothes and I’ll have been on a diet so my belly can prepare for the copious amounts of Guinness. I’m looking forward to seeing some familiar faces and already anticipating some of the best gigs I've ever seen.