I am ashamed to be Irish

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the Irish music awards are on television.

it was pretty bad, but now they are honouring Phil Coulter for a lifetime of achievement to bad music...

... and he has just been joined by Sinead O'Connor for a lovely rendition of "Scorn Not His Simplicity" (a lovely song about how someone with mentally retarded child should not scorn his simplicity, 'but rather try to love him all the more'; makes you think, eh?).

I am slitting my wrists as I type.

when does your country's music make you think of emigrating and joining another ethnic group?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 21:51 (twenty-three years ago)

he's just been joined by Brian Kennedy.

Kill me now, God, I can endure no more.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 21:53 (twenty-three years ago)

when does your country's music make you think of emigrating

Hell, the world's does sometimes. But the moon is not accepting at present.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 21:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, well the flag-waving era of Chris Evans and the Spice Girls on the Brits was equally as cringe-worthy as what you describe above, DV.

Anyway, we gave 'em K. Shields and V. Morrison which is enough to outweigh the tidal wave of shite which has exploded out of the Emerald Isle in the last 20 odd years for me...(sorry about U2 and the Cranberries, everyone).

― Venga, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 22:34 (twenty-three years ago)

That's because all of the musical people crossed the pond.

[ducks]

― Kerry (dymaxia), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 22:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Phil Coulter is great!He deserves an award more than most of the shit that gets awards these days.It's about time we started honouring these old guys a bit more.He & Bill Martin wrote LOADS & LOADS of brilliant 60's & 70's songs:
Puppet on a String
Hi Hi Hazel
The Bump
Saturday Night
Forever & Ever
All of me loves all of you
Fancy Pants
Julie Anne
Requiem
Heart of Stone
I'll add a few more to this list later.You've really pissed me off,this guy is a fucking genius!

― Paul R (paul R), Thursday, 6 March 2003 07:55 (twenty-three years ago)

phil coulter has a house just up the road from me. i used to play football with his son every now and again.

the thing that most horrifies me about music in ireland is the way people bang on and on about the frames as if they've ever, y'know, written a decent song or something.

but yeah, we gave em shields! the british always try and lay claim to mbv. stubbs mentioned them in the britpop article as one of the reasons british music was good in the early 90's. the NME describes "loveless" this week as "one of the country's true masterpieces." they're ours, goddamnit! Although from what i've read they've no desire to belong to any particular country.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Thursday, 6 March 2003 10:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Jaysus Vic, next you'll be saying that Aslan aren't the greatest rock band ever to come out of this wodnerful island.

But if you watch that kinda programme you get what you deserve - hours of soul-sapping shite.

Now just nobody mention the C@rrs or we'll be deluged in shit from their fans like wot happened on the Iggy vs the C@rrs thread.

― tigerclawskank, Thursday, 6 March 2003 10:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Saw a bit of it on RTE last night too DV. Very cinge inducing. For once an Al Queda attack would have been justified!!!

― David Gunnip, Thursday, 6 March 2003 10:45 (twenty-three years ago)

cringe, no cinge!

― David Gunnip, Thursday, 6 March 2003 10:46 (twenty-three years ago)

MBV are a British indie band. some of their members may be from Ireland, but they owe nothing to this country.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 6 March 2003 11:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Jaysus Vic, next you'll be saying that Aslan aren't the greatest rock band ever to come out of this wodnerful island.

well, of course not. obviously that honour belongs solely to Cactus World News.

have we had a Self Aid: C or D thread yet? i forget.

― rener (rener), Thursday, 6 March 2003 12:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually "the Cac's" weren't the worst.

Didn't the Blades do an anti-Self Aid gig on the same day?

― tigerclawskank, Thursday, 6 March 2003 12:45 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm Welsh.

Stereophonics.

Nuff said.

― mei (mei), Thursday, 6 March 2003 12:55 (twenty-three years ago)

DV? This might be a sore spot, but I have to ask: Whats your POV on the Pogues?
Do you see them as:
a) Fun Fun Fun Punk Band with a healthy and novel use of old Irish song styles.
b) An egregious quasi-racist insult to your noble heritage (ie. they portray/perpetuate the stereotype of ignorant drunken Irish thug?)

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Thursday, 6 March 2003 14:05 (twenty-three years ago)

A few more Phil Coulter smashes:
Congratulations
Shang-A-Lang
Remember(Sha-la-la)
Summerlove Sensation
My Boy

― Paul R (paul R), Thursday, 6 March 2003 14:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Casting "Ressurect Thread"
No, seriously. I really would like to know: Is it true that the Irish hate/are embarrased by the Pogues?

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Not in the slightest, Lord Custus. They come from and speak to a subset of the Irish - namely the London/UK-based diaspora but they are a band that wouldn't be considered cringe-inducing, musically anyway...
As well as the themes of alienation and exile specific to young London Irish, they tackle alcoholism and the love of the "craic" (i.e. fun 'n' goodTimes) which would be more general...
For a lot of people, they've cossetted previously-hated Irish traditional music in a rock blanket and made it more acceptable to the Kids...

― Minky Starshine (Minky Starshine), Thursday, 6 March 2003 19:02 (twenty-three years ago)

regarding the Pogues: I like some of their stuff. I'd never really thought about that whole drunken Irish thing they have going, but I reckong it is part of what's great about them. Oddly, when McGowan became more of a sad alcoholic in real life their music became a bit more lovely song oriented, and therefore playing less on drunkenness as a concept, and therefore less good.

Their "Red Roses For Me" album is the only one I have any great familiarity with. It's top stuff, McGowan writing songs that sound like they've been around forever. 'The Boys From County Hell' is a particular favourite.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 6 March 2003 19:48 (twenty-three years ago)

by the way, Phil Coulter is still shit.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 6 March 2003 19:51 (twenty-three years ago)

hmm,i was listening to loveless the other day and noticed for the first time how irish they sounded...
now whether i would have thought that if i didn't know they were irish is another matter,but i reckon so...
loads of it sounds vaguely like there's someone playing some sort of trad in the background (while hoovering a cathedral of sound,etcetc)

― robin (robin), Thursday, 6 March 2003 20:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Man, if you are only familiar with Red Roses for Me you really shouldn't slag their next few records. Rum, Sodomy & the Lash is fantastic, and everything with Shane has something on it worth hearing. Even Shane's own recent stuff has some gems.

― sammy, Thursday, 6 March 2003 21:24 (twenty-three years ago)

i love summer in siam

― robin (robin), Thursday, 6 March 2003 21:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Rum, Sodomy & the Lash is fantastic,
I concur. Check the "Turning an Almost Ran into a Masterpeice" thread (...and search for my name) for more details.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 7 March 2003 05:26 (twenty-three years ago)

I loved the first 2 lps but hated the Poguetry In Motion EP and am so-so on the later stuff. Some nice songs but the big hits are too cheesy for my taste.

Now what about the Hothosue Flowers?

― tigerclawskank, Friday, 7 March 2003 10:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmmm.. You guys seem to forget about "Back Home". :-)

Btw.. If Coulter is Irish, doesn't writing a fan song for the English national football team make him some sort of a Quisling?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 8 March 2003 01:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Man, if you are only familiar with Red Roses for Me you really shouldn't slag their next few records.

I know the later singles... Rainy Night In Soho, Fiesta, etc. - nein danke. I am not familiarising myself with albums sporting bad singles.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 13:18 (twenty-three years ago)

incidentally, Rener saw McGowan do a storming version of And The Band Played Waltzing Mathilda at the monster anti war demo in Dublin a few weeks back. so he is still alive.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 13:20 (twenty-three years ago)

I am not familiarising myself with albums sporting bad singles.
Check my short write-up at the end of the "Turn an Also Ran into A Masterpiece" thread.
I suspect whichever Pogue chooses which songs gets released as a single needed to be shot. I've always protested that "Fiesta" is the awful "obligatory stinker" track off the otherwise perfect "If I Should Fall From Grace With God" (an album that has only that irritating song as its only blemish.)
Also, despite "Rainy Night is Soho" being rather marginal, the album is came from is about half as good as "If I Should Fall...", ergo, it's not perfect, but it's still a 3.5 or 4 out of 5 stars.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 13:32 (twenty-three years ago)

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