GREAT IRISH QUIFFS No. 1 : 80s PSYCHOBILLY
Feb 13th, 2009 by Sean Baite
[the disappointingly quiff-free Gorehounds from irishrock.org ]
Mentioning any of the bands to follow makes perfect sense to me following on from the death last week of the Cramps’ Lux Interior. My original intention, a couple of months ago, had been to post on The Gorehounds - often summed up as Dublin’s very own version of the Cramps. Unfortunately, cyberspace is not very forthcoming on the band - possibly due to the existence of another band with the same name in Portland, Oregon (a city that surely must have more bands than inhabitants). All that I could find was this resumé on the excellent irishrock.org site. No sound / no video - Dublin’s Gorehounds are condemned to cyber anonymity.
Two drummers, two blokes from behind the counter of the late Comet Records, one album, a number of support slots with visiting bands of a similar ilk and a few pairs of leather keks. That would be my recollection of the Gorehounds, yer honour. They also made an outing on that ‘Guru Weirdbrain’ compilation (the great Eamon Carr? mid 80s ?) and indeed their sound would be best summed up as Cramps by the Liffey.
Through the meanders of Google I managed to come across this site which mentions the Gorehounds. Presenting itself as the homepage of Irish Rockabilly/Psychobilly it is more specifically that of the group Spellbound. Spellbound clearly scarpered from Dublin fairly quicksharp in the 80s and made a career for themselves on the continent - but the site also reminded me of Sharkbait :
[ Sharkbait up the stick from spellbound.ie ]
Sharkbait were probably the most visible band in the small Psychobilly scene that existed in Dublin in the mid-80s. Posts on this thread here at spellbound.ie give a fairly wry history of the group. Reading the thread, I was also reminded that Dave Finnegan was the singer - yes, the one that played the psycho drummer in the Commitments. Comment in the thread on Mr. Finnegan will get you cracking a smile - did someone say ‘careerist’ ?? Oddly enough, I probably saw Mr. Finnegan playing at a gig in the main square of the small French town I live in last summer. I still haven’t figured out if they were the ‘Official’, ‘Provisional’ or ‘Continuity’ Commitments.
[ Irish Rockabilly’s equivalent of the Pistols at the Manchester Free Trade Hall ]
Back to Sharkbait though. Again a band well in the spirit of the Cramps - stomping out a few dozen 90 second psychobilly songs per gig. Quiffs worthy of the Leningrad Cowboys and I’m sure they used to squat a spot on Grafton St. with that double bass. The Spellbound site gives us a couple of tracks in WMA format :
Sharkbait - Cemetery Rock
Sharkbait - Dead Brains
A whole rake of tracks are available over here Sharkbait @ planetoftheheapes.com
Finally, there is also a MySpace page in existence, with footage of their Irish TV Debut Sharkbait MySpace
I’m sure I remember seeing that - was it that Derek Davis show ????
Wow, I used to have the Gorehounds album, Semtex, on tape back in the day, and great it was too. Cargo Cult and Ruby being the two standout tracks for me, the latter being a cover of the Kenny Rodgers song (Oh Ruby, don’t take your love to town). Yer man from the band who worked in Comet now works in Tower, for the celeb-spotters amongst us.
That’s some good digging there Sean.
Yep - I remember Ruby alright - and ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’ (was that on Semtex ?).
Didn’t know an ex-Gorehound was in Tower. Last time I bought a CD in there (must be over 10 years ago) it was one of the lads out of the Jubilee Allstars that took the reddies off me.
As to digging.. well doing it on Google, ye don’t get welts on yer hands…
…well actually… come to think of it… ye probably do in the case of about 75% of what ye find :-
Meself and yourself Sean saw Sharkbait at a free gig in the JCR room over the arch in Trinity one winter’s lunchtime in the late 1980s. Dave Finnegan was quite a frontman and I remember we got talking to him after the gig as well, I think on my part to point out that I wasn’t a “bleedin´student” and instead an “ordernary dacent doley” (sniffs and rubs nose with coat sleeve).
Oh, I just found a copy of the Gorehound’s album Semtex on ebay so as soon as it arrives ‘ll MP3 it and put it up.
You’ve a better memory than me Conor - which must be why you’re the historian and I’m not. In that configuration of the JCR (which, thinking back on it, was a fucking cool place to have gigs) I only remember Not Our World and Toasted Heretic… Was Sharkbait the one where we gave out flyers for the Wrycatchers in the Underground ? If so, it was 1989…
Look forward to the Gorehounds mp3s
ahhh!!! Yes it was! That was the gig alright. I still have a wrycatcher flyer somewhere. I must scan it and put it up. Thankfully, I don’t have any recordings
The JCR was great for gigs alright, and they were all free as well. Friday lunchtime and you’d have a gig in the centre of the city.
By the way, I still have the Vlad and the Impalers posters from 1987.
[…] from irishrock.org.] Following on from Seán’s post about the Gorehounds and haircuts, below is side one of their only album. I picked it up on Ebay and it arrived today. I hope that […]
Yes i’ve played in many versions of the commitmets bands over the years and over the worlld it paid the bills,It probably was me you seen in france,in anyway i think there,s a shark bait reunion this year sometime,the pychobilly is still in the blood,i just wonder about the energy levels 20 years down the road.
Alright Dave, thanks for the comment - even if it’s on a post where I was a tad harsh on ye… At least Conor redeems thing in saying he remembers ye as quite a frontman on a Friday autumn afternoon sometime in the 80s. Must be inter-drummer solidarity
As I remember the Commitments gig in the square of the town I live in was more than the locals deserved. They were all sitting in effin’ chairs like some open air old folk’s home. There was some great showmanship though, esp. from the singers (none of whom ever had anything to do with A**n P***er. And youse even managed to get a few of them out of the bloody chairs.
Fixed your MySpace link - but for God’s sake, don’t be mentioning scary things like paying bills in these quare times we’re in…
ye can slag me all you want [only joking],yep there’s some gigs we done where life seemed to be strange that was one, i got to know the locals quickly i out drank them. As for the pyschobilly scene my first band the boneshakers were irelands first psycho band.The gorehounds where more like thrash/garage as well as The Golden Horde.The scene seems to be hooting up again in Dublin as news reaches me hear in the lanchaisre hills,as i said before Shark bait are due to reunite in october looking foward to it.cheers.
Hello Dave, hope life is ok for you in the ‘Lancashire Hills’. I lived in London for 10 years from 1987, but before that I lived at home in Tipperary and once organised a gig for The Gorehounds, supported by a cork band called something 3355409 (or some phone number) in Cashel. The gig was good but didn’t take much money. I ended up having to fork out £100 quid or so from my own empty pocket just to cover the band’s travel costs, but it was worth it to have some real rock ‘n’ roll in the area. For years I’ve known about The Boneshakers but I could never find a cassette demo or anything. To my knowledge the band never released anything officially, but if I could get hold of any home recordings, I would be happy. Can you help me here? I’ll be happy to apy you. Good to hear that Sharkbait are reforming! All the best for now. Mike.
hi guys,brian mac from the gorehounds here,a belated r.i.p to our mentor n guru lux interior.wonder has he met the surfin dead yet??
in anyways as our old mate dave finnegan said,you can download anything you pretty well please with all of our blessings. its nice to know were not totally forgotten.and i remember that gig in cashel.
cork and kilkenny were our favourite gigs,but you can never trust
a mushroooom soaked brain….oops!
Cheers Brian!
Greetings to you Brian MacGabhann. I remember that gig in Cashel. Alot of hairy arsed bikers were there. Sorry to hear you lost money on that one Mike O’Dwyer. There must have been a long list of names on the door. We must have got paid for that one then. I remember it was a bloody cold night. I was the guitarist with The 3355409s. Some of the best times we had were playing gigs with the Gorehounds. On one memorable occasion at the Cathedral Club the PA stack spontaneously combusted after one song.
So, re. my earlier entry above, has anyone out there in the garage psychoether got any recordings by The Boneshakers that they would give, or sell to me. I must hear this band before I expire! Good to hear from Brian (Gorehounds) and David (3355409s). The “hairy-arsed bikers” reference made me laugh - I’d nearly forgotten that… Brian, I think I have all the recordings of The Gorehounds and still play the ‘Semtex’ CD fairly often - love that raw blast. If memory serves, the 3355409s had at least one recording released, on a ‘Comet’ compilation? Must listen to that again. David, any chance of getting a CDr of more tracks. Any live stuff from either band would be great too. I’d like to second Brian’s mention of Lux Interior, a much-missed man. Whatever about the Surfin Dead, stand Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins a pint of Jim Beam for me man. No RIP for the great rock ‘n’ roll wicked - only short naps!
Hello Mr finnegan. my old friend. hope all is well up there. this is the only man i know where we go out for a quiet drink at the town hall, with two fit looking sisters, next minute he’s up stairs on stage,making a guest apperance belting out three or four songs and jumping up and down doing the splits, didnt even brake a sweat. a true intertainer. great times. LEE.
STILL LEAVING THE KEYS IN THE FRONT DOOR, LOL
hi Brian, how the hell are you we defo had good times on the scene back then.
Lee how are you doin i think i frightened then girls off doin the splits,sometimes my downfall, dont leave the key in the door no more sober th last few years, take care ,, check ..davefinnegan/myspace
Sharkbait/myspace
dave Finnegan facebook
Just to let u know shark bait have started recording, bass/and Drums been done in Dublin, Guitar, New York ..USa..and vocals in Lancaishre, a lot of postage stamps, let you no more soon.
just stumbled on this page by accident. brings me back to my college days in dublin. saw sharkbait loads of times in the underground in dame st. as well as the horde/handsome devils/ etc. dave f gave me a demo tape one time with 10 or so songs on it. god knows where it is now. speaking of the horde, what the hell happend to simon carmody ? hanging out with bobo and crew. not the simon c i remember.
hi to dave o connell,still in oz??nice mention in cork rocks,hairy arsed bikers indeed,remember nigel and the ZZtops in mogos in cork,88??.good luck with the lp dave finnegan.new gorehounds
website.www.thegorehounds.org.www.thegorehounds.com
thanks to kevin fitz.
ta ,b.
,
Hello again to Brian MacGabhann
I am still in oz. Living on the Mornington Peninsula south east of Melbourne. Mojos is no more. Went back to Cork for the first time in twenty years not so long ago. Strange to see the place again. Didn’t make it to Dublin. Read Cork Rock. Fascinating book. Not many rock’n'roll books manage to be devoid of sex and drugs. Even the demon drink doesn’t get much of a mention. The Rory Gallagher story seems to be that of a guitar toting quaker who dies mysteriously of liver damage! Are you still in Dublin? Heard from Ruth that Gerry O’Boyle is a dad.
Dave O’Connell
C’mon someone out there, after many months of waiting for any info on The Boneshakers, not a jot! Somebody out there (especially you, Dave Finnegan :)) must have a tape or something? I kept coming across little references to this band in the 80s and always wanted to hear them. Maybe seems odd to be chasing them now, but would so love to hear this rockin band. Can anyone help - pleeeese?
Hi Mike, write in the Boneshakers in the search box,thers an old demo there….
I remember the gorehounds at cashel seems like a long time ago - I was the drummer for the 3355409’s - Hi Dave
Good to hear you are still on the planet. Do you ever upload anything to youtube - could you put Barbarous on - I only seem to have a tape of the pre mix down - jane bought all the EP’s and didn’t give me any…always thought that was strange. are you on facebook? Wouldn’t a reunion gig be fab? …or festival?….lads?