A Dublin folk group has had its slot pulled from the RTÉ stage in Temple Bar on Dublin’s Culture Night, because they wished to play one of their own songs.
Quartet Lynched, were set to perform ‘Cold Old Fire’ as part of their three-song set in Meeting House Square this Friday September 19. However, the song, which is a reflection on living on the dole in recession-era Dublin was regarded as too downbeat for the occasion which was due to be broadcast on the station.
The band refused to pull the song and was allegedly dropped from the line-up.
Lynched took to their Facebook page recently to explain what happened:
“It’s a fairly simple but bewildering story. We were asked to do the gig, which we were delighted about. It was a chance to play to a new audience on a large stage in Dublin, while also being broadcast on the radio. A few weeks later they contacted us to ‘suggest’ the three songs from our album that we might play. When we replied that we would rather change one of the three songs on their list to give a fairer representation of what the band are about, we received a phone call strongly urging to do otherwise.
“A few reasons were given, including the fact that they wanted more upbeat songs that people would know, and that the gig wasn’t about us, it was about Culture Night. After some to-ing and fro-ing we eventually said that we were not prepared to have our set list chosen for us by a third party. At this point the message was conveyed to us in no uncertain terms that we were removed from the bill.”
You can hear the ‘Cold Old Fire’ below: