The Ungathering - Happy St Patricks Day

The Ungathering - Happy St Patricks Day



Kevin Rowland's celebration of his Irish roots on My National Pride.

Below is a Spotify playlist for St Patrick's Day and the year that's in it. Given the focus this year on The Gathering, the big idea to boost tourism from the Irish diaspora it's strange how little I've heard about the major achievements of the diaspora. Surely as well as celebrating ourselves for staying behind to run the asylums, industrial schools and laundries and teach their children to doff their hats to their abusers we should celebrate those who got out and their progeny, who have achieved so much.

Punk Britannia, Episode II

Punk Britannia, Episode II - FRAGMENTS

Before episode three of BBC's documentary series celebrating the 35th 'Jubilee' of punk I thought I'd try to stitch together some fragments I jotted down into something resembling a blog post. I have already posted on episode one here.

For your listening pleasure (and some pain!) I have put together a playlist of the songs used in this episode.

New P.I.L. track - Lollipop Opera

Lollipop Opera
Here's a track from the new P.I.L. album, This is P.I.L. to be released May 28th. Good to hear John still in good voice.

Dexys (after 25 years)

Nowhere is Home
A preview track from the forthcoming Dexys album. (They've dropped the Midnight Runners)

Starting off with an affected voice Kevin excavates his identity, crossing terrain familiar from Sean Campbell's Irish Blood, English Heart.

A singer searching for a voice.

The Siege of Krishnapur

The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G.Farrell

I haven't laughed out loud at a book so much for quite a while. What began as a series of low civilised chuckles to myself ended up with quite a few loud guffaws and extended periods where laughter bubbled up from my stomach like carbon dioxide through soda water. I then had to sheepishly mumble to my partner that I was laughing at some particularly gory scenes of dismemberment.

The novel tells the story of an uprising in an isolated province in India which leads to an extended siege of the residence of the Collector, the chief bureaucrat in the province.

I feel obliged at this point to say that this review contains some spoilers although I feel that they will not in any way spoil the enjoyment to be derived from the book.

Irish Blood, English Heart

Irish Blood, English Heart - Sean Campbell

This books tells a story that has long fascinated me, the story of how the children of Irish emigrants to England became some of the most important musicians in English rock music. It focuses on the eighties, interrogating the stories of Kevin Rowland (Dexy's Midnight Runners), Shane McGowan (The Pogues) and Morrissey and Marr (The Smiths).

Grass grew on The Grass Arena

Just finished watching Paul Duane's intriguing and revealing documentary about the author of The Grass Arena - one of the starkest memoirs I have read of life on society's edge. The memoir tells of his life as an Irish immigrant with a violent father, as a boxer, a wino, a convict and then remarkably as a chess prodigy in his thirties, a game he learnt in prison.

The film is called John Healy - You Have Been Warned, although it has an alternate, and more poetic title Barbaric Genius.

Alternative Best Irish Albums for St Patricks Day

Original Post - Wednesday, March 17, 2010

I am currently working on a project about second generation Irish musicians in Britain and here is an off the cuff Best of to challenge the usual Irish lists. At least one parent of the main songwriter in all of the following are Irish and they have openly declared their Irishness.

Relax these guidelines a little and  The Beatles, The Faces, Elvis Costello and many, many more would be included..

The Pogues are the only band from England who ever seem to be considered in Irish listings but they are by no means the most Irish band and indeed only three of the original six members were of Irish descent.