Track 9: 'I can feel the earth begin to move, I hear my needle hit the groove...'

"On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.” ― Hunter S. Thompson

It is 1989: the Stone Roses release their debut album to universal acclaim. They adorn the front cover of every music magazine in the UK; they are the anointed; the chosen ones, the next big thing.

In our little corner of the world, we have just released our debut five track cassette to a more muted response. It barely creates a ripple, but that ripple of interest means everything to us. We are a real band now, and that’s all that matters -the front covers of the music magazines can wait. There are more gigs in the Underground, some wild and unforgettable nights in Kilkenny, and we are rehearsing and writing away - the future is one paved with possibilities.

And then out of the blue, Fearghal arrives into rehearsal one day and announces he is heading to London for the summer months to work.

We are a little taken aback. Thunderstruck. There is no question of his commitment to the band; we don’t doubt that for a second. But we know this will stall the little momentum we had at that point in time. He promises to shop our cassette around to as many indie labels in London as he can find. We say our goodbyes, and park our dreams, temporarily at least.

The summer seems to drag on and on.

Under pressure at home, I get a job working in a food distribution warehouse in Glasnevin. I despise every second I am there. I spend my days lifting, lumping, stacking. The men I work with hate their jobs as much as I do, so from the moment we punch in to the time we punch out in the evening, we barely speak to each other. It is too much effort. I return home every night, and slump on the bed in a darkened room, listening to the Cocteau Twins, dreading the early start the next day.

I almost meet an ignominious end one day when a palate of canned processed peas crashes down from a height just a few yards from where I stand. I see the funny side of it, but deep down, I know I have to get out of that place.

After six weeks, I cannot bear it any more and leave one evening never to return - I tell my mother I have been ‘let go’, and settle back in to a familiar routine.

We spend the remaining weeks of that summer gathering ideas for songs, jagged riffs and chord progressions, snippets of lyrics scrawled in the red notebook and we wait. I buy some new guitar pedals - the search for the most ferocious sounding distortion pedal concludes successfully.

Fearghal returns home in the early autumn with a renewed confidence. Sporting a spectacular mohican haircut, and dressed more flamboyantly than when he left, he has a certain swagger about him. The trip to London seems to have done him the world of good - he is re-energised.

We immediately pick up where we left off - it feels good to be back in rehearsal again, and very quickly, some of those jagged riffs and chord progressions we worked on while he was away, are turned into real songs. ‘Valentine 69’ and ‘Switchblade Smile’ are the first fruits of our reunion - there are strong hints of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine but they feel like there is real progression from the songs on the cassette EP.

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Some weeks after Fearghal’s return, we get a call from a record label in England. They have heard the cassette and are really interested in talking to us about releasing an EP. Cheree Records was based in London, and had some initial success with a 7” single by a band called the Telescopes. They are an up and coming label, that crucially have found favour with the British music press.

We can scarcely believe our luck. They want to us to come over to London for a couple of days to meet them. The label is run by Nick Allport and Vinita Joshi, and they manage operations from their flat in leafy Leytonstone.

Our inaugural trip to London, and it is my first time on a plane, my very first time outside of Ireland. It’s all new, all incredibly exciting.

We are just going over for one night, and will stay at Nick & Vinita’s place. They are both lovely people, just real music fans, and they make us feel very welcome. That evening, Stephen Lawrence, the lead singer from the Telescopes comes over, along with an assortment of friends & musicians connected with Cheree.

An impromptu party kicks off - music blaring in the sitting room, some people dropping acid & smoking dope in an adjoining room. At one point, someone emerges from that room on all fours, barking like a dog.

We knock back our cans of beer, and watch this polite debauchery unfold, utterly fascinated. So this is the rock and roll lifestyle we had heard so much about?

We return to Dublin, with a radio session for the Dave Fanning show lined up in early 1990.

We promise Nick & Vinita we will send on a tape, as soon as we have it. Those Dave Fanning radio sessions were so important for emerging bands at that time. It was guaranteed radio play on a popular show on national radio.

We record four songs for the session.

We have just one day to record in the studio, so there is no messing around. We go in with very definite ideas how we want it to sound - squalls of feedback, noise, heavy distortion. Intolerably loud. The engineers can barely conceal their disdain for us - but they let us do our thing, and in fairness to them, they do a good job.

Dave Fanning Session 1990

When the session airs, we sit by the radio, with the cassette player ready to record. I remember the sense of pride in hearing our music playing alongside tracks from some of the bands and musicians we loved at that time. It is a special moment.

A tape of the session is promptly dispatched to Cheree. Nick & Vinita love it and immediately offer us a deal to release two EPs on Cheree. They will pay for the recording, the vinyl pressing, sleeve design, promotion and printing. There is no financial incentive for signing - we are just happy to be releasing a record on a proper label.

The deal is done.

They suggest that we might record it in London, but we insist that we want to record it with Paul Thomas in his studio in Dublin. There is a sense of loyalty to Paul - he helped us out in the beginning, so we want to repay that loyalty.

It’s all set - the recording is scheduled for May. Three songs, for a 12” EP. A debut show in London is lined up.

We are in dreamland….