02 Alive In The Cracks at Levis Corner House – December 2020

Alive In The Cracks at Levis Corner House, Ballydehob, West Cork, Ireland.

What the Levis Corner House ’Alive In The Cracks’ series means to me:

Story One: The Place.

In a few ‘short’ years Levis Corner House has become known internationally as a venue on the Mizen Peninsula, Cork, Ireland. A warm Ballydehob welcome known in hearts and minds beyond borders and oceans. It’s two minutes down the road from me.

Long before the pandemic arrived, I put my hand up to photograph, to document a community, a time, a place and all who visited, who crewed and who performed over the counter.

I am still amazed by this. It’s not a place you’d want to lose.

Story Two: Here We Are / On Set.

Here we are, sound engineering, filming, photographing, lighting, catering, constructing, cleaning, hosting and performing. Here we are doing it this way because so many couldn’t be.

Here I am tip-toeing over cables, between lights and cameras, knowing how fortunate I am to be a part of this, photographing an incredible moment in our time, and what this means to so many.

Here we are now hearing the shared gratitude from our friends, our family near and far for keeping the lights on.

Story Three: The Small Bubble / The Bigger Bubble.

My gig photographs from Levis’, our neighbours – Connolly’s & De Barra’s, have long been seen and shared world wide. I appreciated all those engagements then, before Covid-19, I appreciate them even more so now.

When the vaccines kick in and the pandemic wanes, we will want to be back in the room to mourn, to celebrate, to reflect, to move ourselves forward.

It’s what I hear of most.

What we do now, as Levis Corner House, as The Live Venue Collective, as The Department for Culture […] & Minister Catherine Martin, as individuals, as a community, Ballydehob and beyond, matters. The live performance scheme has been vital in making this possible.

We can’t lose sight of this. We can’t lose sight of each other.

To Caroline & Joe and the whole Levis crew for taking this in their stride. Thank you for asking me along.

Jason Lee – Ballydehob, January 2021.

‘Alive In The Cracks’ (AITC) series of gigs was filmed in Levis’ during December 2020 and released online.

Fifteen episodes to date, presented here as five AITC episodes per post. Regular visitors to my site will recognise all of these bands and if you’re new here, welcome, some you may have heard of and other will be new – go check them out too.

Part Two Features: Ye Vagabonds, Stellar C, Molly O’Mahony, Mongoose, Camilla & Niwel, Laetitia & The Lamposts.

Bands in Parts One & Three listed down the end.

AITC 06 – Ye Vagabonds: Watch Here