But no matter how meandering or alluring our voyage, we knew we d eventually wind up in Dublin.
Dublin s had more than her share of musical accolades. Rock n roll has always rested easy in the knowledge that this city spews out new musicians. But there s more to Dublin s music than the singular dimension of rock n roll; and there s more to Dublin herself than the geographical boundaries defined by the city fathers.
The dangers of claiming jurisdiction over Dublin are firstly that we drown in a quagmire of endless roll calls, and secondly, that the gaudy and baubled will overshadow the more subtle musical spirits of the Pale. We ll labour to avoid such pitfalls here in The Great Record, but we ll make no claim for infallibility or for having the last word.
Dublin has been immortalised in more songs than most. Like any big city, she means different things to different people, and this is reflected in the eclectic mix of songs written around and about her. One thing they all share though, is that almost all of Dublin s songs are about people s lives: what they were like or how they might have been. As the Dublin Folk Society song collectors tell us: Sometimes they celebrate the crowd-attracting activities of the city, its environs, its municipal improvements. More often they enter the personal universe of certain of its citizens, real or imagined, and tell a story about them.
So take your pick: From Raglan Road to Rocky Road to Dublin , The Rare Auld Times , Molly Malone , Biddy Mulligan , Anna Liffey , The Humours of Donnybrook Fair , Dublin Town and Summer In Dublin .
The Great Record believes in casting her net wide, trawling the depths and combing the debris for rarities, things of beauty that might escape more jaded eyes. Ronnie Drew must surely hold the original patent on all things Dublin or Dublinesque. A master of the pithy remark, Drew gathered around him a stunning array of musicians, with Luke Kelly the epitome of bare-naked folk singing at its very best. Luke stripped every last note of every song he ever inhabited bare to the bone, and then slowly dressed it up again in layers entirely of his own weaving. Kelly s talents are finally finding a new, younger audience.
Drew paved the way for a rake of, eh, rakes to stand up and stake a place for themselves in the ramshackle world of music. Brush Shiels tipped around with Skid Row, taught a young naof by the name of Phil Lynott a couple of guitar licks and then settled into a niche that s grown and grown to accommodate his Himalayan ambitions.
Thin Lizzy were the first rock n roll band from Dublin to really stretch their personal limits beyond the confines of The Baggot Inn and The TV Club. After that, a Blackrock old boy by the name of Bob Geldof unleashed himself along with the rest of The Boomtown Rats on to Top Of The Pops, and suddenly Dublin was capable of producing a real rock star.
Not long after U2 came into being.
One thing all of the above had in common was their uncanny facility for self-promotion. Long before the cosy sponsorship deals and back-scratching cartels of the third millennium, the Rats, U2, Thin Lizzy and Skid Row were garnering press attention as much for their off-stage antics as their musical pedigree. And still, behind the spotlight, Dublin cosseted a rake of local talent, some of whom promised fervently to be the Next Big Thing, some of whom lusted after the lesser glories of immortality, Liffey-style, and a handful of whom went on to better (if not bigger things) when their band bubble burst.
And so there was: (sharp intake of breath) and in no particular order:
The Radiators, Paul Cleary and The Blades, Cactus World News, In Tua Nua, Hinterland, Les Enfants, Tokyo Olympics, Light A Big Fire, Auto Da Fi, The Atrix, The Fat Lady Sings, An Emotional Fish and Something Happens, not to mention Rocky De Valera, his band, The Rhythm Kings, The Lookalikes and Stepaside (the latter memorably christened snob rock by Sam Smyth in The Sunday World!).
Something Happens coasted on the back of a highly successful career (particularly Stateside, where they toured with the likes of Warren Zevon), and had the added distinction of having Parachute voted the Best Irish Single of All Time by listeners to Mike Molony s radio show. Then of course there were The Hothouse Flowers, a virtual Molotov cocktail stirred and shaken by Liam O Maonlam.
More recent pretenders to the rock n roll throne are the indefinable, uncategorisable The Frames. With lead singer Glen Hansard carving songs out of anything and everything, they have remained at the forefront of the city s music scene for the best part of a decade.
If it were possible to sum up Dublin in a single band, that would have to be Aslan. With charismatic frontman Christy Dignam living out his drug habit and rehabilitation in full view of his audience, Aslan have weathered storms that would have sent most bands scuttling for dry land. A more recent quintessential Dub is Damien Dempsey whose Dublin Town has become an underground anthem (of sorts) for disaffected youth and closet balladeer alike.
Possibly taking some inspiration from the defiant Dr. Millar, Dempsey obstinately ignores the PR demands of the music business, favouring a no-frills, no-nonsense approach that s garnered an impressive following.
There is something else worth noting, though: amid the plethora of male-dominated collectives, a handful of women carried the torch: Gay Woods of Auto Da Fi, In Tua Nua s Leslie Dowdall, and Moving Hearts Flo McSweeney fronted formidable line-ups with a panache and style that was rarely matched by their male counterparts.
Back then, venues were scarcer than they are today, but ironically, it was easier for a young band to book themselves a gig. The key venues that added street cred to any band s CV were The Baggot Inn, McGonagles, The T.V. Club on Harcourt St., The Meeting Place on Dorset St. and An Bial Bocht, where many seminal sessions went down, including a handful of residencies by the late, lamented Scullion. Other favourites included: the Top Hat in Dun Laoghaire (played by The Clash, Ozzie Osborne, The Stranglers and a toddler-ish U2), The Purty Loft, and The Underground on Dame St. Suburbia also figured much more prominently in the past, with The Sportsman s Inn playing host to some of the best bands of the sixties and seventies including Them and Taste. The Asgard in Howth (formerly owned by one Philomena Lynott) was another stalwart venue, along with the legendary Crofton Airport Hotel.
These days few of the old venues remain; yet, amid a plethora of high tech, high spec new arrivals (from Vicar St. to Ceol and HQ) ironically, it can be harder than ever for young bands to get a gig. Paul Kelly, ex-member of The Sackville String Band, Mick Hanly s Rusty Ol Halo, The Fleadh Cowboys, The Sharon Shannon Band, as well as session player with everyone from Mary Black to Mary Coughlan, Freddy White, Phillip Donnelly and the late Townes van Zandt, tells it like he sees it:
I think one of the great losses we ve seen in Dublin in recent years is the demise of the residency, he offers. Back in the seventies and eighties, a band could establish a very healthy following for itself in a local venue, with a regular weekly gig. It gave the audience a chance to really get to know the band s music too, which was a much different experience than playing in front of big crowds who might only know a handful of songs. I think it s a real shame that residencies are no longer the thing in Dublin. It was a great way for a band to really cut their teeth, find out what they were really capable of, in the safe environment of a session or gig where the punters knew the music as well as the players did.
Being a Tallaght man, Paul Kelly is also wary of Dublin being perceived purely in terms of the city centre music scene. He s quick to parlay the importance of Dublin county too.
Even a glance at the multitudes currently vying for space in a crowded Dublin music scene reveals it to be in a state of health that many capital cities would envy. Just a random snapshot of Dublin s latest bright young things is enough to whet the appetite for further exploration.
Blew are a four-piece from South Dublin who formed over 3 years ago. They wasted little time, releasing their eponymously-titled debut EP on their own label, Dublin Records in July of last year, quickly following it up with a second single, Time To Pass The Time in September.
Blew s Shane Cullen hides nothing of the band s early naiveti, recalling their first gig with a grin:
I remember we booked our first gig in The Mean Fiddler, he recollects, with a laugh. We fibbed our way past the booking person, telling him we had just come off a UK tour, when in fact most of us were only in 5th year at school. Anyway, on the night, we figured we needed a good stage act, because we were being supported by Bionic, who were known for their brilliant stage show. So we got a friend of ours, Paco, to dress up as a clown and we all proceeded to get mad drunk backstage before the gig. In the end, they plugged out all our power so we were forced to walk off the stage, the promoter barred us from the venue and told us never to return. It was rough, but it didn t stop us!
The National Prayer Breakfast claim to make the catchiest, dirtiest, danciest rock n roll music this side of television. They also claim a dubious kinship to the cowboy metal band in David Lynch s Wild At Heart .
The NPB like to compare their live shows to the grit and glamour of the likes of Deus, The John Spencer Blues Explosion and MC5.
The Loft are known in north Dublin for their eccentric stage performances, having finished a gig stark naked but for their instruments. According to band member, Mick O Connell, That pissed loads of people off but the venue offered us a residency so they were obviously impressed by us.
The band recently also had to pay a #1500 fine to the litter warden for refusing to take down posters advertising one of their gigs in Whelans last March.
All of this while 3 of the 4 members of the band are studying for the Leaving Certificates. And they say that rock n roll is dead? Hah!
Flicker and Saorae are two of the city s shiniest, happiest contenders, though neither could be said to be cut of the same cloth.
Paul Maher, Flicker s frontman is anxious to break the mould of jaded 4 pieces with little more than a couple of chords in their arsenal.
Flicker operates as a collective, similar to Massive Attack, collaborating with singers and musicians who aren t part of the band, he explains. Our idea behind Flicker was to a have a vehicle for what we wanted to do musically but without the constraints of a typical four-piece. We figure that this might give us the opportunity to mix technology, vocals and traditional guitar, bass and drums.
Flicker s influences include Low by Bowie, DJ Shadow, My Bloody Valentine, Hendrix, Blues, Hip hop and classical music. The band report that several tracks have been put down on demo with a rake of summer gigs already on the slate.
Saorae are an all female three piece who ve only been together for less than 12 months. Adopting a band name that they thought meant eternity in old Irish (but doesn t!), Katie McTeigue & Co. admits that the band are still working at defining their own sound.
Two further all-female line-ups from Dublin are Chicks and Alaska, though they both eluded The Great Record during our travels this fortnight.
Lest we be accused of suggesting that Dublin is suffocated with rock n roll, with little else in the way of musical activity, let us slow the pace a little, and give a wider berth to the music.
Of course traditional and folk music intermingle as they do elsewhere. Traditional music has had a more formal upbringing in the capital than elsewhere in the country, but Dublin has her musical dynasties like every other county. Leo Rowsome, Dublin piper and begetter of generations of hugely talented musicians, was the primary conduit for Dublin piping for many years. Paddy MolonEy of The Chieftains owes much of his finesse to the Rowsome inheritance. Michael O Connor, flautist and minder of the tradition in all its many forms, straddles the divide between the formalities of Comhaltas and the more relaxed environs of the session. Michael s family are now carving a niche all of their own, with Darach and Donal finding themselves in wide demand for sessions (both live and recorded).
Brothers Sean and James Keane (on fiddle and box respectively) are part of another Dublin dynasty that straddles the Atlantic. Chieftain fiddler, Sean, the Adonis of traditional music (!), keeps one of the lowest profiles of any Grammy-winning musician, while New York-based brother, James, pursues a recording career that s brought his music to the snugs of Miltown Malbay and the castles of the Rothschilds with equal ease.
Of course fiddler and viola cossetter, Maire Breatneach is one of the city s finest purveyors of the form, marrying classical and traditional seamlessly, while flautist Cormac Breatneach (no relation) has tiptoed from traditional to jazz with balletic ease on his most recent album, Musical Journey.
If the pulse of trad were to be taken it would best be measured by the vibrancy of the playing of the recently crowned Young Traditional Musician Of The Year , Iamonn De Barra. A champion of contemporary Irish music, and a man with an appetite for growth and innovation, De Barra pulls no punches when it comes to his views on the current glut of players vying for space on the trad stage.
There s more money to be made in traditional music than there is in jazz, he avers. If you look at the quality of musicians playing jazz, it s unbelievable how good they are and how long they ve spent doing this. Traditional musicians only have to pick up a whistle or a bodhran, and two years later, they re making #50 a session, you know! It s better than waiting on tables or working behind a bar!
Lia Luachra s Shane Bracken is another Dubliner with attitude, and a rakish few tunes at his disposal. Having picked up his first tunes on concertina and piano in the Cultzrlann in Monkstown, Shane progressed to local sessions in his native Dun Laoghaire where, he insists, his peers provided the main spur to progress. Lia Luachra are poised to release their second album, Traffic, within weeks, and with the bulk of the tunes composed by the band, Bracken is rightly pleased with the heights they ve scaled in a couple of short years.
And of course there s more, tons more. We haven t even begun to sample Dublin s dance, jazz and blues scenes, but one thing s for sure. If music were ever to be rationed, the capital has a reservoir that runs wide and deep.
With apologies to aficionados of classical, dance, jazz and blues, all of which are thriving in Dublin. Space simply did not permit The Great Record to trawl through the countless bands/musicians who live, breathe and sleep this music.
With thanks to Colm O Hare for his assistance in the research for this piece.