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‘BALLROOM BOOM’ BOOMS AT MIPCOM !
Initially, U2.com Official shared content with its 16 million followers. https://www.u2.com/news/title/ballroom-blitz Then came Real Screen MIPCOM picks – scroll down and guess what? AT MIPCOM? BALLROOM BOOM SALES – RTE INTERNATIONAL RTE Programme Sales MIPCOM – P-1 D74 Queries – edel.edwards@rte.ie Sideline’s Billy McGrath is attending MIPCOM from Sunday to Wednesday at noon. E billy@sideline.ie
BALLROOM BOOM – MIP Oct 2025
WATCH PROMO BELOW. Sideline is producing an 85-minute feature-length version of the ratings hit Ballroom Blitz (aired on RTE in Nov/Dec 2024). With a new title, BALLROOM BOOM, plus new music, visuals, and added material from host Adam Clayton, this is an extended narrative of how Irish showbands (and their promoters, managers, and record labels) […]
Sideline’s most successful export secures US DVD deal.
With both series still available to view outside the UK on Netflix, ‘America’s largest public media enterprise’, PBS, has just released the first series of Secrets of Great British Castles on DVD. Presented by Welsh-born historian and best-selling author Dan Jones, the 6-parter (commissioned by Ben Frow at Channel 5) features compelling stories behind iconic […]
Ballroom Blitz – RTE Two Aug 19th & 26th
NOTE: Above is The Miami Showband, featuring star singer Dickie Rock (second left, bottom). The outfit underwent numerous line-up changes, and this commemorative stamp was issued in 2010 to celebrate the era of showbands when they dominated the Irish social scene in the 1960s and the early 70s. For all Irish-based night owls, BALLROOM BLITZ […]
Bealtaine—this 3rd Actor accepts the part!
I am honoured to be part of the team that brings the Bealtaine Festival to the nation every May. I am starting a 3-year position as Live Events Programmer and look forward to working with Dr. Tara Byrne and her team to deliver a special national event year-on-year that unites us all in celebrating that […]
Sideline’s Billy (Magra) McGrath Tells All!!
Sunday Indo Feb 12th Not very often do we say ‘yes to the press’! Barry is a good guy tho. Onwards and upwards in whatever life offers. Looking forward to your 3rd Act – and so should you!
2 Part RTE TV Series BALLROOM BLITZ
In BALLROOM BLITZ U2’s Adam Clayton races the rise and fall of Irish showbands as they inspired a church dominated 1950s Ireland to embrace a new modern world of music, fashion and pop culture of the 1960s. Ireland has its first modern music stars as over 600 showbands packed out over 1000 ballrooms nationwide. As […]
BALLROOM BLITZ – New RTE series
U2’s Adam Clayton hosts Irish TV series Ballroom Blitz (2×60,1×90) Dublin based Sideline Productions ‘Ballroom Blitz’ explores the unique phenomenon of the Irish showband which provided the soundtrack to Ireland as it danced its way through a revolutionary period of growth and prosperity in the 1960s. The bands – normally a 7 or 8 piece with powerful […]
proVoke
– to rouse to strong feeling or action No generation in Ireland underwent such a social rebellion as the OAPs of today. Their evolution from teen to adult in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s coincided with a global rise in nonconformism, rebellion, and protest. With domestic TV, we witnessed firsthand political upheaval across NI, the USA, […]