Backwards Into Paradise – the cassette that landed the Setanta deal

We recently posted a number of tracks from David Long, but today we have the contents of a cassette David had a hand in namely Backwards Into Paradise. Said cassette gets a mention in a recent interview David did with Nick Kelly of the Irish Independent:

“We did so many things wrong. We were naive,” he said. “We’d been in different bands since the age of 17 until we got signed, when I was 26. We were a long time doing rehearsals and playing small gigs and getting nowhere, so when the chance did come we were more shocked that anyone had an interest.”

That interest came from a London-based Dubliner who was looking for Irish bands to sign to his new independent record label.

David says: “Keith Cullen from Setanta went into Comet Records in Dublin and bought a DIY cassette of our music. The cover had a photo of a girl and a building. He rang me up to say he was interested in signing us to this new label called Setanta. Then he rang back two weeks later to say he was going to get Adrian Borland from The Sound to produce it. I couldn’t believe it.

“We were so lucky. I don’t think we would have got anywhere if Keith hadn’t bought that cassette. At that time we were called Backwards Into Paradise – I think it was Keith who suggested we shorten the name.”

David has fond memories of the period in Dublin in the late 1980s when so many good new bands emerged.

“When I was 17 or 18, me and Shane O’Neill from Blue In Heaven used to go to a place called The Magnet Bar on Pearse Street,” he said. “They used to have The Bodice Gigs where The Blades, Microdisney, Nun Attax, Chant Chant Chant all played. It was a brilliant scene.

“You had Rollerskate Skinny, Power Of Dreams, A House, Something Happens. The Stars Of Heaven were another great band. Nobody had any money. There was nothing happening in Dublin. It was simpler. No one was into music as a career; it was just a bit of fun.”

David’s album ‘Water Has Memory’ is available on iTunes or at Tower Records. Keep up to date with his activities via the Into Paradise facebook page.

01. Everything

02. Low

03. Out Of Here

04. Hope

05. Peace Of Paradise

06. I Want You

07. These Days

08. Winter

Tapes Wanted

Like the BBC who recently had a tape amnesty we too are on the lookout for listener recordings. Be it Dave Fanning sessions or interviews, BP Fallon Orchestras, Mark Cagney Nighttrains, Pat Kenny Record Cabinets we’d love to hear from you. Of particular interest are those lost bands that that the internet has no record of. Many of these acts can be already found on this site but our work is not yet done. If you have tapes in the attic now might be a good time to dig them out, give them a listen, and even better convert them to a digital form and send us a copy so that we can share with like minded souls. The device shown above from ALDI is an inexpensive option for those who no longer have a tape deck. If you still have your good deck all you need is a cheap cable to connect it to a computer where a free application like Audacity can record and convert to MP3. There are many articles that explain how to do this and we will gladly help in any way we can.

We should probably clarify that we use a Yamaha deck into a Sony PCM-M10 for converting our recordings. An inexpensive setup but one which offers a very good return. Just don’t forget to have the cleaning alcohol and some cotton buds to hand.