Bonus Top Ten - Pete Holidai

Bonus Top Ten - Pete Holidai

"I'm going to smash my Telecaster through the Television Screen."

Todays Bonus Top Ten is a bit special, coming as it does from the legendary Pete Holidai, guitarist with perhaps Dublin's greatest contribution to rock 'n' roll, The Radiators from Space. His trebly Telecaster adorned their fabulous Television Screen and he made sure that the Ghostown rocked. Ghostown, you may have noticed, is at No 2 in my favourite albums list. Anyway it is a sign of the class of the man that he took the time to make up and send me his personal Top Ten.

The list includes early punk, some of punks glam precursors, and a taste for exotic sounds from the fifties, especially if space themed.

Top 102 Albums⁺ No 2. Ghostown

Top 102 Albums⁺ No 2.
Ghostown. The Radiators.

"I guess we had to get older
And the memories are scratched"
This is one of the great Irish albums, an album which seems to capture the essence of the Dublin of the time. Philip Chevron's accent, the pool halls, the cellar bars, the remains of rock 'n' roll, the tension between paralysis and defiance. Cabaret tinted theatricality, poetry and punk meet Brylcreem and bingo on the dark side streets of a city where the anger simmers in the juices of despair.
"The town clock tells her last week’s time"

Posting this is bittersweet given the very recent news that Philip Chevron, who has battled cancer, has seen that cancer return in an inoperable form and as he put it "this time the cancer is lethal." As well as being a Radiator, Philip released an excellent solo Brecht/Weill mini album Songs from Bill's Dance Hall and a single, Dominic Behan's The Captains and the Kings. He produced Agnes Bernelle's first two albums and most famously, was a member of The Pogues. He also composed music for theatre and much else besides. Hopefully this new stage in his life will be long and fruitful. His hope, is to make some 'notable musical contributions" to add to the many already made. None, I think, more notable than Ghostown.