So as we come to the first month at the new warehouse and offices in Corrandulla, I thought it might be time to round up all the goings-on hereabouts.
The move took surprisingly little time actually - it helped that a fair amount of gear was on hire at the time. We had a great two years in Ballybrit with Blacklight but when the new GEO system arrived I kind of suspected that we would be out of space. I looked into building a mezzanine etc but the easiest option was to find a larger premises. It soon became clear, though, that finding a suitable space in Galway City was going to be difficult - warehousing units start at 1000 sq foot and it many cases it would require the building on an office unit. Came across the present building on the way home one evening. We share the building with a construction company, so we have a more than adequate 600sq.foot store on the ground floor with an 80 sq.foot office upstairs with shared toilet and canteen facilities - ideal for the occasional late nights in the warehouse. Took us a few days to get the building wired and figure out the whole where-to put-things syndrome. For the first time, we were able to have separate prep and repair areas and a wireless area for the prepping of wireless systems. Even the fact of not having to continually stack gear has made the work flow better. Having the office separate to the warehouse was new - I eventually got through the pile of paperwork that had built up over the last six months - scary!
So the highlights:
The line array had a busy month - Iron & Wine in the Black Box, followed by 4 nights for comedian Tommy Tiernan.
The hothouse flowers on Inishbofin together with a mixture of trad and bluegrass acts over the 3 day festival.
The launch of the Volvo Ocean Race Galway stopover - this is going to be huge for the local economy, so hopefully we'll be involved in the event itself next year.
Right now it's into June - and a gig with the producer of some of my favourite records of all time - Daniel Lanois!
