Every Friday, we offer a chance to win a Golden Discs voucher worth 25 big ones on the open market.
In return, we usually request a tune from you to be played at an unspecified time.
It’s that simple.
This week’s theme: Forgotten Irish gems.
What song by an Irish act has , in your opinion, been criminally overlooked?
To enter, please complete this sentence.
“I regard_______________________________as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because__________________________’
Lines MUST close at 6.15pm MIDNIGHT extended to Midnight Sunday.
I regard Pony Club – Single as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because he really should have made it big IMO, brutal when you see the likes of Shane Lynch sliding down piles of money and chaps like this not able to catch a break
https://youtu.be/5ww-5XUFTGc
Hands in the air all day… Thread winner right here
This beautiful tune by the Guggenheim grotto… https://youtu.be/0sFDzJHYK00
I regard ‘Padre Pio’ by Warlords of Pez an absolute forgotten Irish classic because the song ROCKS and the video has everything you could possibly want: the Poolbeg towers, spaceman Padre Pio and a giant yoke being shared between two zombies. I mean, what more could you ask for?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP8XR7IoZ7A
“I regard Fire In My Heart by Aslan as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because from early on, it was clear that they – and especially Christy – had something really special. And they dropped it from the setlist far too soon.
They were sensational live in the early days weren’t they?
Fupping drugs.
Sensational, Bertie.
Billy should never have given up the percussion based around a Kosangas cylinder, but.
I feel this is a deeply underrated and forgotten classic and it’s frankly brilliant and makes me smile for all the right reasons.
https://youtu.be/kP3roSwl8sU
Whole Lotta Lovin by our answer to Atomic Kitten or something (Six – remember them?)
You’re not letting us forget
Rollerskate Skinny
I regard the night visiting song by luke Kelly as a forgotten Irish classic because, it was the last song he recorded and listening to the words, are beautifully prophetic
I regard ‘When The Night Comes’ by the Boomtown Rats as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because you just don’t get incredible musical whackiness on albums these days, cos IT DOESN’T FUKN SELL!!
This song is an absolute roller coaster – brilliant lyrics, catchy-but-complex song structure and a guitar break that goes from electric to spanish and back again in one arpeggio. you sort of forget what a great band the Rats were amid all Geldof’s ranting. Sit back and enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXjVgpZ8hIE
I regard Friends in Time by The Golden Horde as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because its a great song, with a Larry Gogan cameo in the video, but most of all when I went to listen to it on Spotify a few months back I couldn’t find their version, only the Ronan Keating cover :-(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzCWjXomrhc
Someone told me recently that Simon Carmody is a very wealthy landlord who owns multiple city properties
Did he co-write Sing Street too?
Or is that a different chap?
Hadn’t heard that
I regard Arclight by the Fat Lady Sings as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because its still a cracking tune and it was our summer anthem at Ballyfin jamboree in 1993
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlcSZotpAhE
I regard November, November by Auto da Fe as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because of Gay Wood’s evocative singing and bonkers stage performances and Trevor Knight’s superb, ethereal keyboards. When it was released in 1982 it wasn’t like what anyone else was doing at the time.
It’s also significant for being produced by Phil Lynott. Still makes me wonder what more he could have achieved had he stuck around.
https://youtu.be/-x3ZSUr9aJU
If I were to dust off my parent’s vinyls I’d find a forgotten Irish gem of a rebel song (probably a banned one), or indeed some oul comeallye. They’re just not jumping at me right now so I’ll enjoy the responses here instead.
*nudges hoop
men behind the wire?
Everyone stands behind that one. The Thatcher Song was another. Plus I loved the Wolfe Tones’ lyrical fight for Rockall.
Correction. Every man must stand behind that one. Surely “Come out ye Black and Tans” has to be well up there?
I regard ‘The Homes Of Donegal” by Paul Brady an absolute forgotten classic because of the hauntingly beautiful musical intro followed by Paul Brady’s deliciously unique, smooth Derry/Donegal lilt that carries you home, where ever in Ireland, your home may be. Pure genious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giABAfeEc0U
I regard Everything Beautiful Is Burning by Juliet Turner as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because the lyrics, aside from being brilliant resonate very deeply with me due to an ongoing battle with depression. Juliet’s voice is gorgeous too, complete with her natural accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07DnPzcrP9Y
Lovely song Daisy, first time I’ve heard it.
That’s really good, nice choice.
Sez you, whose choice of choons leaves a lot to be desired and is an affront to those of impeccable taste. :)
Sorry, just messing Bertie.
It’s a cross I have to bear Anne :)
Not an oldie but a goodie. Town to Town by MicroDisney great song great video (for the late 80’s).
Is the correct answer. Or maybe Singer’s Hampstead Home. But we’re splitting hairs, frankly.
I regard “needle in the groove ” by Mamas Boys as a forgotten Irish classic because it has one of the most memorable Irish rock riffs , absolute gem .
I regard Gone Forever by Cry Before Dawn as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because its a cracking good tune that unfortunately lived up to its nane
Not if you’re from Wexford, doh, hun.
Ha!
I regard Speed to my side by Rollerskate skinny as a forgotten Irish classic because it’s a rollicking, big sound and brings me back to Fibber McGees, main dance floor and the crowd going mental to speed to my side. But, nowadays all i get is blank looks when i mention the band or song. They should’ve been so much more.
Kentish Town Waltz by Imelda May is a really lovely song about looking back fondly at the start of a relationship when ye lived in squalor and were happy
And a kinda similar Dublin based song from Lisa Hannigan called Paper Houses.
They’re both songs you could ring with a bit of hush at a lock in.
I regard My Friend John by Those Nervous Animals as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because it popped into my head two decades after last hearing it…..
I regard Galway and Los Angeles – Toasted Heretic as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because it just is…
Oh and Into Paradise – Bring Me Closer
I regard ‘Master of the Universe’ Aidan Walsh – Comunity Games as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because it’s the only song to my knowledge to conceptually decontruct that most Irish of all sports\other meetings…
+1
An absolute masterpiece
I regard (When we were young, from The Whipping Boy) as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because… nostalgia never sounded so good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mifMjKT4Tl0
I bloody LOVE that tune!!
Second that
“Not listening” by Puppy Love Bomb. These guys shoulda been massive
https://youtu.be/qkQxpGNhzKM
Always liked their “Dublin is Dead” tee shirts
I regard Season by Last Days of 1984 (https://lastdaysof1984.bandcamp.com/track/season) as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because, like the rest of the album it came from, it is one of the most wonderful pieces of music made on these shores, and it evokes joy and nostalgia and happiness and love and bliss and warmth and a late summer vibe that perhaps never actually exists in this country but which seems like a certainty this year once you hit play. It’s aural MDMA that doesn’t require you to go buying some dodgy pill from some dodgier bloke and then suffering the dodgiest comedown. It’s all the high and none of the low. It’s sunset and sunrise. It’s we’re going to be friends for EVER. It’s homebound contentment. It makes you gush this sort of rubbish. And it never got the love it deserved. It was forgotten from the start. But it’s goddamn fucking beautiful and I love it.
You must really want to win :o)
Not so much, more that I want people to listen to them. They appear to have disappeared now but that album is so great. Last I heard they were working on a follow-up but that was a few years ago.
I was only messing, good choice
:)
I’ll offer up “Happiness is Mine” by Revelino or “I just Wanna” by Blue in Heaven
Remember when Shane flashed his pubes on the cover of Hot Press?
The SCANDAL!
Oh Broadsheet, I wrote a big screed of nonsense for my entry and it appears to have disappeared into moderation purgatory. Was it because I used the word “fucking”? Or because I gushed too hard?
Well, you need to forget my previous suggestions, and forget the rest too, because I have found the most under appreciated but greatest Irish song that there is – this is especially strengthened by how much we tend to appreciate and replicate anything of value from this genre of music.
Suitably, it is a song which no one I knew had heard of, and no once since has, until such time as it had been introduced to them.
It is Mrs Gilhooleys party from Kevin Burke of the Bothy Band, link below.
With a song title like that you would be well excused to ignore, but I challenge you to stop and have a listen.
It’s best qualities are the fact that it is decent trade of good caliber, it’s really funny, and you can’t watch it and not think how great it would be to see someone take that on live.
https://youtu.be/SuDuvbDFdis
Enjoyed
Very good!!
“I regard “Tonight We Fly” by The Divine Comedy as an absolute forgotten Irish classic because I’m totally out of touch with the musical memories of the collective Irish psyche….
but it is still the most euphoric, uplifting, life-affirming song ever written by anyone, anywhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWFMgkxn94c
Honorable mentions to:
“Bertie’s Brochures” by Fatima Mansions
“Patron Saint of Mediocrity” by A House
This is great thread – really showing people’s ages!
“The Craic We had the day we died for Ireland ”
– Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly
Is my nomination
Dudley Corporation’s “Divil the Bit” has it all. Swaying and lurching, threatening to topple over yet staying tight and lyrical. Abruptly ends after barely two minutes. All the elements of a classic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNjkUsSJZtQ
The Brilliant Trees – Talent
https://youtu.be/2tjjnMgT4JU
A House – Call Me Blue
https://youtu.be/Hjiun2zKv6g
The Subterraneans – Maxi Joy
https://youtu.be/9ZehbKmeVxE
Great songs Bertie.
Ps Sorry you had to put up with that horrible bullying earlier, you dealt with it like a real gentleman. Hope you’re ok.
Thanks Zena, I’m grand thanks, I have a five year old so I’m well used to dealing with childish, attention seeking tantrums.
Bet your five year old knows nothin about reggae
It must run in the family:)
Black Rose – Thin Lizzy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEk9GJXu7k8
The Frank and Walters – Colours
They had a real knack for catchy tunes, but even by their high standards this one really shines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBAk1m-lRDo
While The Subs Maxi Joy is worth reviving
Loyalty trumps
Always, so
Cypress Mine
“Sugar Beet God”
– so good live that Zig n’Zag covered it
And Ian Olney was a sight ta’see live
https://youtu.be/YE75sEuNI4k
And a shout out to a song and artist known in every Irish House for 3 generations and more, the world over and back
Big Tom and the 4 Roads of Glenamaddy
Wagon Wheel and the gel slick of blow-in Carter will evaporate when annuder Karaoke pretty bhoy gets up on the Quays Stage, but Big Tom’s 4 Roads will still have someone around t’belt it out long after we’re all gone
In fairness that Big Tom one is pretty good
The 4 of Us – She hits me
https://youtu.be/EGx6CrR47z8
I regard “Feeding Frenzy” by National Prayer Breakfast an absolute forgotten Irish classic. An anthemic Phantom fm staple, with lyrics and jangly guitar representing true indie music away from the manufactured sound of mainstream radio.
It has to be one the the greatest Irish pop songs, Those Nervous Animals , My Friend John. Great tune, great lyrics and now almost totally forgotten. I defy anyone not to love it on their first listen. Sligo has never produced anything better. https://youtu.be/lURf3jf9cbE
That’s two votes for it so Friscondo as I already nomintaed it a couple of days ago!
I’m afraid that leaves both of your entries null and void. Better luck next time :o)
Revelino- Happiness is mine- listened to it non stop as a teenager..
Really enjoyable thread, some great suggestions :)
Engine Alley – Mrs Winder
Listening back to it it’s not as good as I recall, kinda like a Pixies B-side
Anyhow, here it is for nostalgia all the same
https://youtu.be/uaKU6eRQZ48
Power of Dreams – Stay
https://youtu.be/FtoVHF0CVio
And here’s a really cheesy one just for poo-poos and giggles…
No Sweat – Heart and Soul
https://youtu.be/ZLv2Zyj6g6M
Would be remiss of me to omit Sack
Sack – Colorado Springs
https://youtu.be/wlz5mG_qb4c
Possibly not in the forgotten category but The Blades – Ghose of a Chance is always worth a listen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htRJdw-7j4c
* Ghost of a Chance