Saved By The Bell
With Bell X1 once again nominated for a Choice Music Prize, making inroads in America and set for The Music Show, Paul Noonan talks to Craig Fitzpatrick about his delight over the election of fellow RDS guest President Michael D. Higgins, charity gigs, activism and how he has dealt with the turmoil of the past few years in song.
Craig Fitzpatrick, 02 Mar 2012
Noonan may spend most of his time mapping that landscape lyrically, investigating melodically how the highs and lows affect its people, but he’s also keen to alter it for the better. There’s that old debate over whether music can change the world in and of itself, but practical undertakings involving the art form can certainly make all the difference. Say, for example, a charity gig to help those without a roof over their heads. In the lead up to Christmas, Bell X1 put on such a show in The Olympia Theatre, not only entertaining those assembled but also sending all proceeds the way of The Capuchin Day Centre. Based in Bow Street, Dublin. The Capuchin Brothers work tirelessly to aid those less well-off, including the late, real-life protagonist of one of the band’s best-known songs, ’Rocky Took A Lover’.
“We wanted to ‘give back’, for want of a less cheesy expression. For years I lived across the road from the Capuchin Day Centre in Smithfield and saw how they worked and who they helped. And how that had changed drastically over the time I was living there from helping very obviously homeless people, drug addicts on the streets, to helping ordinary families as the situation worsened. Kids would be lining up as things went to shit.”
And then there was ‘Rocky’, whose sad story from the streets was told on a gorgeous single that sounds like a ‘Fairytale Of New York’ that never even left Dublin airport.
“He died in a doorway on a cold winter’s night,” nods Paul. “He was probably the only homeless person I’ve ever gotten to know. We would be sitting in our front-room in that house in Smithfield and he’d be sitting against the same wall on the other side. When he was our age he had a pretty functional life with children from an early age, a home and a job. There was no grand event in his life that led him to where he was. He was there by a thousand cuts. It was gradual slide. He was a total charmer when he wasn’t drinking and very interesting. Sadly, he was very aware of what had happened and where his life would probably ultimately go but he didn’t have the capacity to do anything about it. Then when he was drunk he was a total fucking nightmare, he smashed our front-window twice because we were playing music too loud.”
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