I need your help, pop-pickers!
I’ve given myself the rather pleasant task of creating a playlist of music from Northern Ireland for use in the foyer of Biograf Reflexen here in Kärrtorp on Tuesday evening when we screen KNEECAP. If you don’t know it, it’s the unlikely but true story of the hip hop trio from Belfast who became champions of the Irish language. It stars the members of the band playing themselves.
Has anyone here seen it??
Anyway, I’m interested in finding as broad a range of NI music as possible: folk, jazz, reggae, brass band, opera, skiffle, dance-band, choral….
Mark Kermode was impressed by the film: “As befits the story at its core, the film it’s a rockus, it’s unruly, it’s endearingly shambolic… In the great pantheon of pop biopics, I think this is one of the most distinctive offerings.”
Believe it or not, this not the first film in Irish Gaelic that Reflexen has screened. A while back we had THE QÚIET GIRL When I presented that wonderful film to the audience, I asked if there were any Irish Gaelic speakers in the audience. To my delight, there was one guy who had studied it at school!!
Anyway, in celebration of the renaissance of the Irish Gaelic, I have decided to give away free tickets to the screening of KNEECAP to every Irish Gaelic speaker who turns up at Reflexen. What an opportunity! I’m expecting a very long queue.
I don’t want to be pessimistic but I expect I won’t be giving many tickets away!
One problem I’ve been fretting about is: what should I do if the wonderful Julie Fowlis turns up at Bio Reflexen? Scottish Gaelic is her native language. But should I give her a free cinema ticket??
What a difficult decision! Maybe, if I gave her a free ticket for Godzilla Minus One next week, she’d be happy?
Kaisfatdad says
Thus is what they sound like.
Max the Dog says
To be honest, KFD, I’ve avoided them. I could be wrong about them and I could be missing out on the greatest Irish cultural event of the year but I instinctively recoil from the connotations of their name and the balaclava logo. I may have got the wrong end of the stick but I don’t think they’re for me…
BTW one of the stars of the film lives around the corner from me. I haven’t seen her but I was told she bought a house there.
Kaisfatdad says
I can understand your reluctance @MaxtheDog. If I’d come at the film cold, I might not have been so keen.
But a friend in the UK, who is always giving me great music and film tips, was vey enthusiastic about the film. And once Reflexen had booked the film, I looked at the reviews and they were very positive,
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kneecap
There are certainly lots of very enthusiastic young people at their gigs.
A bit rowdy for DuCool and me!
Sewer Robot says
I’ve seen the film and it’s very energetic and vibrant and, on the big cinema speakers, the soundtrack carries a lot of force, even if you’re not that impressed by the songs. The performances from the guys in the band are excellent: there are a lot of gags which require decent comic timing and they pull them off like naturals. Like Max, I would have gone in to the film with my guard up (starting with the name of the band ffs) and there are parts I wasn’t that comfortable with (although the tricolour balaclava is somewhat skated past as, in the movie, the story goes that the dude didn’t want people knowing he was in the band and that was what came to hand). In the cinema there were bits I winced at that others were laughing at.
It’s the origin story of a band, so it does hit a lot of familiar beats, but the energy and wit sweeps you along.
With regard to the Irish language, it’s interesting how different the Northern accent/ pronunciation is to the version of Irish I grew up learning.
And everyone I’ve spoken to about it (and everyone seems to have seen it) thought it was fantastic so I expect it will be a big success for your cinema.
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks for an excellent review, @Sewer Robot.
It’s certainly unusual for a band to be playing themselves. Makes me think of A Hard Day’s Night.
I suspect I will enjoy it.
Fascinating comment about the Northern Irish accent being different.
thecheshirecat says
You’ll be needing some Jarlath Henderson then.
Then you’ll be needing some more Jarlath Henderson
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks for Jarlath @thecheshirecat. Very agreeable. He reminds me of Alasdair Roberts and that’s a very good thing. I’d have probably missed him as he is now based in Scotland.
It’s not so easy to find modern folk music from N Ireland. All suggestions appreciated!
Jaygee says
Interested in seeing the film and will do so when it streams somewhere – as it surely will.
Wonder if the fact that Kneecap’s members are too young (23, 29 and 33) to have lived through or remember the Troubles is a factor in the band’s potentially contentious name and image.
Leedsboy says
I think there is something in that age point. I suspect it is very difficult for people in their 50s, 60s and 70s to approach the troubles from the art side.
My son saw Kneecap at Reading this year. He was convinced that they were the worst act he saw over the weekend. He doesn’t remember the troubles so was probably approaching it just as art.
Max the Dog says
Absolutely, LB / J. My daughters don’t have the baggage I have and they have all seen the film and like it (afaik). Ironically, one of them is going out with a nice young fellow from Belfast who comes from a more unionist tradition. From what I gather, he has no great issue with Kneecap, so…what do I know?
Jaygee says
Perhaps we could start a politically correct tribute band called Taking the Kneecap
Leedsboy says
Very good. We could do Woke Till Brooklyn??
hubert rawlinson says
Fronted by Pat and Ella.
mikethep says
I can’t believe we’ve got this far down and nobody has sounded the Colin H klaxon.
Kaisfatdad says
I’ve started a playlist @mikethep. And of course Colin is on it!
But I’m sure one track is not enough!
Colin H says
Colin H is in an airport queue and looks forward to replying later…
Kaisfatdad says
Please take your time @Colin_H. No hurry!!
A chat with you is always something to look forward to.
I’ve been enjoying piecing together bits and pieces about the NI music scene.
Kaisfatdad says
I’m making all kinds of new discoveries. Like TPM here.
Another hip hop trio but they don’t go for the standard hip hop togs. The lyrics of this one are right on the money. (So to speak!)
They look like the young blokes next door and remind me of Goldie Lookin’ Chain.
gogsmunro says
This is the two brothers from The Mary Wallopers in an earlier guise.
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks @gogsmunro. I had no idea. And would never have guessed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mary_Wallopers
“The Hendy brothers also perform as TPM, a comedy rap duo that are explicitly political, and like The Mary Wallopers, are anti-capitalist. “TPM” is shorthand for “Taxpayer’s Money”.[11] TPM rose to prominence in 2015 following the viral sharing of a recording of their first song, “All the Boys on the Dole”.”
The Hendy Brothers are not only very red. They are also very well-read.
https://www.rte.ie/culture/2021/0311/1201646-something-for-the-weekend-the-mary-wallopers-cultural-picks/
retropath2 says
Um, isn’t Sir George Ivan from N’Orn……?
Kaisfatdad says
Your comment led me to this amazing anecdote…
https://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/exhibits/show/rock/morrison
“One more fascinating note concerning Them: As part of the British invasion and hoping to build on the success of their singles in the United States, Van Morrison and his bandmates descended on America for a short tour in May and June of 1966. The highlight of this excursion definitely occurred at the mythic Whiskey-a-Go-Go in Los Angeles when in the last week of a residency at the club Them took on the Doors as a supporting act. Jim Morrison, according to John Densmore (the drummer for the Doors) in his book Riders on the Storm, aped his counterpart’s stagecraft, assuming an “air of subdued menace” for effect on more than a few occasions. On the final night, the two Morrisons got their bands together and led a spirited jam session that peaked with an extended version of “Gloria.”
Almost too good to be true!
Jaygee says
The first time I ever saw VTM was at Knebworth in 1974 and I distinctly remember the guy behind me telling the girl next to him that Van had previously sang with The Doors
salwarpe says
I thought his first name was Sterling, and he used to be in a band with John Cage, Lou Rawls and Tucker Jenkins.
Max the Dog says
Can we have something from the less angry end of the musical spectrum?
Cara Dillon’s 2024 album will most likely feature in the top half of my end-of-year. Here’s a typical track…
Kaisfatdad says
Songs “from the less angry end of the musical spectrum”?
Yes please! I’m all for that. Cara was an excellent choice.
Talking of which, I included Madame George on my Kneecap Bio Reflexen playlist. It’s been a pleasure combining that with some of the more modern, rowdy stuff.
I suddenly realised that I had no idea who Madame George was. So I Googled and discovered that even Van the Man doesn’t who this mysterious person was.
But I did discover a little more about the recording session:
“Astral Weeks was recorded over three sessions, with its eight songs ultimately drawn from two of the three: the first, taking place on the evening of 25 September; and the last, on the evening of 15 October. The middle session, on 1 October, took place in the morning, and according to the musicians involved this failed to provide the right atmosphere for the music with which they were engaged. There is a palpable sense of the evening through Astral Weeks, an impression of a fading outer light consummate with an intensifying inner desire. The musicians that the recordings brought together were talented and experienced: the two most prominent, double-bassist Richard Davis and guitarist Jay Berliner, having previously worked on two of the greatest jazz albums of all time, Davis on Eric Dolphy’s 1964 album, Out to ” Lunch!, Berliner on Charles Mingus’ 1963 record, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.
https://culturedarm.com/madame-george-and-guerlains-shalimar-a-portal-to-perfumery/
I am more than happy to be left uncertain.
Another quote from that article:
“As it appears on Astral Weeks, the song is a ten-minute reflection, a monologue in which the speaker recalls tenderly a scene from his youth, an ambiguous corner-bound figure, and their physical passing but emotional and metaphysical remains. The speaker pulls the scene apart and places it together piece by piece, talking himself explicitly through his recollection, softly remembering ‘That’s when you fall’, and the moment ‘You know you gotta go / On a train from Dublin up to Sandy Row / Throwing pennies at the bridges down below / In the rain, hail, sleet and snow’. The music critic Lester Bangs, in a beautiful piece of writing published in 1979, refers to the title character of the song as a ‘lovelorn drag queen’, and this seems indisputable from the song’s lyrics and gestures, though some have read ‘George’ as a reference to heroin. What follows are the song’s opening lines:
‘Down on Cyprus Avenue
With a childlike vision slipping into view
The click and clacking of the high-heeled shoe
Ford and Fitzroy Madame George
Marching with the soldier boy behind
He’s much older now with hat on drinking wine
And that smell of sweet perfume comes drifting through
The cool night air like Shalimar’
Gary says
As part of my research for this comment I discovered that Val Doonican was born in Ireland, not Northern Ireland.
Max the Dog says
Yes, Waterford if memory serves, same as Gilbert O’Sullivan
Jaygee says
@Gary
@Max-the-Dog
AKA Val le Mal
The unfortunate nickname he earned himself after turning for a French TV show in the early 1970s with a nasty head cold that ended up infecting half the production team
Twang says
I’m going to see the film next week at the local film club but I’m cautious – I find most rap very tedious though there are gems so we’ll see.
Kaisfatdad says
It will be interesting to compare notes, @Twang.
It struck me that the director and writer of the film, Rich Peppiatt, was probably the driving force behind the project. I was right. And what’s more , he’s an Englishman. Unexpected!
This Filmhounds interview is interesting.
https://filmhounds.co.uk/2024/08/kneecap-interview/
“They were certainly part of it since day one. I went to one of their gigs and kind of just felt there was something special about them and their story, and the impact they were having on the Irish-speaking community in Belfast. I’d moved to the north of Ireland a few weeks before I met them and I was very much on the lookout for a story to get my teeth into and it was right there in front of me.
I used to be a journalist and I think that once you’ve got that nose for a story it doesn’t really go away. There was something really interesting about what they were doing on a grassroots level, compared to this political stasis that was happening at Stormont. Recognition of the Irish language was just not happening and they stood as this energetic, loud, controversial force who were pushing for it.”
Mixing professionals and amateurs was not without its problems!
“I did also hear that there was quite a bit of method acting?
Actually Michael Fassbender made that worse. It was a real coup to get him in the film, but when he turned up he was already a big fan of Kneecap. The problem is that when you get them in a room together and there’s a bar in that room, their drinking just carries on to all hours. There was a couple of occasions when we were staying at hotels and it’d get to 2 o’clock in the morning, they’d all be singing and drinking and I’d be like “Off to bed, shall we?” But they’d just tell me to shut the fuck up ‘cause they’re method actors and they should still be a bit drunk when they’re filming. There are certainly a lot of scenes in the film where they’re still off their faces but I think they get away with it.”
Jaygee says
Another great Irish record
Sewer Robot says
Monster record, but not Norn Iron though, are they?
KFD could redress the dance balance by including Bicep
and the mighty David Holmes, the man most responsible for getting Elvis his 18th number one when he included the original version of A Little Less Conversation on his Ocean’s Eleven soundtrack..
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks for reminding me what a wonderful song that is, @Jaygee.
Or should I saý @Geegee?
Here’s a little Bandit Background..
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/jan/16/the-rubberbandits
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks for Bicep and David Holmes @Sewer Robot. Two excellent additions to my playlist.
I can now report that the screening of Kneecap at Bio Reflexen this evening went very well.
My playlist of NI artists went down very well in the foyer,
We got 28 paying visitors which was a little disappointing.
But on the plus side, it was a very varied audience in terms of both age and nationality. From a trio of teenage girls to some enthusiastic pensioners.
The first person who came through the door couldn’t speak Swedish. She and her friend were from Ireland and they both spoke Gaelic! I was really chuffed about that!
And then there was a Welshman from Rhyll with his family. My Scottish friend William. And me!
Best of all, I think the audience really enjoyed the film. I certainly did. It is a ridiculous, rumbustious romp of a movie with a preposterous plot, a lot of laughs, lashings of sex and a ridiculous quantity of drugs. And a lot of braggadocio.
Social realism, it is not.
If the band breaks up, all three of them should do very well as actors.
chilli ray virus says
I saw Kneecap a few weeks ago in a virtually empty cinema. I thought it was very funny and very entertaining, and thats coming from an Englishman who doesnt like rap and isnt over keen on Irish republicans tbh. The film is very much based on today’s Ireland and really makes fun of the old Republicans who have lost their raison d’etre, rather than banging on about sectarianism. One of the main characters is in love with a Unionist and they both get off (quite explicitly) on their differences. Most of all, among the sex, drugs, rap and laughs, the film makes is making important points about the preservation of culture and language. Its really great.
Kaisfatdad says
Great comment @chilli ray virus. You sum up very well what I thought about the film.
I can imagine that some people might not enjoy it, but it grabbed me from the start and had me laughing all the way though. A picaresque romp that aimed to entertain.
Bamber says
From when I first heard of them I figured their name was more of a reference to the classic bilingual joke (see below) than the actual practice of kneecapping. As part of my training for working with young offenders, i used to trek up to Belfast once a month to learn from an expert his approach to understanding the mentality of offenders. This was in the early 00s. For one session, we had the opportunity to ask a former Loyalist killer anything we wanted to by way of working on our skills and using a timeline exercise. It was fascinating. Anyway, recalling the normal practice around kneecapping, he said that the prospective victim would be approached and advised to make sure they were wearing clean underwear as they would be in hospital later. I believe cattle bolt guns were used as they were relatively silent. Anyway, here’s the joke…
Irish language: “an gceapainn tú go bhfuil an fear sin san UDA?” “Ní cheapim?”
Phonetically: On gyapin too gu will on farr shin san UDA? Nee cyapim
Translation: Do you think that man is in the UDA? I do not think so.
The Irish for I do not think so sounds like “kneecap him”, therein lying the gallows humour.
That was certainly a well known joke south of the border during the troubles. I have little doubt that it originated in the Irish speaking community North of the border.
Kaisfatdad says
What a fascinating comment, @Bamber.
I presume you are a Gaelic speaker or at last have a working knowledge of the language.
Gallows humour in Gaelic! The Afterword really dares to go where other blogsites do not dare to venture!
Bamber says
I was fairly fluent in my teens but lived away in London in my 20s so I’ve lost most of it. I know enough to help my kids with their homework and I can follow it if it’s spoken slowly.
I owed my good Irish to 5 summers spent in the Galway Gaeltacht as a teen. Some of the happiest times of my life. Our school gave scholarships to subsidise the cost to encourage kids from less well off families to go. For me it was a cheap holiday and a great opportunity to meet posh girls. I’m still in touch with friends I made there 40 years on. The summer school I attended had a rigid rule that if you spoke one sentence of English, you were sent home in disgrace. I broke lots of rules there but not that one.
Kaisfatdad says
“A great opportunity to meet posh girls”!
And there I was thinking it was your linguistic aspirations that motivated you,@Bamber!
It all sounds like a movie just waiting to be made! or a novel waiting to be written.
I just discovered this blogspot written by one of those posh girls.
https://runninghalfempty.blog/2018/04/02/the-gaeltacht/
She describes it all in some detail. An interesting read. Th whole scheme was (hopefully still is) a brilliant way to boost language competence.
Here’s a clip in Gaelic from 1969
And another from 1986.
It’s all a far cry from the drugged up, highly sexed world of Kneecap.
Bamber says
Lovely article @kaisfatdad there certainly is a book or film in it – the time I led a bunch of kids miles across a dangerous bog and it was like the African Queen holding the smallest ones up as they sank in water up to their chests with the teachers waiting for us at the other side, demolishing an ancient dry stone wall to damn up a stream to make a pool on a hot day and compounding the trouble by throwing the girls from the house up the road into it, hitching a lift with some English tourists and refusing to speak English to them while trying to explain to them that they were 8n Kinvara in Galway not Kinvara in Clare which was where they were supposed to be. Crazy times. I think I got most of my teenage rebellion and wildness out of my system in those Connemara summers.
Kaisfatdad says
What stories you have to tell, @Bamber! Thanks for sharing!
There’s definitely a film to be made. But I’m not sure if it will be a breezy, light-hearted romp or a terrifying horror film about kids getting lost in the spooky bog! Or both at the same time??
I am very interested to know even more about this whole language summer school phenomenon and its history. But not as a footnote. I feel a new thread coming on!!
As a teaser, here’s a clip from a Pan-Gaelic TV program, Port
“Julie Fowlis (Isle of North Uist, West of Scotland) and Muireann NicAmhlaoibh (Aran Islands, West of Ireland) visit Brittany, accompanied by Mischa MacPherson and Laoise Kelly, to meet some musical friends.”
ivan says
hah I can’t remember the one i was at where the well heeled lad who clearly didn’t have the benefit of much of the lingo and who, not wanting to be sent home *just* yet, let a yell out of him on the beach one day
“TÁ MO FUCKIN’ SPEEDOS NICKED”
Colin H says
When someone on the AW asks to populate a Northern Ireland music playlist, I suddenly see hours of my time going into writing posts and posting YouTube clips and explaining history… I’ve been away today (visiting a legend in Edinburgh towards a box set, all being well).
There’ll be more tomorrow but here’s a few names from the early days for you, Fatz. I’m sure Google will help with the backgrounds…
50s chart sensation Ruby Murray (5 singles in the Top 10 at one time):
50s crooner, later new-age politician, Ronnie Carroll (in 1968):
‘Red Sails in the Sunset’ (written in the 30s by prolific NI hit songwriter Jimmy Kennedy, recorded here by Fats Domino in 1963):
Another of Jimmy’s enduring classics, ‘Okey Cokey’, recorded here by Slade (1979):
60s light entertainment regular and future UK Eurovision star Clodagh Rodgers, seen here in 1963:
The Wheels in 1965, with a John Lee Hooker number, one of several NI R&B bands who recorded around the same time as Them and played the Maritime hotel scene (before relocating to Blackpool):
Demick & Armstrong (an NI duo, both of whom were in the Wheels), with the blistering title track of their 1971 album ‘Little Willie Ramble’ – the year that, uniquely, by chance,m a load of NI artists played the National Jazz, Blues & Pop (Reading) Festival:
(Half) NI psych rock – Truth, featuring refugees from (post-Van) Them: Ken McDowell (vocal), Jim Armstrong (lead guitar) – Them had moved to the US West Coast in 1968, recorded two LPs them split, with these two (who went on to become stalwarts of the slender pub rock scene that endured in Belfast during the Troubles at The Pound club) forming Truth in 1969/70 and recording an unreleased (at the time) album. Jim much later retired (from NI back) to San Francisco, I believe; Ken, amazingly, still performs blues in Belfast to a cult following:
Another of those NI acts that played proto-Reading ’71, Stud, featuring ‘the other two’ from Rory Gallagher’s Taste (split October 1970), which was itself really an NI band (Rory lived/played in NI for a year prior) that relocated to London in early ’68:
And another – the prolific Andwella (formerly Andwella’s Dream) in 1970. Main man Dave Lewis later wrote a global smash for Demis Roussos:
NI prog – Fruupp in 1974 (four albums on Dawn):
More (partly) NI prog – Horslips fronted by Ulsterman Barry Devlin, 1974:
Kaisfatdad says
I am gobsmacked, @Colin_H. Thankyou for being so very generous with your time and your quite extraordinary knowledge.
Oddly enough, I was thinking about the Belfast music scene in the 1960s and wondering about the local scene that Them had emerged from. Now I have a little more background.
And of course who could not be fascinated in the story of how bluesy rocker George Ivan became the astral wunderkind Van Morrison.
The mythical Belfast of Astral Weeks continues to enchant listeners throughout the globe.
I’m looking forward to following up on the leads you’ have given us.
Colin H says
Excellent!
Colin H says
Here’s a 1994 Radio Ulster doc on the mid-60s Maritime Hotel scene in Belfast, made by my pal Owen McFadden – who was himself a member of Belfast punk/power pop act Protex (who recorded for RCA in the late 70s, a version of which is still going today).
Kaisfatdad says
Wonderful stuff. Thanks a lot, Colin.
Protex are already on my playlist, thanks to another friend’s tip.
All these jigsaw pieces are coming together!
Kaisfatdad says
That radio doc is very illuminating.
I now know that Van’s dad, George Morrison, was a real blues enthusiast and probably had the best blues record collection in town.
https://startsat60.com/media/opinion/i-watched-van-morrison-go-from-humble-belfast-boy-to-global-star
“George Morrison was an older electrician in the yard, who was a blues fanatic with a great record collection. These records were hard to come by but George would get them from the sailors on US ships that came in to Belfast for repairs. “
Jaygee says
Amazed no one has mentioned Stiff Little Fingers yet…
Rigid Digit says
When SLF take over Custom House Square in Belfast, as they have each August for the past few years, this track is introduced “Ladies and Gentlemen, please be upstanding for the National Anthem”
thecheshirecat says
Now Daoiri and Donal are not from Northern Ireland, but the Creggan White Hare most definitely is, still roaming wild and free in County Tyrone.
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks Cheshire! This thread is doing wonders for my geographical knowledge. I now know where Creggan is!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creggan,_County_Tyrone
Not to mention Carrickfergus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrickfergus
or indeed Banbridge Town in the County Down
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banbridge
What a superb song that is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creggan_White_Hare
And it’s a great version too. I’m very glad you posted it.
Someone we ought to mention is Derek Bell.
Jaygee says
Wonder if that comes from his wonderfully entitled “Derek Bell Plays With Himself” album
Kaisfatdad says
I’ve been listening to a Derek Bell album this morning on Spotify. Gorgeously sumptuous stuff.
That led me to ITMA and this French lady who is working on a rather interesting project
“Hi everybody/Dia Dhaoibh! My name is Gwendoline Lemaitre, I am currently doing an internship at ITMA, working mainly on the Irish music manuscripts in the Derek Bell Collection.”
https://www.itma.ie/blog/derek-bells-receipt-discovering-the-composer-behind-the-mystic-harp/#close
The photos of all the manuscripts she is working on are quite something.
A very idiosyncratic workplace!
“What I love about this work is that you never quite know what you are going to find from one day to the next. Sometimes it’s film scores, other times it is untitled fragments of tunes which I can’t identify (in these cases I get help from Seán Potts on the third floor, he identifies the tune by playing it on his tin whistle – yes, this is the first time I’ve seen the tin whistle considered an essential piece of office equipment, and I completely love that!).”
Mike_H says
Let us not forget the great Ottilie Patterson.
Colin H says
Indeed. Britain’s first female blues singer – from Comber, NI.
Kaisfatdad says
Nice one @MIke_H. I’d never heard of Ottilie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottilie_Patterson
A real star of the County Down!
Here she is singing the theme from a 1964 horror film, Where has poor Mickie gone? Giving it some serious welly!
It starred Warren Mitchell as Emilio, a fairground magician.
Jaygee says
Saw the movie on Talking Pictures a few months back. Up there with the best of Ed Wood
Colin H says
There are 101 artists from the punk era onwards I could mention, but before all that, the three recent albums by County Down ‘cosmic folk’ enigma Bróna McVittie reward the investment of listening – there’s no wham bam single track but the albums as a whole are immersive experiences.
Colin H says
More on Bró here: https://theafterword.co.uk/brona-mcvittie/
Colin H says
Another 60s curio – The (Them…) Belfast Gypsies. An LP released in Denmark in 1967. Two ex Them members (Jackie & Pat McAuley) and others hoodwinked into a Them cash-in (they didn’t know THEM would be on the cover, IIRC). But they did know this was a ‘Gloria’ rip-off:
Jackie McAuley went on to found Trader Horne (one LP) then a solo LP on Dawn (1971), from which this gem comes. Then much else to the present day…
Kaisfatdad says
What was the track from Dawn, @Colin_H? It comes up as Unavailable here in Sweden.
The penny just dropped that Trader Horne was with Judy Dyble. the original singer of the Fairports. Quite a supergroup! Here’s Judy telling the story of life on the road with the band.
Here (thanks to you, Colin!) is something very exclusive: Trader Horne Mk 2.
Colin H says
It was Jackie McAuley’s ‘Me & Country Joe’ – try this link, at 9:38 in.
Colin H says
‘My era’ for NI music was the mid 90s – I wrote about it for Irish newspapers and created two compilations of specially staged live recordings around two venues, The Warehouse and The Empire, in 1995 and ’96. May from that era are my friends and I’ve recorded with many of them as ‘The Legends of Tomorrow’.
Several of the key people are still active in playing/recording themselves – it’s all local hero level, so I wouldn’t expect anyone to know the names.
Here are but a few…
The mighty STONEFISH – whose three EPs from the 90s (brought together on digital recently as ‘The Works’) are, in my view, the best NI album of the 90s. Lead guitarist/vocalist Norman Boyd is a regular CH collaborator:
The Minnows – the mid-Ulster Beatles and the Blue Nile of NI, in that they leave huge gaps between albums and live shows. They played three fabulous shows in NI in 2023 in support of the fabulous ‘Californian Poppy’ album… released a year before and the first in ages. This is a stunning (slow burn) track:
Paul Archer from Belfast 1990s psych/rock club favourites Disreali Gears – a total music lifer. I’m helping towards a new album at present – his best yet, in my view. It will be his first in 6 years – and his first under his own name. He had 10-12 years and several albums under the Burning Codes name – the last version of the band being ‘the East Anglia Codes’ (Paul returned to NI in 2018 for family reasons, then lockdown etc.). This track from 2018’s ‘Liberator’ features Paul’s brother Iain on lead guitar/production – Iain (also from NI) has been nominated for a couple of Ivor Novellos for co-writes with pop people. Jimmy Kennedy (see abopve…) won two Ivors for NI decades before…
Colin H says
NI mid-90s band Therapy? were doubtless unaware of early 70s NI band Therapy (one major label LP and a couple of very successful – one sold 10,000, which a major label would be delirious with these days – own-label releases:
Therapy in 1971:
Therapy? covering ‘Gloria’ during lockdown for an online Van tribute series:
Kaisfatdad says
A Tale of Two Therapies! The stuff you know, Colin!
Here’s a little more about the folky one.
https://jazzrocksoul.com/artists/therapy/
Dave Shannon could certainly play!
A radio session
An obituary for the guitarist Dave Shannon, full of anecdotes.
https://www.salutlive.com/2013/03/dave-shannon-rip.html
Colin H says
Sublime Derry Celtic Soul man Paul Casey rounded up a load of ex-Van band players plus ‘Godfather of Belfast punk’ Tezza Hooza and several NI BBC / RTE presenters for this version of Van’s ‘In the Days Before Rock ‘n’ Roll’ for Hot Press’ lockdown Van-a-thon. Paul has an extensive catalogue of his own music.
Freddy Steady says
@colin-h I just know you’re about to post something about the magnificent Cactus World News…
Colin H says
Were they NI? News to me if so. Wasn’t one of them related to Eamonn Andrews? A sort of Poundshop U2 for about 5 minutes, were they not?
Kaisfatdad says
“A sort of Poundshop U2 for about 5 minutes.” You are a wag, Colin!
Now that’s what I call a putdown!!
Kaisfatdad says
A new name for me, @Freddy Steady. And I’m glad yu’ve put them on the map for me
Magnificent? Yes.
NI? Don’t think so. Weren’t they a Dublin band?
fentonsteve says
I saw Cactus World News supporting The Cult in ’85/86 and bought their LP off the back of it. That single, and the follow-up, were all over daytime Radio 1, but stalled at number 58. They were from Dublin, though.
One of them went on to play in a C21 lineup of The Church. I suppose every guitarist eventually gets to play in either The Church or The Blue Aeroplanes, it’s like doing National Service.
Mike_H says
Interview segment: Oscar Peterson in Belfast, 1964.
https://digitalfilmarchive.net/media/oscar-peterson-in-belfast-3109
Kaisfatdad says
Sadly that clip is not available here in Sweden, @Mike_H,
But you inspired me to watch some other Oscar Peterson clips that are.
Here’s a very topical tune.
Colin H says
I never knew these chaps, from Derry, but I recall being knocked out by their ‘Anger From the Base Up’ EP in 1995, including this.
Colin H says
Here are 20 or so rabbit holes for you to go down if you wish, Fatz – the compressed cassette edition (master DAT) of one of those multi-artist live albums I mentioned, the 2CD ‘Alive in Belfast: The Warehouse Sessions’ (1995). Full details of the acts in the YouTube description plus pics & booklet blurb in the video itself for each track. A snapshot of the fabulous Belfast bar scene of that era – future stars herein include Cara Dillon (Oige), Foy Vance and Linley Hamilton (Soul Truth) and a Snow Patrol drummer (recently retired) (New Brontes & Disreali Gears).
Some of the artists here will have material in the digital realm, others will not.
Colin H says
Some would have you believe nothing happened in NI except the ‘Good Vibes’ punk scene in the 78-82 era. Well, it makes for a neat story… 😀
Here are three Good Vibes (era) acts that have revived in the past 10-15 years… and Rudi (who haven’t, though main man Brian Young will occasionally play a Rudi live set as ‘Shame Academy’ with Outcasts’ Greg Cowan on bass and Petesy Burns on drums.
Shock Treatment ‘Belfast Telegraph’ (2024 remake of their 1981 45):
The Outcasts ‘Self Conscious Over You’ at the Ulster Hall in 1980:
Protex in 2023 (with Stonefish legend Norman Boyd on second guitar – which is a bit like having Jimi Hendrix in your band and having him play maracas):
Rudi, ‘The Pressures On’ on national TV 1980. What’s the betting The Cult remembered this a few years later?
Colin H says
RUDI supremo Brian Young has been a hard core rockabilly revivalist since the 80s, with his band the Sabrejets. Many albums out there. Here they are in a CH (borrowed) phone clip live at a bandstand in Bangor in 2021, with some interesting local characters…
Kaisfatdad says
The Sabrejets sound very promising!
Colin H says
West Belfast Celtic Soul man / former punk Joby Fox – once in Energy Orchard, which had some national releases in the 80s – has been making quietly sensational recordings of late. His 2023 album ‘I Once Was A Hawk, Now I’m A Dove’ is essential! What’s more Fatz, HE LIVES IN SCANDINAVIA! (Denmark) Book him round your way for a gig some time. 🙂
Here he is with some Danish collaborators performing recent album track ‘This World Is Crazy’:
Kaisfatdad says
I really enjoyed that clip and was very impressed both by Joby and his Danish band.
I’m surprised he’s never been booked for the Roskilde Festival.
The piano player is Nikolaj Svaneborg who is a great favourite of @DuCo01!
He plays together with percussionist Jonas Kardyb: a duo I strongly recommend you all to listen to.
I Googled. Joby was the bass player in the rather excellent Energy Orchard.
He also wrote their big hit Belfast.
fentonsteve says
Energy Orchard’s singer was, famously, Bap Kennedy (brother of Brian). They were also, less famously, the first band I did sound for at university. The Belfast single and debut album took an eternity (getting on for 18 months) to come out, by which time most had forgotten about them.
Colin H says
My old pal Joan McEldowney, from Maghera (mid-Ulster), is a bit of a lost great. She fronted Osmosis in 1997 (one live TV spot and a handful of demos – all online courtesy CH – but many gigs – including one I first met my subsequent wife at) then released ‘King Winter’ in 2004, hiring an a man she saw in a bar as the Norman knight in the video – and then married him. She lives in Dubai these days and has a terrific, luxuriantly produced album in ‘King Winter’ vein that she seems to just be sitting on for reasons I don’t get. Two tracks from it released on YT in the past year.
Kaisfatdad says
I understand your confusion, Colin. The music biz works in very odd ways,
Here is a short set by Joan so that we can really get a taste of her music.
Colin H says
A trio of very active touring (to the extent that’s realistically viable these days) / recording current singer-songwriters from NI:
Anthony Toner, with his stunning John Prine-esque ‘An Alphabet’, live in Scotland recently:
Brigid O’Neill, one of her best – ‘Pilot’s Weather’:
The occasionally extraordinary Joshua Burnside (Belfast) with the equally brilliant Dubliner Laura Quirke (a member of Lemoncello) during lockdown with a film of all four songs on their joint EP. As great as it all is, I recommend going straight to 6:15 for Joshua’s ‘Far Away The Hills Are Green’:
Colin H says
Joshua Burnside wove similar magic with more or less the same four chords and a soaring melody on ‘Noa Mercier’, an impressionistic memoir of a 19th century Irish giant:
Kaisfatdad says
I see what you man about Pilot’s Weather, Colin. What an exquisite song! And what a great singer.
I found this interview. Brigid got the chance to go to record in Nashville thanks to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland ! Money very well spent!
https://culturecrushniblog.com/2023/05/19/interview-with-singer-songwriter-brigid-oneill-on-her-new-lp-writing-and-recording-in-music-city/
Let’s have another song from Brigid.
Colin H says
Brigid is a talent but she does rather go on about Nashville! Unfortunately, it’s twinned with Belfast (really…) – and I feel that a lot of NI artists waste their time (often with public money) going over and ‘co-writing’ with people who once co-wrote with people who once co-wrote with people who once had a hit with someone in a hat. Personally, I feel they’d all be better off staying at home and creating genuinely original work with no formulas. And Brij has the talent to do that if she wishes.
Nashville is full of shelf-stackers and painter/decorators who once owned guitars…
Colin H says
Here’s my own favourite Brigid song, which owns nothing to Nashville – ‘Midweek Magic Club’:
Colin H says
Soul man in excelsis – Bangor man Foy Vance with one of his best, ‘Ziggy Looked Me in the Eye’:
Kaisfatdad says
Here’s Foy with a banger from Bangor.
I liked this YT comment
“I use to go to Bangor town as a child , when things got bad in Belfast my mum use to take us to Bangor for the day at the beach it was a happy place, our minds may be tethered but our hearts are wild.”
Bangor is a very ancient city.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangor,_County_Down
In Victorian times, it was a popular seaside resort.
Wales or Northern Ireland? It’s easy to get your Bangors in a twist1
A” town in one country and a similar named town in another country are highly unlikely to have names that mean the same thing. So, a name like Bangor in NI is pretty much like every other place-name in Ireland as it is a transliteration from Irish into an anglicised version; The name Bangor is derived from the Irish word Beannchor (modern Irish Beannchar) meaning a horned or peaked curve as the shape of Bangor Bay resembles the horns of a bull – from Beann meaning point, peak, prong, antler or horn. Banagher (Beannchar na Sionna in Irish) which is a town in Republic of Ireland, on the River Shannon has a name which translates to English as “the place of the pointed rocks on the Shannon”. So you can see from these examples how two towns with the same root names in Irish are transliterated differently into their anglicised forms but have similar or related meanings in Irish. Bangor in Wales is the actual modern Welsh word derived from the ancient Welsh word bancor which means a wattle enclosure for animals. The fact that a wattle enclosure involves a curve and a peak or a horn might also involve a curve is interesting. Welsh and Irish are both Celtic languages but are very distant cousins of each other. Welsh and Breton are much more closely related and Irish and Scots Gaelic are even more similar as Scots Gaelic arrived in Scotland in the 6th century onward through invasions of western Scotland by Irish tribes from the east and north-east of Ireland. Now you’ll just have to research Bangor in the US to see if it has been called after the Irish Bangor or the Welsh Bangor!”
Colin H says
The key thing you – indeed, everyone who lives somewhere other than NI and who speaks English – need to know about Bangor, NI is that it’s pronounced BANG-GOR. The one in Wales is seemingly pronounced BANGER.
pencilsqueezer says
Well English speakers will pronounce Bangor, Gwynedd, Cymru BANGER but some Welsh speakers will pronounce it BANG-GOR and roll the R while making sure that the G is clearly heard. Both are correct. I’ve heard it pronounced both ways by Welsh speakers. It’s a confusing language even for the Welsh on occasion.
Kaisfatdad says
We can’t talk about Bangor and music without mentioning Bangor, Maine and this man.
“In the colonial era, the talented composer, singer and compiler of tune books, Supply Belcher (1751–1836), a Maine resident, was known in his time as “the Handel of Maine”. Belcher organized the first choir in Maine.”
thecheshirecat says
Poor old Beoga. They never really did live down that collaboration. They’re still jolly good.
(Ed Sheeran not included)
Kaisfatdad says
A new name for me. I think Beoga are a real find, @thecheshirecat.
They’ve got a nice sense of humour too, There’s a great playlist on Spotify “I prefer their early stuff”
thecheshirecat says
I saw them at Cambridge in 2008 and again in 2017. They tell us that Beoga translates as ‘lively’ and they are, but the lynchpin is the shy and retiring box player. His name is Sean og Graham, which he shares happily with my niece’s husband.
Colin H says
I think you’re mistaken, Chesh – there’s a tremendous NI trad guitarist with that name – I doubt there are two. Seems he plays in Beoga – though I know him from the Ulaid, piping sensation John McSherry’s trio with he and Donal O’Connor…
thecheshirecat says
Bother. You are quite right Colin (of course you are!). I must have gleaned it wrong off some titles. The demon accordion player is Damian McKee. My nephew is still called Sean og Graham, mind. Hails from The Glens in Antrim. Definitely doesn’t play any musical instruments though.
Colin H says
I think you’ll find you’re wrong about your nephew. In fact, his name is… 😀
thecheshirecat says
😛
fentonsteve says
A question for those of us who grew up on the 1980s GB mainland. When Kneecap appear on the telly, do they have their lyrics overdubbed by an out-of-work English actor?
I heard Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, on Radio 4 last night, overdubbed by a Scouser. It made me think of Eurotrash.
Kaisfatdad says
That’s an interesting question @fentonsteve. I was browsing around and found quite a few interviews, but they were all in English. But then I found this gem from five years ago.
They look so young!
Most of the modern interviews are from the US. They’ come across quite well. And are fairly shameless about their use of recreational drugs.
Here they are introducing the North of Ireland.
Kaisfatdad says
Ooops! Here are Kneecap introducing you to the North of Ireland.
And here being interviewed by Hobo Trashcan
Colin H says
Here are a couple of careworn old stagers on the local scene in Belfast: singer/songwriter Wilf Gilbert (a powerful presence on stages and a ‘natural’, with several under the radar releases) and pub music sensation Big Ken Haddock, who’s held down residencies doing covers for 25-odd years in Belfast and Bangor, but who’s also released three albums of originals (whenever cajoled into it by well-wishing fellow musos). Last month, Ken and a band – put together by veteran grassroots impresario Nigel Martyn – played a sold-out John Martyn tribute concert. They’d be mad not to try and tour it in GB.
Wilfred:
Big Ken (with Foy Vance guesting) at that John Martyn thing recently:
Big Ken with an original:
Colin H says
Five Ulster rock classics, Fatz, from a one-off Dave McLarnon’s Hat Band performance at a CH charity do on the eve of lockdown:
1. Heart of Stone (Peacefrog)
2. Broken Land (The Adventures)
3. Belfast (Energy Orchard)
4. Big Time (Rudi)
5. Gloria (them)
Featuring Dave McLarnon (voice/guitar) from Shock Treatment & Peacefrog, Norman Boyd (lead guitar, Stonefish / Protext), Billy Shovel (guitar, Ghost of An American Airman), the one and only Ali MacKenzie (bass, Bush Turkeys / ReefRadio / Sam Davidson’s Taste / everyone / solo) and the Legendary Petesy Burns (drums, Stalag 17 / Outcasts / ARSE). All five, or course, are also Legends of Tomorrow.
Colin H says
And speaking of Ghost of An American Airman – the Simple Minds of Belfast in the late 80s, a couple of albums on a US label, but the name probably held them back.
Colin H says
The guv’nor – trumpet/flugel colossus Linley Hamilton. Recording studio montage with a track from his second last album. Linley & his wife run a fabulous venue in rural County Down in a converted farm building – attracting world-class jazzers. He’s played with everyone on the local scene – even me!
Bamber says
My brain has retrieved a few more one hit wonders from North of the border that I remember liking when they were out…
First up is Perfect Crime with Brave…
Next we have Big Self with Ghost Shirts. Very much looking to surf the Simple Minds/U2 wave…
I’m sure you all remember this one. The Adventures with Broken Land…
Now Watercress with Spacegirl…
And finally Soak with Sea Creatures…
Kaisfatdad says
I just happened to be reading an obituary of John Peel in the Belfast Chronicle this evening when I realised it was exactly 20 years that Peel passed away in Cuzco, Peru.
I could blather on for hours about what an inspiring figure he was ( and still is) for me.
Instead I’ll watch this.
Kaisfatdad says
I can’t believe we’ve come this far without mentioning Good Vibrations, the film that tells the Terri Hooley story. It was adapted for the stage and became a rather successful musical.
This scene is very amusing.
I chanced upon this interview with Terri.
https://lyrictheatre.co.uk/about-us/news/interview-with-the-godfather-of-punk
“I first met John Peel in the late 60s when I was in London trying to get funding to set up projects like the Belfast Arts Lab. He had a show on pirate radio called The Perfumed Garden, playing all the hippie music that I loved. The music he played was a big influence on me even after he moved to the BBC. During the Troubles some of the pubs that we went to had been bombed and friends had been killed on their way home, so at night time we stayed in and listened to John Peel. John and I became friends and he was a huge supporter of the label.”
Rigid Digit says
Mentioned already up ther, but Legens Of Tomorrow should be on the list
Colin H says
Why thank you, Rij.