Portaferry concert to highlight beautiful NI

Portaferry concert to highlight beautiful NI

13 September 2017

THE seaside setting of Portaferry has been chosen for a special concert highlighting some of Northern Ireland’s best coastal visuals.

Malojian’s Stevie Scullion is launching his new album Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home with a special gig at Portico on Saturday, September 16. And alongside his music, film-maker Colm Laverty will be screening a series of films he has made combining new footage and films from Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Archive. 

It’s part of the British Film Institute’s Britain on Film: Coast and Sea project, supported by Unlocking Film Heritage and National Lottery funding.

Lurgan-bred Stevie first came to the attention of music fans with his alt-folk band Cat Malojian before breaking out on his own as Malojian with debut album The Deer’s Cry in 2012.

He’s been described as ‘the North’s best songwriter over the last half decade’ by Hot Press Magazine and has even received accolades from the likes of Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, who said of his sound: “I’m completely obsessed”.

Stevie explained how the launch at Portico came about.

“Northern Ireland Screen contacted me to see if I’d be interested in playing a gig in a coastal location, with coastal themed visuals from their archive to be used as a back,” he said.

“This sounded very cool – and the more I thought about it, I began to get really into the idea of recording some new material to go alongside it.

“So, I started recording demos at home. Lo and behold, like an ugly duckling, or something, they grew and took on a life of their own and have taken me on the most incredible musical journey I’ve been on yet.

“From recording in a lighthouse to collaborating with some of my favourite musicians ever, they’ve become my next album.”

Stevie explained that the original concept morphed into something a little more hands on, such as the lighthouse recording in question, which took place on Rathlin island.

“I started thinking maybe I should go and record on the coast,” he said.

“Colm developed a video for every song, which will be interspersed with the old footage.

“There will be archived footage from 100 years ago. There will be scenes such as Portrush from the 1950s and other seaside spots.”

Stevie admits he was initially unsure of the location choice of Portico — a former Greek revival Presbyterian church reimagined as an arts and heritage venue. But he said he soon realised that this unique venue had a tradition of attracting artists of an outstandingly high calibre.

“Tickets are selling really well and there are lots of people coming down from Belfast and Lurgan for the evening,” he said. “It’s something different and nice to play out of town — and we’ve timed it so people can get home on the ferry.”

Malojian’s performance is at 7.30pm on Saturday. Tickets at £10 are available from Portico at http://www.porticoards.com/

Alternatively telephone 028 4272 8808.