Tom Dunne: Here's to Ireland's gig venues, and the people who make them work

The IMRO awards differ from the others in that they seek to highlight and reward those behind the scenes. The people who book the bands, light them, do sound, solve the technical issues and keep the venues open.

If you have ever been in a band, or performed at such a venue, they are the people whose feet you kiss when you arrive. They tend to have the air of medical staff in an emergency. You are worried sick, but they are calm. “Plug in here,” they say, “all will be fine.” The first such man I ever met was the late, truly great, Dennis Herlihy at the legendary Sir Henry’s in Cork. He would live and breathe sound. You surrendered to him. Did as he said, turned up or down as instructed. He made you sound great and that was some gift.

Back then, people like Dennis were rare. On tours it was often a case of trying to coax sound out of systems more suited to supermarket announcements than music. Yet the clubs were famous the world over. You’d read about them – CBGBs, Max’s Kansas City - and then see the PA. It didn’t add up.

U2 were soon bringing another Cork man, Joe O’Herlihy - a regular on the sound-desk at the Arcadia - everywhere they went. Some venues might have an inhouse magician that could summon reasonable sound from a collection of boxes, but it was safer to bring your own. Joe was the man and still is.

Amazingly, as the years have progressed having someone like Dennis in a venue has become more the norm. It is a rare example of something getting better with time. There are now more cool venues with great crew that there used to be. It seems miraculous.

What’s at stake though is even more so, for the small venues are sometimes where it is truly at. In September 2001, I started to receive regular letters from a listener in Cork. He was pleading with me to make my way to the Lobby Bar and see Mic Christopher in the upstairs function room.

“There is magic in the air,” this listener said, “get on the train.” He proceeded to paint such a picture of magical nights with Mic that I made plans. But I dragged my feet and Mic headed off to tour with The Waterboys. A tour from which he would tragically never return.

Those gigs were recorded, I’m pretty sure by the same listener, Emmett Murphy. I have the letters and the CDs – somewhere! They finally got a release on vinyl a few years back. The magic seeps from the grooves. Mic at his peak, songs like Heyday, coming to him, apparently, at will.

But it was not just Mic. Inherent in the magic of that record is the audience. Their joy, their appreciation, their utter investment in just being “in the moment.” If you want to hear another such moment: Colm Mac Con Iomaire’s fiddle on Pure Imagination, The Frames Live at Vicar Street.

Those moments are things we take with us in life. They do of course occur on the bigger stages, but there is something about the intimacy of the smaller club that heightens it all. Bowie in the Baggot, Dylan in Vicar Street, Radiohead in the Rock Garden.

Ireland is still home to many wonderful venues, often driven by passionate, visionary individuals like Aidan in Mike the Pies or Joe in Levis Corner House. But it is not just passion, it is the know-how, experience and tenacity.

All Together Now won Best Live Music Festival, as it should, whilst McGinley’s Bar in Letterkenny won IMRO National Live Music Venue of the Year. It and places like Coughlan’s in Cork should become venues you make a pilgrimage to.

Look up a listing, find a band you like and make a trip of it. The sound will be great, the craic mighty. That is almost a given.

Elon might yet turn off our wifi, but there will always be live music.