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Wednesday 1 September 2010

Where would you have been without nostalgia?

Original Post - Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Where would you have been without nostalgia?

Luggage
The Knocking Shop/The Phantom Jets played with a number of bands in a number of forgotten venues and I thought I'd mention some and maybe  spark some memories for those who were there. I'm editing this regularly as vague memories keep returning from the mists of time. Anyone who can help fill the gaps left by senility please do.
Bands (many are still going, remarkably): Luggage (an inspiration - rumoured to exist on life support machine somewhere - The Great Lost Band see http://homepage.tinet.ie/~independentrecs/luggage/luggage.htm and Luggage - Show Me Around)*, Sack (still going strong),  Holemasters (starring Dave from http://www.roadrecs.com/), Female Hercules, Pet Lamb, Ash (while they were very young), Wormhole, Grief, Cuckoo, Striknein DC?, Saville, Bambi, Pincher Martin, The Idiots, Jam Jar Jail....

The Knocking Shop
Venues: The Attic (my favourite-I heard it had been knocked down while putting up posters for a gig there. You could see yourself in the mirror behind the bar and it nicely bridged that gap between bedroom posing and pissing yourself because you've been fool enough to expose yourself to insane levels of ridicule. Also the floor shook and if you jumped you could skull yourself on the very low ceiling.); The Rock Garden; The Baggot Inn; Slattery's (site of an infamous Spinal Tap moment when we were locked in a corridoor above the venue while listening to our introduction through the floor); Fibber McGees; The Blind Piper (after a long, long trek to the idyllic village of Caherdaniel); Whelans; The Junction; The City Arts Centre (for the D.I.Y. Festival); The DA Club; Barnstormers (in two locations); The Ormonde Print Gallery; The Finglas Inn (where we had a session swapping curses with an inept sound man); USIT....




*Luggage are no longer in active service but head honcho Barry O'Mahony now plies his trade with the rather wonderful Saturday Captains.

8 comments:

  1. Hey Seamus...didn't have the honour of playing a gig with the Knocking Shop, but did with Luggage at the Grattan (Capel St.) - Eating Betty!
    acetonestudio.com
    Jam Jar Jail main man Shane O'Neill, now Chano leader of Surgeon Marta - surgeonmarta.com is in LA. Was in touch with him recently. Same as ever, I think.
    I'm still doing my thing, recording mostly, but lots of live sessions over the years on the acetonestudio.com website for free download. Mostly DUB recordings, rock of various sorts live sessions. Fun.
    Inexplicably this is my most popular production to date: about 2,500 (free) downloads in the past month.
    http://www.acetonestudio.com/ACEtoneAudio/OthersAudio/Invincible/more/Tea%20Neck.mp3?.mp3?.mp3?.mp3

    cheers,

    Mel

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    1. Hi Mel,
      Will pay a visit to the website. It's a while since I did but the last album I downloaded was a corker. Bizarrely I was at a reading of Paradise Lost in Trinity on Friday and bumped into Frances from Jam Jar Jail. Strange synchronicity.
      This link seems to be one of your rockier excursions, more Velvets than Lee Scratch.

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    2. Also, as I have now addendumed above, Barry from Luggage has a new and pretty wonderful group, Saturday Captains. http://theknockingshop.blogspot.ie/2012/11/top-102-albums-no-94-saturday-captains.html

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  2. Happy Christmas!
    Glad to hear Barry is still doing music. Out of curiosity, which album of mine was it you downloaded? I release this stuff and get a few radio plays here and there but beyond that I get very little feedback and generally have no idea who is listening and where.
    Interesting timing on bumping into Frances. It must be about 21 years since I last met her (and a lot of other people, including your good self).
    I haven't done a gig in 5 years and that last one was just a one off.
    There's some video of it (at about 25.40) in this (Chinese) documentary:
    http://vimeo.com/8533854
    I'm lurking in the dark on the left.
    I'm still recording - spent most of yesterday working on a couple of tracks. Focusing sort of on individual tracks rather than albums though now that I think of it, I did release a couple of albums recently:
    http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/invincible2
    and on the electronicky side of things:
    http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bigshiny2
    Always hoping that the right mention or bit of publicity will catapult me not to fame but to actually making a few bob from all of this musical effort. Yeah, right!
    But with so much music listening being done via streaming (Spotify etc.) the payout is very little indeed.
    Nice blog by the way. You've obviously put a lot of work and thought into it.

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    Replies
    1. Happy Christmas, Mel!
      Well. umm, the 'albums' I downloaded were all the free downloads which I imaginatively titled Free Betty and the Good and Strong EP.I really liked a lot of it and intended to try out one of the 'priced' albums on the assumption that they would be better and that I like to support the music. However these thoughts were during one of my penurious stages so came to nothing. however, recommend one here and I'll splash out!
      Thanks for your comments on the blog - if I could stop thinking I might but seeing as I can't this is one of the best ways of getting the thoughts out of my head. No one sane would actually listen to me but this way I feel like I've talked about them.

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  3. No judgements from me for not spending the $. I haven't bought music for about 4 years or more now. Why buy when you can get it for free? Regarding penury, I am painfully familiar with the condition. Currently unemployed. Not an enviable station in life especially in this monster of a city. Cheerfully regarding my next rent payment as a form of menacing goading, a threat, a challenge to my personal ability to muster resourcefulness - which I'll have to master somehow.
    It is difficult for me to recommend any one album of mine. I like them all. I don't want to sound smug by any means, but I put a lot of effort into making them sound just the way I wanted them to sound, so while they are all fairly different and unique in their own ways, I can't say which one might be better or best.
    As to the notion that what you pay for might be better than what you get for free, never a consideration with me.
    The latest release, a rough bunch of live sessions is still free:
    http://www.acetonestudio.com/invincible.html
    but is also for sale:
    http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/invincible2
    How's that for choice?
    Not saying you should opt for this one at all.
    Dunno. Reverbalism or Every Spoil a Dub?
    Typically I like the most recent best.
    Big Shiny: Trans Port
    If indeed you do buy one, I'll be very pleased and as you're a blogmaster I'm sure I can make it so you get the rest for free via wetransfer or something.
    Then if you find something of mine awesome, you can wax eloquent about it and everyone wins.
    Hurrah!

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    1. The big Apple is undoubtedly a much rougher place to be jobless. There's a safety net here. I'm not working much but have a little - the main reason things are tight is my portion of the debt mountain, and four kids (one in college). I realise what's coming in to the house is generous enough but it's rarely as much as what's going in the other direction. The overall scheme of things certainly won't be affected by the price of an album! Most of what I do buy now is direct from artists, I find, or where I know that each sale is counted. Money helps keep music coming out, after all. I know your stuff is really high quality anyway. I play it in playlists with Lee Scratch and Augustus Pablo and it doesn't suffer from the comparison.

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