DarrenByrne.com

Following on from the stupid and pointless problems I had with the O2 Experience Store – more specifically its sister store at the top of Grafton Street and O2’s customer service department – I am giving time to their response yesterday, which I hope is the first reply before a further more considered follow up.

Firstly, I don’t want to seem petty. The root of my problem is simply a missing power cable for a Mac, so why am I blowing it all out of proportion, you might ask. Had I received decent customer service and had someone in O2 actually tried to help me sort out my problem when I first went to them, this entire fiasco wouldn’t even be a footnote on my blog. As it is, I had to resort to raised voices, almost an hour of standing around and waiting in-store and dealing with a ridiculous number of different people (gradually working my way up the chain of command) before gaining any satisfaction from O2.

Furthermore, just to illustrate the timeline and how this has escalated, it is now eleven days since I first went looking for my missing cable and only yesterday did I get a proper level of customer service from the company in the form of two telephone calls.

Yesterday morning, Thursday 11^th, I received a phone call from O2’s Customer Service operative, John (his name may have been Patrick and I apologise for the vagueness but I was in work and dealing with some other things at the same time as his phone call). John apologised for not getting back to me sooner, but he had just received my email that morning (I sent it on Monday 8^th). He apologised for the issues I encountered and assured me that one of the managers from the stores on Grafton Street would be in contact with me during the day. He was very pleasant and seemed genuinely apologetic and regretful for the experience I had. I thanked him and continued working.

Later in the day, Garreth, the actual manager from the O2 Store (50 Grafton Street) rang me. This is the same man I dealt with last at the O2 Store after working my way through two of his staff members and one faux-manager (Shane). He was very cheery and asked me about my day and if I was busy in work, etc. The small talk was pointless, but I understand he was trying to be contrite, so I played along.

He asked if Mactivate rang me back to sort out my issue last week. I pointed out that I did not get a return call from Mactivate but had to chase them up myself in order to get the power cable. He knew this already. So too, he knew that I had arranged a courier to collect the cable from Mactivate in Blanchardstown. He said that I should not have had to incur this cost (a wonderful exercise in stating the obvious) and that he would reimburse me for the cost of the courier, if I brought a receipt in to him. He also said he would come to some other arrangement regarding compensation for the hassle. I thanked him and accepted his offer to pay for the courier.

I then asked him if I would receive any further response regarding the other issues I mentioned in my email. He was unaware of the extent of my email and asked me to elaborate. I regaled him with my experience at his store with his staff and of their attitude and their reluctance to help me. He was unaware of these parts of my complaint, which bothered me because it was the bad attitudes and lack of customer service that annoyed me far more than the simple cost of a courier (as I write this I receive a fax from the courier firm we use with a copy invoice for €25.89). He said he would request the email and either come back to me on my other concerns. Again I thank him and now await a phone call or email with a satisfactory explanation for the apalling service.

Thus far, O2’s response has not been thorough and has taken far too long to resolve. I am happy that I received some satisfaction in the form of a genuine apology and an offer to pay for the courier. I am happy that they do realise the error in their ways. I appreciate they haven’t resorted to pointing the finger of blame at Mactivate, though I suspect the initial problem of a missing power cable did originate with them. Now I await a proper reply from O2, which might give some explanation as to how their staff could be so rude to me (and to other customers). I would also like to know why I had to get so angry, loud and stubborn before I could get any resolution. I am a generally calm individual and try to avoid conflict, but because of something as stupid as a missing power cord, I have been dragged into this ongoing debacle. And I have no intention of resting until I get a satisfactory follow up.

Previous Post: O2, Oh Dear

Notes: Thank you to all the commenters on my previous post. It’s nice to see that people don’t think I’m being overly sensitive and do realise that I do have a genuine complaint. Thank you too to Damien for highlighting my issue.

It’s a topic that will always come up at this time each year and I wanted to share my 9/11 memory.

I was working in a phone shop in Dublin city centre at the time. It was Tuesday afternoon and, at a time when we would generally be quite busy, the shop was virtually empty. We were prepared for the usual lunchtime onslaught, but it didn’t come.

We, a group of about 8 people, gathered around the big couch in the middle of the showroom and began watching a Batman DVD on the big screen television (not plasma). At last someone got a text message saying a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Centre. We excitedly (yes, excitedly – at this moment it didn’t seem serious at all) paused the DVD and turned over to the news. The reporter was talking about the plane ‘accident’ and replaying the moment the first plane impacted. We were riveted, when suddenly the footage went live and we watched the second plane crash through. I remember everyone around me gasping and one of the girls I worked with screaming.

I, however, just stared. It didn’t seem real. Even as the building came smashing down, even as I saw people falling to their deaths, it just felt like I was watching a film. Part of me thought, “hey, that’s done well”. It was a bizarre feeling and I think it was only when I went to New York and visited Ground Zero that it actually sunk in – the huge loss of life and the impact it had on everyone across America and the world. Someone on the radio this morning said it annoyed her that the millions who have died in war torn countries across the world are basically ignored, while the 3,000 dead at the World Trade Centre disaster will be remembered forever.

I don’t believe that we have placed any special attachment to those who died on September 9th 2001 – it’s just we saw it happen, we watched it live, we were a part of this event as it unfolded. Everyone has their 9/11 story. What’s yours?

I saw this song on YouTube this morning. It’s A-Ha‘s Lifelines. Lifelines is a song I knew but probably hadn’t heard very often over the years. Coupled with this video the song has new punch and meaning. The video is an edited version of Martin Skallerud‘s A Year Along the Abandoned Road which shows a whole year passing by in Norway’s Børfjord in just 12 minutes. Check it out – I love it.

Little Miss talks about her flirtation with death today, but she doesn’t dwell, she doesn’t moan, she isn’t complaining or looking for sympathy. Instead she is asking us all to look for the positives in our lives and share them with her. So, whenever life gets you down and things seem hard or tough, and people are stupid, obnoxious, or daft, and you feel that you’ve had quite enough, what do you focus on and cling to to keep your smile on. Celebrate the positives in your life today. 🙂

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard, or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious, or daft,
And you feel that you’ve had quite enough,

Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That’s orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it’s reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the ‘Milky Way’.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It’s a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it’s just three thousand light years wide.
We’re thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go ’round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that’s the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space,
‘Cause there’s bugger all down here on Earth.

– Monty Python

The lads, Anto, Dardar and Paddy, have survived their journey to the US and have begun their epic journey. They immediately hit the air again for an amazing helicopter journey before discovering the strip.

Follow the guys and their three week journey from Las Vegas to New York on their blog, US All In, assuming they have time to do any blogging.

Sure, ’tis ye olde Englishe tale of Milkshake levies…

From Sir Travors of Blog.

A lot has been said of O2 and its customer service in recent times, and sadly I’ve become just another number who has borne the brunt of O2’s lack of respect for its customers and lack of interest in its customers problems.

My issue is slightly different to others. It does not relate to the iPhone, it does not have anything to do with dropped calls or billing issues, it’s not even regarding a phone at all.

A few months back, I purchased a new iMac Computer at the O2 Experience Store on the lower end of Grafton Street (opposite Marks & Spencers). The transaction was relatively painless and within 20 minutes of arriving back at the office, I had the beautiful Mac unpacked, up and running and on the network.

A couple of months later, we encounter a small problem. CD’s keep getting stuck in the drive. There’s a few things we tried (as advised by Apple after-care) such as restarting the computer, holding down certain keys in sequence, using the eject option from iTunes rather than the desktop. Some of these worked sometimes, but it was quickly clear that there was a problem.

I returned to the O2 Experience Store and explained my problem. They said they had encountered it before and if I just brought the Mac in to them, they would send it off for repair. All sounded simple enough. They said repair would take up to 10 days. I therefore waited another week before bringing the Mac in to them, so repair would coincide with the month’s holiday the person who uses the Mac was taking (i.e. the month of August).

Firstly, the repair did not take up to 10 days. It took 16 days. This is obviously not a major problem, but it the interest of a full story, I thought it best to include it. I collected it towards the end of my working day on Friday 29th August and brought it back to the office.

On Monday morning, bright and early, I returned to work and went to set the machine back up in time for the boss’s return (he is the Mac user). Lo and behold, the power cable was missing. Now, I know I gave them the power cable when I left it in for repair. I know this because a) I’m not stupid and b) I have an O2 docket confirming same. I immediately hopped on to the O2 website to try locate the telephone number of the O2 Experience Store. It was not available (at least, not obvious to me). I had a similar problem when consulting the phone book. So, being that I work in Dublin’s city centre I just walked over to Grafton Street (documentation in hand) to get my power cable.

The store was closed. Yes, they had decided to close for renovations. A sign on the door directed me to the other O2 Store on Grafton Street (I am aware this is not an Experience Store and doesn’t stock Macs, so I knew this was going to cause problems for me).

I went up to the Store (50 Grafton Street). It too was closed with a sign saying they were closed temporarily due to maintenance issues. From what I could see, they were unable to open the security shutters. Frustrated, I returned to the office.

Later on the Monday I returned to the O2 Store. There were five members of staff dealing with customers. Not one of them acknowledged me to say they ‘would be with me shortly’ etc. Instead, I approached one of the after 15 minutes, with the intention of asking when the best time to return would be. He cut me off mid-sentence and said he was busy with someone else. Duly chastised, I stepped back again and waited. After another 12 minutes (total of 27 minutes standing without even a nod from a staff member) a female staff member came over to me. I explained my problem in detail. It may be worth pointing out that she was foreign and struggled with what I was asking. She ran off upstairs to see if they had the power cable. It didn’t seem likely to me but she went to check anyway.

After 10 further minutes, she returned to say the cable wasn’t there and I should try the Experience Store when it reopened. She then walked off to serve another customer. I quickly called her back and made it clear this was unacceptable as we needed to computer for business. She said that they don’t sell power cables in that store and she could not help me. I pushed further, looking for someone to help me, but she said that it was “not her problem“. I felt this was completely unacceptable and asked for the manager. She went away upstairs again and returned to say there was one of the O2 Experience Store staff members dealing with any queries while the store was closed and she would ask him to ring me when he was in, which would be in an hour’s time. I accepted this, gave her my details and number and returned to the office.

I’m sure you won’t be hugely surprised to know that I did not receive the promised phone call. Nor did I get any call on Tuesday. I was unable to get over to the store on Tuesday due to work commitments. I did, however, return to the store on Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning I rang O2 Customer Care (an oxymoron). I was, it should be said, not left on hold for any lengthy period of time before reaching a human voice. I explained my situation and they tried to ring the O2 Experience Store, despite my telling them it was closed. They had no luck and recommended I go into an O2 Store. Unhelpful as this was, it did force me to look through the documentation for the repair and I noticed it had a letterhead for Mactivate in Blachardstown. These are the people who repair Apple products for O2. So, I tried ringing them and explained my issue once again. Their first response was that I should contact the O2 Experience Store as they would have shipped everything to them, including the power cable. Again, I reiterated that the store was closed. They put me back on hold and when they came back to me, they said that they would look into it further, but they were sure they had sent everything back to the store. They too suggested I contact another O2 Store.

So, back to 50 Grafton Street. Once again, I was left waiting for over 25 minutes before anyone addressed me. I did not make the mistake of approaching one of the staff for fear of further chastisement. I did, in my time in the store, witness two other customers being snapped at by the same man who did not wish to speak to me on Monday. One woman just wanted to ask where she could buy a charger. He literally told her to “go away – I’m busy“. I directed her to the Vodafone shop next door.

Eventually Dinko (according to his name badge) became free. I, once again, explained my problem and he went upstairs looking for my power cable, despite my telling him the girl had already checked on Monday. He returned and said it wasn’t there. I told him that I was aware of this and he said there was nothing more he could do for me and I would have to wait for the O2 Experience Store to reopen. I was not prepared to accept this. I asked to speak with the manager. He went upstairs again.

After 10 further minutes of waiting (I was approaching 45 minutes in the O2 store at this stage), Dinko returned with a guy in a very wrinkled shirt and no tie. He introduced himself to me as the manager, Shane, and told me they didn’t stock power cable for laptops(???). I was becoming very irate at this stage, as clearly Dinko had not properly relayed my problem to him. I tried again to explain my issue and he too uttered the dreadful phrase – “it’s not my problem”. My voice was definitely raised at this point and he repeated again that I would have to wait for the Experience Store to reopen and he couldn’t help me. He walked away from me and became extremely infuriated, saying that he must be able to point me in the right direction for getting my problem sorted, even if they could not do anything in-store.

At this point, a more senior looking individual (apologies for the stereotype but he was wearing a suit, tie and looked clean cut) approached me and asked me what the problem was. He introduced himself to me as the store manager, Garreth. This left me wondering why Shane had been lying to me about being the store manager and just angered me further.

Now, I tend to be very good at keeping my cool when having to explain myself a number of times, so I took a deep breath and started from the beginning. I gave Garreth all my information and told him of my issues with ‘his’ staff, O2 Customer Care and Mactivate. He once again said that he could do nothing for me and I would have to wait until the Experience Store reopened (sensing a theme?). He also said that everyone from the Experience Store was away on holidays, every single member of staff. This is despite the fact that the girl I spoke with on Monday told me that there was a member of staff from the Experience Store who was dealing with any issues arising from their close. I told him I could not accept this and I wanted to speak with the area manager, or whoever was over the Experience Store. He would not give me a number to call and began spouting the “you must ring Customer Care” line. Again, I told him that I had contacted both Customer Care and Mactivate but they both told me to go into the store.

He gave in and went off to ring Mactivate (I was in earshot and could hear that he did try to get to the bottom of it). Eventually, they said that someone would contact me later in the day or early on Thursday. Garreth gave me his number and a contact name in Mactivate (Gerry) and told me if Mactivate did not help me out, I should call him back and he would look into it further. Finally, it seemed someone was giving me some help with my problem.

No, I did not receive any phone call from Mactivate. So, I rang them myself on Thursday and tried to get to the root of the problem. At first they were adamant that the O2 Experience Store were at fault and I needed to deal with O2. When I rang back later, they said they would be willing to supply me with a power cable but I would have to arrange collection from Blanchardstown. At this stage I was so furious and irritated by the whole stupid debacle that I accepted this and said a courier would collect the cable on Friday morning.

So, I have a working Mac now, at expense to me and I await some form of response from O2. I am not holding my breath.

Previous O2 Problems: Alexia (again and again and again), Damien, John (again and again), Pat.

I‘m sitting here flicking through the channels, bored, and I happen on America’s Got Talent. I know I should be ashamed of myself, I know I should immediately turn it off, but I don’t. I sit and I watch.

Two acts caught my attention. One is an 80 year old dancer:

The second is at the other end of the scale entirely – so cute:

In recent times I’ve been delving into the past for my movie watching pleasures. Lottie and I have been working our way through the Alfred Hitchcock boxset, with some pleasant surprises. We’ve caught the wonderful RomCom When Harry Met Sally, we compared the new Sleuth with the old Lawrence Olivier version and saw good and bad in both.

Last year I watched Whatever Happened to Baby Jane for the first time and I loved it. Bette Davis showed what a true movie great could do, twisting the character she portrayed in real life into a deranged and sad fading starlet on screen. Since seeing it I have many times meant to return to her back catalogue and only recently I got hold of All About Eve, a tense tale about an up-and-coming ingénue who befriends Davis’s aging Broadway star and slowly climbs her way to the top.

The young woman who ingratiates herself into the celebrity lives of Margo Channing (Bette Davis) and her friends is Eve Harrington, played by Anne Baxter. Though both Baxter and Davis were nominated for the Best Actress Oscar in 1951 (which neither won), for me the film belongs to Davis. Through her, we watch Eve finagle her way into Margo’s life and home and ultimately her career as a Broadway star. While most of those around her are oblivious to the devious Eve until it is too late, Margo is seen as paranoid and crazy until she is finally driven truly mad by Eve.

Of course, the movie is All About Eve and Baxter is brilliant in the role. She slides so easily between overly sweet, goodie-two-shoes to duplicitous schemer without effort. A scene where she attempts to win over one of Margo’s friends in a bathroom towards the film’s end had me shouting at the screen in anger.

The film is a touch too long and, if made today, would be tightened up a bit. But, if made today, I wonder if it would lose some of it’s subtlety. There is something so wonderful about watching the oldstyle Hollywood send itself up in such a clever way. Margo, Eve and Lloyd Richards (played by Hugh Marlowe) make many flippant and derogatory references to the soul destroying Hollywood.

When writing and directing this movie, it’s clear that Joseph L. Mankiewicz (who, coincidentally, later went on to direct Sleuth) was telling more than a simple story – this was an age when celebrity was new and fanatics were only beginning to emerge. It is more an allegory of the state of 1950’s Celebrity Culture than a simple story about a young girl trying to make it big. It is perhaps the subtext that has made the story and the film a classic. While times, styles and Broadway’s buildings have changed, this Broadway story is still as relevant today as it was in 1950.

With some great supporting roles, including a small but perfectly suited role for a then relatively unknown and extremely young Marilyn Monroe, this movie deserves all the praise that has been lauded upon it over the years. Davis is a true star and I look forward to exploring more of her back catalogue.

John Boyne‘s novel, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, was a sensation when first published in 2006. It spent 66 weeks at the top of the Irish Book Charts and, while written by a man from Dublin, it has been a success globally, reaching the New York Times bestsellers list.

It is not surprising then that there should be some trepidation from fans of the book over Brassed Off and Little Voice‘s direct Mark Herman‘s adaptation to film. There was understandable concern that he may brush over certain more unpleasant aspect of the novel, or worst of all that he might give it a ‘Hollywood ending’.

Last night, At the World Premiere in Dublin’s Savoy Cinema, all trepidation was laid to rest and a classic movie was born.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas tells the story of 8 year old Bruno, son of the Commandant of a concentration camp during World War II, and how he befriends an incarcerated Jewish boy named Schmuel. Bruno has had to leave his home and friends in Berlin to live with his family in what is essentially an army barracks. Through boredom he goes exploring where he shouldn’t and meets Schmuel at the fence of the camp. Behind the barbed wire, Bruno’s innocent eyes sees Schmuel in his striped clothes with a number on it (which he believes is part of a game) and wishes he too could play with friends all day in the camp, instead of being bored alone in the house.

Without his parents’ knowledge, Bruno develops a strong bond with the boy in the striped pyjamas, even though he learns from his family and his Nazi tutor, Herr Liszt, that they should not be friends. As the story of friendship unfolds, Bruno’s initially happy family unit begins to unravel. The Commandant, played by Harry Potter’s David Thewlis, does not seem like a bad man at first. He is merely a good soldier following orders dutifully. Through his wife, however, we learn that he is deeply entwined in Hitler’s Holocaust. His wife, played superbly by Vera Farmiga, gives an Oscar worthy peformance as she tries to come to terms with what her husband has been doing to the Jews. Her final scenes in the film are nothing short of heartbreaking.

But it is the two boys, Bruno and Schmuel, played by Asa Butterfield and Jack Scanlon respectively, who carry the film. The shattering of Bruno’s innocence and his belief in his father’s goodness is played out perfectly by Butterfield, as he searches for answers. At the same time, the expressions of incredulity and then resignation on the face of Scanlon’s Schmuel show that the two boys are separated by far more than a barbed wire fence. Their lives are utterly opposite and it is this stark difference between the two boy’s lives that makes the climax of the movie all the more poignant.

Despite my positive review, I have a hesitation in recommending this movie. It’s tough going. Even for those who may not have read the book, the finale seems to present itself a good 20 minutes before the end of the film. It is harrowing to know the inevitable fate of the boys and being unable to stop it. The far too believable performances are what makes this film so brilliant, but equally so difficult to watch. As the credits rolled and silence descended upon the Savoy, the only sound that could be heard was the sobbing of men and women. My chest was knotted at the end. It is not a pleasant feeling. This film will stay with me. There is a part of me that wishes I hadn’t seen it for the simple fact that there are some things that I am happy not to think about. The individual lives of the Holocaust victims is frightening to ponder and this film forces the point by being so believable.

It truly is an instant classic. It will be watched time and time again for years to come. The actors were remarkable, the direction flawless and the music was painfully wonderful when accompanied with some of the movie’s more startling moments. With your tissue in hand, do see this movie. It will make you emote, it will change your perception and it will stay with you for a long time.

Notes: Thank you, once again, to Movies.ie for the tickets to a remarkable event. Check out what other people thought here. There is also an interview with author John Boyne here.

I think the first Stephen Lynch song I heard was Baby. It begins beautifully – a sweet song about his newborn child, and his glee “as my lady gives birth today“. All is going well until he looks at his newborn and says, “Damn that’s an ugly baby; Damn that’s an ugly ass baby“.

And so goes the comic musical stylings of Lynch. Having seen so many of his grainy YouTube videos (again and again and again). I was delighted to be able to see him live in the Olympia, not once but twice. On Monday night, Darragh and Niamh brought us along to see the American comedian and we coaxed Andrew, Anthony and Little Miss to come too. On Tuesday ngiht we went with Mr Rick and an old friend of his.

The support act on both nights, Ruth-Anne Cunningham, was woeful. She was woeful mostly due tot he fact that she did not fit in there. Somebody high up in the Bulmers Comedy Festival organisational hierarchy thouhgt it would make perfect sense NOT to put a comedian on a Lynch’s support act, but instead a young pop singer. Argh! What were they thinking? Anyway, Andrew speaks more on this moronic decision here.

Once Stephen Lynch came on stage the ‘oldest Porno Theatre in Dublin’ erupted with cheers. On the first night I was one of the whoopers and screamers. However, being that I was in one of the boxes in the Olympia for the first time on Tuesday night (gloat, gloat, gloat), I was able to look across the audience and see the cries, the hollers, the adoration. It was particularly impressive to look out at the crowds and watch them sing along to every word of almost every one of his songs.

And, of course, this is one of the great things about the Internet – the global community. The only way the vast majority of the audience would have ever heard Stephen Lynch’s music would have been on YouTube or through not-so-legal downloads. He has only ever been in Ireland once before for a short time,and he has never appeared on TV over here. And yet, so many people knew every word of Little Tiny Moustache, a song about his Nazi ex-girlfriend.

I, of course, was one of the many singing my heart out. I delighted in hearing Lullaby, his sweet song explaining to his young daughter why Mommy is divorcing him.

He also brings a bit of an entourage with him in the form of his friends Rod Cone and David ‘Joberg’ Josefsberg. The chemistry between the guys on stage is electric. It seems so natural and spontaneous even though seeing the show twice proves otherwise. Joberg wrote one of the best songs of the night, which I was lucky enough to catch on camera. It’s called Dirty Sanchez:

Rick has more videos.

Darragh has some great pictures.

For further insight check out Andrew and Lottie‘s posts.

Watch this video. It is someone taking the path along El Camino Del Rey. In Andalusia, Southern Spain, this path has been climbed and hiked since 1901. It’s beautiful but not for the faint hearted.

A few times over the years friends have handed me their CD/their brother’s song/their friend’s album/their girlfriend’s music and most (not all) of the time the result is very poor. In one case all of my powers of diplomacy had to be called upon because it was that bad.

Recently however, I was given Chasing the Comfort, a CD from The Juice, a Dun Laoghaire/Bray three piece consist of Andrew Dixon, Niall Murphy and Stu Hennessy. After uploading it to my iPod (I’ve long since abandoned listening to CDs – probably because my CD player is broken), sceptically I pressed play on the first track, Fast, and the opening guitar riff had me hooked. As soon as the lead vocals from Dixon kick in I realise this is very different to any of the other albums I’ve been handed over the years.

The first thing that hits me is the professionalism of the sound. It’s polished. This band has its own sound and it’s damn good. With the second track comes a hint of Tracy Chapman, with a more up-to-date twist. Spanish Thighs doesn’t have the same pop-like grip of the opening track but instead it shows some great song writing skills. This continues through The Problem With Life and the anthemic Take Me Back.

At this point, the album takes another surprising turn. Pimped has a wonderful rhythm throughout that is reminiscent of some traditional Irish tunes. But, once again, this band has added their own edge to it. I can see crowds of people at their gigs singing along to the catchy chorus – “I could still see you, You were fixed on me“. From this song onwards, I began to imagine the band on stage – there is an energy to the second half of the album that makes you want to dance.

There is an influence from Nickleback on Don’t Force It, proving that they are not lying on their MySpace page when they claim their influenced by “ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING”.

If I was to find a negative it might be that the band don’t seem to know what style they want to settle on, but when you hear the desperation-filled love song, City Love, it really doesn’t matter. Variety is the spice and The Juice do not want to be pigeon-holed.

Check out their MySpace and Bebo pages and, if you like it as much as I did, go buy the album from Road Records.