The Sewing Room (1996 Peel Session)

To celebrate John Peel’s birthday we recently shared some old posts on facebook and twitter and that prompted one reader to enquire about The Sewing Room. We did some digging and now thanks to Eamonn Davis of the band we have their 1996 session for John Peel. The Sewing Room were Stan Erraught (guitar & vocals), Eamonn Davis (guitar & vocals), Colm Fitzpatrick (bass & vocals) and Dez Foley (drums & vocals). Stan was of course previously a member of The Stars Of Heaven, Eamonn and Colm were in Hey Paulette while Dez was in Wilder and Crumb. For more background on The Sewing Room check out the excellent post by Stephen Rennicks on his ‘Abstract Analogue’ site. PS If anyone has a recording of the as yet unlocated RTE Dave Fanning session please get in touch..

Rope (1996)

Ghost (1996)

Borderline Vice (1996)

Slide (1996)

South Of Heaven – The Stars Of Heaven Tribute That Never Was

‘South Of Heaven’ is the title of a Stars Of Heaven Tribute which never saw the light of day. Featuring a veritable who’s who of the Irish music business and such luminaries as Something Happens! and Everything But The Girl as well as local favourites Hey Paulette and Engine Alley to name but two. The Firestation Records blog has the tracklisting and a snap of the album cover. The album was to have been released on the Mickey Rourke’s Fridge label run by ‘enigmatic‘ Sean A Mc Dermott and associated with Hey Paulette a band who once featured ex Stars of Heaven man Stan Erraught. The album was even reviewed by Hot Press. This all started when I came across ‘Smalltown Reel’ while browsing the Hey Paulette archive on the Crumb site and then yesterday Dave Fanning was on Tom Dunne’s Newstalk show talking of things Stars Of Heaven and Revenants.

Northern Picture Library – Ammonia Train
Icehead (or was that The Shouting Club?) – Every Other Day
Something Happens! – All About You
Sean A McDermott & Mary Whelan – Paradise Of Lies
Hey Paulette – Smalltown Reel
Engine Alley – Three Kings’ Day
Dr Millar – Leave As You Came
Junkster – 28
Grief – Someone’s Getting Tired Of You
Everything But The Girl – Lights Of Tetouan
The Baby Snakes – Hey Little Child
Cathal Coughlan – Ghost Cars
The Screech Owls – Poison River
Muck Savage – Sacred Heart Hotel
7 League Boots – Little England
Peter O’Kennedy – Two O’Clock Waltz
Engine Alley – Before Holyhead
Sultans Of Ping – Never Saw You
Brian – Speak Slowly
The Revenants – So You Know

Hey Paulette (Peel Session)

A couple of excellent articles in the newspapers this weekend by Nick Kelly and Sinead Gleeson have given me cause to think of Derrick Dalton and by extension the music of his band Hey Paulette. In the case of this band it was John Peel and not Dave Fanning who was to first bring them to our attention. On 13th October 2005 Hey Paulette reformed after fifteen years to pay homage to John Peel at a John Peel tribute night. Derrick died two years ago but to celebrate his life, his wife Laura James has organised a benefit gig in his honour. The gig is tomorrow night in Whelan’s and features The Dinah Brand (which count Stephen Ryan ex The Stars of Heaven and The Revenants) alongside Thread Pulls, Richer Than Astronauts and Little Beauties. The €12 admission includes the Aeromodeller album ‘First Flight’ and an unreleased copy of Crumb’s ‘Like Goodbye’ single. All proceeds go to Aware.

Recorded 25/6/1989, lineup: Darren Nolan (Drums),Colom Fitzpatrick (Bass), Derrick Dalton (Guitar, Backing Vocals), Eammon Davis (Guitar, Vocals)

Our Immeasurable Differences (1989)

I Really Do Love Penelope (1989)

A Pet Day (1989)

Erstwhile Wet Blanket (1989)

Hey Paulette (1989 Session)

As previously recounted Hey Paulette had already recorded one Peel Session by the time they were invited to make the trip to the RTE studios. These tracks are the result of those efforts for the Fanning Show and can be found on the 2006 Firestation Records compilation ‘Long Ball Into Nowhere‘

Mad Into The Rollers (1989)

Another Poet (1989)

Give Up (1989)

I Will Line The Street (1989)

Hey Paulette

Hey Paulette were formed in Dublin in 1987 by Eamonn Davis (guitar & vocals), Derrick Dalton (guitar) and Colm Fitzpatrick (bass). Recorded in 1988, the first single “Commonplace” was recorded with a drum machine and so impressed John Peel that he invited them to record a session which they duly did in 1989. Peel thought the session was “peachy”. Darren Nolan joined on drums “for a while” but then stayed till the bitter end. They were soon begged to do a Fanning Session. Stan Erraught of The Stars Of Heaven produced their ep “I Really Do Love Penelope” and enjoyed it so much that he joined the band. They split in 1991, Derrick Dalton went on to play bass with The Mexican Pets, Eamonn Davis, Colm Fitzpatrick formed The Sewing Room with Stan. Sadly Derrick passed away recently, nice tribute here, was in a band called crumb with Eamonn and they have a great bio of how it was back in the day. Must try and track down the 2006 release Long Ball Into Nowhere on Firestation Records. Watch them in action here and just came across this interesting piece on the Firestation blog.

Commonplace

Updated July 23 2009