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Journey back to the Wax & Seal Studio Diaries – II
Welcome to the second part of our Wax & Seal Studio Diaries retrospective! (If you’re starting here, you might want to go back and read the first part.) By this time in the recording, I was struggling badly with my voice. I was lucky enough to never have any real issues with my voice in…
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Wax & Seal Studio Diaries I
Somehow, this month, my debut album, Wax & Seal, has turned twelve years old. It’s on the cusp of secondary (high) school. It’s slamming doors. It has an attitude, hormones, and doesn’t take any advice from its long suffering parents. I’ve been digging through the archives here at The Cooke Report and I’ve found some…
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Sold out of Fingertips of the Silversmith
So I’m happy/sad to say that we’ve run out of (undamaged copies of) “Fingertips of the Silversmith”. Thankfully, the album is still available as a download from Bandcamp (https://tigercooke.bandcamp.com/album/fingertips-of-the-silversmith) and the usual online stores. I’ll have download cards (via Bandcamp) ready to sell at shows until I decide whether to get more CDs pressed up,…
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Albums versus Podcasts
I find it extremely difficult to switch off at night. While on tour with Storyman, or The Guggenheim Grotto as they were then known, Kevin & Mick dubbed me “tippy tappy”, such was my penchant for being interrogated by the glow of my teeny netbook, clacking loudly on the keyboard, while everyone else was trying to…
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Irish Postcodes
Today, I’d like I must write about the need for a proper Irish postcode system, and to outline the reasons why the €27m #Eircode project is being considered such a shambles and yet another missed opportunity. The Post Unless you’re in the transport industry in some shape or form, the only experience of postcodes you’re ever…
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Join Me In The Pines
Over the past few months I’ve been playing with, and opening for, Join Me In The Pines at shows around Ireland. It’s been a blast. For your listening and viewing pleasure, I’ve lined up a few of our latest videos and recordings : Joy Is A Lion – 2FM Live Recording Should Not Roam Golden Guilt Joy Is A…
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Gerry Anderson – Keep At It, Kid
I grew up far from any flavour of BBC. I was reared in two-channel land. Our television aerial was blown down during Hurricane Charlie in 1987. Exposure to the BBC, UTV, Channel 4 or their radio equivalents went the way of the aerial. For us it was RTE 1 and 2 – Glenroe, The Angelus and adverts for…
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Van Morrison – The Bang Sessions
I have just received the strangest, actually genuine, email ever. I’ve been asked to “help spread the word” about a pledge campaign for a limited edition release of Van Morrison’s Bang! sessions, because like many Irish musicians, I’ve mentioned Van on my website probably more than once. Now, here are a few reasons why I…
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Nollaig 2013
“The Christmas” as we tend to call it in Ireland (like old folks speaking about a new technology… the facebook, the twitter, the email) is upon us. It’s time for evaluation and introspection, celebration and mourning, festivities and preparation. 2013 is almost at an end. But I won’t delve too deeply into that. I’d just…
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New Popshifter Interview
I recently did a little phone interview with Paul Casey from a pop-culture blog called Popshifter. It was published a few days ago, so here’s the link : http://popshifter.com/2013-09-25/an-interview-with-tiger-cooke/ I really enjoyed it. It’s been a while since I’ve done a full interview, so I apologise for my meandering, scattergun descriptions, overuse of pronouns, and…