Lights! Camel! Action!
This is the story of Stump, the Irish-English experimental, rock band from the 1980s. In the documentary the members of Stump and key figures in their story tell how the band went from the NME’s C86 cassette to topping the Indie charts and releasing the influential A Fierce Pancake on Ensign Records. Mick Lynch, the enigmatic frontman and lyricist with the band sadly passed away on 17 December, 2015. This documentary is dedicated to his
memory.
Lights! Camel! Action! — 30 second promo
Although the ending is inevitably sad after the death of Mick Lynch, this is a great radio documentary about Stump — Charlie Connelly (Chapter and Verse: Joy Division, New Order and Me by Bernard Sumner — co-writer)
This lovely documentary about the band Stump is a fitting tribute to Mick Lynch — Rhodri Marsden (Scritti Politti)
Another excellent Paul McDermott radio documentary — Irish Nuggets
Lights! Camel! Action! — interviewees
Mick Lynch — Stump’s singer and lyricist
Rob McKahey — Stump’s drummer
Kev Hopper — Stump’s bass player
Chris Salmon — Stump’s guitarist
”Irish” Jack Lyons — Author
Elvera Butler — Downtown Kampus/Reekus Records
Liam McKahey — Cousteau
Simon Reynolds — Journalist/Author
Nigel Grainge — Ensign Records
Hugh Jones — Producer
John Robb — The Membranes/Journalist/Author
Roy Weard — Sound Engineer/Tour Manager/Author
The Journal (10 January, 2016)
Lights! Camel! Action! — the story of Stump forms the second part of a Cork Trilogy. Part one, Get That Monster Off the Stage, tells the story of Finbarr Donnelly and his bands Nun Attax, Five Go Down To the Sea? and Beethoven. Part three, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove — the story of Microdisney, tells Cathal Coughlan and Sean O’Hagan’s story from meeting in Cork in 1979 to disbanding in 1988. All three stories have their roots in Cork’s post-punk music scene that coalesced around Elvera Butler’s Downtown Kampus at the Cork Arcadia in the late 70s.
“Together all three works form a deep and wide composite picture of a generation of Irish musicians finding a way to exist. They are also the story of Ireland in the 1980s in many ways – recession, unemployment, emigration, Thatcher’s Britain, squats, poverty, survival against the odds. I couldn’t recommend them highly enough for anyone with any interest in what we call independent music” — Conor O’Toole (The Underground of Happiness)
Oral History
Lights! Camel! Action! is accompanied by a comprehensive longread Oral History featuring extra interviews, background information, photographs, ephemera and cultural and historical context.
Part One — Lights! Camel! Action! —22,000 words (85 minute read)
Part Two — 2021 interviews + Rob’s 1987 Berlin photos — 2,200 (10 minute read)
Paul McDermott pays tribute to Stump’s Mick Lynch on Cork’s 96FM. Interview by Michael Carr.
Drawing by Spencer Hall inspired by Fergus Bourke’s photograph on the cover of A Fierce Pancake.