Plymouth Herald interview with Simon

noelindublin · Loudmouth

Plymouth Herald interview with Simon

Mark L · Loudmouth

Good read, thanks for the link.

The urban myth as it were gets repeated again I see:

'Rat Trap was the first ever rock song by an Irish band to reach number one in the UK, and the first of any description by an Irish band to top the official chart used by the BBC'

I'm trying to work out what the catch is. Is it in the word 'rock' which presumably (can't say I have ever heard one of their songs) The Bachelors don't do?

This apparent error is often quoted.

-- Edited by Mark L on Thursday 1st of May 2014 12:41:14 AM

noelindublin · Loudmouth

Mark L wrote:
Good read, thanks for the link.
The urban myth as it were gets repeated again I see:
'Rat Trap was the first ever rock song by an Irish band to reach number one in the UK, and the first of any description by an Irish band to top the official chart used by the BBC'
I'm trying to work out what the catch is. Is it in the word 'rock' which presumably (can't say I have ever heard one of their songs) The Bachelors don't do?
This apparent error is often quoted.

-- Edited by Mark L on Thursday 1st of May 2014 12:41:14 AM

Geldof always said that he did not want to make a big deal about being Irish. I always laugh when I see the Rats described as having an 'Irish sound'. One reviewer went on about the 'celtic guitar sound' of the band at one stage. If anything the Rats did not want to seem to be too Irish, they wanted to appeal to a large international audience so were not going to get pigeon holed into some sort of Irish type sound that perhaps Thin Lizzy traded on. The band were glad to be shot of the country in 1977-last thing they wanted was some sort of pseudo Irish appeal in their sound that would limit their appeal. You can be from Ireland or any other country without trying to make a big deal of it.

'Diane' is utter C***. It comes across as utter lame pop- and the look of the Bachelors compared with, say The Rats doing Do The Rat live, in Geldof's stripey shirt phase is all you need to see the contrast between the two acts. In the sixties and seventies Ireland was just full of these 'showband' acts, doing bad cover versions of the hits from Britain and the US.

Not sure what the big deal is anyway of an Irish band having the first number one in the Uk. Rat Trap more rightly was the first punk/new wave song to get to number one-but then again Rat Trap is also just considered 'rock'.

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

noelindublin wrote:
Not sure what the big deal is anyway of an Irish band having the first number one in the UK. Rat Trap more rightly was the first punk/new wave song to get to number one-but then again Rat Trap is also just considered 'rock'.

I suppose the big deal was that in the first twenty or so years of the UK charts only a couple of Irish acts (Bachelors and Dana - there may be others, but I don't know) managed to get to number one.

Of course since then U2, followed by Boyzone, B*Witched and Westlife who have all had umpteen chart toppers.

I think the first punk/new wave number one (if you don't accept that God Save The Queen was the best selling in Jubilee week) was far more important in the bigger scheme of things as that type of music then crossed over. After that the floodgates opened and you had Blockheads, Specials, Dexys, Police, Pretenders, Blondie, Tubeway Army/Gary Numan, The Jam et al hitting the top with the effect lasting through to the end of 1982.

Only real contemporary comparison is when Oasis made number one with Some Might Say in 1995 and in its wake Pulp, Blur, Radiohead, Supergrass et al made massive breakthroughs.