GREAT IRISH BANDS, PART 27: JINX LENNON
Apr 20th, 2008 by Conor McCabe
(Photo by Graham Keogh.)
A lot has been written about Jinx Lennon. All positive, and all well-deserved. A true original voice. He’s been the subject of RTE’s Arts Lives, clips from which are available on YouTube here.
From his website biog:
Jinx takes the word singer songwriter,douses it liberally with petrol lights it up and then takes a piss all over the flames. Jinx creates a surreal baptist preacher persona in his shows and plays bullet paced acoustic and electro tunes ,slam poetry style pieces,and fiery duets with his stage partner the soulful Miss Paula Flynn. Tony clayton Lea described them recently within the Ticket section of the Irish Times as an ‘exhilarating provocative pairing’. Jinx has been touring and pushing out his fierce and uplifting music at home and abroad since 1999 after the demise of his former band Novena Babes who initially managed to get one song “Evening Gown”on the “First Transmission” compilation in 1997 that featured the mid 1990’s cream of Dundalk talent.Since then Jinx has been playing shows at home and abroad lighting up the bars of Reykjavik in Iceland,sitting on the back of a Greyhound bus touring the East coast of US ,and playing Antifolk festivals in London and Brighton with his secret weapon Miss Paula Flynn. At home in Ireland he has played Oxegen in 2006 and Electric Picnic(Leviathan Tent)in 2006/2007 and ,the Flatlakes Festival hosted by writer Pat Mc Cabe and film maker Kevin Allen in 2007,the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival in Belfast in 2005,the alternative Galway Arts Festival Project 06 in Galway Arts Festival Project 06 in Galway in 2006 and the Spiegeltent in Dublin Fringe Festival in 2005 and 2007. Jinx is also annexed to the Antifolk movement in the UK which is a combination of musicians who have come together to react against the rigidity and conservatism of music particular in the acoustic songwriter genre.His song ”Guitar=Magic Wand ” is on a compilation released there last summer called ”AFUK UK Vol 1 Up the Anti!
Jinx Lennon’s three albums are available to buy as mp3 downloads here.
My guitar is a magic wand. Video by Philip Evans.
Enjoy.
“his stage partner the soulful Miss Paula Flynn” - Dundalk, a bit theatrical, called Paula - don’t tell me there’s 2 of them ???
(rem. Regan’s / Scanlan’s - early to mid 90s)
Posting this comment from grey, grubby late April Dublin btw…. ;-
I had to review Gouger Nation for The Irish Times, and as Jinx was putting it out himself, I had to ring him and ask for a copy.
When I got the album, there was the sweetest handwritten note with it, that looked like it had been written by a seven-year-old.
Is Paula Flynn the same woman who does that Nouvelle Vague type version of ‘Let’s Dance’ on the Ballygowan ad?
It is indeed. I thought it was nouelle vague at first myself, but that version of ‘let’s dance is on her myspace.