July 14, 2012

Sound City Beat has been a project that I’ve been very familiar with over the past year plus. I had met the Radiator’s Philip Chevron in March of last year when he was in Boston gigging with his other band to discuss Shite’n’Onions doing the US release of the Rad’s 3rd album – TROUBLE PILGRIM. He had given me a heads up on what the Rad’s were already planning for their 4th album – a collection of covers of Irish rock/beat groups for the mid 60’s to early 70s ranging from tracks from the legendary (Van Morrison’s Them, Thin Lizzy and Rory Gallagher’s Taste) to the long, long forgotten (Sugar Shack, Blue Ace’s, The Creatures) – the primordial soup era of Irish rock if you will.

Now, while it would be pretty easy for a band as good as the Radiators to knock out the 18 tracks here on SCB and call it a tribute or a history lesson but not so as the boys have obviously spent a tremendous amount of time on picking the right track from each band covered as opposed to picking the bleeding obvious, so that each song on the album flows effortlessly into the next and almost to the point where the listener could be convinced into believing that SCB is an album of originals. How does it sound? While the songs are true to the origins, whether beat/garage/ psychedelic/folk rock or even pure pop but dragged through ’77 for the attitude and snarl and reborn into the 21s century yet still as fresh as it was ’67.

Sound City Beat is out on the legendary Chiswick Records and the Radiators are joined by Henry McCullough (the only Irish man to play Woodstock and who was Paul McCartney’s guitar man for years) who add licks on the version of Eire Apparent’s – Yes, I Need Someone – Henry was Eire Apperent’s guitar player but unfortunately got booted from the band prior to their debut album being recorded with Jimi Hendrix twiddling the knobs – so a nice opportunity to complete some unfinished business for Henry. Also joining the Rad’s is Terry Woods, Philips mate from his other long time gig and Eamon Carr drummer from Horslips who does the spoken word portion of Thin Lizzy”s Dublin….which makes a decent lead into The Lady Wrestler, the long lost, should have been Horslips debut single but was never released that spiritually closes the albums – my involvement with the Radiators came about trying to compile a Horslips tribute (which is still ongoing) and the offer of the band to cover The Lady Wrestler. While never really a beat group it seems to fit the album and symbolically close out the era in the same way the Johnny’s Wedding, Horslips debut single was the beging of the new era of Irsh rock….and rest is history

Not a Pogues album, not a punk album but something that anyone interest in Rock music from Ireland (or just an interest in perfectly performed though uncompromising rock’n’roll) should own.

The Radiators from Space were (are) a band way ahead of their time. They were the first Irish punk band – formed in Dublin back in the mid-seventies. Their first 7” single “Television Screen” is a major punk classic and the first punk single to break the top 20 anywhere in the world. Rolling Stone Magazine ranks “Television Screen” as the best of all the early punk singles. The band released 2 classic LP’s the fast and furious “TV Tube Heart” and the very clever “Ghostown” – unfortunately by the time “Ghostown” hit the shelves punk was dead or at least it’s openness to new ideas was dead and the Rads were way too cleaver for the cartoon punk had become. The band members went their separate ways. Phil Chevron (guitar and vocals) as you all know joined The Pogues, Pete Holidai (guitar) became a member of great 80’s band Light a Big Fire (and the first band I ever saw live at the age of 14 in Arnotts Department Store of all places) and Steve Rapid (vocals) told some band from Dublin called The Hype their name sucked and they should try something cool like “U2” as a name – they did and Bono’s being annoying us since.

In 2003 the band decided to get back together and put out a couple of CD EPs of re-recorded versions of their early classics including an explosive live version of “Television Screen” and “Kitty Ricketts” with new (and now since departed) bass player Cait O’Riordan handling vocals giving the song an extra snarling sleazy edge.

28 years after the release of “Ghostown” the Rad’s have released their 3rd CD, “Trouble Pilgrim” and what a great CD it is. Possibly the best real rock CD I’ll hear this year or next. Everything is about this CD is first class – the songs, the lyrics, the playing, the production. The music is trashy punk, heavily influenced by the early 70’s American punk sound (Iggy & The Stooges, The MC5 and The New York Dolls) mixed with classic British glam (Bowie, Mott the Hoople and T Rex) and 60’s bubble gum pop (Beatles, Byrds). The Joe Strummer tribute “Joe Strummer” is a must hear as is “Huguenot” and the re-recorded “Hinterland”.

Dated? No, not at all, in fact if the Rads weren’t a bunch of Irish men, aged 50 plus but say 25 year old Glaswegians they would be on the cover of Rolling Stone today as the future of Rock’n’Roll. Any justice in this world? No, but let just be thankful that great bands like The Radiators from Space are still making great music for the love of it because it’s music that needs to be heard.

Paddy Rollingstone

PS Check out this indepth and spot on review of “Trouble Pilgrim” by Boz of The Steam Pig – Rabble Rouser Reviews and Sean Holland excellent review of “The Very Best of” for Shite’n’Onions

2007

When they are remembered in the States, if at all, it is normally for being the breeding ground of future Pogue Phil Chevron. Much more than this, however, is this fact: The Radiators From Space are an all-too often overlooked punk band. Histories omission is our loss, but this collection seeks to right this wrong, if only in a small way.

Formed in Dublin by Phil Chevron, the Radiators From Space have been called the best band to ever come out of Ireland. I’m not too up on the band’s history, nor their early days, save for what I have read: The Radiators were discovered in late 1976/early 1977 by influential London label, Chiswick Records, and their vinyl debut pre-dated such luminaries as the Clash and Elvis Costello. The Radiators were most certainly among Ireland’s first punk bands. ‘Irish’ being the operative word.

Chevron, while acknowledging the bands punk roots, also recognizes the uniquely Irish vision that band had. They weren’t London kids, after all.

Irish teens life-experiences were entirely their own; hence the subject matter wouldn’t be entirely the same, although the attitude was one they could rally behind.

Chevron explains: “While we shared many of the characteristics of the UK punk bands – the energy and the attitudes – we had nothing to say about tower-blocks or anarchy. Our best songs came from our experience of growing up in an Ireland still paralyzed by political and religious hypocrisies but which, we believed, was in its heart youthful and forward-thinking. We were the first Irish band to grapple with these contradictions but first and foremost we were a pop group and we could readily identify with the UK’s ‘No Fun’ slogan.”

Sadly, most of the original albums are now deleted, and fetch collectors’ prices. The first two albums, “TV Tube Heart” and even more so their second, “Ghosttown” are considered influential classics, inspiring everyone from Thin Lizzy (toured with ‘em) to Christy Moore (who does a nice version of “Song of the Faithful Departed.”)

This collection, however, is fairly easily picked-up, and is a wonderful introduction to the band. Chevron is a great guitarist, and his vocals start out with the ’77 sneer so familiar to most, but as the band progresses, his talent expands and the songs become much more than punk rock.

The opening cuts show the band at their fiery best. “Television Screen” shows teenage frustration with a rockabilly cum punk guitar propelling the tune all the way. “I’m gonna stick my Strat-o-caster through the television screen” a young Chevron roars.

As he said above, subject matter was more Irish-oriented, with songs like “Sunday World” showing a typical slice of mundane Irish life, and hints at a growing distance from the Catholic Church to the crazed rev-up “Enemies” to the namesake of the first album, the prison ditty “Prison Bars” (where Chevron does his best Johnny Rotten) to the Boomtown Rat-ish sounding boredom of “Let’s Talk About the Weather.”

As the disc progresses, so do the band. The fast, three-chord-type punk is replaced by angry rock-n-roll. “Johnny Jukebox” has a ‘50’s flair all it’s own and rocks. “Kitty Rickets” has an almost Specials-type feel, an Irish “Ghosttown” if you will. It breaks down Ireland’s legends in one fantastic song.

Then we come to “Song of the Faithful Departed.” It is now considered a true Irish classic, sidestepping any boundaries imposed by genres. With good reason, its modern Irish poetry, giving the more recently exiled a ballad of their own. The ghosts and tales of the Ireland of past and present are twisted and re-imagined in this tune, myths broken down, and spit back out with complete honesty. This one is probably the best on the disc, the best they ever did, and packs quite an emotional wallop for a ‘punk’ band. You can see the seeds of Phil’s later work with the Pogues in this, although it may well be his finest hour.

To attempt to fill up the review with any more drivel would be useless. I don’t know what became of any of the members other than Phil, I don’t know why they disbanded, I only know the legacy they left behind, and know how many bands count them as major influences. If you’re a true student of the punk movement in Ireland, this band is as indispensable as the Undertones and the Stiff Little Fingers, and pre-dated both of them. Pick it up and see what Chevron’s made his reputation on, and why the Shane and the Pogues were so glad to pick him up (“Thousands are Sailing” anyone?)

October 2002

Review by Sean Holland