IT TAKES a particular type of talent to be able to accompany artists as varied as say, Clannad or Pádraigín Ní Uallachain or Antonio Breschi or, em, Chuck Berry but hey, we all know that former rocker Steve Cooney has been the sidekick of choice for most of our top trad and folk musicians and singers since the Aussie arrived on these shores way back in the early 1980s.

1. When did you think about a career in music and what were your first steps into it? My father before me, Bobby Clancy, was a musician with The Clancy Brothers for 40 years.

THEY were perhaps the best-drilled pop group of the noughties.

A Fistful Of Dynamite IF WE'RE talking about the greatest films of Sergio Leone, it's hard to get past The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, A Fistful Of Dollars and the dynamic duo of Once Upon A Time In The West and Once Upon A Time In America.

Today The Skids, Big Country – The Limelight 1, Belfast Documenta, Junk Drawer – Voodoo, Belfast Psychedelanaut, Victim Royal, Ravenlight etc – The Pavilion, Belfast The Gold Tips – Ulster Sports Club, Belfast Dave McPherson (InMe) – The Berliner, Belfast Soda Blonde – The Black Box, Belfast Mutilated Judge, Disconnect, Wardomized etc –The Speakeasy, Belfast

The Who Who WHO might be the veteran rockers' first album in 13 years (and only their second in 37), but it has a vitality that belies their years.

IT'S review time once again at Noise Annoys towers, this week featuring the debut single from Paper Tigers, Junk Drawer's latest, noticeably progressive sounding offering and the debut album from the artists formerly known as Hot Cops.

I consider playing music an extension of what I already do in the acting world.