Dave Fanning: Classic Irish Tracks Uncovered

They say that buses come in threes, I wonder does the same apply to podcasts? We recently raved about a podcast revisiting classic Irish albums, well Dave Fanning has been looking at classic Irish tracks. Something Happens!, The Frank & Walters, The Saw Doctors and The Cranberries have featured so far and each installment is well worth a listen. Tom Dunne needs to write that Warren Zevon tour exposé but in the meantime catch his weekly ‘Music & Me‘ column in The Irish Examiner. And finally, this week’s classic Fanning session on the Dan Hegarty show is from Bawl (1996). Incidentally Something Happens!, The Frank & Walters, The 4 Of Us, Hothouse Flowers and An Emotional Fish all play Feile Classical this Thursday in the 3 Arena.

Noel Hogan: ‘Linger’ by The Cranberries

Leo Moran: ‘N17’ by The Saw Doctors

Paul Linehan: ‘After All’ by The Frank & Walters

Tom Dunne: ‘Parachute’ by Something Happens!

The Cranberries (In Concert 1993)

 

We are still in shock at the very sad news of Dolores O’Riordan. There have been many great tributes and this morning Dave Fanning and Ian Wilson remembered Dolores by playing clips from this 1993 interview. Thanks to a reader we now have a recording of a live show by The Cranberries at the Tivoli on 18th December 1993. Dave broadcast this over 2 weeks so there is a join half way through and the 2 final tracks on each side of the C60 are abbreviated. We think you’ll enjoy the recording nevertheless. Thank you Padraig Keane for the recording.

In Concert (1993)

Dolores

“Dolores O’Riordan is the name of the singer, you may need to remember that” John Peel plays The Cranberries in 1991.

The Studio 8 Sessions (2fm 29th Dec 2016)

Legend has it that the first Fanning session was by a band from Dublin called U2 in 1980. Whilst that event would have predated our tenure we can vouch for the importance in subsequent years of the Dave Fanning show to Irish rock music both in terms of the sessions recorded but also the demos played. Thanks to the efforts of Dave and long-time producer Ian Wilson the show was to become a veritable institution (not forgetting the efforts of Jim Lockhart, Pete Holidai and Paddy Breen who toiled in front of the console).

Originally broadcast Thursday December 29th on RTÉ 2fm and produced by Yvonne Judge, this special radio documentary looks back at the sessions recorded in Studio 8 over the last 36 years. It features contributions from Dave Fanning, Ian Wilson, Billy McGuinness and Christy Dignam (Aslan), Paul Cleary (The Blades), Gavin Friday (The Virgin Prunes), Martin Cowan (The Outcasts), Cathal Coughlan (Microdisney) and Noel Hogan (The Cranberries).

 

The Cranberries (1993 Session)

Last night Dan Hegarty repeated the long sought after 1993 session by Limerick band The Cranberries on his RTE 2fm show ‘The Alternative To Sleep’. Dan expressly thanked producer Ian Wilson who obviously had the non trivial task of tracking the original session tape down in the RTE archive. Incidentally there is currently a project underway at RTE to digitise this archive and we await the results with great anticipation. The night this session was recorded the band dropped into Dave Fanning in studio for an interview and you can listen to a recording here.

The Icicle Melts

Wanted

Like You Used To

False

The Cranberries (1993 Interview)

In 1993 The Cranberries recorded a session for Dave Fanning, produced possibly by Jim Lockhart. Whilst there Dolores and Fergal dropped over to the 2FM studio for an interview with Dave on his evening show where among other things they talked about the music business, Guy Chadwick, living in Limerick and being compared to The Sundays. There is a short interruption due to a tape flip mid interview. Thanks to Michael Mee for digging this out. If you have any Fanning tapes please get in touch as we are always on the lookout. Of interest are (a) sessions (b) interviews and (c) demos or tracks by bands that Fanning played that are no longer available. We don’t have the the 1993 Cranberries session, maybe Ian Wilson producer of the Dan Hegarty show could be persuaded to dig it out, they say in the interview that they recorded 3 new songs plus ‘Wanted’ from the album.

Interview (1993)

Cork Rock (1991)

Update: Be sure to check out two excellent documentaries by Dan Hegarty on Cork Rock here. Also Colm O’Callaghan at The Blackpool Sentinel is doing sterling work and Cork Rock has been mentioned on at least one occasion e.g. Toasted Heretic. A second tape has been discovered featuring 90 minutes of Cork Rock broadcasts so we may be in for a new post on the subject.

Here’s what none other than Billboard magazine wrote about Cork Rock:

One important annual event for new talent in Ireland is Cork Rock, a showcase event sponsored by Radio 2FM, Hot Press magazine and the Irish Music Rights Organization. ..

2FM producer Jim Lockhart recalls 1991 as the event’s most memorable year, with appearances by The Cranberries, Therapy? and Sultans Of Ping, The Frank and Walters, Toasted Heretic and Chelsea Drugstore, today known as The Devlins.

The following tracks were all recorded from Dave Fanning’s 2FM radio show.

Toasted Heretic – Galway and Los Angeles

The Cranberries – Uncertain

The Frank and Walters – Michael

Azure Days – Blew My Clouds Away

The Cranberries (1991 Session)

A big shout out to Dan Hegarty for single handedly keeping the flame of The Fanning Sessions alive. He has already featured the ‘classic’ Frank & Walters session and last week dug out this treat from The Cranberries or The Cranberry Saw Us as they were still at that time known – their first Fanning session recorded 9th March 1991. Once again if anyone out there still has cassette recordings from the 80s Fanning shows in their attic please get in touch as the old archive deperately needs some fresh meat..

Dreams

Uncertain

Reason

Put Me Down

The Cranberries – Them (1991)

From Limerick, The Cranberry Saw Us were formed in August 1989 by brothers Noel Hogan (guitar) and Mike Hogan (bass) with Fergal Lawler (drums) and Niall Quinn (vocals, guitar). Niall Quinn was already drummer with The Hitchers and two months after The Cranberry Saw Us recorded their first demo in Jan 1990 he left to concentrate on that band. Niall remained on good terms with the band and was soon to hook the remaining members up with a young singer Dolores O’Riordan. The new lineup released 3 cassette EPs in 1990. At the end of 1990 they shortened their name to first The Cranberry’s and finally The Cranberries. Under this name they made their first vinyl / CD release ‘Uncertain‘ on Xeric Records in Oct 1991. Today’s song is the fourth and final song on that EP.

Them (1991)