Flotsam: Cork’s Old Venues
A few words on arts magazine Flotsam taking in: “sean-nós noise makers” I Dreamed I Dream, the continuing saga of Cork’s Event Centre, and what can be learned from old Cork venues and some of the legendary gigs they hosted.
Flotsam 4 (The Music Issue).
Flotsam is is an independent arts magazine produced in Cork, it’s free and without advertisements.
Each issue to date has been devoted to a single theme, Issue 4 is devoted to music and has just been published.
Flotsam 3 (The Food Issue), Flotsam 2 (The Roleplay Issue) and Flotsam 1 (The Sticker Issue).
Flotsam 4 has got self-described “sean-nós noise makers” I Dreamed I Dream on the cover. The band have just released Boyopoisoning, their second EP. It’s astonishingly good, an uncompromisingly noisy affair, but then anyone familiar with 2023’s Why Say A Lot EP knew that the “experimental no-wave bitch-punk outfit” weren’t about to transform into pop divas.
Thank fuck for that.
Opening track ‘Crawl’ is easily one of my favourite tunes of the year so far. An ominous synth starts things off before bass and drums join the fray, the overdriven guitar that comes blaring out of the speakers at the chorus, around the one minute and thirty five second mark, is just glorious. The screamed, “Ow, ow, ow” before the third chorus and the return of that distorted guitar is the absolute icing. It’s just fantastic.
|f Cliffords and Cardinals are the pop yin of the current crop of Cork bands, then Pebbledash, Pretty Happy and I Dreamed I Dream are its anti-pop yang.
It takes all kinds to make a city.
A few months ago I located a load of old gig flyers and ticket stubs in my attic. This coincided with more media coverage of the ongoing drama on Leeside over the stalled construction of the Event Centre.
A few days later I was contacted by Epi Rogan, one of the Flotsam gang, and asked if I’d write a piece for this issue. I knew the magazine as I had picked up a copy of Issue 1. I really liked it.
As someone who still bears the paper cut scars of too many hours spent folding A4 pages into fanzines in the 1990s, I know the herculean effort it takes to get any indie publication out into the world. I agreed to contribute a piece and knew exactly what to write about.
I Dreamed I Dream and the other Cork bands mentioned above won’t have played in any of the old venues mentioned in my piece, they’ll have played other venues, some of which are probably also gone by now.
The drama of the Event Centre will continue and eventually it will be built. People will attend big concerts in a non-descript big box arena and get stuck in traffic on the way home as they navigate grid-locked narrow city streets. The Event Centre will add nothing to the culture of Cork.
Hard copies of Flotsam Issue 4 are available in locations all over Cork city. A digital copy and back issues are available here.
The latest issue has a great interview with I Dreamed I Dream, a polemic by writer and musician Peter Murphy on the current state of the “music industry” and a whole lot more.
For those who won’t be able to pick up a physical copy of Flotsam, I’ve republished my contribution to Issue 4 below.
After reading it you might think, “Jaysus, I never knew x played in Cork.”
But, remember a band playing a gig next week in a small venue in Cork (or Dublin or Limerick or Galway) might make a list such as mine in 20 years time!
Support small gigs and indie promoters and the venues that host them.
Cork’s Old Venues by Paul McDermott
from Flotsam 4 (The Music Issue)
It’s almost nine years since then-taoiseach Enda Kenny turned the sod on the former Beamish and Crawford site. Last November it was announced that the Government remains “very much committed” to the Cork Event Centre. In the intervening years almost €1.5m has been spent on legal and consultancy fees. I recently found a load of old flyers and ticket stubs at home, they reminded me that as cities evolve, venues come and go. The flyers also illustrate that the promoters who take chances and guarantee the fees for small gigs often go unheralded and unsupported. Here are stories of Cork’s old venues and the legendary gigs they hosted.
Nancy Spains
“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, we are Fugazi from Washington DC,” said Ian MacKaye on 8 May 1999 when the post-hardcore heroes walked out onto Nancy’s stage to play an afternoon, all ages gig promoted by Emmet Greene of Bandicott.
“This is our first time to Cork, we’re very happy to be here, please have a nice time,” continued MacKaye before the band launched into ‘Arpeggiator’. The place went wild. A year earlier Emmet brought Steve Albini’s Shellac to the same venue. Tickets for that gig were £6.
Nancy’s had a capacity of 350 but many nights over 400 squashed in. The gigs were mostly promoted by Frontline Promotions who I worked with in the mid-90s. Tindersticks, Gallon Drunk, The Frames, and The Golden Horde all played this strange venue with its Hobbit-hole-like stage. Tori Amos showed up one night when she lived in Kinsale.
Edwyn Collins played in November 1995. The gig was originally booked into Connolly Hall but was moved to Barrack Street due to low ticket sales. ‘A Girl Like You’ with its distinctive string bend guitar riff had hit No. 8 in the Irish Charts earlier that summer but people couldn’t connect the song with the singer. The Sex Pistols’ Paul Cook played drums in Edwyn’s band. Post-soundcheck Cook sat drinking tea in Nancy’s frontbar surrounded by students guzzling cheap booze courtesy of Nancy’s “Beat the Clock” drinking promotion. Quietly reading a tabloid amidst the filth and the fury was a Sex Pistol, it was a sight to behold.
The following year, in March 1996, Stereolab and Tortoise played. When Stereolab were booked we didn’t know who they were bringing as support, hence Tortoise weren’t even mentioned on the gig flyer. I remember the gig for loads of reasons not least because I had to pay Tortoise’s John McEntire £50 for their performance, as support band they were simply getting a nominal fee. Some thought that Tortoise eclipsed the headliners. Not me though. Stereolab, at the top of their game, were absolutely extraordinary, an unforgettable night.
I loved Nancy’s but it could get crazy. The Yum Yum Club on Saturday nights seemed to be frequented by punters who couldn’t get into Henry’s. When an excavation discovered the skeletal remains of six people under Nancy’s in 2021 I remember thinking, “Jaysus, the Yum Yum was wild, but it wasn’t THAT wild.”
Sir Henry’s
Sir Henry’s closed over 20 years ago but its legend looms large. From its DJ box high above the oval-shaped bar, Greg and Shane hosted their Sweat night for years. At the other end of the room the low stage was flanked by raised platforms creating a mini-amphitheatre. It was easily the best venue in the country. The gigs are legendary: The Pogues; The Sisters of Mercy; Killing Joke; My Bloody Valentine; The Wedding Present and on 20 August 1991 Sonic Youth and Nirvana.
It’s the gig that’s been mythologised by thousands. I’ve heard commentators who weren’t at the gig, or indeed who weren’t even born in 1991, wax lyrical about the night. A lot of what they’ve said is nonsense.
There were about 50 people in early to witness Nirvana and no more than two dozen were up close to the stage while they played. How do I know? I was standing at the back of the room checking out the merch stand, eventually buying a Sonic Youth t-shirt. It had a photo of Traci Lords with a halo above her head. I didn’t have a clue who Traci Lords was. Sonic Youth were mindblowing.
The Fall played Henry’s in 1997. It was their first time back in the city since playing the Arc in 1980. John O’Leary from Freakscene guaranteed their fee. We were on.
The agent faxed the PA specifications and we freaked out when we costed everything. The gig was off.
John Robb’s Gold Blade played in The Lobby a few weeks before the gig and their engineer also did sound for The Fall. We showed him the PA spec and he crossed off loads of unnecessary equipment. It saved a fortune. We were on again!
Jim Comic printed laminated passes for us. We thought this was hilariously un-Fall like and it remains my favourite piece of gig memorabilia. After the soundcheck Mark E. Smith asked if they could use John’s slide projector. Tommy Crooks, The Fall’s guitarist, had a load of slides with him. Smith asked me to project the slides behind the band during the gig. I asked what order he wanted the slides projected in: “Suit yerself, our kid thinks he’s an artist” came the retort.
Tommy Crooks now runs the Edinburgh Natural Skincare Company. From Fall guitarist to the cosmetics industry, that’s a career pivot.
The Forum/The Annex
Behind Henry’s stage was another room. Originally it was a nightclub called Chandras and by the early 90s it had been transformed into an L-shaped venue with the stage tucked into an alcove. It was horrible. Manic Street Preachers played on 25 October 1994 on their The Holy Bible tour a few months before Richie disappeared. As part of their rider they requested a few bottles of Purdey’s. 1994, Cork, pre-Internet. WTF were Purdey’s? We eventually located the energy drink in the Quay Co-op. Band tantrum averted.
Almost four years later, on 28 August 1998, the Manics returned and played in the Opera House. They encored with ‘A Design For Life’. The words were sung by the capacity crowd and many wondered why a lone light illuminated an empty spot stage left.
Carter USM played The Forum a few weeks after The Manics. A brilliant gig, Jim Bob and Fruitbat were on a career high touring 1993’s Post Historic Monsters. ‘Let’s Get Tattoos’ had just hit No. 30 in the UK Singles Chart, the band’s ninth Top 30 hit in three years. Carter were a big band and not many big bands played Cork in those days. Support was from Schtum, who along with Cuckoo and Scheer, led an early 90s indie scene in Derry.
A few years later The Forum was rebranded The Annex and on 1 April, 2000 hosted Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Fly Pan Am. This show ended in disaster when bouncers clashed with fans. The following night in Dublin, Sigur Rós were on the bill and as much as I loved the Canadians it’s the Icelanders’ show that is lodged in my memory.
The Lobby
Coughlan’s with its 120-capacity venue has definitely filled the gap left by The Lobby Bar’s closure in 2005. The Lobby, was located on the corner of Union Quay and Anglesea Street and the pub’s story was meticulously documented by Monica McNamara in her great book The Lobby Bar, Music Through the Windows of Union Quay. Originally known as a venue for folk, roots and trad music by the mid-90s a lot of local and international indie bands started playing there. The memorable gigs I witnessed in The Lobby are legion: Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy; Damien Jurado; The Shanks; The Handsome Family; Vic Chesnutt; John Cooper Clarke (“Human chain a half-Beamish up here now,” implored the Bard of Salford); X-Girl (people who couldn’t get in to the sold out gig danced on the traffic Island outside the City Hall); The Prayer Boat, Martin Stephenson and many more. I’m getting goosebumps remembering the night that singer-songwriter Peter Bruntnell led the crowd in a sing-along of one of my favourite songs: The Beach Boys’ glorious ‘Disney Girls’.
What’s the loudest gig I’ve ever attended? Easy. The Fucking Champs supporting Trans AM in The Lobby in October 2001, another Bandicott promotion. I think my ears were bleeding as we retreated to the sanctuary of the bar downstairs. Pat Conway, the owner, was behind the bar and laughed when he saw the horror on our faces. Part of my brain died that night.
De Burcas
De Burcas was across from the old City Morgue on White Street. A long narrow room with a bar along its left-hand side, its capacity was around 100. Bandicott promoted a gig by Jawbreaker in October 1994 in support of their classic 24 Hour Revenge Therapy album. Like Sonic Youth and Nirvana before them, the American punk rockers were on the cusp of signing to Geffen Records. A wild night, how no one ended up across the street on a slab was a miracle.
A few months earlier the Cork Music Resource Co-op promoted David Gray’s second Cork gig at De Burcas. A momentous sold out gig. I can remember there were ructions the following day in the Co-op’s office when it emerged that Gray had not only been paid his fee but had also been gifted the small profit made by the Co-op. Obsessive music fans we may have been; hard-nosed promoters we certainly were not.
The Half Moon Theatre
Half Moon Theatre (or Half Moon Club as it was earlier known) was located to the rear of Cork Opera House. It staged gigs and club nights. The Beta Band played an extraordinary gig here in June 1998. The Patty Patty Sound EP was just out and the night climaxed in a thrilling ‘She’s the One’. I remember the stage being bedecked in palm trees.
Arto Lindsay, the American guitarist from New York’s No Wave band DNA, played here in November 2000 supported by our own Cathal Coughlan. Coughlan would return to the Half Moon for his own gig in March 2003.
The best gig I witnessed in the Half Moon was a Tom Keating promoted Julian Cope show in April 2002. It was a welcome return to Cork for Cope who first played the city fronting The Teardrop Explodes at the Savoy in 1982. Cope also played a gig down in Blackrock Castle as part of his acoustic tour of Irish Castles in 1991.
DeLacy House
Before it was The Voodoo Rooms it was Gorby’s and before that again it was DeLacy House. The Fatima Mansions, Cathal Coughlan’s post-Microdisney band, played here twice. During one of these intense gigs Five Go Down to the Sea?’s Ricky Dineen grabbed Cathal by the throat from the front row and screamed, “It’s nothing but a pile of fucking noise.”
Years later Cathal told me, “At the time I thought he was joking.”
Laughing he continued, “but on mature reflection I think he was actually making a point.”
As the drama of the Event Centre’s construction trundles on, we should remember that it’s small venues of various capacities that are the lifeblood of any city’s cultural heart. Cork is no different.
All flyers and ticket stubs are from my own collection.