www.musiclimerick.com

IMRO (Irish Music Rights Organisation) have announced the call for entries for the 2010 IMRO Showcase Tour. Since 1992, Ireland’s most established new band showcase has provided a live platform for scores of up and coming Irish acts over the years. Recent acts to have featured include O Emperor, Fight Like Apes, Dirty Epics, Disconnect 4 and Delorentos to name but a few. Bands and solo artists across all genres of music are invited to apply for a place on the IMRO Showcase Tour 2010. Just send a website or MySpace link to showcase@imro.ie before Friday February 12th, 2010. Successful acts will be notified in early March. The gigs will run through March and April. The Limerick leg of the tour will happen in Dolans on Sat April 24th.

A number of artists will be chosen from the tour to perform in a ‘Best of Showcase’ gig which will take place in Dublin venue The Academy on April 30th.

Murphy’s Big Night Out has announced Mercury prize winning, multi platinum selling and general all round international superstar Florence and the Machine as the headline act for this year’s Murphy’s Big Night Out, at the Opera House, Cork on Saturday December 5th. Tickets are extremely limited and in huge demand for Murphy’s Big Night Out so apply now by logging on to www.littlebignightsout.com or Tel: 01 5224850! Check out the Leo Zero Remix of the Florence and The Machine – Rabbit Heart (Raise it up) here

Limerick’s echoshell (namely Kieran Calvert and Al Sheahan) have been combining their original music and film to create innovative atmospheric landscapes with very beautiful results. This is a release called “jane song” which features in the opening credits of a new Irish/English movie called “Spiderhole” written and directed by Daniel Simpson which was screened at The Dingle Film Festival in September.

You can check out the trailer on spiderhole.com