The Raw Sessions

The Raw Sessions is an Irish interactive music television programme broadcast on RTÉ Two in 2009. The country's first ever rockumentary series, it is presented by Dez Ryan and follows the attempts of eight musical acts to write and record an original composition in the space of twelve hours. It is produced by Lotus Media. The Raw Sessions commenced broadcast on 12 May 2009. Episodes are broadcast late on Tuesday nights and repeated late on Saturday nights. Each week the two recorded tracks are made available for download, with downloads counting towards the Irish Singles Chart. Tracks were recorded in destinations such as Sun Studios in Temple Bar, Dublin, Windmill Lane Studios on Ringsend Road, Dublin, and Grouse Lodge in County Westmeath. There was also a celebrity episode which featured more established musicians recording a cover version for charity. Eight acts took part in the show. These were Dirty Epics, Hoarsebox, The Infomatics, Majella Murphy, Noise Control, R.S.A.G., Sickboy and Sweet Jane. The four acts which made it to the semi-finals recorded a track at Grouse Lodge. The top three from that vote progressed to the final at the Button Factory in Dublin.