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Hard Working Class Heroes is a perennial. It’s th
e opportunity to witness some of the best emerging artists around who are all vying for the attention of an audience but most importantly, the lucky break merchants - the managers, booking agents, producers, promoters and publicists - who can take them to the next level. 50 acts have been selected from 600 who responded to the annual call-out by First Music Contact, an Arts Council funded resource for the popular music sector, who along with the Breaking Tunes project aims to identify who is worthy of attention at this stage of their careers. The usual idea is you bounce around from venue to venue over the course of the weekend catching known and unknown acts, marking your buzz scorecards if you will. Acts who have emerged from previous Hard Working Class Heroes outings to make a ‘name’ for themselves include Hozier and Villagers as well as more fledgling successes such as Talos, Le Boom and Soulé. A handy way of navigating the line-up is assume the headline act on each night is deemed the one most established on the music circuit. And work backwards. Therefore, acts such as Roe and Maria Kelly, Bad Bones, I Have a Tribe, Pillow Queens and Wastefellow all have had a decent level of exposure and a healthy fanbase to date. Most bloggers and music heads have seen them and expect they are on the cusp of a breakthrough and not having to return to HWCH again. Meanwhile, acts such as Crook, Feather Beds, Pearly and Evans Junior are the ones most folk will have to google or check out on Breaking Tunes to garner an idea of their sound. Celebrating its 15th year in existence, HWCH takes places across The Workman’s Club, The Grand Social, Yamamori Tengu, Tramline and Doyles’s on September 28th & 29th. In conjunction with this, there will be a conference held in the Chocolate Factory which will feature networking sessions, panels, & workshops analysing trends and hot topics pertaining to the industry. Topics under discussion include the Role of A&R, The Science of a Hit, the growth of niche festivals, does media matter and mental health within the industry. Keynote talks include one by Paul Jones who signed acts such as Warpaint, Micachu and SOAK for Rough Trade. “We’re so familiar with all of these acts and we get to kind of see them grow up over one or two years, and that’s so satisfying,” states Angela Dorgan who spearheads HWCH & First Music Contact. “It just makes me so happy and proud of what we’re able Clockwise from below left: Beauty Sleep; Bad Bones; Celaviedmai; Pillow Queens; Evans Junior; Damola. to produce here, and also to remind ourselves that these bands are writing these songs — all we’re doing is literally building the stage. They do all the rest of the work, and it’s great to see all of their hard work for themselves pay off more than anything else.” Hard Working Class Heroes takes place across Dublin from Thursday September 27 to Saturday September 29. See the website for tickets and further info. hwch.net firstmusiccontact.com breakingtunes.com