Passion Projects

Typical. You wait an eternity for a truly compelling Irish alternative pop compilation and then – presto – three pop over the horizon at once.

Chronicling the criminally overlooked Irish post-punk scene of the early ‘80s, Strange Passions juxtaposes such forgotten stars of independent rock as Chant! Chant! Chant! and Choice with the better-known Virgin Prunes and SM Corporation.
Meanwhile, The Shortest Night sees contemporary artists such as Jape, Pugwash and Villagers covering classic soul standards such as Marvin Gaye’s ‘Mercy, Mercy, Me’, demonstrating, along the way, that, with the lights dimmed and the beers uncorked, pasty-limbed Irish people can be as funky as anyone else (the project was overseen by the Sound Training Centre, Temple Bar, with proceeds going to charity. STC will also be in action soon putting together the second very fine and very free Genre Free download album in association with Hot Press).
Bringing the shutters down on 20 years of remarkable history, Orchestral Variations, for its part, is to be the last ever release on London-Irish label Setanta Records. Curated by Setanta founder, Dubliner Keith Cullen, it witnesses Bell X1’s Paul Noonan and others delivering string-soaked readings of alternative staples like Talking Heads’ ‘Once In A Lifetime’.
“The post-punk scenes in London and New York have been pretty exhaustively chronicled at this stage. Now people are starting to look further afield,” says Darren McCreesh, the Dublin promoter and DJ who compiled Strange Passions for the international label Cache Cache. “It isn’t as if these bands were forgotten. It’s just that it was quite difficult for them to sustain careers even though they were popular at a local level. They had a hard time making money.”
He cites one of his favourite groups of the era, Dundalk’s Choice.
“They had a following locally. Then they came up to Dublin, played loads of battle of the band competitions and were voted Hot Press ‘Emerging Act of the Year’, in 1981, I think. From there they went onto Youngline, the youth TV programme produced by [early ‘80s scenester] Dave Heffernan and were offered a record deal. However that didn’t quite transpire and three, four months later they were still unemployed. So two of them emigrated.”
Much of Strange Passions sounds extraordinarily contemporary. Take Dublin’s Chant! Chant! Chant! who, with their buzzsaw guitars, and dirty, driving bass, sound as if they’ve just fetched up from a hip corner of Brooklyn. Far from Dublin-dominated, the scene had huge regional variation. So distinctive was post-punk in Cork, especially, McCreesh thought it best to omit any bands from the city. Leeside new wave really deserves a compilation of its own.
“What was happening in Cork between 1980 and 1982 was just so different,” he reflects. “It was comparable to the New York no-wave thing – very dissonant and angry. A Cork compilation is something I will hopefully get around to at some time.”
Ultimately, the scene was a victim of its own vaulted ambitions, he believes. When U2 broke out and became the biggest band in the world, the artists left behind twigged that, by adjusting their sound just a little, they too could score a record deal.
“You had an influx of A&R men. A lot of Irish acts got a lot more canny. It was like, ‘If we played like this, then we might get signed’. The original movement had been completely organic, in a very beautiful way. There was no expectation that these bands would ever go anywhere. That wasn’t why they were doing it.”
In contrast to the feral energy that runs through Strange Passions, as the final ever release on Setanta Orchestral Variations is an appropriately melancholic affair. After devoting more than two decades to the label and kick-starting the careers of The Divine Comedy, The Frank & Walters, A House, Edwin Collins (as solo artist) and others, Keith Cullen woke up one morning and realised music was no longer the most important thing in his life. Before moving on, he wanted to put out one last record – a quasi-classical hook-up with producer Rob Kirwan (PJ Harvey, The Horrors). From there Orchestral Variations started to painstakingly take shape.
“It was a slow falling out of love,” says Cullen of his decision to call time on Setanta. “When I started the label it was inconceivable I would do anything else with my life. I know a lot of people in music – you have a few beers and it turns out they’re tacked off too. They wouldn’t mind doing something else. As a kid, your goal is to spend all your time working in music. Now, I don’t know if it is.”
Not that he has any regrets. In the ‘90s, London felt like the centre of the music universe and Cullen enjoyed a keen rivalry with other label gurus such as Creation’s Alan McGee. As he grew older, however, his enthusiasm flagged.
“It got to the stage where I couldn’t be bothered dealing with artists. It’s strange, I love them in a way. However, my kids were young when I was easing out of the label. I had split with their mother and had shared custody. I’m a very hands-on dad. When you’re in a situation like that, it’s a case of, ‘Fuck this, I can’t be bothered dealing with artists.’ A lot of them are kids with guitars. They have a selfishness – which they should have, as creative people. However, you arrive at a point where it’s all very wearying.”

Strange Passions, Orchestral Variations and The Shortest Night are all out now.