“The right place at the right time”, this is how Ballynahinch man Paul O’Hare describes how he got his break in the music industry and became part of The Beat Poets, one of the North’s newest, up and coming rock bands.
Described by NME as ‘Blistering, Frenzied, blood-stirring, rock that weaves its way through U2, the Foo’s and The Vines’ The Beat Poets are one of the most exciting new acts to emerge from Northern Ireland in recent years. BBC ATL described them as “Northern Ireland’s hardest working unsigned band” with the Irish Star claiming they could be the biggest band to come from the North of Ireland since Snow Patrol. The line-up for the band is John Dinsmore - Lead Vocals/Guitar, Keith Doran - Lead Guitar/Vocals, Paul O'Hare – Bass Guitar/Vocals and Mark Dinsmore - Drums/Percussion, and they hail from across County Down including Newry, Warrenpoint and Ballynahinch.
24 year old Paul, a past student of South Eastern Regional College (SERC), studying media studies at the Downpatrick campus, plays bass guitar for the band as well as helping promote the band through social networking sites such as MySpace, YouTube and Facebook. Asked about The Beat Poets Paul had this to say; “I always knew about The Beat Poets and admired the great things they were doing, one day a member of the band rang me out of the blue and asked me to come and audition for the band. I jumped at the chance and the rest is history.
He continued; “I have been in various bands since leaving school with varying degrees of success, but I’ve really found my feet as a member of The Beat Poets and count myself lucky to be part of the band, as the saying goes it’s about being in the "right place at the right time.”
Barbara Judge, a lecturer at SERC and aunt of Paul commented; “I am very proud of what Paul and indeed The Beat Poets have achieved to date. Paul is a very talented musician and it is great to see him following his dream. Hopefully some of the media skills he learnt during his time at the College can help with the promotion and continued development of the band."
When asked about future plans for the band Paul had a quick response; “World domination!” But before they break into worldwide markets they intend to organise a “big show” in Belfast before the end of the summer off the back of the amazing success we have had for our most recent single, ‘One by One, which has been listed as one of the most requested tracks on Northern Irelands number one radio station, Cool FM.
Concluding Paul said “The main thing is I’m just enjoying being in the band and playing music that we have all created, getting a kick out of playing to crowds of people and if we get more success from here then that would be just great.”