Affirmative action
Snow Patrol and Ash are just some of the North’s rock ambassadors who have given their backing to the Oh Yeah Music Centre, a state-of-the-art multi-media development which will put Belfast on the international musical map.
Colin Carberry, 21 Mar 2007
Sartorial elegance may not be one of Snow Patrol’s more notable qualities, so onlookers would have taken little notice of the t-shirt Gary Lightbody wore while the band swept up at the recent Meteor Awards.
However, on an occasion that was supposed to celebrate the can-do spirit currently energising Irish music, its appearance could well have been the most significant of the night.
Because make no mistake: the ‘Oh Yeah’ slogan Lightbody was so keen to show off represented much more than just a glib designer logo.
For almost a year and a half now, the Snow Patrol singer has been working frantically, with Stuart Bailie, Davy Matchett and Marty Neill, on a project that promises to transform radically Belfast’s musical landscape.
All going well, as you read this, the first builders will be moving into a disused former whiskey warehouse in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter. When they’re finished the Oh Yeah Music Centre will hopefully be waiting: providing a state-of-the-art multi-media facility, a massive rehearsal and performance space, a number of A-list studios and office space for would-be promoters, managers and designers.
“The Christmas before last, Peter Hain had invited Snow Patrol to meet him at Stormont,” reveals Matchett, a childhood friend of Lightbody and SP’s Jonny Quinn.
“One of those gatherings of the great and good – and I got an email from Gary basically saying that he didn’t just want to go there for the free drink, he wanted to see if there was anything practical that he could ask for.”
“We’d already all met up one afternoon and, over a few drinks had put the world to rights, as you do. But I think we had all agreed that Belfast needed some kind of hub, some kind of physical focus that would help young musicians in the city. Kind of like the Nerve Centre in Derry. So it grew out of that.”
Given the speed with which things have developed, it’s perhaps unsurprising to discover that the building intersects with one of Belfast’s few rock and roll ley-lines. A couple of hundred yards away sits the original site of The Harp Bar, which famously acted as an incubator for the city’s dynamic punk scene, while ‘Teenage Kicks’ was recorded in a studio just around the corner. The building itself also played host to the Outlet recording and distribution company for many years – hence the spookily synchronistic presence of the intact shell of a recording studio.
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