{"id":578845,"date":"2026-08-01T12:56:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/578845\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T12:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:56:25","slug":"john-robb-looks-back-on-the-earliest-days-and-unreleased-music-of-fontaines-d-c-they-made-the-world-a-better-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/578845\/","title":{"rendered":"John Robb looks back on the earliest days and unreleased music of Fontaines D.C.: “They made the world a better place”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acclaimed writer and musician John Robb<\/a> has shared an excerpt from his new book in which he looks back on being one of the first people to discover Fontaines D.C.<\/a> and reveals info on two unreleased songs. Check it out below.<\/p>\n

Manchester legend Robb is a music journalist and author who is also frontman of punk veterans The Membranes. He was famously the first person to interview\u00a0Nirvana<\/a>, he discovered The Stone Roses<\/a> for Sounds, and did early agenda-setting interviews with the likes of The Jesus And Mary Chain<\/a> and Manic Street Preachers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As an author, he has published books about Oasis<\/a> and the history of goth music<\/a>, and runs his own website Louder Than War<\/a>. His latest work, Punk Rock Ruined My Life, is a memoir that captures his storied life in music. One of his lesser-told stories is how he discovered Fontaines D.C. back when they were at college, and nearly put out their first single.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a different version of \u2018Liberty Belle\u2019, but it was at more at demo stage with a rawer and punkier sound with great vocals which gave it an exciting edge,\u201d Robb told NME. \u201cI loved it then and love it now. It came with an unreleased and highly sought-after fan favourite track called \u2018Rubies\u2019, which again is thrillingly raw and a punky Ramones<\/a> rush. It\u2019s a great track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he\u2019d ever release the tracks from his vault, Robb replied: \u201cNo! It wouldn\u2019t be fair, as when they got signed I said I wouldn\u2019t. If they hadn\u2019t got signed it would have been released though!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FontainesFontaines D.C. perform at Night People in Manchester in 2018 (Photo by Visionhaus\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

When they first met a decade ago, Robb and frontman Grian Chatten<\/a> would regularly touch base via email about the Dublin band\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really happy they got a deal and on the perfect label for them [Partisan]. I\u2019ve bumped into him at a couple of festivals since then, and him and the band are really lovely people to see in that rushing around world we all occupy!\u201d added Robb.<\/p>\n

Check out the full excerpt from Punk Rock Ruined My Life below, in which Robb speaks of meeting the band in their earliest days while he was working with BIMM at their Dublin college. He would give one-to-one mentoring sessions with the students where he would answer their questions for around 90 minutes, which Rob admitted he found \u201cquite odd\u201d as he had enjoyed \u201cthe most unconventional of careers and was perhaps not really in a position to hand out advice to someone looking for a comfy job in the music biz\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn RObb\u2019s new book \u2018Punk Rock Ruined My Life\u2019. Credit: Press<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day this gangling youth came in, armed with his demo tape and his expectations. From his intense conversation it was quickly apparent that he was going to make his band\u00a0 happen. There was a steely-eyed vision and determination and a quest for knowledge. He then played me the three songs his band had recorded and they were thrilling slices of high-octane punk rock, with a post-punk and even a hint of Buddy Holly<\/a> twist. He told me his name was Grian Chatten and his band was called the Fontaines (a year later they\u00a0 added D.C. to their name, as in \u2018Dublin City\u2019, so as not to\u00a0 be mixed up with some long-lost American band). The songs were great and I decided there and then to release them as\u00a0 a single on my new label Louder Than War, which I had set\u00a0 up to spotlight a whole raft of new bands, like the mask wearing bass prog freaks Evil Blizzard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan was to release the Fontaines\u2019 single three months later, and to tie it in with a launch gig in Dublin at the Workman\u2019s Club where they would support The Membranes, to make sure there was some sort of crowd beyond a handful of college mates. I also gave the band their first write-up<\/a>, which was in Louder Than War, and I said I would try get\u00a0 them some radio play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s never easy for a new band to get attention, but I would have the chance to get songs to people on my travels around media land. Obviously none of this was paid work, more a manic-fan-of-new-bands enthusiasm. A couple of weeks later I was on BBC\u2019s 6Music on the Steve Lamacq show, doing Roundtable where we reviewed new songs. It was a great slot and I was on often with various other guests, talking about new releases with the ever enthusiastic DJ. During the show I was raving to Steve about\u00a0 the band and sent the tracks over to him, hoping that when the single came out he would pick up on it. Steve loved the\u00a0 band and would champion them a few months later, sparking a label stampede that got them signed to a bigger label than mine, so all the plans for me to release the debut single and play the launch gig were shelved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Fontaines took off\u00a0 pretty quickly and since then have gone from strength to\u00a0 strength. By 2025 they had become the key band on the guitar band scene, which has made the world a better place. That is the whole point, surely!\u201d<\/p>\n

John Robb\u2019s Punk Rock Ruined My Life is out now and available here<\/a>. He\u2019ll be heading out on a UK and European tour to discuss the book from September through to November. Visit here<\/a> for dates and more information.<\/p>\n

Fontaines D.C. recently lost their manager and \u201csixth member\u201d<\/a>, beloved Irish music figurehead Trevor Dietz. The band will soon be returning to make their live comeback in Spain<\/a> before a run of huge festival dates, which include headlining Reading & Leeds for the first time<\/a> in August.<\/p>\n

Fans are eagerly awaiting news of the follow-up to 2024\u2019s acclaimed \u2018Romance\u2019<\/a>. In January, guitarist Carlos O\u2019Connell told NME\u00a0about progress on new Fontaines D.C. material<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ve been writing, it\u2019s been fun,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe\u2019re at [Reading & Leeds] and there are a couple of shows before that. I think if the music is there, it could get busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if any new tunes could make their way onto the R&L setlists, O\u2019Connell replied: \u201cI\u2019d say so. If there is stuff written, then I would say so, yeah. That\u2019s what we used to do all the time, play the new stuff live \u2013 songs that weren\u2019t even finished. It\u2019s a good way to test the songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FontainesFontaines D.C. live at Reading 2024. Credit: Andy Ford for NME<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell was questioned on whether any of the visual elements of the\u00a0\u2018Romance\u2019 tour could remain for Fontaines\u2019 2026 dates, too. \u201cI think \u2018Romance\u2019 was so intense in every [way]\u2026 the visual, the production, the setlist\u2026 It wasn\u2019t just about the music,\u201d he told NME.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost a bit of the identity of the band now, but I guess that\u2019s the decision to make. Does that become the identity of the band, or actually, it\u2019s just a phase and you reinvent it? I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell continued: \u201cI personally like the idea of revisiting some old stuff at Reading & Leeds, making the setlist maybe a bit more \u2018Dogrel\u2019<\/a>-heavy. I\u2019m excited about that. I\u2019ve been listening to music like that much more. This morning I was listening to\u00a0Sonic Youth<\/a>. I want to go [in] that direction, but we\u2019ll see, because anything could happen now \u2013 literally anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last October, bassist Conor \u2018Deego\u2019 Deegan III told NME that Fontaines had been working on \u201clittle bits of ideas individually\u201d<\/a>. When asked what had been influencing him, he said: \u201cRecently, I\u2019ve been really getting into UK hardcore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Romance\u2019 landed at Number Two on NME\u2018s 50 best albums of 2024 list<\/a>, behind Charli XCX\u2019s \u2018Brat\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Acclaimed writer and musician John Robb has shared an excerpt from his new book in which he looks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-578845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}