SHOW SOME CONCERN - IRELAND’S BAND AID SONG, 1985
Jun 6th, 2008 by Conor McCabe
I came across this single in the St. Vincent de Paul shop on Sean McDermott Street. First of all, some stuff about the single from the Irish Times, 25 February 1985.
Irish music stars, major and minor, filled the Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin on Saturday last to produce a record along the lines of what Bob Gledof did with Band Aid, with the proceeds going to famine relief in Ethiopia and Sudan.
The group is called Concern*** and the song “Show Your Concern” is written by Paul Cleary of the Blades group. The money, aptly, will be channelled through Concern, the relief agency, whose director the Rev. Aengus Finucane, just back from Sudan, was there to thank them and to tell them what an uplifting effect the Band Aid effort had on the Irish workers in the famine region. “It’s great now to see the Irish groups going ahead with their own song,” he said. “We have to carry the message and keep up the response. It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.”
The recording is expected to released in about ten days.
Among those taking part are Freddie White, Maura O’Connell, B.P. Fallon, Red Hurley, Mary Black, Twink, Toy With Rhythm, Ray Lynam, Maxi, Auto Da Fe, Linda Martin and many more.”
*** The band was called The Concerned, not Concern.
I’m going to guess and say that the line-up shows at least some of the music artists who were a draw in Ireland at the time. Some of the other bands on the line-up included Fastway, Quarterdeck, Grand Slam, Those Nervous Animals, The Host, Light A Big Fire and The Blades. The song’s not great, but still, a bit of a curiosity.
enjoy!
(The above picture comes from the excellent website, Irish Punk and New Wave Discography.)
It’s amazing what treasures can be picked up among the bric-a-brac in charity shops - books, CDs, vinyl records and kitchen crockery. I buy good cheap shirts in such establishments.
Just one correction: the quote from the newspaper describes Fr. Aengus Fanning as the then Director of Concern. His name was actually Finucane and his brother was Fr. Jack Finucane. Both were Holy Ghost missionary priests in Nigeria during the awful civil war there in the late 60s and helped to found Africa Concern in order to bring medical and food relief to people in the war zone. I once met Jack, a self effacing man who taught himself to be a competent amateur maker of documentary films. Some of his graphic footage of refugees in Ethiopia in 1984 was shown on BBC, RTE and elsewhere and helped to mobilise Geldof and others to fundraise. The Finucane brothers were awarded the Freedom of Limerick in 2005.
That’s great stuff, thanks for that Ger. I’ve edited the post accordingly. Cheers.
Quick tidying-up there Conor! I’ll add that the occasion when I met Fr. Jack Finucane was sometime in the 80s just before Christmas when he talked to a Concern fundraising group about to hold a 24-hour fast in a small town west of the Shannon. He then showed in the hired hotel room on a 16mm projector some of his amateur footage shot in refugee camps and relief centres. He used to go on a tour of several towns doing these film shows in the run-up to annual Christmas fundraising fasts in aid of Concern.
I hope that the Irish Film Institute and any relevant archival bodies can acquire/have acquired copies of Jack Finucane’s amateur films. The organisation Gorta also commissioned the making of several 16mm film promotional pieces during the decades of the 60s to the 80s, showing agricultural projects being supported in Tanzania, Kenya, the Caribbean, India and elsewhere. I’d consider such promotional films to be an interesting part of the variegated 20th century Irish film heritage.
That sounds like incredible footage! Absolutely, part of our heritage.
I know one or two of the Gorta promotional films involved Dermod McCarthy of the Radharc documentary film unit that screened many b/w and colour items on Telefis Eireann/RTE over the years. These films might be listed in the filmography appended to Joe Dunne’s memoir of working with Radharc, titled No Tigers in Africa. RTE would have these items in its archive, but undoubtedly any other national film archive would benefit by having copies. I feel that all other Irish aid groups should be asked to provide copies of their assorted promotional films, before the film quality deteriorates or they get mislaid.
Could someone in your blog group write about film archival sources and libraries in Ireland? I think it’s important to make the general public more conscious about the historical and filmographic value of homemade and other amateur footage, whether 8mm or bigger, whether silent or with sound.
Hi Gar, would you be interested in writing something yourself? It would be great if you could. Just send it to us at dublinopinion@gmail.com
The Golden Horde had nothing to do with this ‘curiosity’.
Cheers Kevin. I’ve edited the post and removed the Golden Horde’s name.
Hello,
I’d like to let you all know that Concern recently deposited their film archive with us here at the Irish Film Archive ( part of the Irish film Institute). It is a very important document of Irish aid bringing relief in some of the most disadvantaged areas in the world. The collection joins the Irish Missionary Union collection and the Radharc film in collection and will be preserved for current and future generations. We will be screening 2 films from the collection at the IFI on the 23rd of July to celebrate Concern’s 40th anniversary.All are welcome.
Kasandra O’connell
Head of the Irish Film Archive,
Irish Film Institute
[…] Thanks to Kassandra O’Connell for the information. […]
Hey there, anyone who has this record and would like to sell, please contact me at andalou at sbcglobal dot net. Thank you Jen
Just caught a clip of this on Reeling In The Years - anyone know if a youtube video exists of it? cheers