R&b
Belfast is a city in evolution. The legacy of the Troubles is still evident in Belfast and beyond, but there’s also a sense of a city growing in self-confidence, building new definitions with each passing day. Culturally, it’s going through something of a boom – OK, arts funding (or the lack of it) remains an issue, but a series of DIY collectives are infusing Northern Irish music with a sense of daring and alacrity.
And So I Watch You From Afar have seen this come to fruition. The band’s debut album landed back in 2009 and they’ve become cult heroes. The group have roots in the coastal town of Portrush, but they’ve increasingly been drawn to Belfast, and it’s unique gravitational pull.
New album ‘Megafauna’ is a case in point. A love letter to the places that define them, there’s a sizeable amount of Belfast life running through its DNA.
Here, Ewen Friers pens a personal guide to Belfast – its endurance, its past, and its future.
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Belfast has become something of a tourist boomtown in the 15 or so years I’ve been living here. I like that! – It’s exactly the type of city I’d want to visit on my travels and it’s nice to imagine Belfast welcoming in throngs of intrigued guests. Just the other day I was in White’s Tavern off High Street and revelled in the sound of international lingos bubbling away in every dimly lit corner of the city’s oldest pub. Inevitably, with this comes a firmly established touristic formula; Do this day trip, this museum, this tour and eat and drink in a handful of pre-determined establishments. Which is fine – I happen to think that all the “big hitter” tourist pubs and visitor attractions of Belfast are actually well worth investigating and, after all, when you visit Paris you’re going to take a look at the Eiffel Tower right? And yet, whilst both worthy activities, Belfast offers so much more than simply a Troubles Tour or a day trip to the Giant’s Causeway! Here’s a structureless ramble with a few of my favoured places of interest, many of which formed a kind of inspirational pallet for me as we wrote our latest record ‘Megafauna’.
In a way, ‘Megafauna’ is a love letter (in so much as an instrumental band can write a love letter!) to the North Coast and our home city of Belfast. So it’s probably wise to start my guide to the city in and around where we put the record together. It was on the second floor of a Victorian Mill just off the Beersbridge Road, in the heart of East Belfast, that we installed ourselves for the writing of the album.
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During bleak periods of lockdown we worked fairly relentlessly on our little project, overlooking the city from our bubble. Audacity Coffee caffeinated the sessions and later Assemble bakery and record shop opened up on the corner to our delight. As progress was made, and the world began to return to life, post work drinks were inevitably taken at Boundary and Bullhouse, two excellent breweries who, along with the aforementioned coffee spots, and a whole host of other thriving indie eateries and shops, add a lovely colour and vibrancy to the area. Also see Terracotta, Banana Block Market, The Strand Cinema.
But, as the resident history nerd in the group, it was the ancient story of the locale that fascinated me. For example, you can visit a whole range of public parks and trails that tell the dramatic story of the 17th century Chieftain Con O’neill, one of the last Gaelic Lords of Ireland. I’ll not go into too much detail here, but he is a character that represents a truly seismic period and culture in Irish History, even if he wasn’t a particularly seismic character himself. His name is still found in street names like Connsbrook and Connswater today.
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I think Belfast has a much more nuanced, complex and contradicting history than people give it credit for. Walks on the Comber Greenway, Knock Graveyard and “The Hollow” help tell Con O’neill’s story but green spaces and trails across Belfast illuminate the city’s history further still; Cregagh Glen, Cave Hill, The Giant’s Ring, Black Mountain, Lagan Meadows, Colin Glen, Lisnabrenny Rath, to name a few.
For more local history, you can’t go far wrong visiting the Ulster Museum. It lies in the leafy university area of South Belfast and is one of the city’s go to’s for art, hosting the Ulster Academy’s annual show each year. I’d also recommend the nearby Tropical Ravine in Botanic Gardens, a bit of a Victorian curio. Botanic Avenue has excellent cuisine options from around the world but Himalayan takes the prize for most theatrical. If you’re eating there it’s someone at your table’s birthday… even if it’s actually not! The area more generally is where a whole heap of us blow-ins first moved to when we arrived in Belfast. The Empire Music Hall, Mandela Hall and The Limelight a little further down, providing us with formative nights watching touring musicians and eventually a stage to take to when we started our own bands.
The city centre itself represents a lively kind of merging of the various outlying parts of the city. It has often been this way. Throughout the radical age of the late 18th century the place brimmed with new ideas, philosophy and culture. Later, during the industrial ascendancy, when Belfast was revered worldwide for its industrial prowess, the city centre was a place where all disparate groups from outlying neighbourhoods could mix and mingle. Even during The Troubles when many societal norms shuddered to a halt the city centre represented a neutral space where people could mix, crucial for burgeoning music scenes that popped up over the decades.
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The place is a mix architecturally too, with the historical comings and goings creating something of a cocktail. Personal architectural favourites include the (soon to be “Belfast Stories” Museum) Bank of Ireland Building on Royal Avenue, and the constructivist Transport House. Crumlin Road Gaol, built by Charles Lanyon, Belfast’s answer to Haussmann is incidentally another museum well worth a visit. To me Belfast’s character, humour, wit and playfulness has come from that mixing, melding and the push and pull I mentioned above.
I’m aware that this all feels a little indulgent on self reflection and a bit thin on actual recommendations, so to conclude, here are some final quick-fire to-dos if you find yourself in Béal Feirste!
For vegan fare, I must shout out – Harry’s @387 (day time) and Jumon (evening). For more coffee, Ormeau Road’s Phin is my current favourite. Hjem has the added bonus of being attached to the student Art Shop. Whilst, The Linen Hall Library Cafe has the added bonus of being inside the Linenhall Library, Belfast’s oldest library and a direct link to that colourful revolutionary period of the late 1700s.
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For cocktails I’m going; Rattlebag. For pints with friends and live music – The John Hewitt, The Sunflower, Kelly’s Cellars, The American Bar to name but a few. For creative or cultural events The Black Box, The Mac, The Duncairn Arts Centre, The Lyric Theatre are just a handful of our many options.
If you happen to be in town on the first Thursday of any given month, “Late Night Art” is a must. The many small galleries and art spaces in the city centre throw open their doors and you can delight in all manner of local visual art, photography, film and often music… as well as free wine.
This is just a fraction of recommendations I could give, I have missed out entire areas of the city for lack of editorial space. I also haven’t even started on the music scene we so appreciatively include ourselves part of. An entire book of its own could be written about the thriving music community of Belfast today! At it’s best Belfast is this melting pot of influences, ideas, humours, even contradictions. It’s a city that has always been this way, but to me it feels more comfortable with that than ever before – even celebratory. I think this kind of push and pull gives the place a vitality that tourists are responding to.
Playing in the band has given me the privilege of constantly getting to visit, what people are calling, “Europe’s next cool city”, wherever that might be each year. It’s no surprise that Belfast finds itself on those lists lately and I reckon our place is well justified – come see for yourself.
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‘Megafauna’ will be released on August 9th.
Photo Credit: Tom McGeehan
