GREAT IRISH BANDS, PART 13: FIVE GO DOWN TO THE SEA?
Nov 18th, 2007 by Conor McCabe
I think that you’re a nice girl,
I’ll take you home and meet my daddy,
And he’ll make a nice cup of tea.” (Elephants For Fun and Profit)
The search for Stump got me thinking about Finbarr Donnelly and Five Go Down To The Sea? Finbarr was the subject of a documentary broadcast on Cork Community Radio a couple of years back, entitled “Get That Monster Off The Stage”. I never heard it, and if anybody has a copy I’d love to have a listen. Thanks to Phoenix Hairpins for posting these MP3s in the first place. The following information comes from a comment left on his site.
Five Go Down To The Sea? were from Cork, Ireland and were originally called Nun Attax. They were fronted by the Northern Irish Finbarr Donnelly who was a legendary figure in Cork from the late seventies onwards. Contemporaries of Microdisney, the band moved to London circa 1984 and released the three EP’s posted here. There were a few radio sessions (one of which featured a track entitled ‘While My Guitar Meryl Streeps’) before the band resurfaced again in 1989, this time calling themselves Beethovven. Their sole release, the 12″ ‘Him Goolie Goolie Dem Man’ was single of the week in NME but unfortunately frontman Donnelly drowned in the Hyde Par serpentine pond after downing a considerable amount of cider. The rest of the band soon moved back to Cork.
The photograph I got from a French blog post which deals specifically with the “Knot A Fish 7″” (released c.1984), the songs of which are posted below.
Enjoy.
Fishes For Compliments: Play Now | Play in Popup Elephants for Fun and Profit: Play Now | Play in Popup There's a Fish on Top of Shandon (Swears he's Elvis): Play Now | Play in Popup Why Wait Until April: Play Now | Play in Popup
the re-edited documentary will be avilable as a podcast from Feb 15 2008 on www.getthatmonsteroffthestage.com
enjoy, Shane
That´s brilliant! Thanks for that Shane. Thanks for the comment and the link as well.
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20th Anniversary gig for Finbarr Donnelly on tonight in The Pavilion see http://www.pavilioncork.com/index.php/venue/venue_event_details/get_that_monster_off_the_stage
glad to see his legend lives on.(his brother)
his legend does live on kevin. he was a force of nature and he was brilliantly talented. i knew him in london through the mekons et al. i have great memories of the bands in their various incarnantions, of ricky and of finbarr. such a loss to his friends and to music in general.
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