Blizzards take Meteor award
Mullingar band The Blizzards walked away smiling from the biggest event in the Irish music calendar, the Meteor Ireland Music Awards which took place on St. Patrick"s Day, after winning an award for the Best Irish Live Act for their performance on the Oxegen mainstage last year.The five lads also rocked the crowds in the RDS on Tuesday night with their radio friendly tune 'Trust Me I"m a Doctor', appearing alongside other great acts like Stereophonics, James Morrison, Elbow, Sharon Shannon and Mundy, as well as the kings of Irish pop, Boyzone.This is the second year in a row for the boys - who pride themselves on their live performances - to snatch an award. They returned to Mullingar on Wednesday, and with gong in hand, went to celebrate with their friends in their local, Finn"s pub, where the award now holds pride of place. The other sits happily in John Mac"s - both choices a testament to how much of their success the boys believe they owe to the support of their Mullingar fans.At the Meteors, The Westmeath Examiner asked The Blizzards what reaction they received when they played to some 20,000 people in Trafalgar Square for the Paddy"s weekend celebrations, and how this might set them up for breaking into the British music market later this year:'I think we could have played possibly anything we wanted because there were 20,000 pissed people, so I don"t think they were there to watch music. But it was an added bonus that the reaction was brilliant,' said frontman Niall Breslin.'It does help obviously because we are releasing there in May, so having a good Irish following would be important to Irish acts trying to break internationally, ' he continued, while London born Justin Ryan said it was simply 'good to go home'.Bressie, who gave up a chance at international rugby for music said it was 'heartbreaking' for his dad Enda who is a major rugby and sports fan, but who is now very proud of what he and the band have achieved.'I have a huge amount of respect for rugby players because of everything they have to sacrifice for the game,' he said.'Music at the end of the day meant a lot more to me than playing sport. It just happened, fortunately, that I got offered a professional contract in college, and it"s very hard to turn down god knows how much money when you"re in college and you"re trying to live off €20 a week, of course you"re going to take it.'When asked what the key to a catchy song is, Niall proclaimed The Blizzards are not trying to be the next Bob Dillon, they just want to write catchy songs. Simple!