SELF-AID 1986: IT EVEN SEEMED A BAD IDEA AT THE TIME
Apr 23rd, 2009 by Conor McCabe
People look back on events in Irish history and they think: how could we let this happen?
Keep that in mind when NAMA hocks our future in order to save the skins of our indigenous economic elite. Because baby you look back at what that elite was doing during those dark times and the sense of déjà vu would knock your TESCO-brand socks off.
Fianna Fáil’s shafting us again, which means that in five years’ time we’ll probably have something on the lines of SELF-AID as part of the usual middle-class “won’t somebody think of the children!” response.
I don’t mean the same idea, of course, but the same principle. Then again, given the enormous capacity for originality among Ireland’s middle class - Joyce didn’t call them The Dead for nothing - we’ll probably get the Self-Aid reality show, where people have to sing for a job. Oh well.
So. Seems as we’re having a re-run of bank bail-outs , we might as well have a re-run of SELF-AID.
Oh. And check out the lyrics. Stirring stuff. Even Trey Parker and Matt Stone might feel a pang of jealousy.
Enjoy.
Even Trey Parker and Matt Stone might feel a pang of jealousy.
heh, so very true. God, that was the most depressing concert of all time.
I’ve tried explaining Self-Aid to friends of mine in their twenties and it’s impossible. “what? People pledged jobs? WTF?” There was absolutely no logic to it whatsoever, except the extremely arrogant idea that the unemployed should be happy with charity, and that’s about it. I mean, I remember queuing for the tins of EEC intervention beef at Christmas, a state scheme administered by the fucking Vincent de Paul. Absolutely degrading. And as for butter vouchers… I went from signing on and getting butter vouchers (two per month plus two for every dependent) to being hired by the civil service where my job was to give out butter vouchers. Talk about an economy eating itself.
My god. It just makes me angry.
And Paul Cleary of the Blades was the only artist to make a protest against Self-Aid.
And Paul Cleary of the Blades was the only artist to make a protest against Self-Aid.
I remember Eamonn McCann organising an anti- self aid gig……we signed up for it and then ended up being in London on the day and having to cancel IIRC
Cheers for that sonofstan. I’m going to be in the national library today so I might do a bit of digging around that gig and write something up about it.
Ah, come on now Conor…
“Then again, given the enormous capacity for originality among Ireland’s middle class - Joyce didn’t call them The Dead for nothing”
You can’t imply on the one hand that there’s no originality in the Irish middle class and then back yourself up with reference to Joyce! A man who went to all the posh schools, UCD in 1890something, never had a proper job until he went to be tutor abroad, swanned around the drinking classes. It’s not like he was a docker or anything. And it’s not like he was ‘unimaginative.’
Ah, come on now Twenty…
“God, that was the most depressing concert of all time.”
I though it was a great gig, particularly as it was my first gig, first time away from the parents, up from the country, and I got to see Elvis Costello, Cactus World News, Rory Gallagher, and the Pogues…
Ah, come on now sonofstan…
Eh, actually, I’ve got nothing for your comment. Just didn’t want you to feel left out…
Jim, the exception doesn’t make the rule. The exception proves the rule.
As for the line-up. Ugh!
http://tinyurl.com/d6zugw
http://tinyurl.com/cevgaw
And this wasn’t a concert, it was a benefit, a fucking, patronizing, idiotic benefit.
So, when the members of NAMA lose their jobs, will there be a farewell concert or just an even bigger golden handshake as seems to be written into the contracts for all the idiots that have gone before.
Golden handshakes, i.e. pensions, payouts, long standing pay awards.
I think if you remember Self-aid fondly as the first time you saw Elvis Costello and the Pogues then fair enough. It’s not like you decided to go because you wanted to help support those poor unfortunates without a job. you just wanted to go see your heroes. But Cactus World News! They were like Aslan without that fucking song. I used to work in the bar in the Clontarf Castle when I was 18 and most Sunday evenings the singer from CWN would be in there with Larry Mullin. The two of them would sit in the same window seat, drinking their Guinness without much to say to each other, or so it seemed. It was like they were an old married couple who’d realised after years of marriage that they had nothing in common.
Ah come on now Van, let poor Paul Brady ourra dat headlock…
I was at the concert, and I thought it was great. I reckon we jumped at the chance for our own Live Aid, Phil Lynott tribute, revolving stage and all, and this is what we got, and I’d buy the DVD in the morning.
The U2 performance is very interesting as they were half way between Unforgettable Fire and Joshua Tree and seemed to be happy to do their experimenting in public back then. They were good at Live Aid, but seemed to have learnt from Queen’s performance about packing in a stack of songs into a short set.
I was at the Anti-self aid gig that afternoon in McGonagles ,South Anne St,It was organised by a few left wingers like Eamonn McCann and Paul Cleary,The Paranoid Visions played and a few other small punk bands which I cant remember .I rekon there were about 100 people max mostly punks who were in and out to the off licence all day.McCann gave a bit of a speech about the futility of the self aid concert (which was on at the same time in the RDS I think and which was also broadcasted live on Rte radio)and Decko dedicated one of the Paranoid Visions songs to “all those shitbags down there in Leinster house..”!The Blades were the most prominent of the acts billed and I rekon they played last but most of us were so drunk by then I cant really rem how it finished up.I’d be interested in hearing somebody elses recollection of that gig.