*More Live highlights of this Cornerstone can be found on our Gigs of the month page along with a number of friends and artists inspired by their genius*

  For those of you still waiting for us to hoist your musical cornerstones and national flags of music from the UK, France, Australia,Canada, the US ,etc etc.. You're going to have to wait for just a little longer as there are just one or two (or is it one or two hundred..?)more cornerstones that no serious musician or fan can possibly ignore when examining the roots of modern Irish or international rock. We were going to name this page Rock Cornerstone 1.1, but we felt the rags to riches , to rags to then more and even more riches story behind this band was worthy of just a little bit more. Of all the bands to emmerge from Ireland in the last twenty five years , this one is probably the only one to be able to match 'the Horslips phenomena' for skill and musical brilliance -they also seem to be the only other band with an electric fiddler capable of recreating the same awestruck response and levels of ecstatic excitement among a crowd of thousands in a solo as the worlds best lead guitarists do. Ironicaly -the only other electric fiddler to ever be able to do this to quite such an effect was Horslips very own Charles O'Connor over a decade before.The similarities to the Horslips story end there.... But before we delve deeper we will start at the begining with a socialogical (and very brief ) history lesson.

  Dublin in the late 70's and early eighties was in itself a tale of two cities. To the south was the nicer more affluent area of the city, with nicer schools, shops, services and relaxing residential areas, while to the north, there was Ballymun -In the 70's and 80's it became the subject of numerous 'dickensian' styled media commentaries on the 'want and poverty' of people born into tower blocks abandoned by hope, the govournment and everyone else. It was also made famous at the time for it's excess of very young, glue sniffing children and heroin addicts ...and said also to be the reason why absolutely nothing could be left unchained or unnatended in Dublin for more than thirty seconds ( wether it was a pushbike, moped, motorbike, car, bulldozer, train, pram, girlfriend or even yer mother -in -law! ...unfortunately for most men and their mother-in-laws the latter just wasn't true). School in Ballymun during those days was just somewhere to go before you either went to jail or got a job sweeping roads or toilets and into this era of hopelessness came a unique DJ -ing headmaster - who potentialy risked his entire career by thinking 'out of the box'.When one of his younger and brighter pupils began to show a wisdom way beyond his years in contemporary music and an equaly advanced literary flair in songwriting, his advice to the pupil, who was in the top sets of his school year, was exceptional !

  The advice was to quit school that very day aged just thirteen years old- long before sitting his 'leaving certificate'!. He was told to go home, get his guitar and one of the many bikes from his back garden (-the pupils hobby was finding and restoring the broken frames and wheels found in nearly every irish hedgerow and stream at the time , his garden famously became their source of rehabilitation and, in turn, the explanation for his bands future name as he was known in the city as 'the guy with the house of the frames'), he was then to cycle over to the other side of the city, get out his guitar and start singing in the streets. The pupil followed his headmasters advice and so spent the remainder of the eighties busking around Dublin and throughout the streets and malls of many other european cities.

  As the nineteen nineties dawned our busker ( now with his own band formed out of the elite of Dublins 'busking' community) was invited to come along as a 'moral support' to a film loving friend about to audition for a part in a small independant movie.Unfortunately for the friend, the role idealy needed to be filled by someone who was tall, preferably red haired and who could portray a busker from the deprived north of the city. Our premature school leaver not only fitted the brief precisely, but also found himself being offered the lead role when relunctantly coerced into the audition room by the casting crew..having now landed the lead role, it seemed that all he had to do was be himself and sing a few songs. Yet this small independant Dublin film about a struggling band , shot on a shoestring budget became not only the biggest and most talked about film of the year in the UK and Eire, but for flms centred on a musical theme it became the biggest of the decade worldwide. The soundtrack for 'The Commitments' was also one of the decades fastest selling -with our buskers voice undoubtedly being it's main selling point- and the 'platinum disc' seemed to appear almost instantaniously upon it's release.

  The big labels spotted the big dollar signs and once they heard that the lead singer of 'The Comitments' already had his own band they started to sniff round our vocalist like bees round a honey pot.Then, just as our Cornerstones future seemed destined for success with contracts and offers spread all over his table, the problems began. The first label dropped them after a year ...and then 'lost' the mastertapes to their debut album!And the next label fared no better. Although all the labels all seemed to acknowledge the voice of Glen Hansard as the new Van Morrison, what they realy wanted from him was another 'Commitments' album...a Van The Man with a brassy 'big band' feel to real in those big brassy dollars. Instead they got a 'Van The Man' 'acoustic celtic rock' feel that actualy made Van's earlier acoustics such as ' TB Sheets' ( written by Van in a griefstricken state ) look very 'middle of the road' or even 'easy listening'. Their complex though deeply melodic tunes burst wildly into unsuspecting ears, assaulting the sences with a sound that is 'violently wild and loud' before wrenching into a sudden, deafeningly soft and peacefull, melodic quietude...before suddenly rising to burst the remnants of already shattered eardrums yet again. Often now described as Bi-Polar or manic, The Frames (as they are called) pioneered a musical style which has not only permeated into and through most of Irelands recent celabrated artists (Damien Rice being a prime example) but it also deeply infiltrated ( throughout the nineties parrallel to and alongside bands like Nirvana ) American indie, rock, nu metal and grunge with 'System of a Down' being one of todays most relevant icons whose musical style could even be said to be underpinned by a 'Frames frame'.

  Despite the nineties being a decade that gave the frames a very

 dedicated core fanbase worldwide, it remained a time of continuous

 battling for the creative independance of the band..."leave us to our

 own devices and we will deliver" The band would cry out, "Only if it

 means another Commitments album" The labels would reply...

 The impasse was finaly decided when the band released

 'For The Birds' on their own Platteau label in 2000....(see right!)

 It outsold all of their previous recordings together and, despite all the

pre - indie flight nerves, the band finaly took off and their

music began to truly soar .Not only that, but all those

previous albums that were so hindered by big labels also began to

start selling too - leaving Glen and the boys with an over powering

temptation to scream "I TOLD YOU SO!!" from the top of every labels

office block.

  Throughout the formative years of their new 'independant' millenium, successive Frames albums have gone 'platinum' and 'double platinum' with requests continualy snowballing from all corners of the globe begging the band to headline national music festivals everywhere. Especialy so, it seems, from eastern europe where their music surprisingly fueled the new found optimism of the former Soviet block nations (..must be something to do with the ancient genetic link between the arcitypal red haired 'Viking' Dubliner and the eastern slavonic ' Russ' - from the russian meaning 'red' or Viking). The Czechoslovakian Republic became a favourite haunt and second home for the band and for Glen in particular, who stayed on in the country after tours to re-record some Frames material for a film score for the famous Czech film director Jan Hrebejk. From 2005 on The Frames creative output just seems to have vastly increased and accelerated, and this was also due in part to two unintended and accidental Hansard ventures...

  The first accidental venture was Glens 'solo' album. It had actualy started out with the intention of being a 'Marketa Irglova' album (Marketa was a pianist, singer, songwriter, close Frames freind and daughter of the reknowned Czechoslovakian concert promotor whose house had become The Frames second home). Glens plan was to spend a few days in the studio and to bring some of the boys back over from Dublin to record and promote Marketas songs... but once they were in the studio she was far more interested in sounding out some future Frames titles that were on the boil and in trying to encourage Glen into putting more of his infectiously positive upbeat nature into his songs.After six days of recording in December 2005 and writing many new songs on the spot, Glen 'accidently' released his solo album and, accompanied by Marketa on piano, they began a number of small scale 'intimate' tours with the new album entitled 'The Swell Season' in between the planned Frames tours and concerts of 2006 and 7. Three of the 'Swell Season' songs were also given the brilliant big Frames arrangement and appeared on 'The 2006/7 Frames album 'The Cost'. It has to be said at this point that Glen and Marketa are masters of delivering a very close, relaxed and intimate show wherever they appear and their easy going personalities build an instant rapore whenever they play - as this small exerpt from their 2005 swell season

tour clearly shows. But for those of you who relax by going wild at the

latest and loudest big concert then you must go to a live Frames concert

before you die -as it is their live shows that have made them legends

 throughout the world - and, as half of Australia and Bob Dylan (with

whom they were touring) re-discovered in a big way in the summer of 07, The

Frames are one of the best Live events in the world right now and well worthy

of being honoured as a new 'Cornerstone of Rock' (See why on our Gigs of The

Month page).

  The next accidental venture came after being asked to do the musical

score on a new film project by former Frames bass player John Carney ( who

had left the band in '91 to follow a career in film).The films plot was a musical

romance set against the Dublin busking scene and, after the songs were ready

the lead female role was offered to Marketa. When John Carney's original male

lead actor'did a bunk' the world seemed to offer only one actor capable of pulling off the role and providing the neccessary chemistry for the film to succeed. After years of avoiding 'film roles' Glen was again being coerced into taking centre stage on film,so, after alot of soul searching, Glen eventualy agreed and 'jumped in'.

The film entitled ' Once (..or perhaps eleven if you're first language happens to be Spanish)' was released into various independant film festivals worldwide and has been winning awards and nominations wherever shown with nominations for 'two Grammies' also in the offing for best soundtrack and song. Oscars are also being mentioned while the film is being screened by selected theatres throughout the States and Canada. Yet the responses and reviews by the ordinary viewing public have been staggering leaving a very strong impression that this small budget indie movie, that seemed to incorporate the Frames, their friends and families into the cast has become yet another 'if there's one film you must see event'.

  In less than eighteen months Glen Hansard and The Frames have been behind three major album releases that all look set to become at the very least 'double platinum' ,not to mention helping out on Oxfams 'Cake Sale' project along with many more subtle appearances by band members on albums throughout the music world. The Frames

currently are Glen Hansard, Colin MacConionamaire, Joseph Doyle, Robert Bochnik and Johnny Boyle.We have offered a link to their MySpace page where you can scroll down the page to watch them in concert in their Fabchannel player, with another superb Australian concert link in their blog. Links also for the Oscar nominated Once and Swell Season MySpace sites. Mairtin O'Riain 2007

2008 and 2009 Update?...Well the Grammy nominations didn't quite come through, but guess who one the Oscar at the 2008 ceremony for Best Song??...

And guess who is about to take The Swell Season on a second world touring season with the release of Glen and Mars new album Strict Joy on 27/10/09? Former Frame Graham Hopkins is back in The Swell Season purcussion seat for the tour and album, joined for the rest of the tour again with entire Frames family of musicians and friends...