Welcome to the ramblings of a man who really should have grown out of listening to "that sort of music" a long, long time ago...A place to share thoughts and photographs on music and related paraphernalia.
Showing posts with label Dimple Discs Records. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dimple Discs Records. Show all posts
We captured a great evening's entertainment at the Heavenly Social in London on November 6th with Undertones guitarist Damian O'Neill promoting his excellent new LP "An Crann" in a Q&A session hosted by Brian O'Neill of Dimple Discs Records and music journalist Ann Scanlon. As well as the story behind the record and its various influences, Damian also discussed various anecdotes from his time with The Undertones, That Petrol Emotion and The Everlasting Yeah. As well as tales of The Undertones on Top of The Pops, touring with The Clash and news of the forthcoming That Petrol Emotion box-set, we also find out how Damian nearly joined Dexys Midnight Runners and how he should have been a famous footballer! The episode is soundtracked by Damian's personal selection of songs from the new album. You can subscribe to Retrosonic Podcast for free at Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts or direct from our SoundCloud site below.
You can order "An Crann" from the Dimple Discs Records Bandcamp site here. For more information please check out Damian's official web-site here. Photos from the night copyright Retro Man Blog. Thanks to Damian and Viv, Ann Scanlon, Brian O'Neill and Neil Waite from The Undertones Rocking Humdingers Club page.
Top Photo, Damian with Dimple Discs boss Brian O'Neill. Third Photo, Damian with That Petrol Emotion, The Everlasting Yeah bassist Brendan Kelly. Fourth photo Damian with Ann Scanlon.
The Undertones played a blinder at the beautiful Art Deco De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea on Saturday, a thirty three song set-list packed full of their melodic Pop nuggets. There was certainly no let up in the intensity as the songs whizzed by and the always amusing Mickey Bradley even commented on the rapid-fire delivery, "You can hold your breath right through to the end of most of our songs" and "we're playing even faster so that Billy can get back to watch Match of The Day". The band are on top form and the wonderful backing vocal harmonies from Damian and Mickey really shine through, although the crowd give them a run for their money as they join in whole-heartedly. Paul's voice and confidence has come on leaps and bounds (in fact he does quite a lot of leaping and bounding on stage) since I first saw one of the early shows after the band got back together. The 'Paul-era' songs so brilliantly collected in the recent Dimple Discs compilation "Dig What You Need" are well represented and in particular "Oh Please", "Thrill Me" and "Dig Yourself Deep" are as good as any of the classics from their impressive back catalogue.
Mickey and James Brown with respective books - photo Retro Man Blog
But yes there's no escaping those classics and of course we get them all, "Here Comes The Summer", "Get Over You", a sublime "Wednesday Week", "Jimmy Jimmy" dedicated to Loaded editor James Brown and "Teenage Kicks" dedicated to the ever-youthful U.K. Subs frontman Charlie Harper, both present at the show. John and Damian's inter-twining guitars are as vibrant as ever and those timeless riffs on "You've Got My Number" and "I Know A Girl" really hit home. It's great that they play some of the less celebrated gems such as my favourite, the heart-tugging "Tearproof" and tracks such as "When Saturday Comes" and "Crisis of Mine". I recently wrote - at some length I know - on the importance and impact of The Undertones (and their various off-shoots) on my life in a feature on their stunning show at the Camden Electric Ballroom back in April so I won't repeat myself here, but needless to say The Undertones treated us to another life-affirming evening's entertainment. Anyway, please do check out my feature here if you would like to know just why they mean so much to me and there are lots of lovely photos if you do get bored with my heartfelt ramblings!
You can check out more videos from the show at our Retro Man Blog YouTube channel here.
Damian O'Neill has been busy outside of The Undertones too - the brilliant second album by 5 Billion In Diamonds to which he contributes, has finally been released on vinyl and then Dimple Discs will be putting out his new instrumental solo LP "An Crann" on coloured vinyl and CD. The vinyl pressing of this sounds particularly impressive and there have been advance copies for sale at recent Undertones shows. Before Saturday's show Damian told me he was a bit concerned what die-hard Undertones fans might think of the album seeing as it is all very atmospheric and instrumental, but I think anyone who did invest in a copy at the merchandise stands would be extremely impressed. As we discovered in our thoroughly entertaining career retrospective Retrosonic Podcast with Damian "From The Undertones to The Monotones" - he is no stranger to ambient and instrumental music and "An Crann" is a damn near perfect and satisfying listen. From the absolutely stunning opening track "Mas o Menos", which draws heavily on the Gitanes soaked Gallic atmosphere of Serge Gainsbourg's "Histoire de Melody Nelson" and The Liminanas, we are taken on an evocative journey through eleven beautifully constructed pieces of music.
"An Crann" is not Folk music and it's not an album of 'ambient soundscapes', or is it? It's very difficult to categorise. It could almost be the soundtrack to an imaginary movie or incidental music from a prime Nordic Noir drama and yet then sometimes I get hints of Anton Karas's "The Third Man" or John Barry's "The Persuaders" theme. Then there are very organic, pastoral pieces that take you right out of your living room and place you deep into the middle of some mysterious fog-bound forest. The album's sound and feel is captured perfectly in Damian's daughter Rosa's stunning cover photography, in fact as the album was mainly recorded at home during lockdown, "An Crann" is something of a family affair. Damian plays most of the instruments throughout and wife Viv, along with Rosa, both add suitably atmospheric and effective vocal harmonies to the proceedings. To promote the album, Dimple Discs have arranged a Q&A session with Damian in conversation with Ann Scanlon at The Social at 5 Little Portland Street in London on Sunday November 6th, doors open at 7pm and tickets can be bought here. Copies of "An Crann" will be available on the night but if you can't make it, you can order from Bandcamp here. Don't forget to check out our Retrosonic Podcasts with Damian, two on his own music and a special on That Petrol Emotion where Damian is joined by Raymond and Ciaran from the band - you can subscribe to Retrosonic Podcast for free at Spotify, iTunes, Apple Podcasts or direct from our SoundCloud site below:
For this very special episode of Retrosonic Podcast we are very pleased to welcome Claudia, Mary and Judy from Baby Shakes, New York's finest purveyors of pure Punk Power Pop into the virtual studio to discuss the band's history and influences. We chat about what it's like in New York for bands during lockdown, how the girls met, what inspired them to form a band and their song-writing process. We learn about some of the great musicians and artists they have gigged with and their favourite countries to play, including a special section on their affinity with Japan. Along the way they pick some of their favourite and most evocative songs including those that played a part in shaping the Baby Shakes sound. Then, of course we concentrate on the band's own music, from their very first single right up to date with their fantastic brand new release, "Sweet 'n' Sour", a glamtastic 7" single featuring Damian O'Neill and Billy Doherty from their heroes, The Undertones. You can subscribe to Retrosonic Podcast for free at Spotify, iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Mixcloud or directly from our Soudcloud site below, so sit back, turn up the volume and enjoy!
You can check out the recent Retrosonic Podcast with Damian O'Neill from
The Undertones here, where he also discusses working with Baby Shakes on the
"Sweet 'n' Sour" single. Podcover Photo by Nate Frohn. Retrosonic Theme
by Adam Donovan. For more information and news on Baby Shakes please
check out their official web-site here. Here's the superb video to "Sweet 'n' Sour", the single can be ordered
from Dimple Discs Records here. With thanks to Claudia, Mary & Judy.
As we once again return to an unwelcome period of lockdown it's time to invite another very special guest into the Retrosonic Podcast 'virtual studio'. So, for Episode 7 of our Lockdown Lowdown series I am delighted to welcome Damian O'Neill, guitarist with The Undertones, That Petrol Emotion, The Everlasting Yeah and (as Damian confesses) "guitar gunslinger for hire"! I wanted to find out more information about his recent collaboration with the excellent New York based Power Pop band Baby Shakes and their brand new single "Sweet 'n' Sour", a stomping version of a track from Damian's own solo album "Refit Revise Reprise". Damian and his Undertones colleague, drummer Billy Doherty produce and play on the single which also features a cover of the Undertones "Really Really". We talk about his involvement with Dimple Discs Records, the label he runs with good friend Brian O'Neill who have released "Sweet & Sour" as a stunning 7" single on coloured vinyl. We also discuss and play a track from another excellent Dimple Discs release from Eileen Gogan & The Instructions album "Under Moving Skies" and catch up with news on Damian's latest projects including new music from 5 Billion in Diamonds. Finally, we get a long-awaited update on what's been happening with The Everlasting Yeah. You can download/listen to the episode directly from the Retrosonic
Podcast Soundcloud site below or subscribe for free at Spotify, iTunes,
Apple Podcasts and Mixcloud.
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