On Saturday 23rd October, HQ will host one of the more unusual homecoming shows seen on these shores in some time. Dublin-born quartet La Rocca have been quietly playing their socks off in various venues in Cardiff, London and Manchester, but only now are set to play their Dublin debut.
Despite their lack of gigging on home turf, La Rocca have already served their time on the toilet circuit. The band were born at the tail end of the members respective academic careers in Cardiff University, when Bjorn, Simon, Nick and Alan began producing a distinctive blend of high-octane guitar and keyboard-driven melodic music. Their juicy tunes combine the rawest and most visceral elements of rock: the vocal harmonic punch of Supergrass, the sexy swagger of Bowie and the balls of Prince and AC/DC s bastard love child.
Cardiff may be the new capital of hip, but according to drummer Alan Redmond, it is not quite the city of a thousand Catatonias.
While it might be notoriously difficult to get a gig in Dublin, at least there are a couple of venues which have a medium capacity, where in Cardiff there is only one, he explains. We played there once every six weeks and we d stuff the place. Eventually, it just got boring and we had nowhere else to go. People over there don t seem as perceptive when it comes to going to gigs. And despite all the hype about Welsh bands over the last twelve months, people like the Manics, Catatonia and the Stereophonics were only playlisted in Wales after they became massive with stations based in London.
As it happens, various members of the Welsh pop elite including Super Furry Animals, the Manic Street Preachers and Catatonia, have been spotted at La Rocca gigs, and the boys featured with the finest and biggest Welsh acts around on the Commemoration and Amnesia compilation released this Summer. Also, they contributed to the spoken word/music album playwright Patrick Jones (Nicky Wire s big brother) compiled.
As glamorous and initially exciting as all that sounds, we didn t feel at home in Wales, adds Redmond. We couldn t go anywhere else and were also sick of scummy student tenement shithole accommodation.
We could see ourselves staying at the exact same level, adds the singer Bjorn Baillie, or as Redmond succinctly puts it, the Welsh public were never going to take a bunch of Paddies to heart. Any acclaim and appreciation for bands there is based on a its great to see one of our own make it attitude.
So, after conquering Cardiff as much it could be conquered, the lads decided to pack up and head homewards with the Burnley-born keyboard player, Nick, in tow. While their name may seem unfamiliar to most punters and gig goers here, La Rocca have developed their own underground following in absentia.
We always kept in touch with home and started a mailing list over here. So far, we have over 200 people in the Dublin area alone. It is tremendously exciting to finally play here. But since we left Dublin five years ago, it doesn t seem like anything at all has changed. It s still the Cajun Kings playing in Whelan s. We decided to hold back and resist playing numerous weeknights and funnel our energy to doing a Saturday night in a larger and better venue. From our very early gigs, we d always be over ambitious with the size of venues we booked, but we d always fill them. We are quietly confident about the HQ show. I told my best friend that if they bring less than 25 people, then they ll have to give me twenty quid!
So aside from the immediate show, what are La Rocca s other ambitions?
We are hoping to get inducted into the Hall of Fame that very night. If not, we ll induct ourselves.
La Rocca play HQ at the Hot Press Hall of Fame on Saturday 23rd October.