Dea Matrona

In January 2023 I heard about a couple of girls busking on the streets of Belfast who were apparently worth seeing. I was sceptical: after all, anyone can busk on the streets, can't they?

Not like this they can't. Their rendition of Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well" was pretty good. I started doing some research on them, which wasn't easy - back then there wasn't even a Wikipedia page about them.

On 19 January 2023 I played one of their tracks on Keith's Music Box and it seemed to go down quite well. And then I heard they were touring, and - even more interestingly - they were doing a gig in Bristol.

So on 9 May 2024, I trundled down to a somewhat seedy pub in Bristol and made my way to a room, maybe 5m x 10m, at the back. The two girls in the band, Molly McGinn and Orláith Forsythe, were joined by a drummer and another guitarist.

Standing gig only, so I made my way to the front and sang, maybe wiggled a little (let's not say "dancing") and took some pix.

The week before the gig Dea Matrona had released their first album, "For Your Sins". They're good musicians, they sing great harmonies and the music, inspired by The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zep, is fresh and exciting.

It was an amazing gig. Best I'd been to for some time, and seemingly better because they feel like an undiscovered secret that 200 of us shared that evening. The rock music industry is almost impenetrable, but these guys deserve to make it.

And afterwards Molly and Orláith were at the mandatory merch table helping to flog a few T shirts and the like. Oh, and allowing selfies.

You can find Dea Matrona on your favourite music streaming service. If you've not heard of them, here's four tracks to check out: Glory Glory (I am free), Black Rain, So Damn Dangerous, Red Button.