Every music scene needs its Dave McCulloughs – its incorrigible infantrymen, less concerned with glory than in gathering together comrades and fighting the good fight. For the best part of a decade, The Debonaires’ frontman has pounded the local gig circuit in a variety of bands (Flumox, Volvograd), apparently more content to make an interesting noise and spectacle than attract the attention of label bigwigs. And, while success has thus far refused to do anything other than blow kisses from a tantalising distance, Dave’s refusal to give up the ghost has long marked him down as one of Belfast’s most welcome romantics.

“The day Volvograd split up, I said to them all that I’d new songs and if anyone wanted to play them with me they’d be more than welcome,” he recalls. “So, there was never any question that I’d stop writing. In five years time, I’ll still be doing it. I love writing songs. I love being in a band. Love everything about it. I can’t imagine going solo. It would be no fun without your mates. Rock n Roll should be a group activity: all boys together in the showers.”
The most fitting ending, of course, would see all those years of diligence, fun, and wiry inventiveness rewarded in the appropriate manner. How promising then to discover that, with The Debonaires, it looks like Dave may have found a suitably seductive vehicle in which to plough his Devo-fixations and playful, lyrical conceits (“I tried to imagine what was going on in the mind of the Wright Brothers’ dog. You know: what the fuck are you two doing?”) straight into the hearts of the multitude. Not though– and with all the time-honoured fatalism of the eternally spurned lover - that he sees this happening.
“People said it about Volvograd and Flumox as well,” he smiles. “But it’s a load of crap. I don’t place too much stock in it.”
A sold-out post-Christmas gig at The Empire suggests that Dave needs to drop the martyr act. With every new show The Debonaires are becoming a more undeniably attractive proposition: which is, of course, just the kind of thing that happens as you become more comfortable in your own skin.
“I think as long as you can get to a level were you can draw a good crowd in your own town, then that’s good enough. Don’t get me wrong, if fame and fortune was presented to me on a plate then I’d be like: thanks very much. But it’s not something I’m going to start begging for.
“You’ve to be realistic about it. It’s kinda like Fight Club, everyone is growing up and realising that they’re not going to be rock starts. But I’m happy enough just making the kind of music I want to make and doing it with my mates. I don’t feel any pressing need to go beat someone up.”
Two of the best nights at last year’s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival took place at The John Hewitt Bar, when fans of the late American stand-up-cum-political-pyromaniac Bill Hicks gathered together to pay tribute to the great man. Such was the unqualified (and unexpected) success of the events that the organisers have decided to mark the tenth anniversary of Hicks’ death by throwing another shindig. And quite a night it promises to be. Not only will there be an exclusive opportunity to watch an ultra-rare copy of Bill’s last ever stand-up performance, but obsessives will finally be able to act out their Goat Boy fantasies during the archly-titled ‘Doing A Leary’ karaoke section. Sublime art meets car-crash tomfoolery. There will be no justifiable reason why you should miss this. Unless, of course, you’re a Christian fundamentalist or fan of Jay Leno. Action will unfold at The Pavilion Bar on The Ormeau Road on Feb 21. Contact [email protected] for details.
No more art? For a while there it was looking like The Desert Hearts’ first single was going to prove sadly prophetic. Excellent news then that the lustrous three piece are about to re-emerge with some heroic new material. Springtime will see them unleashing ‘Gravitas’/’Hammer and Frogs’ – as a double A-side single on Andy Miller’s new label, while around the same time they’ll be sharing a release on Jimmy Devlin’s ‘No Dancing’ imprint with Robyn Shields. With over 20 new tunes waiting to go, it looks like the band have put their Tugboat disappointment behind them in convincing fashion. Great stuff.