Blogs

Girls Rock Dublin & Dublin City Libraries have teamed up to offer teenagers a brand new and FREE music gear loan service: the GRD Gear Library!
You can now borrow one of our instruments, amps, pedal effects and accessories just like a book. 

Through a single gateway, library members can access and cross-search a number of acclaimed and regularly updated music reference works including Grove Music Online, Oxford Companion to Music, and Oxford Dictionary of Music.

The world's leading classical music channel is now available for free with your Dublin City Libraries card. Choose from an extensive selection of concerts, operas, ballets, documentaries and master classes:

When I began this piece a few days ago, we hadn’t seen the sunshine in days and the cold air was gripping beneath the grey skies. Can’t meet my friends, go to a gig or go to the cinema, never mind a disco! So I decided I had to start moving for warmth and pretending I was on holiday to lift myself out of the gloom of the winter days.

There is a quote from the play the Mourning Bride by William Congreve that "Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast". In our Naxos Music Library e- resource there is music that can soothe fans of any conceivable type of music.

Join us on Zoom tomorrow for a social gathering. That's Wednesday 6th, at 10.30am, on Nollaig na mBan, everyone is welcome. Please get in touch with the library at [email protected]

The Music Library invites you to take part in a special event taking place over the month of December. In these times where we have to stay apart, connect with other music lovers by sharing your memories of songs on the themes of Christmas and Nostalgia, either by post or email for inclusion in a publication curated by Irish vocalist and songwriter Riona Sally Hartman to be sent to all participants.

Music can be so uplifting, and a great source of inspiration and solace to many of us still on lockdown. With this in mind why not check out the life stories of the musicians behind some of your favourite songs, with the varied and great music biographies available on BorrowBox. Here’s just a few suggestions.‘The Last Interview: And Other Conservations’ – David BowieDavid Bowie was a chameleon of a performer. His music and style evolved and changed over a remarkable career, leaving us with a wealth of diverse and ground breaking albums. Check out these recollections of a colourful and eventful life. These insightful interviews span the course of Bowie’s career, from his earliest right up to one of the last given prior to his death.‘Love, Janis’ – Laura JoplinOne of the most rousing, heart breaking and soulful voices in rock music belonged to a certain Janis Joplin. A fierce performer who was an electric presence in the emerging counter culture scene of 60s San Francisco. A legendary artist from an iconic era, Joplin lived an all too brief but extraordinary life. This book contains recollections from friends and family who knew her best, and a series of previously unpublished letters lovingly compiled by her sister.‘M Train’ – Patti SmithPatti Smith is an artist of many talents. Renowned as a photographer, poet and visual artist, she is perhaps best known for her music. A music that fuses the blues, punk and an anarchic spirit. ‘M Train’ is the second of two memoirs by Smith, where she ruminates on the places, people and the creative influences that inspire her work. For those who loved her first memoir ‘Just Kids’, this is a must read.Submitted by Michael from Dolphin’s Barn Library.Access eBooks/eAudiobooks on your phone, tablet or reader. Once you have installed the app, search for Dublin in the ‘Library’ field provided and then sign in using your library membership card number and PIN. Watch our how to video on Borrowbox. Members of other library authorities will need to log in using a different link.

It’s always going to be hard writing a book about someone as closed personally as Rory Gallagher was, but this is as excellent a career overview of Ireland’s greatest guitarist as you can get, with plenty of old friends going back to his school days, to the roadcrew that he spent so much time with on the road, telling their tales, along with plenty of  Rory's own words from interviews over the years.Rory Gallagher by Marcus ConnaughtonIf it’s information about his private life you're after then this isn't the place to get it mainly due to the fact that Gallagher kept his private life just that - private. While he gave countless interviews over the years, unless it was about music he was very reluctant to say anything; at the end of the day he came across as a shy man (hard to believe when you see him in action on stage) who just lived for making his music and then going on tour with it, and anything else - if there even was anything else - was his business.  Along with all this there are some brilliant photos of Rory on stage and some even going back to his days as a teenage showband member. All in all a great read and it'll have you digging out the Rory albums as you go!What Does This Button Do? by Bruce DickinsonDespite being the lead singer in Iron Maiden for over 30 years there's a lot more to Bruce Dickinson than this: he was an Olympic standard fencer, went from flying band members around the US in a small plane in 2000 to flying the band, crew and equipment around the world in a 747 two years ago, he's also been an author, broadcaster, businessman and brewer so he has plenty to tell, and that's all before he got diagnosed with tongue cancer in 2014.  While there's plenty of his Maiden days in this, it’s not just for fans of the band as he's equally as passionate about all of the other strings in his bow and comes across as a very intelligent, curious man who when he gets involved in something really throws himself into it 100% and this attitude surely helped him get through his cancer diagnosis.  As I said it’s not just a book for Maiden fans, there's plenty of variety in it for all.Born to Run by Bruce SpringsteenAn unsurprisingly hugely anticipated book when it was released, this didn't disappoint: a very honest read which is written in typical Springsteen phrasing very similar to the way he tells stories through his songs. Nothing is left out here, although not everything is followed through to its full extent - then again if he was to go fully into everything that's happened in a near 50 year career he'd still be writing it! The early years as he struggles along in a variety of bands is very interesting as the idea of quitting never seems to occur to him and it’s this determination that eventually paid off;  but even then he had some management/legal problems in the mid 70's that seemed to have more effect on him than the constant knock-downs he had when younger, but once this issue was sorted things just took off to unbelievable levels.  He comes across as a very deep man who has thought long and hard about all he has done and will often end a paragraph or a chapter with a question or a conclusion that will have you thinking about it for hours or even days afterwards. The follow-on project to the book was the Springsteen on Broadway show which ran for well over a year and the good news is it’s available on the Freegal service from the library, along with several concerts from the 70s and 80s.Access eBooks/eAudiobooks on your phone, tablet or reader. Once you have installed the app, search for Dublin in the ‘Library’ field provided and then sign in using your library membership card number and PIN. Watch our how to video on Borrowbox. Members of other library authorities will need to log in using a different link.Submitted by Niall from Finglas Library. 

Having recently had a really good look into Freegal for the first time I decided to dig around and see what’s on there for those of us of a hard rock persuasion, so if the "keep calm and relax" playlist isn't for you and you have no interest in that Fiona Apple ad that seems to appear no matter what, this could be for you. I'm going to start with the bigger names and later on give a few recommendations of lesser-known bands  that I was pleasantly surprised to find on there.May as well start with the biggest rock band on the planet so that would be Metallica; none of their studio albums are on here but what is on is several radio broadcast albums of gigs ranging from 1986 to around 1996 - these are not official band releases but the sound on them is generally very good, while they are the equivalent of the old bootleg tapes that were sold on O'Connell Bridge (remember them??) which were literally a microphone stuffed down a sleeve so you got a great insight into what people around the bootlegger were doing but only a vague idea of a band playing somewhere in the distance.  The ones I would personally go for here are the earlier ones from ‘86 and ’88, but all tours are covered over a 10 year period so plenty of Black Album stuff there too.Next up AC/DC, and basically everything you could possibly want from both studio and radio roadcasts is here; every studio album and gigs from both Bon Scott and Brian Johnson eras along with the Bonfire box set which is superb. The live radio broadcasts stop around mid ‘80's but there are a couple of official live albums recorded after this, the most recent being Live At River Plate which is from the Black Ice tour.Guns N’ Roses next: similar to Metallica, no studio albums up but as every house in Ireland has a copy of Appetite for Destruction this isn't too much of a problem!  What is there are five Radio Broadcast concerts ranging from 1987 – 1992, so we get to hear what they were like as they came screaming (literally) out of L.A., to the line up of ‘92 in which the egos and drug and alcohol problems were causing serious internal problems, and it wasn't too long after this that only Axl Rose was left of the original line-up. He then took 35 years (or close enough)  to record a new album, spent years making fans wait for hours for him to show up at concerts before finally burying the hatchet with Duff McKagan and Slash, learning to be punctual, and being part of what is financially the third biggest tour in the history of music. One word of warning on the later shows - avoid the drum solo, life is too short, even in lockdown!!So that's the big names looked at, now here's some other bands  you may or may not have heard of, but sometimes it’s good to go off the beaten track and try something new.First up The Wildhearts, an English band who released their debut album in 1993, have split up and reformed too many times to mention over the years but the quality of music has always been top notch no matter the line-up.  The albums that are up are mostly from 2003-05 with the 2016 double live album Never Outdrunk, Never Outsung also there; this and The Wildhearts Strike Back are both double live  albums so their whole career is covered on these. The Coupled With album is a collection of mainly B-sides which is probably better than most bands’ A-sides.  Lead singer Ginger also has some solo work on too; a starting point for him would be the compilation album Ten, which is fantastic.Supersuckers are next, described as "the greatest rock and roll band in the world" (by themselves!): at times it’s hard to argue with them. The albums here are all relatively recent including their brand new one, Play That Rock and Roll, which only came out last month; this and albums Get the Hell and Suck It are great rock albums - think Ramones meeting Motörhead and you'll have an idea of what to expect. One curveball is the album Holding the Bag on which the Supersuckers do what they've done several times during their career and go country in their own unique way -  breaking out the acoustic guitars and with plenty of black humour in the lyrics, it’s country,  but not as we know it!From Northern Ireland The Answer are next up, a great classic-rock-sounding band that almost made a big breakthrough when they were supporting AC/DC for 18 months on their Black Ice tour but unfortunately it never really happened for them.  All their albums are here and apart from a slight change of direction on their last one, Solas, all are old-school rock albums, pick of the bunch being Revival and Everyday Demons.Also from up North are Therapy? - not exactly unknowns, but unfortunately not exactly superstars either!  A couple  of their later albums are up here, as well as Shameless from 1998 which is great but the one most people will probably be interested in is the live double album, We're Here To The End which has 36 songs spanning their whole career, including all the classics.Other bands worth checking out similar to above, are Hellacopters (especially the High Visibility album), Backyard Babies and Gluecifer. Hope there's something here to interest you. For those about to rock, I salute you! Watch our how to video on Freegal.  You will need your Dublin City Library card and pin.Submitted by Niall from Finglas Library.