5 go down to the sea / nunattax (1 Viewer)

[Jim A. Morrish]

Ricky Dineen guitarist and writer with the famed Five Go Down to the Sea
will put together a band to play Nun Attax/FGDTTS songs for Corcadorca Theatre Company's new production "Losing Steam" which is set in the early 80s when Fords and Dunlops were closing and the vibrant Cork music scene existed down the Arc.

wow!

the holy grail of cork music are the master tapes of 5 go down to the sea & nun attax stuff, I know several folk who would gladly give up their firstborn to get their hands on those but no-one knows what the hell happened to them.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

Ricky Dineen guitarist and writer with the famed Five Go Down to the Sea
will put together a band to play Nun Attax/FGDTTS songs for Corcadorca Theatre Company's new production "Losing Steam" which is set in the early 80s when Fords and Dunlops were closing and the vibrant Cork music scene existed down the Arc.

wow!

the holy grail of cork music are the master tapes of 5 go down to the sea & nun attax stuff, I know several folk who would gladly give up their firstborn to get their hands on those but no-one knows what the hell happened to them.

wasn't there Beethoven Fuck Beethoven too?

I remember reading about Donnelly drowning in the NME

 

[Jim A. Morrish]

yeah, beethoven was donnelly & ricky's final musical incarnation, their debut single (on setanta i think) got single of the week in both nme and melody maker the week before donnelly drowned in london.

 

[Alan Remorse]

God, thats so weird.

A girl i know just got a part for this play, she plays the daughter of the family the play focuses on, this total tearaway 80's punk chick. Dont know much about the play but it seemed like it was gonna be good even without this connection.

i was going anyway but now i cant fuckin wait to go!!! its gonna be really interesting to see how those songs work out.

 

[Jim A. Morrish]

don't know what he's like now but in his day Ricky Dineen was a guitar genius, hopefully he still is!

 

[Jim A. Morrish]

I'm told there will be a broadcast of Paul McDermott's Donnelly documentary on CCR 98.3FM and Dublin City 103FM (formally Anna Liva FM ) on the 14th of February 2008 to mark their first gig as Five Go down to Sea.

 

[david]

It's a great documentary, but kinda odd that (to the best of my memory) Ricky Dineen doesn't make any contribution. Someone should put out a cd of the complete NunAttax/FGDTTS/Beethoven recordings. Total genius.

 

[Jim A. Morrish]

It's a great documentary, but kinda odd that (to the best of my memory) Ricky Dineen doesn't make any contribution.

ricky features in the new edit of the documentary

 

[Jim A. Morrish]

Someone should put out a cd of the complete NunAttax/FGDTTS/Beethoven recordings. Total genius.

god yeah, i'd kill for one. I think the main problem is no-one really knows where all the old master tapes are

 

[david]

god yeah, i'd kill for one. I think the main problem is no-one really knows where all the old master tapes are

Well, there's at least 3 Fanning sessions (not to mention a video for White Cortina) gathering dust in the RTE vault, assuming they don't destroy old material.

 

[Jim A. Morrish]

Get That Monster Off The Stage

A Radio Documentary on Finbarr Donnelly and his bands Nun Attax, Five Go
Down To The Sea and Beethoven

Produced by Paul McDermott with assistance from Kieran Hurley and Conor O’Toole.

Get That Monster Off The Stage is an audio portrait of Cork singer Finbarr Donnelly and to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Nun Attax’s first gig the documentary will be broadcast on:
Cork Campus Radio 98.3 FM – Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 2pm
&
103.2 Dublin City FM – Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 12 midnight

Available as a free podcast on www.getthatmonsteroffthestage.com from Friday, February 15, 2008


Get That Monster off the Stage was originally broadcast on Cork Campus
Radio in July 2001. The documentary went on to win the “Radio Production of the Year” award at the O2 SMEDIA Awards 2002. Myles Dungan, chairman of the judging panel, commented: “This is a fascinating snapshot of the vibrant Cork music scene of the 80’s. The producer constructed a compelling account of cult rock hero Finbarr Donnelly. The programme itself is an excellent weave of music and the spoken word, and is unobtrusively informative.”

Since the documentary’s first broadcast it has been re-edited to include
contributions from Ricky Dineen (Donnelly’s friend and bandmate) and additional music.

Documentary context
Finbarr Donnelly was born in Belfast and moved to Cork city in the mid seventies with his family. By the late seventies he had formed Nun Attax, a rock and roll band, who played their first gig on Valentine’s night 1978 in a community hall in Mayfield.

Nun Attax are synonymous with the Arcadia Ballroom, the lynchpin of Cork’s post-punk music scene, where they shared the stage with U2, The Virgin Prunes, UB40 and Microdisney. Their live performances were unforgettable, incendiary events an example of which can be heard on the Kaught At The Kampus EP released by Reekus Records in 1980.

In the early eighties the band changed its name to Five Go Down To The Sea and recorded the Knot A Fish EP for Kabuki Records which contains the infamous “There’s A Fish On Top Of Shandon Swears He’s Elvis”. Soon after the band left recession-ridden Cork for London. Knot A Fish EP (1983) Margaret Thatcher's Britain provided a stark backdrop for the music of FGDTTS.

As new immigrants to London, the band scraped a living but gradually gained critical acclaim, earning a reputation for astonishing live gigs and recording for Abstract Records (The Glee Club EP) and Alan McGee’s fledgling Creation Records (Singing in Braille EP). The Glee Club EP (1984) Sing In Braille EP (1985)

In 1988, FGDTTS changed name to Beethoven and provided Setanta Records with its first release (Him Goolie Goolie Man, Dem EP). This single would go on to be named NME single of the week. A few weeks later on 18 June 1989 Donnelly died in a swimming accident in the Serpentine Pond in Hyde Park. He was 27 years of age.

Finbarr Donnelly left a far-reaching musical legacy despite his early and tragic death. His life and work also offers much insight into the role of the outsider in pop culture and of artistic expression during times of economic hardship.

Spanning Cork, Dublin and London, the documentary features contributions from many of Donnelly's friends, peers and contemporaries, including:
Ricky Dineen (Nun Attax, Five Go Down To The Sea, Beethoven), Cathal Coughlan (Microdisney, The Fatima Mansions), Sean O'Hagan (Microdisney, The High Llamas), Giordaí Ui Laoghaire (Nun Attax, Nine Wassies from Bainne), Mick Lynch (Stump) and music journalist John Robb.



Quotes from the documentary

“There has been so much music that has happened since then that is purported to be exploratory and inventive yet didn’t go anywhere near the kind of lengths that Donnelly and Five Go Down To The Sea actually achieved.”
(Sean O’Hagan from Get That Monster Off The Stage)

“When a guy dies, often a hero is made but the fact is he was really larger than life in real life.” (Conal Creedon from Get That Monster Off The Stage)

“There’s people doing stuff like it today and they’re being called innovative, they were ahead of their time.” (Mick Lynch from Get That Monster Off The Stage)

“In early 1982 they came back as Five Go Down To The Sea, it was just incredible, it was completely different to Nun Attax, it wasn’t like a rock band any more, it was just a bizarre but coherent, completely focused attack of extreme Cork eccentricity, it was unforgettable”. (Cathal Coughlan from Get That Monster Off The Stage)

“They were incredible musicians who wrote the most complex amazing songs that showed they had a fierce intelligence. Some people are so intelligent they just go crazy, that’s what they were like, they were misfits.” (John Robb from Get That Monster Off The Stage)

“I can say with my hand on my heart that I would not have ended up doing music if I hadn’t met Donnelly and if I hadn’t done music I would have ended up as a mal-contented alcoholic civil servant working in a food factory somewhere in County Offaly, in the black bogs with a constant fog hanging over me.” (Cathal Coughlan from Get That Monster Off The Stage)

“Official Cork to this day probably doesn’t know of the existence of Finbarr Donnelly. Dixieland Jazz on a Sunday morning down in the yacht club with blazers, that’s Cork to them. But it’s important to recall that there’s another side to Cork as well – an underbelly. Except I would regard the Dixieland Jazz on a Sunday morning as the underbelly – the seedy underbelly.”
(Declan Lynch from Get That Monster Off The Stage)


List of contributors
Liam Heffernan (Mean Features/actor)
Conal Creedon (author/playwright)
Ricky Dineen (Nun Attax/Five Go Down To The Sea/Beethoven)
Cathal Coughlan (Microdisney/The Fatima Mansions)
Giordai Ua Laoghaire (Nun Attax/Nine Wassies From Bainne)
Sean O’Hagan (Microdisney/The High Llamas)
Mick Lynch (Mean Features/Stump)
Finny Corcoran (Belson/The Belsonic Sound)
Jim O’Mahony (The Belsonic Sound)
Morty McCarthy (The Sultans of Ping FC)
Stan Erraught (The Stars of Heaven)
Rory Cobbe (RTE Producer)
Shane Fitzsimons (Journalist)
John Robb (Journalist/Author)
Declan Lynch (Journalist/Author)

Discography: Nun Attax/Five Go Down To The Sea/Beethoven
Nunattax – Kaught At The Kampus EP
Reekus Records 12” (RKS 01) 1980
Live EP recorded at the Downtown Kampus, Arcadia, Cork August 30, 1980.
Side A features three Nun Attax songs. Urban Blitz, Microdisney and Mean Features contribute one song each to side B.

Five Go Down To The Sea – Knot A Fish EP
Kabuki Records 7” (KA 05) 1983
Produced by John O’Sullivan

Five Go Down To The Sea – The Glee Club EP
Abstract Records 12” (ABS 027) 1984
Produced by John Langford

Five Go Down To The Sea – Singing In Braille EP
Creation Records 12” (CRE 021) 1985
Produced by Joe Foster

Beethoven – Him Goolie Goolie Man, Dem EP
Setanta Records 12” (SET 01) 1989
Produced by John Langford

 

[Lolo]

Well, there's at least 3 Fanning sessions (not to mention a video for White Cortina) gathering dust in the RTE vault, assuming they don't destroy old material.

Don't assume. I know they taped over most of the old Wanderly Wagons (sniff) so I doubt they kept music stuff

 

[bren_at_xfm]

Ricky Dineen guitarist and writer with the famed Five Go Down to the Sea....

I always prefer 'Five go Mad in Dorset' meself!!!

 

[ron]

Get That Monster Off The Stage

A Radio Documentary on Finbarr Donnelly and his bands Nun Attax, Five Go
Down To The Sea and Beethoven

Produced by Paul McDermott with assistance from Kieran Hurley and Conor O’Toole.

Get That Monster Off The Stage is an audio portrait of Cork singer Finbarr Donnelly and to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Nun Attax’s first gig the documentary will be broadcast on:
Cork Campus Radio 98.3 FM – Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 2pm
&
103.2 Dublin City FM – Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 12 midnight

Available as a free podcast on www.getthatmonsteroffthestage.com from Friday, February 15, 2008


Get That Monster off the Stage was originally broadcast on Cork Campus
Radio in July 2001. The documentary went on to win the “Radio Production of the Year” award at the O2 SMEDIA Awards 2002. Myles Dungan, chairman of the judging panel, commented: “This is a fascinating snapshot of the vibrant Cork music scene of the 80’s. The producer constructed a compelling account of cult rock hero Finbarr Donnelly. The programme itself is an excellent weave of music and the spoken word, and is unobtrusively informative.”

Since the documentary’s first broadcast it has been re-edited to include
contributions from Ricky Dineen (Donnelly’s friend and bandmate) and additional music.

Documentary context
Finbarr Donnelly was born in Belfast and moved to Cork city in the mid seventies with his family. By the late seventies he had formed Nun Attax, a rock and roll band, who played their first gig on Valentine’s night 1978 in a community hall in Mayfield.

Nun Attax are synonymous with the Arcadia Ballroom, the lynchpin of Cork’s post-punk music scene, where they shared the stage with U2, The Virgin Prunes, UB40 and Microdisney. Their live performances were unforgettable, incendiary events an example of which can be heard on the Kaught At The Kampus EP released by Reekus Records in 1980.

In the early eighties the band changed its name to Five Go Down To The Sea and recorded the Knot A Fish EP for Kabuki Records which contains the infamous “There’s A Fish On Top Of Shandon Swears He’s Elvis”. Soon after the band left recession-ridden Cork for London. Knot A Fish EP (1983) Margaret Thatcher's Britain provided a stark backdrop for the music of FGDTTS.

As new immigrants to London, the band scraped a living but gradually gained critical acclaim, earning a reputation for astonishing live gigs and recording for Abstract Records (The Glee Club EP) and Alan McGee’s fledgling Creation Records (Singing in Braille EP). The Glee Club EP (1984) Sing In Braille EP (1985)

In 1988, FGDTTS changed name to Beethoven and provided Setanta Records with its first release (Him Goolie Goolie Man, Dem EP). This single would go on to be named NME single of the week. A few weeks later on 18 June 1989 Donnelly died in a swimming accident in the Serpentine Pond in Hyde Park. He was 27 years of age.

Finbarr Donnelly left a far-reaching musical legacy despite his early and tragic death. His life and work also offers much insight into the role of the outsider in pop culture and of artistic expression during times of economic hardship.

Spanning Cork, Dublin and London, the documentary features contributions from many of Donnelly's friends, peers and contemporaries, including:
Ricky Dineen (Nun Attax, Five Go Down To The Sea, Beethoven), Cathal Coughlan (Microdisney, The Fatima Mansions), Sean O'Hagan (Microdisney, The High Llamas), Giordaí Ui Laoghaire (Nun Attax, Nine Wassies from Bainne), Mick Lynch (Stump) and music journalist John Robb.



Quotes from the documentary

“There has been so much music that has happened since then that is purported to be exploratory and inventive yet didn’t go anywhere near the kind of lengths that Donnelly and Five Go Down To The Sea actually achieved.”
(Sean O’Hagan from Get That Monster Off The Stage)

“When a guy dies, often a hero is made but the fact is he was really larger than life in real life.” (Conal Creedon from Get That Monster Off The Stage)

“There’s people doing stuff like it today and they’re being called innovative, they were ahead of their time.” (Mick Lynch from Get That Monster Off The Stage)

“In early 1982 they came back as Five Go Down To The Sea, it was just incredible, it was completely different to Nun Attax, it wasn’t like a rock band any more, it was just a bizarre but coherent, completely focused attack of extreme Cork eccentricity, it was unforgettable”. (Cathal Coughlan from Get That Monster Off The Stage)

“They were incredible musicians who wrote the most complex amazing songs that showed they had a fierce intelligence. Some people are so intelligent they just go crazy, that’s what they were like, they were misfits.” (John Robb from Get That Monster Off The Stage)

“I can say with my hand on my heart that I would not have ended up doing music if I hadn’t met Donnelly and if I hadn’t done music I would have ended up as a mal-contented alcoholic civil servant working in a food factory somewhere in County Offaly, in the black bogs with a constant fog hanging over me.” (Cathal Coughlan from Get That Monster Off The Stage)

“Official Cork to this day probably doesn’t know of the existence of Finbarr Donnelly. Dixieland Jazz on a Sunday morning down in the yacht club with blazers, that’s Cork to them. But it’s important to recall that there’s another side to Cork as well – an underbelly. Except I would regard the Dixieland Jazz on a Sunday morning as the underbelly – the seedy underbelly.”
(Declan Lynch from Get That Monster Off The Stage)


List of contributors
Liam Heffernan (Mean Features/actor)
Conal Creedon (author/playwright)
Ricky Dineen (Nun Attax/Five Go Down To The Sea/Beethoven)
Cathal Coughlan (Microdisney/The Fatima Mansions)
Giordai Ua Laoghaire (Nun Attax/Nine Wassies From Bainne)
Sean O’Hagan (Microdisney/The High Llamas)
Mick Lynch (Mean Features/Stump)
Finny Corcoran (Belson/The Belsonic Sound)
Jim O’Mahony (The Belsonic Sound)
Morty McCarthy (The Sultans of Ping FC)
Stan Erraught (The Stars of Heaven)
Rory Cobbe (RTE Producer)
Shane Fitzsimons (Journalist)
John Robb (Journalist/Author)
Declan Lynch (Journalist/Author)

Discography: Nun Attax/Five Go Down To The Sea/Beethoven
Nunattax – Kaught At The Kampus EP
Reekus Records 12” (RKS 01) 1980
Live EP recorded at the Downtown Kampus, Arcadia, Cork August 30, 1980.
Side A features three Nun Attax songs. Urban Blitz, Microdisney and Mean Features contribute one song each to side B.

Five Go Down To The Sea – Knot A Fish EP
Kabuki Records 7” (KA 05) 1983
Produced by John O’Sullivan

Five Go Down To The Sea – The Glee Club EP
Abstract Records 12” (ABS 027) 1984
Produced by John Langford

Five Go Down To The Sea – Singing In Braille EP
Creation Records 12” (CRE 021) 1985
Produced by Joe Foster

Beethoven – Him Goolie Goolie Man, Dem EP
Setanta Records 12” (SET 01) 1989
Produced by John Langford

Sounds great

 

[Jim A. Morrish]

apparently Reekus Records are in the process of doing an early Reekus album so the Cork music of that time can be heard again - huzzah!

 

[CITY BABY]

apparently Reekus Records are in the process of doing an early Reekus album so the Cork music of that time can be heard again - huzzah!

what was that cork comp that has nunattax and maybe four other bands on it, dont think 5 go down are on it, it was from about 81 I think?

Ragin I missed that play yoke a few years ago, couldnt get off work

edit: just saw it on the discog, ive EP recorded at the Downtown Kampus, Arcadia, Cork August 30, 1980.
Side A features three Nun Attax songs. Urban Blitz, Microdisney and Mean Features contribute one song each to side B.

 

[Jim A. Morrish]

what was that cork comp that has nunattax and maybe four other bands on it, dont think 5 go down are on it, it was from about 81 I think?

Kaught at the Kampus

 

[CITY BABY]

Kaught at the Kampus

does don for chickens ever gig now, seen him in charlies singin "matty kielys" after cork bet limerick on the first day of the championship last year.

he has a fuckin great collection of songs

 

[nlgbbbblth]

the Creation 12" appears on the Creation Soup CD box.

 

[Jim A. Morrish]

the Creation 12" appears on the Creation Soup CD box.

bizarrely, the catalogue no. for the Creation release is 021, by coincidence the cork phone code - spooky wha?