YouTube Channel & Playlists

Along with twitter, facebook, soundcloud, mixcloud accounts we also have a YouTube channel. In addition to a few videos rescued from VHS tapes generously sent by readers (there are some ‘No Disco’ tapes outstanding – on the TODO list!) we use playlists to track musical performances we come across from shows close to our hearts e.g. Anything Goes, Visual Eyes, Borderline, Megamix, On The Waterfront and No Disco. If you want to take a trip down memory lane these playlists might be a good starting off point and if you come across clips we missed then drop a line. Whilst on the subject a big thank you to all who have donated and uploaded priceless clips and a major tip of the hat to KillianM2 who continues to do sterling work. Now excuse us – we’re off to add an #MTUSA playlist..

Pat Shortt’s Music From D’Telly

A great piece by Colm O’Callaghan for The Blackpool Sentinel today tipped us off to a new music show in the RTE schedule. Like us Colm is a fan of Dave Heffernan and used watch ‘Anything Goes‘ religiously of a Saturday morning – for the music segment.

Ten years after the Des Bishop hosted ‘Reverb’, RTE television is once again dipping it’s toe into the music archives.

The multi-talented Pat Shortt raids the RTÉ music archives to unearth the most popular, rarely seen and occasionally wacky music and music-related items from over 60 years of programme making.

We know Pat has musical chops so fingers crossed he doesn’t play this one for laughs. Pat Shortt’s Music From D’Telly kicks off on RTE1 on Friday November 6th at 8.30pm. The series is directed and produced by Dave Heffernan.

For what it’s worth we’d love to see someone like Colm let loose on the RTE archive to dig out some of the treasures we know are there. Maybe time for the ‘No Disco‘ approach once again?

Update: Pat was on the Late Late show last week promoting the series, watch on the RTE player here:

Update #2: RTE promo

50 Years Of RTE (#RTETV50)

RTE TV celebrates it’s 50th birthday this year and is using the occasion to feature a selection of archive content online and in the regular TV schedule. The highlight so far round these parts was the David Heffernan documentary on Phil Lynott. Dave is familiar to readers of this site as he was the face of rock music on RTE childrens show ‘Anything Goes‘. I don’t remember an awful lot about the show as the only reason I watched was to catch a glimpse of the young Irish bands that Dave would introduce performing in studio. I believe RTE is sitting on a veritable goldmine not in monetary terms but in having an archive of performances that capture a lost generation of irish rock music. I would love to see RTE get Dave Heffernan do a documentary on those musical performances. Maybe Dave could share a few memories of the show and what they got up to, maybe talk to some of the band members and reminisce about the show. Lets be clear I’m not talking about a show that digs out early U2 appearances, I’m interested in the unsung bands who burned bright and left indelible impressions on young minds up and down the country and have since fallen off the radar. I personally would gladly watch a show made up entirely of the musical performances on the show, it could be as simple as an on screen informational text a la ‘Reeling In The Years’ but for gods sake dont dare give us another show like ‘Reverb’ with infuriatingly short musical clips interspersed with inane commentary from folk who havent a clue what they are talking about. This is the RTE equivalent of ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’ we’re talking about. There were other shows that are also of interest for their musical content. I cant remember the chronology but ‘TV Ga Ga’, ‘Visual Eyes‘, ‘Megamix‘ and ‘Borderline‘ spring to mind. The Late Late Show also featured occasional performance from up and coming irish rock acts. How about it RTE, a retro music series for us fortysomethings?

 

At The Window (Visual Eyes)

Details on Shannon, Co. Clare three piece At The Window remain elusive but thanks to a fellow archivist we now have some video footage. This recording of ‘State Aid’ was for RTE TV show ‘Visual Eyes‘ in 1986. The Fanning session recording of the same song can be found here. If anyone has further details on the band members please leave a comment or send an email. I do wish RTE would put all these 80s music shows online but that’s another matter..

Forget Me Nots (On The Waterfront)

Formed in 1990 in Dublin Forget Me Nots were Michelle Burrows (vocals, guitar), Eithne Flynn (vocals, guitar), Maurice McGrath (guitar), Mark Walsh (bass) and Justin Healy (drums). Justin was previously with The Golden Horde and The Glee Club. The band released singles ‘2 Fay Ray’ (1991), ‘Trouble’ (1992), ‘Soap Singer’s Beat’ (1992) and album ‘Hullabaloo’ (1992). While well received, the album didn’t achieve the level of success expected and following one further single ‘So Good’ (1993) parted company with Sony/Colombia Records. The quartet went on to release ‘Five O’Clock’ train in 1994 before calling it a day. This footage was recorded for the RTE programme ‘On The Waterfront‘ in 1992.

Into Paradise (acoustic)

Criminally overlooked by Tony Clayton-Lea in his recent (and very enjoyable) tome ‘101 Irish Records You Must Hear Before You Die‘ here is a 1993 performance and interview with Dave Long and James Eadie of Into Paradise formerly known as Backwards Into Paradise. Thank you to the kind reader who dug out this VHS.

New Philip Lynott documentary (2012)

As part of their 50 year celebrations RTE has commissioned a new documentary on Phil Lynott from producer/director Dave Heffernan. Titled ‘The Philip Lynott Archive’ the one hour documentary includes rare footage of Thin Lizzy as well as the first screening of a fully restored version of the promo for the 1982 single ‘Old Town‘. The documentary features interviews with John Kelly, Dave Fanning. Jim Lockhart, Eamon Carr, Jim Fitzpatrick, Brian Downey, Philomena Lynott, Dave Geraghty (Bell X1), Thomas Walsh (Pugwash), Declan O’Rourke, Stuart Clark (Hot Press) and director of the ‘Old Town’ video Gerry Gregg. Tony Clayton Lea speaks of this very video in his recent book ‘101 Irish Records You Must Hear Before You Die‘:

“You could argue that Gregg’s video did more to raise the song’s profile and to generate emotional warmth for the singer than any amount of radio play at the time”

The documentary airs on Monday Jan 2nd 2012 at 10.55pm on RTE1. RTE promises to publish further footage from their 50 year archives on their website throughout the year, follow @RTETV50 on twitter for updates. Update: The show can now be viewed on the RTE player here. Overseas viewers check out the new RTE player for the iPhone/iPad/iPod which I believe does not have any regional restrictions.

Anything Goes (1980 – 1986)

‘Anything Goes’ was a “young people’s show on RTÉ Television as part of development of young people’s programming”. First broadcast on 4 October 1980 it continued for 6 years. Presenters on the show were Kathy Parke, Aonghus McAnally, Mary FitzGerald, David Heffernan and Mary Frances Calayco. I will add to the list of musical acts who performed as I find them.

‘Anything Goes’ YouTube playlist:

In Tua Nua – ‘Coming Through‘ (1984)
The Babysnakes – ‘Fade‘ (1985)
The Crack – ‘When The Time Comes‘ (1981)
Cruella De Ville (1983)
The End – ‘That Warm Feeling’ (1981)
Soon – ‘In A Nutshell’ (198?)
G Squad – (1985)
Tokyo Olympics (1981)
Driveshaft (198x)
Porcelyn Tears (198x)
The Sussed (198x)
The Atrix – ‘I Wonder Why‘ (1981)
The Stars Of Heaven – ‘Every Other Day‘ (1985)
Montage – ‘When I Close My Eyes‘
to be continued..

The Divine Comedy (No Disco – Acoustic Room)

I posted this on Twitter a few days ago but I might as well lash it up here. A reader graciously sent me a VHS with 4 hours of TV from 1994 and it contained a few gems more of which anon. This little ditty features Mr Neil Hannon aka The Divine Comedy performing ‘Three Sisters’. And that’s Donal Dineen of TodayFM ‘Small Hours‘ fame at the end. Do yourself a favour and check out his TodayFM show midnight – 2am Tuesday to Friday because TodayFM have decided to cancel it. The final show is on December 1st 2011 so no excuses.

Hothouse Flowers & Maria Doyle on ‘Visual Eyes’ (1986)

Things have been a little hectic of late hence the lacks of posts round these parts. Feel free to leave a comment if you see something you like, sometimes all it takes is some encouragement to get the wheels moving again. In the meantime here’s another clip from RTE’s 1986 music show ‘Visual Eyes‘, featuring some well known faces as they appeared 25 years ago.

Azure Days (Visual Eyes)

Azure Days appeared on ‘Visual Eyes’ in 1986 performing ‘Back Down To Justice’.