The Blades (In Concert)
On Saturday I was enjoying some sunshine listening to Mr Fanning on the tranny talking to Paul Deacy about his trip to the Vespa World Days in Norway. Paul mentioned he was a big fan of The Blades and how he would love to see them perform again. It turns out Paul also runs a well known shop in Galway called ‘Bell Book & Candle‘ which is also home to independent record store Wingnut Records.
Bell Book & Candle is a legend of a shop in Galway. Based in the heart of the city centre next to the Crane bar, this quirky little place specializes in vinyls, comics, records, books and other rarities. A must-see for any Galway visitor, or indeed city-dweller. [super8ireland ]
The interview with Paul is now online and can be heard here:
A day later I received an email from a reader who had just dug out a radio recording of The Blades RTE in concert performance and who kindly offered to digitize and share it. Updating following some comments, the broadcast is from 1985 and is the second of a two part broadcast.
Revelations Of Heartbreak
My Girl
Downmarket
The Time Tunnel
Those Were The Days
I Heard A Cry
Not So Blue (aka Memory Lane)
Same Old Song
Young Gifted And Black
The Blades – In Concert (1985)
The Fanning Sessions Archive 
June 7, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Wow, this brings me back
June 9, 2011 at 11:26 am
Great!!!
But this is only Part 2 of this broadcast. I had the whole concert on tape many moons ago – up in the attic me thinks, with all the teenage stuff.
Do you have the first part?
SOS request for Part 1.
All the best – super site!
PS – I used to play in a Limerick band called “16 Tons Of Jive”. We did a Fanning Session, again a long lost tape. If anyone has a copy I would to hear it again after all these years.
June 9, 2011 at 1:23 pm
great quality
June 9, 2011 at 1:25 pm
More history regarding The Blades – see bottom of page for Live info
http://www.irishrock.org/irodb/bands/blades.html
June 9, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Thanks Ralph, have updated the post.
June 12, 2011 at 10:12 pm
Hi
what a great session from for sure the greatest and most loved irish band of their era , saw them many times and once in Katie Daly s in Killaloe , Co Clare with the full brass section !
ps
Relph , have the 16 tons of Jive single in the attic , surely CB must have the session tape ?
June 13, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Was really hoping this would turn up some day!
great work on a great site.
N
June 14, 2011 at 11:11 am
Hi John,
Yep, was at the Killaloe gig that night!
Seen them many times in Limerick (The Savoy, The Crescent (O’Connell St.) and around Ireland – great gigs.
Christy might have a recording, but since I left Limerick in ’87 I’ve lost contact with the members of the band.
June 14, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Hi Ralph ,
meet Christy at John Copper Clarke in Dolans few months back , will ask him for you next time i meet him and let you know
brgds
John +
June 21, 2011 at 3:42 pm
[…] Thought this may be of interest to some of you. In case you missed it…….. This went up a weeks or two ago on the excellent Fanning sessions site. The Blades – In Concert (1985) […]
June 28, 2011 at 9:55 pm
[…] Fanning Sessions have uploaded a 9 song live broadcast of The Blades from April 1985. Listen to it here. This is the first live stuff I’ve heard of the band. Been a long time […]
June 29, 2011 at 6:25 pm
What can I say, we loved The Blades. I have this concert on cassette but the quality is terrible, this is excellent.
My brothers had all (and still have) the complete Blades catalogue on vinyl. Too young to see them in ’86, I had to wait for the reunion gig in Vickar St back in 2000 n’ something.
Jake Reilly once said that if everyone who says today that they loved The Blades had bought the records and gone to the gigs back in the 80’s it might have been different. But I remember that even by 86-87 you couldn’t get the Blades first four singles for love nor money except a lucky second hand find.
They were released on different labels (Energy Records & Reekus etc) which were deleted or just unavailable!
I blame the managment for not realising that half The Blades fans were youngsters of 13 to 18 years of age and could’nt get into venues to see them and could’nt buy their first four singles.
I was disappointed with the CD double pack too released around 2000?, a carbon copy of the vinyl LP’s with a couple of bonus tracks. Not very imaginative, no new pictures or all the good b-sides and no live recordings.
July 5, 2011 at 9:32 am
fantastic……loads of memories from listening to these.
any chance of getting these on mp3 ?
cheers
July 21, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Hi, this was actually recorded in RTE for the In Concert series and not the TV Club. T
July 29, 2011 at 12:13 pm
oh my God! ive been searching for this for a long long time! Awesome! I remember recording this atthe time it was broadcast and had the tape well worn out over a few years listening. lost it a long long time ago! Thankyou Thankyou Thank you! Anyone got the first half of this?? oo im lovin it!
July 29, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Don’t suppose you have any of the Vipers appearances on Fanning available?
August 7, 2011 at 11:33 pm
No Vipers yet, anyone care to rectify that?
August 12, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Would love to track down a great tape I had but lost of The Blades from The TV Club around 1981.
They were a four piece without brass. (Around time single ‘The Bride Wore White’)
(Paul and Lar Cleary, Brian Foley and Jake Reilly. Such a fantastic tape. They did a brilliant version of ‘Everything I Own’ , the Bread song Boy George later murdered.
Lar Cleary’s guitar playing is fantastic.
PS I’ll ask my brother about The Vipers sessions..
August 14, 2011 at 1:54 pm
[…] Fanning Sessions have uploaded a 9 song live broadcast of The Blades from April 1985. Listen to it here. This is the first live stuff I’ve heard of the band. Been a long time […]
August 16, 2011 at 10:08 pm
Yes those Were The Days
great memories 🙂
August 16, 2011 at 10:14 pm
Takes me back. jumping in the crowd in the oul boating blazer. it,s amazing to think that they never hit it in the U.K. The best band Ireland has ever produced.
October 22, 2011 at 10:32 am
There’s a couple of comments here about this being half of a two part session. That’s not my recollection of it. There was an LP released the following year covering all the bands from that In Concert series and that may have thrown a few people. There is one other track on the LP that doesn’t feature on the tracklist above and that’s PC doing a solo version of the famine relief song Show Some Concern.
October 24, 2011 at 11:44 am
Hi there, I think RTE may have broadcast another mix of this? I remember having a tape which starts with Last Man In Europe, Real Emotion and others, includes Show Some Concern. In a box somewhere…
December 6, 2011 at 4:33 pm
This is definitely part two of a two part set, first song of part one is Last Man, then Ghost of a chance, Real Emotion, Sadlands, Lost Again and Hot For you are in there somewhere as well. I transferred it from tape to Cd but quality is poor.
December 19, 2011 at 12:25 am
[…] The Blades live at the SFX on 9 November 1985 can be heard here on the brilliant Fanning Sessions blog while the second part of a 1985 live broadcast of the band can be heard here. […]
December 19, 2011 at 9:20 am
Another recording has surfaced over on the ‘Come Here To Me’ blog. It’s a recording of the 23 November 1984 show in the TV Club, Harcourt Street.. http://comeheretome.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/the-blades-live-1984/
December 20, 2011 at 10:07 am
Ralph – is the single you had out with 16 tons of jive – shark bait ?
would love to get a copy of it
December 28, 2011 at 10:56 am
Hi Dave,
16 Tons Of Jive only recorded a Fanning Session, and 3 or 4 different demo sessions – no vinyl output sorry.
All the best.
February 26, 2012 at 8:28 pm
I was the roadie…mill (mill) white sox and black loafers…as I appear on the vynil Last Man in Europe
May 4, 2012 at 7:10 pm
@ Ralph….Saw ’16 Tons of Jive’ so many times…brilliant brilliant band…would love to hear your Fanning session….does anybody have it on tape or anything ???
July 11, 2012 at 2:21 pm
I have the first part of this concert on tape. Quality still reasonably good. How do I digitise it and get you a copy?
September 26, 2012 at 1:51 pm
Apparently Paul Cleary did the questions for the RTE shows “Blackboard Jungle” and “Number 1”
October 20, 2013 at 6:24 pm
it stil sounds fresh the bests days of my life
November 30, 2013 at 5:18 am
[…] Easy to guess who I’ll be mostly listening to in two weeks time . […]
August 4, 2017 at 3:07 pm
Not so blue (Memory Lane) is brilliant.