Joining Mario for this week’s Story Behind the Song was singer songwriter Owen Denvir, who will be releasing a trilogy of EP’s over the next 12 months. Each with their own theme and story, that when all are released, will form Owen's first full length album. The single 'Ghost' is the first single from the first EP (Sticks).

With over 100,000 streams on Spotify, combined video views of over 2 million, Belfast born Denvir has asserted himself as one of the finest singer songwriters around.

Recorded in his home studio, new single Ghost was written by Denvir as an outlet for anxieties after dealing with a ghosting situation on dating app Tinder.

Call it crazy, but between writing and recording the song, Denvir and his family had a run-in with a more literal definition of 'ghost'. At one point, Denvir was driving alone on the motorway when he heard loud repeated tapping on the rear window. Strange enough - but a week later, his sister texted asking why he was chatting with someone in his car outside their house. She then walked in to find he had been in the kitchen the whole time. Just a mad story? Or a seal of paranormal approval for the song? You decide...

Owen’s choice of song was You Know I’m No Good by Amy Winehouse. It’s the second single off the 2006 album Back to Black.

The song borrows the bass line from House of Pain's 1992 Transatlantic Top 10 single "Jump Around."

A second version of this song was recorded with added guest vocals from Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah. This version appears on his album More Fish and the American and Japanese release of Back to Black.

Irish snooker legend Ken Doherty was Mario’s profile interview this week, chatting about the golden days of the sport

Ken joined Mario to chat about his days playing at the highest level with other snooker legends like Stephen Hendry, Alex Higgins, Steve Davis and more.

Ken also discussed how a speech former basketball player John Wooden inspires him in his everyday life and he revealed what it was like to meet Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford.

To listen to the full chat hit the Listen button at the top of this page.

Eoin Murphy of The Daily Mail and Laura O’Mahoney of Cahoots Comedy Troupe joined Mario this weekend to roast up some hot topics – they discussed Fair City bashers, loud eaters, and Roy Keane’s punditry.

Fair City at 30 – does it deserve the criticism it gets?

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Fair City. It’s a hugely popular show but, according to Eoin, no one ever admits to watching it. They have over 600,000 viewers per episode so perhaps it’s time for people to admit they love the show.

They have never been shy about dealing with topical storylines so perhaps, 30 years down the line, is it time to give Ireland’s premier Irish soap a break?

What is Misophonia?

Misophonia is when certain sounds trigger a person’s fight or flight response.

For Laura, this has rendered the joy of watching popular cooking programmes like the Great British Bake off null and void! Every time Paul Hollywood eats some cake, Laura wants to jump into the television!

Her main triggers are people eating with their mouths open. If someone around her eats crisps or an apple, she’s likely to flee. Likewise, with clicking pen tops and computer keys clicking – the list goes on!

Roy Keane’s return to punditry:

Sky announced this week that Roy Keane is due to be a part of their regular punditry team for the season ahead.

The former Ireland international and Manchester United legend has caused much discussion with his stints as a football pundit in the past but today Mario asks the question, will he ever return to management?

 

More than 30 years ago, Ben Elton exploded into the national consciousness hosting Channel 4’s ground breaking Saturday Live. Now, after a 15 year absence, the Godfather of modern stand-up returns to the medium he did so much to define and Mario was more than happy to talk to the man himself this week!

Back on the road with an all new stand-up show, Ben promises to try and make sense of a world which appears to have gone stark raving mad. 

Among many things - Brexit and Boris are on the table, his comedy,movie and hero picks and why he thinks Love Island could form a better government right now in the UK.

As Ben says: "The last time I toured I was still smarter than my phone. Things have definitely taken a funny turn."

The 53 date tour kicks off at The Olympia Theatre, Dublin on 27 September and then travels across the UK culminating in Torquay on 30 November.  Tickets for all shows will go on sale on Monday 10 December.

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Joining Mario this week for the panel were Today FM presenter "The Beat Goes On" Kelly-Anne Byrne and Comedian Michael Fry.

On the table this week for discussion were the inflated egos of LinkedIn, what it`s like moving back in with your parents - which seems to the  the norm for the 30-40 something in Ireland today and praise for Michael D. Higgins on speaking up on political matters.

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Joining Mario for this weeks Story Behind The Song was singer songwriter Shane Fallon who is also lead vocalist with the bad "The Shoos", Shane released his second single " Stuck Inside This Rhythm" this Summer with an accompanying video in full Anchorman style!

As a band, The Shoos has impressed many industry heavy weights through the years. This admiration was cemented by many of these inviting the band to guest on their live shows, including One Republic, Maroon 5, Life House & Taylor Hawkins.

When Shane was in  LA with The Shoo they were doing a showcase for Interscope records who were our label at the time in the Viper Room on the Sunset Strip so it was all very cool and Rock N Roll! Shane asked some people he knew who to invite down for the night and Bressie (who Shane played rugby with) said he should invite Michael Beinhorn (The Producer of Black Hole Sun) to come down, so he emailed him to come along and kind of forgot about it! The band did the show and he jumped off stage and went outside for a beer and a smoke and a guy came up to him and said introduced himself as Michael Beinhorn !

He told him that they did 36 takes a day for about 6 months to get the vocals on that track right in his head. The intenseness of it all!

Chris Cornell claimed he wrote the song to just play with lyrics.

"Lyrically it's probably the closest to me just playing with words for words' sake, of anything I've written,". "I guess it worked for a lot of people who heard it, but I have no idea how you'd begin to take that one literally."

Whether or not it was a playful dance with lyrics - it also stemmed from his fascination with  the misheard phrase "Black Hole Sun."

I had misheard a news anchor, and I thought he said 'black hole sun,' but he said something else," Cornell once tole Entertainment Weekly. "It created this image in my brain and I thought it would be an amazing song title. ... That was a title that came before music, so the music was the inspiration that came from the images created by those words."

 

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John Duggan joined Mario this morning to review the Dublin Victory yesterday against the Kingdom...the Kerry Mass didn't get them over the line! John was at the game and soaked up all of the energy , ferocity , enthusiasm and sporting victory that surrounded the day to tell us what went down and the feeling of the day. 

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Joining Mario for this week`s profile interview was one third of comedy troupe CCCahoots - cork comedian Tadhg Hickey.  One of the funniest men we know and a great friend of the show - Tadhg shared with Mario some personal compelling stories of how he dealt with years of what he now knows was alcoholism.

I could almost feel as the first pint or can went down, control leaving my body and spirit, alcohol was going to tell me when this particular session was finished not the other way around.

In One Eye, Out the Other, is at the Workman’s Club as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival on Sept 9-11 and 13-14

Tickets available here:

https://www.fringefest.com/festival/whats-on/in-one-eye-out-the-other

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Joining Mario today for the Story Behind The Song hot on the heels from a performance on the 31st August at the national Concert Hall in aid of the Emergency Services and two sessions at Electric Picnic, were  The Bonny Men.

Check out their music here!

Tickets for their upcoming gig in Whelans here!

They chose the absolute Irish classic by one of Ireland`s much loved and much missed singer song-writers Mic Christopher. The song has a joyous and timeless presence - its meaning made even more poignant by the story of Mic`s untimely passing.

In 2001 when after a gig supporting the Waterboys, he tragically slipped and struck his head during an accidental fall. He lapsed into a coma and never regained consciousness and sadly died on 29 November 2001 aged 32.

Mic was working on his album Skylarkin before he died, the album was incomplete but he had made notes as about the recordings. In November 2002, work from many of his friends and family resulted in the posthumous release of Mic Christoper`s first and only solo album. Skylarkin. It  later won Best Album at the 2003 Meteor Awards.

It also featured in the famous Guinness featuring the one and only Michael Fassbender!

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Joining Mario today for the roast was entertainment editor for extra.ie and Mail on Sunday Eoin Murphy and social media influencer Keelin Moncrief. 

Fast fashion, Irish rugby supporters and how to lose the final 14 pounds went into the roast today.  Keelin calls out the glorification of fast fashion and and the tactics used by huge corporations with fast fashion labels. Keeling demands a halt as she notes many of the large corporations producing this fashion use modern day slavery in their practices with extreme working conditions for cheap clothing.

Eoin is excited for the World cup but brings the topic of the flip flop nature of our rugby supporters. This week the melancholy set in with Dev Toner being dropped, so a crowd went from supporting Joe Schmidt to calling for his head! Eoin says people need to take a deep breath and know that Joe Schmidt is the best coach we ever had.

Mario is up next with the secret to how he lost the final 14 pounds! You don`t want to miss this!

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