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The Music Thread

Mowl said:
The Republic Of Loose was another deadly little local project, not sure if they're still going, but they put on a great show.
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It seemed for a while they would really make it. They didn't in the end, like any number of mainly local Dublin bands you might think of. I used to know their guitarist Dave, a little. Nice guy, unassuming, quite a contrast to Mik I guess. I remember you would always hear around the stories about Mik, and his wild extrovert personality.

 
roc_abilly said:
Some interesting background on the above.

That was our own Phil Lynott who voiced the part of Parson Nathanial in the narration.
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Wow - never knew that. I adore Phil and always play some Thin Lizzy to guests when over for supper. The documentary 'Songs For While I'm Away' was screened recently and is available online on the YLE Teema channel. I've gone back to revisit bits and pieces of it now and again. My cousin was pals with Brian Downey in childhood and even if it's only a mild connection it still matters because he was one of us: Crumlin and Ballyfermot: two tough little towns you had to fight to stay safe in.

Phil is the very embodiment of the working class hero. A very gentle and sensitive man behind all the leather and male-typical rock star image. If you take the time to listen to his more obscure songs, it's obvious that he felt everything very, very deeply. But he could put on the rock star mode at the drop of a hat. It took a lot of balls for him to stand up there with the lights and logo, singing about his broken heart, his longing, his dreams, and his most fragile self.

Most of today's rock and roll is all death, self mutilation, growling like an angry bear, headbanging like a demented animal.

roc_abilly said:
He also performed a couple of the songs, including this one.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
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That's so cute.

roc_abilly said:
David Essex voiced the part of the Artilleryman.
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'We're gonna make you a stayayayayayayayaayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayaaaaah!'

The elder sister had a massive crush on him.

roc_abilly said:
The great Herbie Flowers was part of the production too.
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Herbie shows up every day, whether it's with Lou Reed on 'Take A Walk On The Wild Side' or any of dozens of hits he played on over the years. My first encounter was via the progressive rock band Sky, who had a top of the pops hit with this one:



The line-up was composed of the creme de la creme of British classical and rock musicians, all of whom were schooled professionals having done their time at the conservatories and music academies. But I was aware that what they were doing wasn't entirely unique. It was only a couple of years after Julian and Andrew Lloyd-Webber released 'Variations' with a similiar concept and line-up of the most amazing players I'd heard at the time. You might know it as he theme from 'The South Bank Show' with Melvyn Bragg.
 
Twenty six variations on an air by Paganini played by some red hot session players. Gary Moore represented Ireland on electric guitar. Here's a blistering little section featuring Gary:



Highly pretentious but still an amazing piece of work by everyone who collaborated.

The complete album is available on youtube if you're interested.
 
roc_abilly said:
It seemed for a while they would really make it.
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Mik's several sizes larger today than in those days.

He's the very picture of the aftermath of a hedonistic lifestyle riddled with a sarcastic self-awareness.

One of a kind really - Pete's the only man I know who matches him for the eccentricity, they make a great team.

 
Big Chris said:
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I just read an excellent article about Zeke Manyika in Rolling Stone magazine about his switch from the former Rhodesia to Scotland to begin his musical career in exile. After his Father sent him, Zeke tore up his passport saying/believing he'd never return to the country of his birth (I'm sure the rightist wings will LOVE that one) and in a way he was right. Rhodesia rose up and the mess it made still hangs over it like a dark shadow.
 
Zeke played with all kinds of people, but my first exposure to his creations was via Matt Johnson's seminal The The project. The Soul Mining album slayed me. Not a single weak song anywhere on the entire cut. Zeke's drumming stood out like a sore theumb and Johnson made sure his sound was out front and very much leading the tracks. This one is awesome; Zeke hears it as a rock song but slyly adds in his grooves based on a slightly more complex 6/4 of just kick, hats, and snare - but they sound fucking awesome:



That intro acted as a guide to what was coming next. Manyika made it sound really simple but of course it's an illusion, and the complexities of his approach were laid bare when one tried to replicate his feel. It may sound boxy and rather clinical, but when the entire track hits full speed, his control and dynamics are par excellence.

Kate Bush gave him a call and invited him to her home studio for a few days wherein he laid the foundation of the massive global hit 'Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)' but he was later taken out of the mix and the song credits only refer to him as an arranger - or more commonly a session player who came in and did his job, then left. Bush gave another drummer a shot at copying Zeke's original tom-tom style Burundi drumming feel and he made the final mix.

There are so many songs and bands out there who booked him in, but he remains one of those artists who lurk in the shadows of your favourite songs from The The to Orange Juice ('Rip It Up') and many more throughout the 80's/90's period.
 
Lumpy Von Talbot said:
Jayze I loved that when I heard it late at night way back when... that's a great blast from the past :)
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I lifted both the bass-line and that snazzy little drum-beat several times over the years. A very skeletal arrangement, the rhythm section is the bare minimum of what's required to keep the song moving forward, but if you take either of the parts and play them alone, they make little sense at all.

But still a fucking awesome groove.

Like this one:

 
This: https://www.thejournal.ie/coldplay-accommodation-dublin-croke-park-6124042-Jul2023/

This just one more of the many reasons I fucking loathe Ireland. You stupid fucking cunts are so short-sighted and self-destructive it amazes me that you haven't sunk the entire island of Ireland into the Atlantic Ocean yet. A gig by a popular band gets listed - and what happens next? Your hotels go stellar with prices averaging at two and half grand for a bed for the night? Are you cunts fucking serious?

Ireland still relies on tourism, she always has - but between the gouging on the price of a pint or a table for dinner costing ridiculous amounts of money she can kiss her ass goodbye if this shit keeps up. Irish people know that they could easily book a ticket, a return flight, and hotel abroad in some nice sunny who don't have such tight-fisted laws about concert performance times, to see the band and the full on light show accompanying it in style and with ease.

I wouldn't mind but the experience of paying full price a for a decent ticket where you can see and hear the stage and everyone on it only to discover that the lights and pyrotechnics show (that often costs more to stage than the band and all its members plus entourage) can't even be seen in the late evening sunshine.

I remember doing some rigging on work during the one week run-up to Guns & Roses at Slane many years ago. We started building the stage a week before the show. The rig was being unpacked for the first time since it built in Holland, and the band had (I think) three or possibly five copies of the stage designed and built for the world tour they were doing at the time. So the stage goes up, then the towers for the FOH PA and the standing towers and mixing area fifty feet out. Then the trucks with the lights and pyros arrived. A fucking fleet of them. I thought we'd finished the heavy labour work but no: the lights took another few days and while we were doing it, I remarked to an English bloke who was working on the lighting rig that this was a complete waste of time - none of these lights were going to make any difference as the sun didn't set til around ten at night - so for the three days and more of installation, the crowd might get to see some proper light-show effects for the last couple of songs.

Dude informed me: 'they know that, we know that - but the rig has to be tested - that's why we're here.'

At that moment I realized that we were just a short stop for the even bigger gigs they'd play elsewhere, that bands like G&R use Ireland as a live rehearsal, and any kinks or glitches would be spotted and brought up to standard for the 'real' shows elsewhere. In countries that 'get' that the lights and pyros effects are a huge part of the show - people WANT to be mesmerized by what they see as well as what they hear.

This time around it's Coldplay - whom I neither like nor dislike - I just don't give a bollocks really.

But shit, man: two and half grand for a shitty hotel room on top of beer and food prices on top of ticket-scalpers fees?

Why bother?

I'd pick another date on the tour and fly out somewhere nice and interesting: Holland, Italy, Germany, anywhere but fucking Ireland.

The land of screwers and scalpers - right gouging cunts.

Ireland - if it can go wrong then it will be forced to go wrong and someone somewhere will make big money out of it regardless.

You guys have no idea how people react to these things abroad.

Suffice it to say it ain't fucking pretty.
 
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