Paul Mc Dermott is no stranger round these parts, he is the man behind a series of excellent radio documentaries on Microdisney, Stump, Finbarr Donnelly and Michael O’Shea. Paul’s latest project is a podcast ‘To Here Knows When – Great Irish Albums Revisited‘ looking at the making of iconic Irish albums with one of the creators. The first episode featured Paul Page of Whipping Boy on their album ‘Heartworm‘ which has just been rereleased in an expanded edition by Needle Mythology (with new sleeve note by Colm O’Callaghan of The Blackpool Sentinel). Episode 2 looked at the Toasted Heretic album ‘Another Day, Another Riot‘ with Julian Gough which was also recently rereleased in digital form. We’re not big on podcasts here but Paul is on a one man mission to change that, both episodes were fantastic listens offering new detail on the recording of the albums and providing insight how the artists now feel about their creations at a 25 year remove. Episode 3 will feature Cathal Coughlan on ‘Viva Dead Ponies’ by Fatima Mansions which is also sure to be essential listening. We wish Paul the best of luck with the new venture and look forward to many more episodes.
Update: Adding Tom Dunne interview on the Newstalk Sean Moncrief show.
To celebrate the digital release of their impossible to find (unless you’re prepared to pay $900 for a used copy) third album ‘Another Day, Another Riot‘ Galway’s finest Toasted Heretic have just released a new single ‘Satellite Dishes’. Julian Gough and Neil Farrell spoke to Dan Hegarty on his show last week to bring him up to speed. Thanks Dee for copies of the original album artwork.
This is a nice promotional cassette produced in conjunction with Twix, featuring 10 of Dave Fanning’s favourite Irish tracks of 1990. Each one is introduced by Dave, with De Confidence receiving a particularly nice mention. Thanks to Eoin Fegan for sharing.
An Emotional Fish – Move On
The Dixons – Here Comes The Love Machine
The Stunning – Brewing Up A Storm
No Sweat – Waters Flow
The Honey Thieves – Drive
Into Paradise – Bring Me Closer
The Prayer Boat – Stopping the World
De Confidence – Dropout
Toasted Heretic – They Didn’t Teach Music in My School
A House – Bugaboo
From Galway Toasted Heretic were Declan Collins (guitars), Neil Farrell (programming, keyboards & backing vocals) and Julian Gough (vocals). Other members Breffni O’Rourke & Aonghus McMahon “couldnt afford the train fare”. Engineer was Paddy McBreen, Ian Wilson produced.
Here’s another post of interest from that 1992 issue of Melody Maker. This time it’s a live review of a gig in Borderline, London and the featured acts are Toasted Heretic and The Divine Comedy.
We’ve already featured Toasted Heretic but can you remember this 1994 interview they did with Dave Fanning just before the release of their fourth album ‘Mindless Optimism‘? Thanks to Michael Mee for the tape.
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. ..
A slight departure from normal broadcasting today in light of all this talk of irish indie moments over at Hot Press. Sending off £4.99 in 1986 to a postal address in Galway for a copy of Toasted Heretic‘s cassette release Songs For Swinging Celibates was definitely a seminal moment. For the princely sum of £400 irish punts said intrepid band recorded and released an album which caught Dave Fanning and the public’s imagination:
I worked, that summer, in an old Jesuit seminary in Spain, teaching English to the children of the rich. I returned with £400, and opened the Toasted Heretic bank account. We would record and release an album. For £400… We recorded it in Neil’s living room, on cassette. Neil’s mum made us tea whenever we stopped. Gareth did the sleeve, for £20. (He offered to do it for nothing, but that didn’t seem fair.) We printed a few thousand inlays for £240. Just the red and blue, to save £40. We drew in the yellow by hand.
We hadn’t enough money left to mix the album onto a 1/4″ master tape. So I found the RTE studio in Galway, walked in, and asked could we use their mixing desk, to mix our album onto 1/4″ tape. Their tape. Amused, they rang Dublin and asked Ian Wilson, the producer of the Dave Fanning Show, to officially book us in as a Dave Fanning session. We mixed the album to 1/4″, they made another 1/4″ copy for Dave Fanning, and gave us our precious reel… We had a master, and Dave could play us on the radio. Now we just had to make a lot of albums. But we only had a hundred quid left…
As the bank account emptied and we still had no album, I would lie awake at night, pouring cold sweat. Vinyl was far too expensive (you had to pay for metal pressing plates), CD even more expensive. Cassette, then. So we had a hundred cassettes made, for a hundred quid. But we had no distribution…
So I asked would they take some in Gateway Books on Quay Street. Face out, strikingly sleeved, they sold well. Then Star Records took them… Then, to Dublin by bus, and Comet Records in Temple Bar took fifteen… We sold the first hundred, paid for two hundred more, sold them, paid for 400… Dave Fanning was playing us, and reading out Neil’s address! Five pound notes came through the post! We’d send them a cassette and a free packet of Tayto. Soon, we had enough money saved to record another album. Back into Neil’s livingroom… His mum put on the kettle. The room was full of love. And Toasted Heretic began to record Charm & Arrogance…
Black Contact Lenses
Love Theme From Yeats The Movie
Toasted Heretic also recorded a Fanning Session but I have have so far been unable to track it down. If you have a copy and would like to share it please drop a line to fanningsessions at gmail dot com. To hear what they sounded like live wander over here.
In the absence of an official RTE Fanning Session archive consider this blog a humble starting point. Any musical submissions would be gratefully accepted as are any corrections or recollections... click on the pic to send an email or even better comment on the post in question. We are interested in anything recorded from irish radio or TV in the 1980s and 90s.
The Fanning Sessions Archive 