Aoife Nessa Frances

The Grand Social presents - “Social Connections”

A live show broadcasted on the internet.

Aoife Nessa Frances

Friday 18th - 9pm 

Free tickets here in link from Tuesday Dec 1st 

The debut album of new Irish auteur Aoife Nessa Frances (pronounced Ee-fa) is shot through with a sense of mystery - an ambiguity and disorientation that illuminates songs with smokey luminescence. “The album title is a result of a mishearing. Cian Nugent [Aoife’s musical collaborator and co-producer] was telling me about childhood trips he made to Llandudno in Wales, passing through a station called Llandudno Junction,” reveals Frances. “Land of No Junction later became a place in itself. A liminal space - a dark vast landscape to visit in dreams… A place of waiting where I could sit with uncertainty and accept it. Rejecting the distinct and welcoming the uncertain and the unknown.” The songs traverse and inhabit this indeterminate landscape: the beginnings of love, moments of loss, discovery, fragility and strength, all intermingle and interact. On the eponymously titled final song Frances sings “Take me to the land of no junction/Before it fades away/Where the roads can never cross/But go their own way.” It is this search that lies at the heart of the album, recalling journeys towards an ever-shifting centre - a centre that cannot hold - where maps are constantly being rewritten.

This project has been part-funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht Sport and Media from the Live Performance Support Scheme.

Social Connections is a series of 16 recorded live performances by a wonderful multi genre collection of Irish based artists. The Grand Social is delighted to open it’s doors with this fresh mixture of showcases by some of Ireland's most iconic artists and a chance to explore the new breed of songwriters who are taking the scene by storm. The Grand Social has teamed up with collectives, booking agents, other venues and a multiple of friends to create Social Connections.

The Grand Social is also delighted to be a part of the Live Music Venue Collective which has created numerous days of work for the live entertainment industry during the pandemic by working together across the country. Find out more here.https://www.livevenuecollective.ie/who-we-are

Please join us this December for any or even all of these amazing performances that will embrace you in the magic of music. Invite your friends and families from anywhere to the Grand Social. All tickets are free of charge and a live link will be mailed to you once you have registered. www.thegrandsocial.ie

Line up and date is here.

Dec 15th N.C. Lawlor 9pm

Dec 16th Jem Mitchel 9pm

Dec 17th Oliver Cole + Friends

Dec 18th Aoife Nessa Frances 9pm

Dec 19th Leila Jane 9pm

Dec 20th A.Smyth 9pm

Dec 21st The X Collective w/ Toshin, Shiv, Shy Mascot 9pm

Dec 22nd The Young Folk ( Elgin) 9pm

Dec 23rd Mongoose 9pm

Dec 24th Lemoncello 9pm

Dec 25th Liam Ó Maonlaí 9pm

Dec 26th MUNDY 9pm

Dec 27th SACK 9pm

Dec 28th SON 9pm

Dec 29th The Zen Arcade (former members from the Strypes) 9pm

Dec 30th Ryan O'Shaughnessy 9pm

Each performance will be accompanied by the work of Douglas O’Connor, a Dublin based photojournalist, who has spent a life time walking the streets of Dublin, camera in hand. Since the lockdowns began in 2020 he has continued to document the city in all of it’s nakedness, shy of people.  Walk the quiet streets of Dublin through the eyes of Douglas O’Connor.

This series of images is taken from his book “Eat Yer Rent, Dublin Lockdown 2020” and can be seen at:https://www.blurb.com/b/10071236-lockdown-dublin-2020