The Rockfall Festival for 2007 comes to a close today and here’s some of the activities that are on the cards for the Bank Holiday Monday.

• Bank Holiday Marathon – Kyteler’s Court Yard – Pete Fagan, The Fundamentals, The Quare Hawks, The Acouticats, Bad Hair Day, Na Fianna, Revolver and a Dance Demo from April’s Hip Hop Group.

We’re into Sunday for Rockfall and here’s the lineup for the day

• Ryan’s – Backdoor Blues
• Pumphouse – Bar Flies
• Paris Texas – Revolver
• Rafter Dempsey’s – Daktari
• Zoo Club 3pm – all ages gig, three bands and fashion show by Maniac Clothing
• Nero’s – Engine Alley, Maurice Ramsbottom and Willie Meighan Disco 9.30 – finish
• O’Gorman’s – Johnny Hillman

Here’s the lineup for the fourth day of the Rockfall Festival for 2007

• Live music and DJ all day at the Tholsol, Thukolo, Rigmarole, Malcom Noonan and more to be confirmed. DJ Eamon Cleere Jr – also face painting etc
• The Devious Theatre Company will perform ‘Heart Shaped Vinyl’ for one night only in Cleeres Theatre at 8pm. Tickets (limited) are ten Euro and available from Cleere’s Theatre.
• Ryans – No Alibi – music of Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallagher etc
• Little Andy’s – Johnny Hillman
• Nero’s Nightclub – will host a Halloween Fancy Dress Beat Bash.
• Annaconda – The Hujas and DJ Cathal
• The Zoo Club – Chemical Addiction and Thermal Detonators

We’re into day three of Rockfall today and here’s the lineup for Friday, October 26th.

• Blues Ark (Ryan’s, Friary Street)
• Band X (Matt The Miller, John Street)
• Swinging Blue Cats (Langtons, John Street)
• Cocktail Party Night with DJ Aaron B (Biddy Early’s, John Street)
• RTE Celebrity Chef Kevin Dundon will open Kilkenny Colourists Art Exhibition. Francis Tansey, Ramie Leamy, Elizabety Cope, Puala Michin, Brock Butler and more will exhibit for one month with 25% of sales going to the O’Neill Centre. Light classical music and find food. This is part of the Kilkenny Food Festival. (Fleva Restaurant, High Street)
• Saving J & Little Black Wren (Cleere’s Theatre, Parliament Street)

Tonight night sees two terrific local acts take to the stage in Cleere’s Theatre with KilkennyMusic.com as Saving J and Little Black Wren entertain the masses as part of the 18th annual Rockfall Festival in aid of The O’Neill Centre. Kick off is around the 9:30/9:45pm mark with admission five euro.

Saving J have been making waves locally and nationally following the release of their debut single ‘Bus Stop’ earlier this year. The band have been busy this past month having clocked up appearances in the Watergate Theatre as part of Drug Awareness Week, The Button Factory (formerly Temple Bar Music Centre) in Dublin as well as the Old Bar at UCC in Cork just last week. Continuing a tour in promotion of the single, the band featuring Sean Redmond, Liam Redmond (no relation) Paul Hindle and Niall Moran, will take to the stage in Limerick, Waterford and Enniscorthy before the end of November but are delighted to be a part of the Rockfall lineup for 2007, the Cleere’s show being their first performance in the hallowed music venue since their single launch at the start of the year.

The band are also slated to recored an in-studio session for RTE 2FM and will be releasing a new single, ‘Valentine’ in February 2008.

Formerly singer and songwriter of Muse Motel, Little Black Wren (aka Kairen Waloch) began song writing in 1999 and took to the stage for the first time at The Music Club in Kilkenny’s Cleere’s Theatre two years later. Her first support gig was a solo slot with Mundy in that first year. When Muse Motel formed in late 2001 (with Kevin Bruce, Gabby Cullen and Hugh Kavanagh), as well as their own headline gigs the band played supports for Paddy Casey, Turn, Ten Speed Racer and Clayhill plus a festival opener for the Pretenders and Shania Twain at the 2003 Source. Kairen continued playing solo support gigs along the way for the likes of The Devlins, Joseph Arthur, The 4 of Us, Ezio, The Thrills and David Kitt, with appearances on TG4’s Pop 4.

After a break from the boards and with a pile of new songs penned, Kairen played her first gig in over a year last year under the new name of Little Black Wren for a one-off Christmas gig with musicians Rémi Chaye, Eve Guastella, Niall Moran and Claus Toksvig. She also opened for The Wooden Dolls at Whelan’s earlier this year.

The One Take Sessions returns tonight for it’s new series and with it brings four more fantastic acts, tonight’s gig marking the first of KilkennyMusic.com’s activities for the 18th Annual Rockfall Festival.

Eamonn O’Connor makes the trip from Dublin having spent the early stages of the summer in Portugal showcasing his musical talents. Joining him will be Emer Dunne, a rarity in terms of the One Take Sessions as the singer/songwriter circuit appears to be quite male dominated. James Doran (Jimmy Trigger) will be demoing some of is own new material, two tracks of which we’ve been able to get our hands on before tonight and the initial response is impressive. Diarmuid Comerford completes the lineup, Diarmuid along with percussionist Conor Stafford for the night hoping to use the One Take Sessions to warm up ahead of a string of gigs in London next month.

Via KilkennyMusic.com…

We’re delighted to get back into the One Take Sessions after a forced break in September / early October and we’re looking forward to tonight’s gig. Hopefully some of you reading will make it down - not forgetting of course that the One Take Sessions is completely free. The acts will be arriving from the 8pm mark, and the first act takes to the stage at 9:30pm.

Donations for the O’Neill Centre and Rockfall will be accepted on the night.

The only 35mm copy of ‘Walk The Line’ makes it’s way to the Kilkenny Cineplex tonight for a Johnny Cash tribute as part of the Rockfall Festival for this year. At 8:30pm, cinema goers will be treated to a one-off screening of ‘Walk The Line’ starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. The movie is a chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash’s life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.

When the screening ends, fans will be able to ‘Walk The Line’ from the cineplex, down Friary Street, and into Paris Texas where the Broken Spokes will be playing out the tunes that made Johnny Cash famous.

Tickets are available from the O’Neill Centre, Rollercoaster with a limited number of tickets available at the cinema and in Paris Texas for the gig.

The 18th annual Rockfall Festival gets underway tonight with a music table quiz in The Pumphouse on Parliament Street, Kilkenny. The quiz will be hosted by Malcom Noonan (The Broken Spokes) and will feature a total of seven rounds of questions, one of which will be an audio round featuring song introductions from the 60s to present day.

The questions have been put together over the last week or so and the night is sure to attract the music buff’s from Kilkenny and the surrounds.

Teams of four are €40 with all proceeds raised from tonight going to the O’Neill Centre here in Kilkenny. With the quiz set to start at 9:30pm it is wise to arrive early to register and secure your table! You don’t need to have a fourth person on your team, though team entry is €40.

Prizes are available for the winners and runners up with a spot prizes and raffle also on the night.

The Rockfall Festival website has been launched to allow you to track the progress of the festival, catch some gig highlights and find out what is happening from October 24th to October 29th 2007.

Over the course of the festival we’ll be adding a photo gallery and keeping you updated on the gigs and theatre events as they happen around the City.

The Rockfall Festival site is a joint effort between KilkennyMusic.com and Event Ireland, with coverage coming from the KilkennyMusic.com crew.