Sunday, 28 April 2013
Teenage Kicks - Undertones best Irish band ever?
Yes, there are a lot of things going on in Ireland at the moment.
AIB have hiked their interest rates, though the ECB will soon lower them.
Fianna Fail, the party of gobshites that bankrupted the country, look set to get back into power at the next general election - with the Shinners as natural coalition partners - thanks to the short memories of the Irish electorate. Are 800 years short? There must be an element of selectivity at play.
I don't know about you, but I've had enough of the whole shooting match, so I'm off up my hole like the rest of them.
Gombeen Nation is now a leisure blog (apart from when needs dictate otherwise). I'm too busy doing other things to be arsed chronicling what a mad place Ireland is; such as getting used to some recently acquired gadgets - decent camera (with video), dashcam, and VideoStudio Ultimate. Sorry - it's for the sake of my - admittedly disputed - sanity.
Anyway. I can't sing to save my life, but I can play OK I think - so excuse the vocals. Here's my "tribute" The Undertones (first clip), and their seminal (as opposed to semenal) Teenage Kicks.
It was tough being a lad back then. I suppose some things have improved, at least.
So.
Best Irish band ever : The Undertones.
Second best? A photo finish between The Blades, Thin Lizzy, The Boomtown Rats, The Radiators, Stiff Little Fingers, The Outcasts and maybe a few others. Suggestions welcome.
And for the future (and the revelant past), there's Cavan songsters The Strypes covering an Eddie Holland Motown number... though they do lots of other good things too.
Some hope, perhaps?
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16 comments:
hey gb, hang in there, we need people like you to keep the rest of us sane living in this madhouse thats a cross between craggy island and north korea.
on the music side how can you forget horslips and "the tain": a brilliant expose of dirty dealing in the cattle trade that would make even larry goodman blanche (well...maybe),
keep the faith, (no,not that one!)
"...this madhouse thats a cross between craggy island and north korea."
Excellent, Dirtybertie. Thanks.
Ah here what's this leisure blog business all about? You going in for Oirelands got talent. As DiiiiirrrrtyBertie was hinting at, with GN on the sidelines ff and the Maaaadddd Oirish have won the day. You see GM the culture is tooo poooowwerful. As the old saying predicts, there is only ever to outcomes, put up or shut up.
Good focals by the way. Here's to stardom GM! ;)
Hi GM, with dirtiebirtie on this one, hang in there.
Some excellent sounds you have going - The Undertones (yeah, you can play), The Blades (best Dublin band ever) and The Styrpes - the modfather (Weller) himself said he would have to up his game when he heard Josh McClory - well deserved praise indeed.
KTF
well, when i was younger i used to think things would get better as soon as "THE PEOPLE" realised the political class was riding them sideways,eventually i realised that the political class was actually drawn from "THE PEOPLE",(i know, im a bit slow on the uptake), anyway its not so much that the "oirish are mad"as dc3 suggests, its more (i think) that were a bunch of chancers, spoofers and criminals(thats FF by the way!), love the blog, please keep it up!
DirtyBertie, DC3, Ella, thank you for your very kind comments. It's nice to know there are a few of us, at least, who think the same about this place.
GN isn't going away just yet... only bit of a maudlin moment, I think. But really, I do think when you're concentrating on the craziness of the place, you're in danger of going mad yourself... Think I read somewhere that psychiatric nurses were often in need of their own TLC, being exposed to madness all the time.
Stardom, DC3, I wish! It would be a ticket out of the place. Maybe I could give Bono a bit of competition in eradicating world poverty, as I minimised my taxes at the same time?
Ella, Paul Weller is not given to easy praise, so those words on Josh really mean something. He is an excellent guitarist... and so sickeningly young, as they all are!!!
Dirtybertie, that's the whole point. I'm sick of hearing "what about de peeple???". "De Peeple" are the problem, the f*****s! "De Peeple" who voted for Lowry, Haughey, Dev and B-B-Bertie. Their votes increasing in direct proportion to their corruption!
im reminded of the night lenihan senior(charlies de capo)was on the late late show relating the story of a garda who was trying (repeatedly)to remove him and his cronies from a hostelry in the small hours, eventually, lenihan told the audience, i said to the guard (who was only trying to do his duty)....."ye can either have a drink or have a transfer to the west of ireland" at which point the studio erupted into howls of laughter... the gobshites..., i think that rather nicely sums up the irish mindset.
I can just picture it...
A well deserved rest I think and so many good products to discover. Get your new leisure arse over to France in the next couple of weeks while we're in Normandy and I'll take care of the bar bill which is the least I can do for having had the pleasure of your awesome blog for years now. YEARS!!!! Jesus
Pb
Cheers PB. Much as I'd love to visit Normandy - had a spontaneous visit to Utah Beach the last time over in that direction - I'm afraid no chance anytime in the next few weeks. The drudgery of being a wage slave!
I appreciate the input and support of you, Ella, DC3, DirtyBertie and the other readers and commenters.
Not gone away just yet... but bloody hell, Sisyphus's exertions were no myth.
Here's a nation of gobshites ready to vote FF back into power next election, as predicted long ago on the blog.
What else CAN you really say?
Regarding your blog becoming a "leisure blog"... I don't comment a lot but I've followed your blog for years now. On one side I'm disappointed, but at the same time I can't say I'm surprised. For years your blog has been a voice of sanity in a giant swelling wave of lunacy. All I need is to read any Irish newspaper for 15 minutes to be confronted with that feeling that I'm in a parallel dimension.
However I noticed that your output had slowed significantly despite being a neverending torrent of insanity on the news. It can't be easy, stuck between insanity and hate mail for pointing out said insanity.
You will be missed... but hopefully your past articles will remain for posterity.
Thanks Bulwark. I'm not giving up - just slowing down... The fact that there are a few of us out there is encouraging.
Do you ever wonder why there are so few out there writing about it?
I've certainly wondered on many an occasion, Bulwark. Maybe we are cranks? Maybe the great Irish public is correct? The people who thought propety prices could go up and up for ever.
I don't think so though. If you look at a comment I've just published on the Guests of the Nation post you'll get some idea of the gobshite mentality so prevalent in our little land.
GM, the big irony is that I'm not even Irish myself, I only moved here for personal reasons not knowing much of anything about Ireland, and after a few months I pretty much came to the exact same conclusions you have, just in a completely different way. I read what you write, and sometimes it's almost as if it were me writing.
I think for me, what made me open my eyes, is the state of public services and infrastructure which is essentially Third World. And I really mean that literally. But meanwhile for the civil servants "providing" said services, they actually get paid more than almost anywhere on Earth. However point out the sad state of affairs and it gets you shot down as a bigoted anti-Irish who should STFU and go home. Because, of course, the first thing an anti-Irish bigot does is... move to Ireland. Gotta keep that hate going!
That and way too much race hate crap that, again, when you point it out to Irish people you thought were friends, will deny deny deny as if the honour of Eire depended on it. The usual crap like "it's no different to everywhere else", "you don't know it was because you're not Irish", "there is equal amount of racism against the Irish in Ireland", or my absolute favorite, "ah sure but they're just having a bit of craic". You know, because nothing says 'super happy fun time' like mobbing the only Black dude at a crowded bus stop on O'Connell Street... ah sure don't we all enjoy a bit of attention? I witness about 1 unprovoked attack on a non-White person every week, but sure, there is no problem, and therefore we don't need to have hate-crime statistics because we already know there is no problem.
Basically, that the country is rife with problems (infrastructure, race, the economy, the list is rather long) but instead of dealing with them people just lie to your face. Just straight in the eyes and lie, rather than losing face. Obviously not everyone does, but most often that's what happens. It's almost like an automatic defense. Damndest thing.
It's a madhouse out there in Ireland, GM, and the only thing worse about everything being crap is that you can't even be honest and open about it. You have to do it anonymously on a blog in cyberspace to be able to express what really ought to be blatantly obvious to anyone. Honestly reading your blog is like a reminder of sanity in what is otherwise a land where nothing really makes any sense, or like being in some parallel universe where gravity goes up and Ringo was a really good drummer! And yet I still wonder, why is Ireland like that? Was it always like that?
Thanks for your thoughts on the blog Bulwark. Such comments make me think it is worthwhile.
To be honest, Bulwark, I can't remember Ireland and the Irish (for the most part) being any other way. Anyone with a spark of originality, like Joyce, Shaw and so on, had to flee the place.
I was born here and lived here up until my early twenties before spending some 9 years in London, and a couple more in Luxembourg (don't ask). I worked in Germany for a bit too, so - like you - I have had experience of other environments. I've been back here for some years know, but wonder what the f*** I was thinking of, sometimes.
I don't know if it is down to the C-Church run, "a h'oi a do a tri" rote educational techniques - which were more like a form of religious/cultural brainwashing, but it has been my experience that my fellow countrypeople just do not do criticism of country as a rule, nor do they take it kindly. As you say, it's like a personal insult to them, and then they will start banging on about Kevin Barry (like the drunken no-good father in Angela's Ashes), the famine, "The Brits" or the famous 800 years.
It's like a stuck record (though they are probably before your time!).
I wish they'd change it, but it will never happen. The generation coming up are as bad as anything that went before, only in text speak.
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