It’s fascinating to watch an artists rise to fame, especially from a Dublin angle.
Michael Kiwanuka, the extraordinarily talented 23-year-old London-born soul singer, made his Dublin debut upstairs in The Grand Social on 30th October 2011. Tickets were €14.50 and I heard that The Loft, which has a capacity of 230 seating, was reasonably full. You could argue that only people really on the ball would have known about this gig. The music bloggers, their mates and everyone who spends that little more time than most keeping ahead with what’s going on.
I wish I had been there.
Then, last Saturday (Feb 11) Michael played The Sugar Club. It was one of my favourite gigs, by far, of the last year. Tickets were still priced at a very reasonable €14.50. The Sugar Club, one of Dublin’s most intimate venues, has a capacity of 350 and the gig was completely sold out. Knowledge of this gig would have been known to the next ‘layer’, people like myself who read State.ie, Nialler9 and (occasionally) The Hot Press and pretend to think that they know what’s going on. Reviews here (GoldenPlec) and here (cockandbullTV).
Earlier this week it was announced, obviously on the back of the successful Sugar Club gig, that Michael will be returning to Dublin in May to play The Academy. It’s great to see that tickets have remained low, at only €16.00. Capacity is 650 people with possibility for an additional 200 on the upper balcony, over three times the size of The Grand Social where he first played only four months ago. By this stage the third ‘layer’ of people will be aware of Michael, probably reading about him in Jim O’Carrol’s excellent Ticket (Irish Times).
What’s next? Assuming, everything goes right for the guy maybe a date at The Village (550 capacity) or The Button Factory (750 capacity) early next year followed by a sell out night in Vicar St. (1000 capacity) or even The Olympia Theatre (1300 capacity) in 2013? Who knows.
Going to see Michael Kiwanuka at Kazimier in Liverpool on Sunday.. Really looking forward to it. I’ve got a Michael Kiwanuka fan site here if anyone’s interested.. http://www.michael-kiwanuka.co.uk/ Thanks!
You’re giving blogs a lot of credit there, he won the BBC sound of 2012 which gained him a lot of press.