What do hairdressing and the Irish music scene have in common? If you’re aware of one of the coolest and most unlikely venues in the city, Rathmines-based Abner Browns, the answer will jump out at you. David Judge is a hairdresser by profession, but has found himself stuffing his salon with music memorabilia and turning it into a BYOB cultural hub that hosts some of the best acts in Ireland (it recently welcoming a small show from Duke Special, and Michael Stipe dropped in for a chat).

And that was all before his latest project – recently rebranded Canalaphonic from Canalapalooza, after a frankly outrageously hypocritical legal challenge from Castlepalooza – got underway. The festival will take place on canal barges and around Rathmines, and has already announced acts like The Hot Sprockets and Gavin Glass. David, in short, knows what he’s talking about. So here he is on his own heartlands, and Irish music in general:

Abner Browns is an unusual combination to say the least. How did such a venue come about, and how do the businesses compliment each other?

Well first of all it’s only one business, cutting hair is what i do for a living and what puts food on my kids table , the music is for me at the moment anyway. It’s just something I love doing, though its kind of taking over my life as I seem to have created a monster! But each does complement the other, the shop is a bit of a music museum, vintage guitars, gramophones, vinyl etc on the walls, so the music at night fits in nicely. The music and gigs have been great for the business and has increased our customer base in a huge way. This was never the intention, it started off with a guy playing some songs on the couch on a busy Saturday and has grown organically from that. But as a marketing tool it has been fantastic, we couldn’t buy the publicity we get .