The Pleasure Cell – New Age (1986)

From Dublin featuring Noel Green (guitar & vocals), Dermot Reid (bass) and Will Walsh (drums), The Pleasure Cell released just one single ‘New Age’. Dave Fanning played this in his review of Irish music released in 1986. A video for “She’s Just A Girl” on the RTE show Visual Eyes in 1987 (you’ll never guess who the host was) can be seen here. They also recorded a Fanning session so if anyone has a copy please drop a line.

Here’s what Niall McGuirk writes in his 2004 book “Document – A Story Of Hope” which tells of vegan recipes and punk / hardcore in Dublin between 1987 – 1999.

The Pleasure Cell’s omission from any charting of Irish music is a crying shame. “A Statement Is A Weapon in an Empty Hand” was a line from from their New Age 7” released independently in 1987 on their own Common Ground Records.

New Age (1986)

The Stars Of Heaven

I suppose it is fitting that I never actually got to see The Stars Of Heaven live despite being a huge fan. Myself and a friend read in HotPress over Christmas that they were playing Dublin and we decided to hitch to Dublin (a 4 hour drive) to attend the gig as we lived in rural Ireland and nothing was happening. Things started very slowly and next thing we knew the sandwiches were gone and we still hadn’t got our first lift, we were faced with an embarrassing about face. We eventually got that first lift and then hit it lucky and we eventually made it to the venue on time only to find that the gig had been cancelled (or was it just HP that was wrong?). We ended up going to see An Emotional Fish and staying the night in Isaac’s Hostel. A good night was had by all despite the disappointment. As it turns out The Stars Of Heaven had called it a day. Watch the band perform here and if you like what you hear, do yourself a favour and get a copy of the 2006 reissues on Independent Records of Sacred Heart Hotel/Holyhead EP and/or Speak Slowly (HP review). Update: those two albums are now available as a free download over on the Independent Records site. The posthumous ‘Unfinished Dreaming‘ is also well worth checking out.

The first track was a single on Hotwire Records from May 1985. John Peel liked it so much he had the lads over for sessions no less than 4 occasions. Then we have a track from the April 1988 Fanning Session and finally a track from the December 1984 Fanning Session which unusually features Stan Erraught on lead vocals.

Clothes Of Pride (1985)

Smalltown Reel (1988) watch here

Eldorado (1984)

Terry Woods & Phil Lynott

Since I first posted a track from this session I’ve managed to track down the remainder and I’ve chosen to go with the opening track which is the electric version of Tennessee Stud, from September 1980.

Tennessee Stud

Bam Bam And The Calling

Bam Bam And The Calling formed in Derry in 1983 and in the early days had a somewhat changeable lineup with Paul PJ McCartney being the one constant. Raymond Gorman was an early member before leaving for London with Sean O’Neill to form That Petrol Emotion. The band lineup settled around McCartney (guitar, vocals), Tom Doherty (drums), John McCloskey (guitar) and Joe Brown (bass). They moved to London where they released two singles; ‘Scraping Off The Shine‘ in 1987 and ‘Neck Tattoo’ in 1988 before calling it a day. Bam Bam & The Calling recorded a Fanning session on 19th January 1987 featuring tracks ‘Road Of The Lonely’, ‘Only Sing’,  ‘Scraping Off The Shine’ and ‘ Secret Meeting’. Paul McCartney featured on an EP by Sean O’Neill’s post That Petrol Emotion project Rare in 1990 and in 1992 released an album “Entrance” on Setanta Records with The Deadly Engines. These tracks are from a demo of unknown provenance, if you have details or even better a recording of the Fanning session it goes without saying, we’d love to hear from you.

Talking Aloud

Scraping Off The Shine

Neck Tattoo

The Fat Lady Sings

The Fat Lady Sings were formed in 1986 by Nick Kelly with Dave Sweeney (ex Vipers, guitar), Finbarr O’Riordan (bass) and Robert Hamilton (drums). The band moved to London and a couple of years later what would the classic lineup of Nick Kelly, Tim Bradshaw (guitar/keyboards), Dermot Lynch (bass) and Robert Hamilton (drums) was established. I believe this is recording is from 1988 and according to Dave’s outro it is on tape (according to the official website the band never recorded any demos).

Contact (1988)

Hank Halfhead And The Rambling Turkeys

Updating with facebook page and photo of the original band – Frank Kelly [RIP] with Niall Toner, Mick O’Doherty, Niall Toner, Joe Pleass and Colm McCaughey.

Today we have a session track from Hank Halfhead And The Rambling Turkeys taken from Dave’s 1988 end of year review of Irish music. Here’s what Niall Toner’s bio says about the band..

In the early eighties, Niall did a “Bob Dylan” and went electric. The result was the formation of one of the most influential country-rock bands in Irish music History, the uniquely titled Hank Halfhead And The Rambling Turkeys. With the Turkeys, Niall or Hank, as he was then known, went on to break the record for Midnight At The Olympia, playing sixteen straight weeks to full houses. The Rambling Turkeys also worked New York and Boston to similar reactions, and played a now famous birthday gig for Adam Clayton of U2. They also went to number twelve in the Irish charts with the release of their first single in 1990, a version of an old Doc Boggs song “Walking Boss”.

The Rambling Turkeys were apparently a journeyed bunch with alumni in bands such as The Swinging Swine, Those Handsome Devils, The Dixons, etc. This particular track is a Rolling Stones cover.

Dead Flowers

If this track tickles your fancy you might like to check out the alt country mixes by BoxSetGo.

According to Bluegrass Ireland Hank has recently revived the band.

Cypress, Mine!

Regular readers might have gathered that the title of this blog is more aspirational than manifesto and I have been padding out the posts between sessions with demos and the occasional single or album track. All posts have one common theme; they were played on The Dave Fanning Show in the late eighties. These tracks are culled from the dying cassette collection of a fortysomething who can’t believe how good this music still sounds. Ideally I would hope to inspire others to dig out sessions they might have recorded or to colour in some detail to the sometimes minimal information which is available on these bands. Maybe younger readers might finally be in a position to check out some band they’ve heard of but never managed to track down.

Anyway on with the music. Listening to these old cassettes I often find this song or that going round in my head for days. I’ll sing snippets and annoy the kids until they beg me to stop. Maybe someday they’ll stumble across this blog and it’ll all become clear.. ‘Sugarbeet God’ is just such a track and because I have it to hand I’m going to accompany it with a track from their 1988 album ‘Exit Trashtown’. The band is of course Cork favourites Cypress, Mine!

Cypress Mine! were Ciaran O’Tuama (vocals), Ian Olney (guitar), Denis O’Mullane (bass) and Mark Healy (drums). They released three singles; ‘In The Big House’ (1987), ‘Justine’ (1987) and ‘Sugarbeet God’ (1988) and one album ‘Exit Trashtown’ (1988) all on on Solid Records. Ian Olney went on to become a member of Power Of Dreams in 1990.

The Sugar Beet God (1988)

Justine (1987)

Gavin Is God

Okay back to posting tracks of bands I know absolutely nothing about. Today it’s the turn of Gavin Is God and a demo track from them shortly before they played support to Real Time Motion in some place called The Baggot..

Small Men

Shimpu Zig Zag

Continuing the Cork theme Shimpu Zig Zag were a trio formed in 1985 by Liam Shanahan, John Shanahan and Jerry Fehily and joined in 1986 by Liam Murphy. I suspect today’s tracks were actually singles but I hope they are suitably obscure to merit inclusion. I don’t know why they spilt after only two singles but Jerry Fehily did end up joining The Hothouse Flowers. Photo courtesy irishrock.org.

Passion Play (1985)

Mayday (1986)

Flex And The Fastweather (1985 Session)

Originally from Cork but later Dublin based, Flex And The Fastweather at the time of the Fanning session were Paul Tiernan (vocals & guitar), Maurice Seezer aka The Man Seezer (keyboards), John O Sullivan (bass), Earl Gill Jnr (drums), John Stokes (guitar), Mandy Murphy and Carolyn Fox (backing vocals). Wayne Sheehy was on drums for ‘Behind The Wire’, followed by Dave Whyte circa single ‘The Darkness’, followed by John Donaghy when Flex took up a residency in of all places Stockholm, Sweden. All three tracks here I believe were from that Fanning session. ‘Whatever Happens To Girls Like Alice’ later appeared on the RTE Radio 2 / Hot Press Street Carnival Rock EP in 1986. ‘The Darkness’ appeared as a single in 1986 and there was one further single ‘Stan’ in 1987 according to The Irish Punk And New Wave Discography. Paul Tiernan has been active as a solo artist and has released 4 albums as well as appearing on irish TV as a member of Interference on RTE’s Other Voices series. Watch him interviewed and performing on TV3’s Ireland:AM. Maurice Seezer went on to collaborate with Gavin Friday contributing on a number of soundtracks including ‘In The Name Of The Father‘.

The Darkness

Behind The Wire

Whatever Happens To Girls Like Alice

The Onion Peelers

From Dublin today’s track is a song from a demo circa 1988 by The Onion Peelers..

Nine Nine Nine

The Hitchers (1989 Demo)

From Limerick The Hitchers appear to be semi active despite calling it a day in Feb 2001. This demo dates from 1989 and was delivered to The Fanning Show on DAT. Check out the wiki or read more about the band on their website. No mention over on the IPNWD for some reason. They recorded sessions for both Dave Fanning and John Peel in 1997 (making it to 21 of the Festive Fifty the same year with Strachan) and released numerous EPs and LPs. The lineup for the Peel session in 1997 was Andy Gallagher (lead guitar), Niall Quinn (drums, backing vocals), Eric Fitzgerald (guitar) and Hoss Carnage (bass) but this demo their first dates from 1989.

All This Everything (demo)

The Riordans

My memory has failed me on this one so I’m appealing for help. This song has been going round in my head all weekend so I’m going to share despite not knowing it’s title or origin.

Updated 23 July 2009 following a tipoff from Summerproject and an email exchange with Pat:

Comprising Pat Clafferty (vocals/acoustic guitar), Jill Hahn (guitar), Damien Byrne (bass) and Milo Madden (drums) The Riordans recorded at least three songs as part of this session, the others were ‘Which Road to Go?’ and ‘Dustbowl Dress’. They recorded a single for Mother Records in Windmill Lane which alas never saw the light of day. Jill and Pat went on to form Mexican Pets and were soon joined by Derrick Dalton of Hey Paulette on bass but that’s another story.

Blue Blue Blue

Lord John White (1986 Session)

Today we have two three out of the four songs recorded by Lord John White for the Dave Fanning show circa 1986. This band later achieved success as Sack and released three albums.

Update: From Dublin, Lord John White were Martin McCann (vocals), John Brereton (guitar), Derek Lee (bass) and Tony Brereton (drums). Martin McCann was previously in Aiken Drum.

Swan The Pond

Van Norden Jumps In

Dream Flower

A House (1988 Session)

Today we have two thirds of the second session by irish indie heroes A House. Dave Couse (vocals & guitar), Fergal Bunbury (guitar), Martin Healy (bass) and Dermot Wylie (drums) released five albums between 1988 and 1996 when they finally threw in the towel. Dave Couse of course went on to release two further solo records the most recent of which The World Should Know in 2005 was especially impressive. I personally still kick myself that I never took the opportunity to see his band tour that album because if their Other Voices: Songs From A Room performance was anything to go by they were one tight outfit. Please do yourself a favour and tune into his Today FM show on Sunday nights at 10pm as the guy still confounds expectations.

Looks like I’m not the only one who enjoyed that Other Voices performance. The Impossibles unfortunately are no more but were Pete Meighan (guitar), Simon Quigley (keyboards), Dave Flynn (bass) and Mike O’Dowd (drums) .

Violent Love
Anyone have this?

Stone The Crows

Hay When The Sun Shines

MySpace
Wikipedia
Dave Couse MySpace
ZOP (A House fansite)

Light A Big Fire (1984 Session)

Formed circa 1984 in Dublin featuring Thomas McLaughlin (vocals), Owen Conroy (vocals), Pete Dench (guitar), Pat Diskin (bass), Ray Rowland (drums). I saw Light A Big Fire in late 1985 in the then NIHE Limerick and they put on a hugely energetic show finishing up with a version of The Forest that seemed to go on forever. This is a session they did for the Fanning show in June 1984.

C.I.A. (1984)

You Can Love A Woman (1984)

I See People (1984)

Talking To Myself (1984)

Tuesday Blue (Demo)

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Tuesday Blue live in The Savoy in Limerick. There was a lot of press about the band already and great things were promised. The room was like a exotic boudoir with incense burning, the music began and gradually the smoke around the stage dissipated to reveal Mick Ryan performing transcendental meditation. A seminal moment as they say. This demo track made it to number 31 in the 1986 Fanning Fab Fifty. The full lineup was Mick Ryan (vocals), Dave Keary (guitar), Ralf Lindheim (bass) and Liam Darcy (drums).

I’m So Scared

Something Happens!

Next up we have a demo from a band who went on to achieve considerable success but maybe didn’t always do themselves justice with their recorded output. Case in point was Burn Clear which I hope to dig out in the future but first up is another favourite which in demo form made 28th place in Fanning’s Fab Fifty in 1986.

Forget Georgia

33rd Hurricane

Donegal doesn’t seem to be doing too bad, first The Wild Herrings and now today’s contribution who hail from Carndonagh. They are called 33rd Hurricane and this is a great demo track called ‘Like A Dream’. The quality is decidedly lo-fi but maybe that’s why it works so well. This was recorded from the radio in 1989. The normally reliable IPNWD has no entry but does list the presence of tracks ‘Goodbye’ and ‘December Days’ on the 1989 Danceline Records compilation ‘Nationwide 2’. They released one single I know of ‘Shotgun Blast’ / ‘Till I Find You’.

Update: 33rd Hurricane were Finbarr Doherty (vocals, guitar), Liam Bradley (drums, backing vocals), Delilah Cuddihy (keyboards, backing vocals), John McGrory (guitar), and Neil McGrory (bass). Finbarr wrote all the songs and ‘Like A Dream’ was recorded on a cassette 4 track recorder.

Finbarr Doherty is now performing as a solo artsist and has released albums ‘Across the Water‘ (1997) and most recently ‘Skyscrapers’ (2011). Check out his music on breakingtunes or on MySpace

Like A Dream (Demo)

Phil Lynott & Terry Woods

This is probably a departure but it is a Fanning session track so I believe it qualifies. I think I recorded this in 1986 but it probably dates from 1980 although I failed to confirm this on the web. I seem to remember they played a great acoustic version of Tennessee Stud as part of the same session but I didn’t catch that. I’m not 100% sure of the title but I’m going to go with what I have written on the cassette cover.

Company Man

Update: Corrected the track title thanks to some assistance from a poster on The Pogues forum

Tru’penny Opera

Today’s track is a demo from Wexford band Tru’penny Opera. They are listed in the IPNWD but I’m not sure of the spelling. I tried to google the band but found nothing, what is it about Wexford and opera?

If You Were Right Then So Was I (1988)

Updated the spelling based on that used on the Nationwide compilation detailed here.

1 March 2014: Tru’penny Opera from Wexford were Michael Egan (guitars, vocals), Paul Merrigan (saxophone), Peter Murphy (drums), Noel Quaid (bass), Maurice McNamara (keyboards) and John Murphy (mandolin, harmonica). This lineup was active from 1987 to 1990.

Burning Embers

Okay time for some music from Cork. Burning Embers were Sean O’Neill (vocals), John Poland (guitars), Niall Macken (keyboards), Mel Poland (bass), Gordon Ashe (drums). They sent Dave Fanning a demo in 1986 and this is one of the tracks. According to the Irish Rock Discography the band went on to release 3 singles and this song made the b-side of second single ‘Keep On Pushing’. The band also had a track ‘Sweet Young Lady’  feature on the Hot Press ‘Best Cork album in the world… ever!‘ concept album compiled by Paul O’Mahony and Jim Comet.

Stay (1986)

The Subterraneans – Maxi-Joy (demo)

Next up we have a demo from a Dublin band that appeared at number 41 in the 1986 Fab Fifty. It is of course Carling/Hot Press Band winners The Subterraneans. They also recorded a Fanning session in that year but I only have the demo recording. I also have a recording of Slum but will post that later (Update: done). Maxi Joy was eventually released as a single on Mother Records in 1987. Have a listen to that version here.

Maxi-Joy

Shake

A Dublin based 3 piece who later earned fame and fortune as Rollerskate Skinny. This is the third track from a Fanning Session they did in 1990. Irish Music Central has a full profile of Rollerskate Skinny.

Snake

Backwards Into Paradise

Todays post features a track from 1986 from Dublin three piece Backwards Into Paradise. You may be familiar with the band under their later abbreviated name Into Paradise in which guise they released a number of albums. I however am particularly fond of this track and hopefully when you listen you’ll see why.

Update: While researching today’s track I came across this interesting blog post which has some more detail. Apparently ‘Never The Same’ was released with ‘She Is Close’ on Snap-Owl Records in 1986.

Never The Same (1986)

The Slowest Clock (1988 Session)

Formed in Dublin in 1986 The Slowest Clock were Frank Pryce (vocals), Gerry Fahy (guitar), Brian Neavyn (bass) and Pete Kinsella (drums). They recorded two Fanning Sessions and one for BBC’s Liz Kershaw. They released one single ‘Clarke & Jones’ in 1987 on Comet Records and two EPs ‘2 Car Garage’ and ‘No hand Signals’ in 1989 on Bewildered Records. They split in June 1990 never releasing their debut LP ‘Bewildered’ although a CD ‘Life Still‘ was released in 1994.

This is the second Fanning Session from 1988.. to read more and see them perform go here .

1. Turn Green

2. Where’s Andy

3. Going Home

4. Mothers of America

The Furious Colour (1986 Session)

I should probably make life easier for myself and only post tracks by bands that I know something about. Anyway today’s installment is by a band called The Furious Colour and is from a session recorded on 30th June 1986. The session featured 3 tracks, ‘Torn Apart’, ‘Carrion’ and ‘Closer’. In a review of Cork Folk Festival in a recently uncovered issue of Hot Press (Vol 11 No 19 Oct 8th 1987) Tony O’Donoghue writes:

The madness of a wonderful weekend was underlined by the trip from the Opera House to Sir Henrys. Here The Furious Colour were playing an inspired country-rock set with Kieran Kennedy and Liam Murphy swopping guitar licks to exhilaring effect.

Kieran Kennedy of course went on to form The Black Velvet Band with future wife Maria Doyle.

Closer (1986)

At The Window

Next up are a band from Shannon called At The Window. Active in the late eighties although I’m not sure how much gigging they did. This session track is a particular favourite of mine and was recorded on 3rd and 4th Feb 1986, the two other session tracks were ‘City Lights’ and ‘Theme’.

State Aid

Dorian Mood

Today’s tune is from a session recorded for the Dave Fanning show by Drogheda band Dorian Mood. Dorian Mood were Roland Hoek (vocals & guitar), John White (keyboards), Eamon Foley (bass) and Graham Hoek (drums). Check out IrishRock.org for further details. If you are interested in the Drogheda music scene in the 80s then you might like to read this. The track may have been re-recorded as ‘It’s A Funny Thing’.. Watch Dorian Mood perform on RTE Visual Eyes in 1986.

Fallen Deep Inside

The Donnelly Brothers (Session)

Hailing from Belfast and earning but a cryptic entry on the Help Wanted page of the Irish Punk & New Wave Discography. The music however speaks for itself. From a Fanning Session I think Dave decided..

The Donnelly Brothers have a MySpace page and here’s the bio:

The Donnelly Brothers were an indie band from West Belfast who existed between 1985 and 1989. The first line-up was Martin Burns (vocals), Bap McGreevy (lead guitar), Stephen ‘Punker’ McGreevy (bass), Paddy O’Neill (guitar) and Barney Carson (drums). The band played a few gigs around Belfast and made a few demos. Barney and Paddy left after a year to form their own band. A 14-year-old drummer named Ali Donnelly joined along with rhythm guitarist Nick Sadlier. The line-up of Burns, Bap, Punker, Nick and Ali played a few gigs, did a few demos, supported The Wedding Present on tour, played with The Jazz Butcher, The Prisoners and The Charlatans. The band recorded a session for the Dave Fanning Show on RTE in June 1987. It was broadcast twice on the radio station and led to a 2FM tour. The recordings on this page are from that Fanning session. Track three, Clawing at the Sky, is from the first demo in 1986.

Photo courtesy irishrock.org who now have a dedicated page for the band.

Mystery Machine

The Stunning

I only managed to catch one song from this particular session but it’s a favourite. I went to see The Stunning with a good friend in The Golden Grill in Letterkenny and it was an amazing gig, the boys were in top form. If I remember correctly there were a few mighty covers ‘Ring Of Fire’ and ‘Ruby’ thrown in for good measure.

Tightrope Walker

The Wild Herrings (1987 Session)

Updated following some great comments so make sure to read them. Look forward to more feedback and thanks for taking the time to post!

Photo (c) Irene Pender

The Wild Herrings were formed in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal in 1985 and remained active until 1987. The band consisted of John Kane (guitar), Fiona Pender (vocals and sax), Irene Pender (vocals), Patsy O Kane (bass) and Michael Christie (drums). Four of the Wild Herrings went on to form punk-pop group The Malfunctions who reached 27 in the single charts. The Malfunctions (minus singer Fiona) became Georgia who knocked Bryan Adams off number 1 with their single “Sends Me High” on Danceline Records only to be disqualified because too many of the sales were in the north-west of Ireland! Micheal Christie is currently active with The Boxtie Band. I never managed to see them live, maybe they didn’t make it as far south as Limerick but have read of a Bundoran gig. I was lucky enough to catch their Fanning Session though and thankfully record it. The quality isn’t great but hopefully that won’t detract too much from what I think are some standout tunes. Without further ado..

Update: Fiona and Irene are back gigging again as The Pender Sisters and have played a couple of shows in Derry at Sandinos and Cafe Del Mondo. They are playing a post Christmas show in Dicey Reilly’s bar in Ballyshannon on December 27th from 10.30 to 12.30 if you’d like to catch them.

Up Donegal

Buy Me A Drink

Fat Politicians

Crash & Burn