The Archive archive’d
Rock Roots: The Irish Rock Music Archive
by rockroots
3y ago
At my peril do I announce the end of this project, having done so at least once many years ago. So never say never, but there’s a couple of reasons for stopping now. The most obvious is that I’ve simply run out of cool records to share – though I’m always on the lookout for more. More to the point, I want to turn my attention to other projects. Besides all this, other sites now offer a more democratic and inclusive way to talk about these great bands. Starting this site over ten years ago, it seemed like these musicians were written about by only a dedicated few, and heard almost never. But ti ..read more
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Irish Rock Family Trees
Rock Roots: The Irish Rock Music Archive
by rockroots
3y ago
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My Cassette Pet
Rock Roots: The Irish Rock Music Archive
by rockroots
3y ago
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Paddy Is Dead And The Kids Know It
Rock Roots: The Irish Rock Music Archive
by rockroots
3y ago
Like last week’s offering, this compilation LP from 1969 has become something of a collector’s item. The weird title and theme is explained in the sleeve notes by Pat Egan: “For far too long the Irish image has been one of donkey carts, pigs in the kitchen and Paddys. To-day a new scene is happening so Paddy is gone.” Thus we get a wonderful photo of a grinning young Irish skinhead leaning on ‘Paddy’s‘ gravestone. The concept, then, from the Pye label’s budget ‘Golden Guinea’ imprint, was to show the new side of the Irish music scene – no more “showbands and ballad groups” or “songs their fat ..read more
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Dreams – The Best of / Singles
Rock Roots: The Irish Rock Music Archive
by rockroots
3y ago
The Dreams – or simply Dreams (without the definitive article), as they were on most of their record labels – started out as the new group of a successful beat singer, but arguably ended up as the old group of their famous guitarist. The Movement from Dublin released two great singles in the first half of 1968, all freakbeat clatter and distorted guitar. Singer John Farrell then made the jump from the beat underground to the more lucrative showband circuit. That might be a little misleading, though, as Dreams were definitely at the sharper end of the spectrum. Unlike the showbands, they relea ..read more
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Bojangle – Smile Little Lady
Rock Roots: The Irish Rock Music Archive
by rockroots
3y ago
Bojangle was one of many bands to emerge from the fertile music scene of 1960s Limerick. Denis Allen and Tom Frost played guitar and drums respectively in a line-up of the Berwyn Showband in the late ’60s (replacing guitarist Willie Browne who was forming Reform). In 1969 Allen and Frost teamed with Bobby O’Driscoll (bass) and Brendan Frawley (keyboards) as The Embers. After a few false starts, and losing Frawley, they became Bojangle in 1971. This was the first of their two singles, written by Allen and with a ‘B’-side by Barry O’Driscoll – perhaps related to Bobby, but apparently an origina ..read more
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Sunshine – Dance With Me
Rock Roots: The Irish Rock Music Archive
by rockroots
3y ago
As noted in any biography of this band, their history is unfathomable. A group called Sunshine existed briefly in the mid to late 1960s, made up of survivors from the first wave of the Belfast blues scene. Apparently unrelated, Belfast showband Candy began in 1969 before evolving into a pop group known first as Bang and then as Sunshine. That band came to an end in 1973, after which guitarist Stuart Bingham was involved with a group called Tapestry. In 1974 a new version of Sunshine was launched, featuring Bingham, his Tapestry colleagues Irene McIlroy (vocals), Shaun Magee (bass) and Ardy Mo ..read more
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The Clowns
Rock Roots: The Irish Rock Music Archive
by rockroots
3y ago
Presumably, The Clowns had no idea that ‘trolls’ would come to mean something else entirely in the internet age. In fact, if it’s hard to know exactly what they are singing about in this 1981 single, it might be because it was written by Dutch group BZN. The lyrics concern a Scottish sailor who warns his audience that the trolls will one day ruin humanity (perhaps they did know what they were talking about after all?). BZN themselves started playing rock ‘n’ roll in the mid-1960s before moving to hard rock for a while, and then back to pop in the late ’70s. After a long career they split in 2 ..read more
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Skid Row – Alive and Kickin’
Rock Roots: The Irish Rock Music Archive
by rockroots
3y ago
News of the death of Noel ‘Nollaig’ Bridgeman has prompted this post. A fairly unassuming gentleman by all accounts, with his immaculate ‘celtic afro’ and handlebar moustache he was also that rarity among Irish rock musicians – someone who actually looked like a star. Most of all, though, it was his talent that saw him have an extraordinarily long career as a session drummer through many decades and musical styles. He first made a name for himself in Skid Row alongside singer Phil Lynott, guitarist Ben Cheevers and bassist Brush Shiels. Bridgeman was in and out of the band often throughout it ..read more
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Keltic Wine (& St Patrick’s Day)
Rock Roots: The Irish Rock Music Archive
by rockroots
3y ago
17 March is of course Ireland’s national holiday but, arguably of even more importance, today also marks the tenth anniversary of the Rock Roots blog. Back in 2011 I didn’t expect to get away with sharing old records for more than a few months, so to still be writing new posts a decade later is astonishing. It also makes me wonder if I should have been doing something more productive with my time. In any case, this blog would have had a much shorter shelf life if there had been no interest in it, but it’s now approaching 92,000 clicks from over 43,600 individual visitors. That’s an incredible ..read more
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