Category: Scribblings

  • Journey back to the Wax & Seal Studio Diaries – II

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    Tadhg Cooke
    in

    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…

  • Wax & Seal Studio Diaries I

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    by

    Tadhg Cooke
    in ,

    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…

  • Albums versus Podcasts

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    Tadhg Cooke
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    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…

  • Irish Postcodes

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    Tadhg Cooke
    in ,

    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…

  • Gerry Anderson – Keep At It, Kid

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    Tadhg Cooke
    in ,

    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…

  • Van Morrison – The Bang Sessions

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    Tadhg Cooke
    in ,

    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…

  • Nollaig 2013

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    Tadhg Cooke
    in ,

    “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…

  • New Popshifter Interview

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    Tadhg Cooke
    in

    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…

  • Find The Conversation

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    Tadhg Cooke
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    At the risk of contributing to your information overload, I wanted to share some things I’m reading, watching and listening to at the moment.  Inspiration is drawn from many sources, and even if something doesn’t inspire anything directly, a bit of knowledge can’t hurt.  Okay, it can hurt a lot.  Still… go for it! Austerity…

  • I Like Your Manifesto, Put It To The Testo!

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    Tadhg Cooke
    in

    “I like your manifesto, put it to the testo” – The Sultans of Ping F.C. For a long time, this blog was merely a repository for gig notices, occasional newsletters and photos from foreign lands.  I want more.  From now on it will be my diary.  Fairly unfiltered and concerned with everything and anything that…