THE RETURN

YouTube have sorted it. The return of Total Video Views! And we are creeping ever closer to that 3 Million Video View mark!

TOTAL VIDEO VIEWS GONE!

The feature on YouTube that allows you to view Total Video Views has disappeared in the last few days. This is more than a bit worrying. It was our best way of working out our stats. We were very close to hitting the 3 Million Video Views mark, but now we have no idea. Alas I can´t figure out whats going on from anyone online, so I hope its just a glitch and the counter will come back soon.
A big, hmmmmmmmmm...

THE DARK NIGHT

I've seen it, so I thought I'd give you a review after all the hype.

I thought The Dark Night was enjoyable popcorn flick, but unfortunately heavily flawed. What goes for the film is its style and casting. What goes against is that the film is let down by an incoherent plot of garbildigook. There are too many characters and the film runs about 20 minutes too long after about 4 different endings. I couldn't make sense of it, and was quite stressed out come the end of it.
Mixed feelings I have. But still worth seeing. I'd give it four stars.

LOU REED IS FLAWED

I was having a coffee yesterday morning with Tom, when Lou Reed suddenly came in at sat close by.
Our ambitions got the better of us, and we decided to try make contact on behalf of BalconyTV industries. Just imagine, Lou Reed on BalconyTV!!! That would be a coo.
So I scribbled a letter inviting Lou to pop across to the Balcony to play a tune. With that I asked Tom to bring it over to Lou. He was too shy though, so it was up to me.
My idea was to just go up and just leave the letter on his table. But as I got closer I began to panic. What was I doing! Was I out of my mind! Lou looked at me with eye that said loudly 'Don't come fucking near me'. I went on regardless. I put the letter down infront of him, and said very awkwardly
'Eh, I just want to leave this with you. Thats all. I'm off now. Bye now'.
It was very Father Dougal McGuire.
Suffice to say Lou hasn't called yet.

A couple of bits and bobs online about BalconyTV at the moment. Natalie over at Paddy Wacked Radio has some bits and bobs over here.

And the new Solo-Magazine.Com - a magazine for Irelands smartest singles - features the BalconyTV Music Video Awards here.

And I mentioned before how brilliant the Flaws outro for RTEs coverage of Euro 2008 was. Well here it is now for you to enjoy:

FROM BTV TO THE BBC

BalconyTV Superstar Enda Reilly who has graced the Balcony not once or twice but trice has popped up on BBC1 television series George Gently. See if you can spot him...

FEATURED IN GERMANY!!!

We are delighted again that BalconyTV Hamburg has been featured on the front page of YouTube Germany. Congratulations to the crew there. And the show itself is an instant BalconyTV Classic. I'm sure you'll agree...

YOUTUBE TIP OF THE DAY

My good god the internet is shockingly slow at the moment.
Here is my YouTube tip for the day. Enjoy...

RED KID ARAMA

Since Red Kid first performed on BalconyTV, they have been a favorite of myself, Tom and Paulines. The bands energy comes across in every performance. Red Kid first performed on BalconyTV way back on the 28th of March 2007. Tom had longer hair back then, and I was much louder. This performance garnered Red Kid a nomination for Best Band at the BalconyTV Music Video Awards 2007.
The band performed not one, but two sets at the BTV awards. The band opened and closed the show!
The band came back and performed again on the balcony on July 3rd. The legendary performance which features my little brother dancing his heart out was nominated for Best Show at the 2008 BalconyTV Music Video Awards.
We are delighted the band are playing every Friday in the run up to the release of their new album. We've heard it already and it sounds bloody genius.

LISA MCLAUGHLIN SUPER STARDOM

Lisa McLaughlin who appeared on BalconyTV 11 months ago after moving to Dublin is suddenly shooting to super stardom. Lisa recently supported The Script in Whelans. After that her performance at the Zodiac Sessions in Dublin was featured on the front page of YouTube Ireland. It has had almost 20'000 views to date. And over the weekend past Lisa supported the Goo Goo Dolls in London. Wowzer is all I can. Well done Lisa!.
We expect to see Lisa back on the balcony in a few weeks. Watch this space.
Apart from that, the rain never stops in Dublin. Its almost this bad:

RAMBLINGS AND MARK HOGAN

I already got a bit of stick about my Hotpress blog moan in my last entry. Thou shalt not make enemies with established peeps apparently. I'm not sure I agree. I was going to send the blog entry to the Hotpress letters page, but I decided against it. Best let bygones be bygones.
Do you know, that yesterday was the first ever show that Pauline was behind the camera for? Two years on and Tom and Pauline have demanded to learn the ropes. With that in mind you may hear less of my loud obnoxious heckling and more polite yippees from Pauline. I have no idea what Tom is going to do.
I saw the Mist last night. Marvellous cheesy horror fun. Well worth going to see. The crowd get very involved with it. A girl sitting a few seats down from me had a jacket over her head for most of it.
And finally, Mike Donnelly of NoReturnsFilms has directed a very polished slick music video for Mark Hogans new band 'Hogan'. Mark appeared on BalconyTV way back in September 2007. You can watch his new video here:

HOTPRESS MOAN

This is probably not the wisest move, as we hope to up the Balcony anti in the next few months and could use all the friends we can get.
My gripe comes from the fact that Hotpress failed to cover the recent BalconyTV Music Video Awards in their current issue. Added to that, they failed to even list the event in the issue before.
I moaned about Hotpress a long time ago on the same subject. Maybe that got to them.
In 2 years of BalconyTV, Hotpress has covered BalconyTV once in any substance. Once!
Even the state broadcaster, who are always claimed to be devoid of ideas and intuition has featured us a number of times.
Aren't HotPress supposed to represent the anti establishment, counter culture, under ground, indie music scene etc etc?
Keith O Brien, who is a relative unknown in relative terms won the Best Male at the BalconyTV awards. He beat the likes of Declan O Rourke, John Spillane, Ray Heffernan and Mumblin Deafro (all of which appeared on the Balcony). Stiff competition. A mention from Hotpress would have been a fair boost for him and indeed for us. No such luck.
There is nobody else in Ireland that has the responsibility to cover concepts like BalconyTV and the artists it features like Hotpress. There is no where else to run. If Hotpress can't get with it, there is big trouble in little China. Its more than a tad demoralising.
At least we're big in the Netherlands. Cheers Jan!
Im off to watch Bubble Hits.

MUSIC VIDEO TIPS

A couple of music video tips comin' at cha like Cleopatra.

BalconyTV favorites Red Kid have a new video out for their single Rocket Ship. The video gets across all the fun of the funnest band in town. To celebrate the release of Red Kids new album, BalconyTV will feature Red Kid performing a new track from their upcoming album every Friday for the next five weeks, starting from next Friday. So keep your eyes peeled. The boys have already offered to play in the nip on their last show if they get enough views. We'll hold them to that offer.

The Script, who won Best Band at the BalconyTV Music Video Awards 2008 have a new video out. Its a long way from the low budget, microphone stuck to the wall with sellotape production way back yonder. To all the bands out there that dream of a big contract, this is what happens when you get it!

Apart from all that, we have just got the footage back from our video productions of the BalconyTV Music Video Awards 2008. Its looking sharp. We hope to have it online in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, watch last years show here.

WEEZER VIDEO

I was in FitzSimmons of all places the other night. Watching the multitude of distracting plasma screens, I spotted this video. Its clever. I kept watching waiting to see us pop up at any moment. No such luck.

SPORT AND MUSIC

Had a great night in Thomas Reads on Sunday night. Aswell as the Euro 2008 final being on, it was also the last night of Darklight, and ofcoarse the Sunday Roast was on also. It was quite emotional at the end of the Euros. The bar fell silent as everyone watched the musical montage. I was stunned to see a montage that included a special live performance by BalconyTV favorites The Flaws. Very classy from RTE, and a brilliant promo for the band. You can't buy that type of publicity. ABC and ESPN did a similar thing at the end of the 2006 World Cup in the US. The band that time was U2. I can't wait to see The Flaws montage again. As soon as its YouTubed I'll post it.
After the montage, came the final Apres Match. I'll probably miss that about the tornament the most. The whole bar was in stitches throughout, and by the end, just a little bit sad.
Its over to the tennis now. The Andy Murray match at Wimbledon last night was unbelievable. I don't watch tennis much, but his comeback yesterday was one of the most incredible feats I've seen. He was 2 sets down and facing match point. It was curtains. And then he pulled off this shot, and turned the match from there. Stunning.
Stephen, why are you talking about sport so much I hear you say. Good point.
Back to music. Interesting to hear of Product Reds plan to sell distribute music. An Itunes rival perhaps?
Read on.