Something For The Weekend: Jerry Fish's Cultural Picks

Jerry Fish blasted onto the Music Scene in the 1990's touring the globe as frontman of alternative rock outfit An Emotional Fish, the band who gave us the indie rock anthem Celebrate. These days he's a celebrated and award-winning genre-bending solo artist, and the ringmaster of the Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow, a popular fixture at the Electric Picnic Festival. This weekend, he's bringing a very special Halloween Electric Sideshow to the Grand Opening of Dublin's newest music venue, The Bowery in Rathmines, for a performance on Sunday, October 30th.

Film

The City of Lost Children directed by Marc Caro and Jean Pierre Juenet, released in 1995, with costumes designed by Jean Paul Gaultier. A dark story stylishly told. I love the palette and characters in this film, the flea circus trainer and Siamese-twinned Fagans are particularly charming. Juenet also made the beautiful Delicatessen and Amelie.

We need your consent to load this YouTube contentWe use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

Music

Kate Tempest's new album, Let Them Eat Chaos. I was lucky enough to catch Kate at The Rum Shack in Glastonbury this year, the night before Babylon came to town. I grew up in South London’s melting pot of “wayward youth” so I take great pride in the work Kate does and what she brings to the world party.

Book

Cockeyed by Ryan Knighton - a coming of age memoir of going blind. Ryan is a Canadian punk who gradually lost his eyesight as a young man and writes of his experiences in this book. It might feel wrong but you are guaranteed a belly laugh as well as a cry while reading this. An astonishing insight into the world of being blind, and what we the seeing take for granted as well as the language we use.

Flowers, a black comedy written by Will Sharpe starring Olivia Colman and Julian Barratt from The Mighty Boosh. It was aired on Channel 4 this spring. The best thing I have seen on TV in years. Barratt portrays the depressed artist so well, a gloriously dark sitcom about family and the eccentricities one can engage in when living in the country.

Gig

The Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow at Electric Picnic is always such a blast! What a lucky bleeder I am, inviting my favourite acts to play in our very own circus tent. So much fun watching The Sultans of Ping wreck the gaff last year. This year we had Bitch Falcon, ExMagician, The Strypes, Frank & Walters and The Academic to name a few, play some blinding shows! Like I said, lucky bleeder!

Art

I love art. I have paintings that I consider old and dear friends, Picasso’s Guernica in Madrid, Goya’s El Sueno in the National Gallery, I used to miss the odd day from school just to sit and dream with the girl in Goya’s painting. Art galleries are very special places for dreamers and you don’t need any money to enjoy them. I am a regular visitor to Francis Bacon’s studio in the Hugh Lane Gallery, such glorious chaos. I took Frank Black from The Pixies with me once, it was very romantic.

Radio/Podcast

John Creedon’s radio show is fantastic. I often find myself driving when it’s on the radio and it’s like having a trusty companion in the passenger seat with you. John always plays a rockin tune. Then there’s TED Talks on Sunday evenings, my wife loves it. When it’s over the family knows that dinner is ready and mealtime is going to be informative as well as delicious.

The Next Big Thing

I hope it’s LP (Laura Pergolizzi) An American singer from Long Island New York. A friend of mine introduced me to LP’s music this year and I was really blown away. She is a very special artist. We looked into bringing her over to Ireland to perform, maybe next year?

Something For The Weekend: Jerry Fish's Cultural Picks

More stories on

Read Next

More stories on

Something For The Weekend: Kevin Rowland's Cultural Picks

Read Next