{"id":633931,"date":"2026-09-23T23:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T23:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/633931\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T23:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T23:26:14","slug":"lise-hand-the-band-scene-was-irelands-only-boom-of-the-80s-and-man-was-it-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/633931\/","title":{"rendered":"Lise Hand: The band scene was Ireland’s only boom of the 80s, and man was it good"},"content":{"rendered":"

IF I HAD been among the massive cohort of citizenry which apparently crammed into the GPO during the 1916 Rising, I\u2019m pretty sure that I\u2019d have had a decent recollection of doing my patriotic bit, \u2019mid cannons\u2019 roar and rifles\u2019 peal.<\/p>\n

But I am old enough to have been present when similar vast swathes of the nation\u2019s youth allegedly stood on a different plot of Dublin city\u2019s sacred ground and bore witness to another iconic and momentous turning-point in Irish life.<\/p>\n

Swear to God I saw U2 play in the Dandelion Market.\n<\/p>\n

What do I remember of those groundbreaking gigs, back in 1979? Very bloody little.<\/p>\n

How did it feel to see Bono, Edge, Larry and Adam kickstart their extraordinary decades-long road trip? The main emotion was mild disappointment, to be honest, because the first time I saw U2 I had turned up expecting to see another local band instead, called DC Nein.<\/p>\n

Now, DC Nein were everything an up-and-coming outfit should be \u2013 all swagger and style, with polished punky songs and smart lyrics. They were pure class, and the band was definitely destined for the big time (i.e. a London record deal). No question about it.<\/p>\n

\"the-edge-and-bono-from-u2-live-at-a-concert-on-the-the-unforgettable-fire-tour-at-wembley-arena-london-11141984-usage-worldwide\"
\n The Edge and Bono performing in Wembley Arena in 1984. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n

Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n

And U2? Meh.<\/p>\n

Such perspicacity. Is it any wonder that less than a decade later I was working as a music journalist and reporting on how U2 attained the holy grail long sought by many Irish bands before them \u2013 they broke into the mainstream American market. Up until that point, even rock\/blues\/new wave luminaries such as Horslips, Rory Gallagher, Thin Lizzy and The Boomtown Rats had never managed to pull that off. Van Morrison did, but on a more modest scale, notching up US record sales of about 10m, compared to U2\u2019s 52m-plus which includes eight Number One albums on Billboard.<\/p>\n

(Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor did achieve huge commercial success and break into the US music market in 1990 with \u201cNothing Compares 2 U\u201d and her album \u2018I Do Not Want What I Haven\u2019t Got\u2019, which topped the Billboard charts. But her mainstream American career was sharply derailed in the furore following her shredding of a pontifical photo live on prime time telly.)<\/p>\n

Game changer<\/p>\n

Whether you love U2 or bristle at the sight of Bono\u2019s visage, it is an incontrovertible fact that the band\u2019s 1987 album \u2018The Joshua Tree\u2019 changed everything, and in more ways than one.<\/p>\n

\"u2-concert-ticket-for-the-war-tour-birmingham-odeon-uk-1983\"
\n A ticket for a U2 concert in Birmingham in 1983. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n

Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n

When the band flew a handful of Irish music writers to New York to catch a few gigs, we were staggered by the size of their success and the sheer scale of the tour. We landed to find the four familiar heads on the cover of Time magazine. A single from the album, \u201cI Still Haven\u2019t Found What I\u2019m Looking For\u201d was at the top of the American charts.<\/p>\n

They were selling out stadiums. Like, stadiums! Most of us had never set foot inside such ginormous indoor venues before, and here were the lads with not a bother on them, shaking the rafters and screening images of American military hardware during \u2018Bullet the Blue Sky\u2019 while slagging off the likes of President Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n

Suddenly all the band\u2019s songs and shapes made sense, let loose in the wide open spaces of America.<\/p>\n

U2 didn\u2019t \u2018put Ireland on the map\u2019 \u2013 Joyce, Beckett et al. might want a word \u2013 but the band did help reshape the international view of it. Post-1987, Irish travellers often found the phrase \u201cOf course I know Bono\u201d very useful as a letter of introduction, and it beat the hell out of patiently explaining that no, Ireland isn\u2019t part of England, nor is the entire island being torn apart by daily bombs.<\/p>\n

Nor was U2 solely responsible for launching a golden era for homegrown bands, but their unstoppable ascent through the \u201880s from local to global act undeniably supercharged it.<\/p>\n

It may be 50 years this week since Paul Hewson, David Evans aka The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr first assembled in the drummer\u2019s kitchen, but they weren\u2019t the only bunch of teens on musical manoeuvres \u2013 over the next decade or so, bands sprang to life across the country.<\/p>\n

A wave of talent<\/p>\n

For the musically-inclined in the \u201880s, it was often a choice between the two E\u2019s: Emigration or Electric Guitar. Or one might even give rise to the other \u2013 after all, the Boomtown Rats had moved to London and made it onto \u2018Top of the Pops\u2019, the weekly worship on Thursday nights when every youngster blessed with access to BBC TV, stopped doing their ekker to pay homage.<\/p>\n

In fact, the band scene may have been the only boom industry in Ireland in the 1980s. The counterpoint to the grim Imperial March beat of the economy was a fusillade of riffs alongside lyrics shaped by daily life. Open a door to any spare room, garage or vacant premises, and a bunch of lads \u2013 and some lassies \u2013 would tumble out pell-mell like skeletons from Donald Trump\u2019s closet.<\/p>\n

Music, mostly of the rock kind, seeped up through floorboards, floated out through windows, hit you between the eyes when you walked into a pub.<\/p>\n

Bootlegged cassettes of gigs did a roaring trade; the flotilla of pirate radio stations filled the air with song; Hot Press and In Dublin magazines reviewed gigs, even the small ones.<\/p>\n

Anywhere with room for a stage could be a venue, but the capital in particular was buzzing with tiny-to-medium ones such as the Magnet, the SFX, The TV Club, The Olympic Ballroom, The Underground, McGonagles, and the Top Hat which was out in the sticks of Dun Laoghaire. And there was the music mecca of The Baggot Inn, the dimly-lit, ciggie-perfumed, shabby, sweaty backroom which hosted most Irish bands. But it also welcomed onstage the likes of David Bowie, Tracey Chapman, and a lad dressed as Jesus\/Bono atop an actual donkey (not all at the same time, alas).<\/p>\n

\"paul-cleary-and-the-partizans-perform-at-the-baggot-inn-dublin-in-1989-image-shot-021989-exact-date-unknown\"
\n A performance at The Baggott Inn by Paul Cleary and the Partisans. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n

Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n

MTV USA, presented by Vincent Hanley \u2013 known to all as Fab Vinny \u2013 landed in 1984 and we all watched that. Slane Castle began its siren call to music\u2019s A-List who hitherto gave damp, unglamorous, bomb-riddled Ireland a skip when planning their world tours. And some famous folk even dwelt among us in the \u201880s \u2013 albeit mostly in self-imposed exile for tax reasons.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t just the quantity of bands which formed and gigged in the early-to-mid \u201880s, it was the quality of them also which was remarkable.<\/p>\n

Randomly and in no particular order \u2013 and this is by no means a definitive list so don\u2019t be having a go \u2013 there were the likes of The Radiators, The Blades, The Virgin Prunes, Tuesday Blue, Blue In Heaven, Auto Da Fe, The Fountainhead, The Fat Lady Sings, In Tua Nua, Something Happens, Aslan, the Hothouse Flowers, Microdisney, Light A Big Fire, A House, Cry Before Dawn, Whipping Boy, My Bloody Valentine, The Stunning, The Sultans of Ping. From across the border, we listened to noisy bastards such as The Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers, Therapy? and That Petrol Emotion.<\/p>\n

Many of them were incredible live bands, garnering devoted live followings. Anyone could catch a cracking band somewhere every night of the week and everyone had a favourite (Something Happens were mine).<\/p>\n

The explosion of rock bands may well have taken place \u2013 pardon the obvious pun \u2013 with or without U2.<\/p>\n

But what the success of the band did do was turn the gaze of the wider music business, in particular the British record companies, to the marvellous music melee which was in full roar across the water.<\/p>\n

A&R men (Artists & Repertoire, always men) stampeded to Dublin in their droves in search of \u2018The Next U2\u2019, the pockets of their flashy suede jackets bulging with expenses, to do the rounds of the venues \u2013 where they would be promptly fleeced by chatty gig-heads on the lookout for free drink and then poured into a taxi just in time to catch the first flight back to London with a nagging feeling they had just signed a four-piece called \u2018Yer Ma\u2019.<\/p>\n

Next generation<\/p>\n

Heady times. But the enormous scale of U2\u2019s success meant that Ireland was now regarded from London to LA as a happy hunting-ground for scouting talent, and the second wave of 1990s Irish bands including The Frames, The Corrs, The Thrills, The Cranberries and Snow Patrol were part of the crop which more easily attracted widespread attention \u2013 the first two bands also benefited from appearing in \u2018The Commitments\u2019, the 1991 movie adaptation of Roddy Doyle\u2019s book on the Dublin music scene.<\/p>\n

\"the-corrs-backstage-at-the-glastonbury-festival-1999-somerset-england-united-kingdom\"
\n The Corrs backstage at Glastonbury in1999. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n

Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n

Of course Irish bands and artists are still flying it these days, both at home and abroad. But there was something special and remarkable about the profusion of brilliant bands in 1980s\u2019 Ireland, playing as if the devil was after them, kicking against the literal and metaphorical pricks, doing it all for fame, for a laugh and for the sheer love of it.<\/p>\n

Several decades on, and many of those band\u2019s songs still sound vibrant, powerful and relevant.<\/p>\n

How some of them never got to play in ginormous American stadiums, I\u2019ll never understand.<\/p>\n

Which makes the fact that U2 went from the Dando to US football stadiums in the space of eight years and have remained at that level since, all the more extraordinary.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not ashamed to admit that this former music writer got it wrong. U2 were better than DC Nein.<\/p>\n

But they\u2019re still not as good as Something Happens.<\/p>\n

Lise Hand is a journalist and writer. This column runs every Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IF I HAD been among the massive cohort of citizenry which apparently crammed into the GPO during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[76388,93,61,60,269138,229656,278,269139,5743],"class_list":["post-633931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bands","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-talent","tag-lise-hand","tag-music","tag-rock-bands","tag-rock-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633931","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=633931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}