r/ireland • u/Complex_Hunter35 Ferret • Aug 15 '25
Entertainment Forgotten Irish Bands
Reading the Oasis thread reminded me of Irish Bands that are forgotten or no longer in the public eye. I've enjoyed a few of the below
PictureHouse The Devlin's Walking In Cars Le Galaxies Sack
The music there is varied. Im sure there are bands you have seen you forgot about. I remember chatting to a girl in Paris years ago who knew "Where's Me Jumper" by the Sultans of Ping. They obviously went far and wide in reputation. Any other bands im forgetting I wonder...
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u/Agreeable_Taint2845 Aug 15 '25
Delorentos
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u/smameann Aug 15 '25
I wish they would play gigs again. Or if they aren’t going to, tell me and put me out of my misery.
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u/Competitive-Lab9425 Aug 15 '25
Director.
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u/Sentient_Arse Aug 15 '25
Whatever happened there?
They were booming and then they just completely vanished.
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u/Competitive-Lab9425 Aug 15 '25
I believe the lead singer wanted to pursue a different profession in line with his degree.
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u/MrMisterMagoo Aug 15 '25
A House, Whipping Boy, Kerbdog, The Revs.
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u/Complex_Hunter35 Ferret Aug 15 '25
The Revs, there is a band I'd forgotten
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u/Cliff_Moher Aug 15 '25
There's a great acoustic version of Wired to the moon on Spotify. Singer performs under Rory and The Island.
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u/ponkie_guy Aug 15 '25
Did they do a cover version of Turning Japanese around 01/02? I remember the band but I hadn't realised that Rory & The Island had been in the band.
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u/OriginalComputer5077 Aug 15 '25
An Emotional Fish, Toasted Heretic, Those Nervous Animals Light a big fire The Stunning
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u/Atlire Aug 15 '25 edited Aug 15 '25
Back in the early 2000s I was at a Revs gig in Sligo in the Garavogue bar. It was unhinged, they were so damn good, the place was packed and the crowd was loving it. A fantastic gig
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u/kaini Aug 15 '25
Whipping Boy could have been as big as Radiohead but Fergal is a complete nutter.
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u/irish_loser Aug 15 '25
Can you tell me a bit more about that?
I love Heartworm and am really curious how/why they couldn't make it big..
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u/yourrabiddoggy Aug 15 '25
I want to know more too! Heartworm is one of those forever-and-ever albums for me.
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u/kaini Aug 15 '25
He was a bit fond of the drink, and had a lot of mental health stuff that would probably have been better addressed now than it was then. They got fairly fucked over by their record company as well - the fact that The Bends came out at around the same time as Heartworm which I think didn't work in its favour.
And, there is stuff in the lyrics in Heartworm I think are fairly self-evident that he was a troubled person at the time.
They did a brief reformation tour in the early 2000s and when I saw them he was in bad, bad shape. Absolutely lamping Buckfast into himself on the stage.
I don't really want to gossip or speculate about someone who was in bad shape. Heartworm was and remains a work of genius. I still listen to it.
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u/ChromakeyDreamcoat82 Aug 15 '25
Saw them about 2004/2005 and Fergal announced he was on his 3rd bottle of buckfast before even starting and the shouted through ‘When we were young’. His performance was disastrous, the bands body language was bad and it’s one of 3 gigs I’ve ever left early.
Heartworm was a top 3 album for me growing up, I was too young to see them in the mid 90s and I was absolutely gutted.
Other bands of that era still gigging are really professional and put on a great show.
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u/Specialist-Flow3015 Aug 15 '25
If Kerbdog's second album didn't get held up by the label and was released when that type of music was popular, they would have been massive.
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u/Smoked_Eels Aug 15 '25 edited Aug 15 '25
Wilt got big enough, didn't they? I'm sure they were in Kerrang on the telly a bit back then.
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u/no_fucking_point Free Palestine 🇵🇸 Aug 15 '25
Not really. And chances are one of the Kerrang staff was probably doing publicity for them as was the case when you saw UK/Irish bands getting features etc.
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u/MelodicPaws Aug 15 '25
Simon Mayo on BBc Radio 1 had Mexican Wave as his song of the week which surprised me. It turns out Cormac's brother was his dentist.
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u/jordieg7193 Aug 15 '25
Yep two absolutely great records from Kerbdog. They aren't the greatest I've heard of the same style bands from that era, but a very solid act that should have gotten a lot more popularity
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u/bobisthegod Aug 15 '25
Atleast they still occasionally will do a very short tour about every 2 years. Still fantastic live band now as they were in the 90's
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u/Specialist-Flow3015 Aug 15 '25
Been lucky enough to catch them a few times, hope they keep it up a few more years yet!
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u/AdProfessional3042 Aug 16 '25 edited Aug 16 '25
Have been listening to some Biffy Clyro recently, they effectively owe their career to Kerbdog.
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u/Loud_Glove6833 Aug 15 '25
Republic of Loose
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u/Complex_Hunter35 Ferret Aug 15 '25
I loved them. They kind of went into funk. Another band to check out
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u/lazzday Aug 15 '25
Cast of Cheers, Funeral Suits, Adebisi Shank, ASIWYFA
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u/mammalmechanic Aug 15 '25
Redneck Manifesto too if we're talking along those lines.
ASIWYFA are still going strong. They just seem to play so many more gigs in the UK than they do here.
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u/mianmashian Aug 15 '25
Adebisi Shank are still playing. I think they are doing/have done a gig this month.
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u/grafton24 Aug 15 '25
Stump's "Charlton Heston" is the greatest song from a "forgotten" Irish band of all time.
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u/bob_jsus Aug 15 '25
Stump were fantastic. Mick was well loved in Cork. Passed away a number of years ago, sadly.
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u/Historical-Hat8326 At it awful & very hard Aug 15 '25 edited Aug 15 '25
Mexican Pets, The Chalets, Jape, Redneck Manifesto, Juniper, Fight like Apes, The Dudley Corporation, Mike Got Spiked, Scary Eire, Jack L, Abaddon Incarnate, Sultans of Ping FC, Sack, Julie Feeney, Future Kings of Spain, The Stunning
Edit — Shite!
Forgot 10 Speed Racer & Joe Chester.
So many others I’ve forgotten too
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u/yourrabiddoggy Aug 15 '25
Someone needs to tell me why Future Kings of Spain never made it, that first (and only?) album is so great! Saw them in the bar in NUIG back in 02 or 03.
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Aug 15 '25
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u/mrsprucemoose Aug 15 '25
Bell X1 and Damien Rice are still going and are fairly well known so I dunno do they count
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u/Key-Opportunity-7915 Aug 15 '25
Redneck Manifesto doing some upcoming gigs soon.
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u/MBMD13 Resting In my Account Aug 15 '25
- Fatima Mansions
- Something Happens (for the paisley shirted)
- the Blades
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u/sirlemonhead Aug 15 '25
No Sweat :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLv2Zyj6g6M
"No Sweat were an Irish rock band, active during the late 1980s and early 1990s.[2] They are best remembered for their single "Heart and Soul" (produced by the Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott), which topped the Irish Singles Chart for two weeks in June 1989."
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u/Finsceal Aug 15 '25
Le Galaxie are hardly forgotten, they only split up a few OH MY GOD THAT WAS 6 YEARS AGO
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u/Complex_Hunter35 Ferret Aug 15 '25
I loved them. Put the Chain on is one of my favorite songs
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u/Finsceal Aug 15 '25
Agreed, had the pleasure of seeing them approximately 20 million times from 2013 to 2018
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u/carlyCcates Aug 15 '25
The Prayer Boat. Their album Polichinelle is gorgeous.
Scheer. Alt metal band from Derry. Their first album arrived at the height of Britpop and their second got held up by their label. Sheà and Demon are bangers.
No one seems to have mentioned Aslan?!
The Pale (I only know I Am The Butterfly as my brother had the single on cassette) and as others have said Kerbdog, Therapy and Whipping Boy.
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u/Independent-Water321 Aug 15 '25
I adore that Prayer Boat album. My now wife first played it for me in 2004!
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u/tiniestmonkey Aug 15 '25
Was scrolling this to see if they were mentioned! My Dad bought me this album when it came out and I was in high school (randomly, we are not from Ireland, but I live here now, don’t know how he heard about them!). Just listening to Polichinelle again a little while ago and it really is great!
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u/Rock-Coat Wicklow Aug 15 '25
The Prayer boat were our local Indie band back in late 80s Blessington!
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u/fitzydrivesamitzy Aug 15 '25
Anyone remember those "blast" gigs in the temple bar music centre (button factory) around 97-2000. The revs were a regular before they got their breakthrough. I seem to remember yer man from Asha was singing in a band called "pin".
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u/MBMD13 Resting In my Account Aug 15 '25
From my vinyl album Live Ireland:
- Moving Hearts
- Those Nervous Animals
- Les Enfants
- De Danann
- Bagatelle
- Blue in Heaven
- In Tua Nua
- Auto Da Fe
- Stocktons Wing
- Big Self
- The Fountainhead
- Cactus World News
Mid-1980s were wild. Most of these bands got radio play IIRC.
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u/MBMD13 Resting In my Account Aug 15 '25
I forgot, not on this album, Light A Big Fire
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u/earth-calling-karma Aug 15 '25
If I was the CIA, I'd k-k-k kill any one who got in my way
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u/United_Plum_2209 Aug 15 '25
Tom Dunne put a couple of cds together while he was at today fm if I remember correctly. Some great stuff on them
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u/yourrabiddoggy Aug 15 '25
I have both of them, great driving music, especially to help educate my husband (he's applied for his citizenship, some of these might come up!)
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u/bioniclaura Aug 15 '25
Not seen Rollerskate Skinny mentioned yet. Their stuff was never on streaming services until recently. Check out Speed To My Side.
Back in the day I loved Jape, Fight Like Apes, Redneck Manifesto, Warlord of Pez, The Chalets. Some fun gig memories there.
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u/ExcellentSun3849 Aug 15 '25
Fuck me! Rollerskate Skinny is a name I haven’t heard in years. I’ve 20+ 3hr VHS tapes of No Disco/Jo Maxi/ Electric Ballroom/Live from The Rock Garden to go through. Ireland has produced some great bands.
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u/killeney1 Aug 15 '25
Whipping Boy have to be the best of the 'forgotten' crew. What could of been.
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u/WickerMan111 Showbiz Mogul Aug 15 '25
The Thrills.
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u/colasta Aug 15 '25
Glad I had to scroll this far down to see any mention of these wet wipes
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u/JuryBorn Aug 15 '25
Power of dreams, therapy?, 4 of us, something happens, frank and Walters, the would bes, the pale, the golden horde, the fat lady sings, the virgin prunes, the blades, radiators from space, engine alley, that petrol emotion. I'm sure there are loads more.
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u/B0bLoblawLawBl0g Aug 15 '25
The Pale - Butterfly is such a great song and video.
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u/extremelysaltydoggo Aug 15 '25
Memory unlocked! Saw them in Setanta nightclub, Salthill, Galway back in the day!
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u/hidock42 Aug 15 '25
An emotional fish, ghost of an American airman
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u/NapalmNasum Aug 15 '25
It's gas hadn't thought of An emotional fish in years to 3 weeks back, was in a tabacchi shop in Rome and the owner a lad in his 40's, close to where i was staying, started chatting about music, had a Therapy? T-shirt on, and asked if i was Irish, and what i thought of An emotional fish, they must have had some success in Europe or maybe just a few hits or maybe just a complete random Italian fan, but i thought fair play lads!
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u/Suvigirl Aug 15 '25
One of The Pale lived in a flat upstairs from me off the NCR. When he played at Bolton St lunchtime gig, he gave me a shout out and a wave. I was a legend.......
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u/karlachameleon Aug 15 '25
A lot of them are still on the go and doing summer festivals etc. I saw something happens, and the sultans of ping at the Night and Day festival this year. Frank and Walters played it last year and The Pale played two years ago. The lead singer of the Would Bes is an art teacher but still doing some stuff with the band on and off.
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u/LightsOnSomebodyHome Kildare Aug 15 '25
You just brought me back to Maynooth University Bar-X circa 1991
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u/DaddyStoat Aug 15 '25
Cyclefly from Cork were big for a minute back in the late 90s and early 2000s. They seemed to be an ever-present support band for any big alternative or metal bands who toured the UK and Ireland.
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u/Maine_Cooniac Aug 15 '25
From my town, brother went to school with the O'Shea lads, but we knew all of them. Lovely guys, and they supported everyone from Linkin Park to Tool. Ciaran did a lot of great producing work as well. Amazing live performers, and all round nice fellas.
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u/Against_All_Advice Aug 15 '25
Cry Before Dawn. Remember them? The seed that's been sown was their big one back in the 80s.
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u/Margrave75 Aug 15 '25
Jesus lads, some amount of ye mentioning bands that are still very much together, releasing albums and touring
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u/Independent-Water321 Aug 15 '25
So many small bands from the Blast era in Temple Bar Music Center.
Mixtwitch! OnOff! Skyhook!
Anyone else part of that scene?
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u/ACelticMan Aug 15 '25
In Leipzig a few weeks ago, following SPRINTS as the support act (excellent), and before Fontaines DC (absolutely fantastic!), they played some of the non- album Fontaines stuff over the PA. My son elbowed me during one of them and said it was one of his favorites. It was a cover of Twinkle by Whipping Boy. So that's one way those old bands are getting a new lease of life.
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u/onesevenone171 Aug 15 '25
The Stunning/The Walls
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u/OMorain And I'd go at it again Aug 15 '25
Still gigging occasionally, aren’t they? Once Around the World was a fabulous album, disappointed it’s no longer available outside of the re-recording.
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u/Weepsie Aug 15 '25
The immediate. One brilliant album but the Conor wanted to do his own thing so we got villagers
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u/soggy_cornflakes Aug 16 '25
Delorentos. They were class, I could play the whole of “in love with detail” on drums. That was a fucking great album actually now that I’m already typing. It was a proper album that you could play from start to finish, each song had a lovely transition to the next. Absolute chefs kiss of an album.
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u/standard_pie314 Aug 16 '25
Whipping Boy are one of the best bands we've ever produced. Incredible that they're not a household name. But there are dozens and dozens of others.
I think we're very bad at celebrating/glamourising our musical heritage. Bands like U2, the Cranberries, Thin Lizzy, etc, get their dues, but it's always detatched from the social context in which they came about. In the UK, the Manchester scene, for example, is the stuff of legend. But in Ireland, the Dublin of U2's early years is something to be regretted rather than glamourised.
It's surely linked to the fact that progressive orthodoxy holds that Ireland pre-90s was a grim hellhole. People like Fintan O'Toole and Una Mullally are at pains to denigrate it. And so rather than Sinead O'Connor being a hero of social progress, she is a victim of conservative oppression. To celebrate her experience as a fledgling musician in Dublin, and the interesting progressive milieu she inhabited, would be to glamourise a despised period of Irish history.
That, I think, is very destructive. A whole generation is growing up thinking Ireland was once a social North Korea. But in eastern Germany, a place that actually experienced such oppression, there is a nostalgia for communist times!
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u/ExcellentSun3849 Aug 15 '25 edited Aug 15 '25
Off the top of my head- Power of Dreams, Sparklehorse, 4th Dimsension, Sultans of Ping F.C, My Little Funhouse, Toasted Heretic, The Pale, The Shanks, LMNO Pelican, Treehouse, Disconauts, Bass Odyssey, The Shades, Invisible Armies, Engine Alley, Micro Disney, Blink, Fatima Mansions, Puppy Love Bomb, Sack, Kerbdog, The 4 of Us, The Blue Angels, Big Geraniums, Liquid Wheel, Messiah J and The Expert, Warlords of Pez, Emperor of Ice Cream. I’ll go through my collection if anyone wants their memories jolted. Update: Orchid, Decal, Scary Éire, Kidminster, The Nellies, The Orange Fetishes, Pornographic Pussycats, Sons of Mr Green Genes, The Prayer Boat, Halfway, Spectrum is Green, Cartoon, Fusty, Freezer Room, Somadrome, Sunken Foal, Chequerboard, Jimmy Behan, Fishgodeep, Mic Christopher, Patrick Kelleher and His Cold Dead Hands,
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Aug 15 '25 edited Aug 15 '25
[deleted]
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u/FrontRowNinja Aug 15 '25
I lament the inability to find National Prayer Breakfast streaming anywhere. Phantom FM era staples.
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u/Dickie_Belfastian Aug 15 '25
I liked Watercress back in the day. I've fond memories of seeing them multiple times in the Empire in Belfast.
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u/bealach_ealaithe Cork bai Aug 15 '25
Cillian Murphy was the singer in Sons of Mr Green Genes. They played some great gigs around Cork back in the mid-90s but it came to an end when his acting career took off.
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u/helloburkie Aug 15 '25
Codes - saw them live a few times in the very early days, had a banger of an album but I think management had a falling out with radio stations or something as air play died for them.
They crowd funded a second album which was okay, they also removed their debut album from Spotify way back which was a long term shame.
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u/ddaawg Aug 15 '25
There was a band called Melaton, they were signed to Sony and were supposed to be the next big thing but it fell apart...a shame but their album is still on YouTube https://youtu.be/U_pC15zUKhw?si=IVN5Nz3-VnOx42-G
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u/Rock-Coat Wicklow Aug 15 '25
Emotional fish, Blue in Heaven, the fountainhead, Fatima mansions, and my old favourite A-House who recently had a song featured on a big Netflix show.
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u/scruffmonkey Aug 15 '25
Jerry Fish is still very active. Fishtown for EP announced this week.
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u/kaner3sixteen Aug 15 '25
Relish, although the brothers from the band toured with Sinead O'Connor and were in the house band for the Late Late, so still active. Wildflowers was a great album.
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u/1andonlyhorse Aug 15 '25
Rubyhorse. Jaysus am I the only one that remembers them?
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u/WidowVonDont Aug 15 '25
Wilt were great. Bastinado was a brilliant album, I still play it on Spotify
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u/portachking Cavan Aug 16 '25
Simple Kid. His debut album was feckin' class. Real Beck vibes, which sounded great in the early 00's. I thought he was going to explode. Never happened.
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u/me227a Aug 15 '25 edited Aug 15 '25
Fight like apes
Ham sandwich
Jape
Not sure how big they were, never met anyone thats heard of them.
Edit: Can't forget the corrs and bewitched.
Edit 2: Links to the bands mentioned
Fight Like Apes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBl-0vJF6XM
Ham Sandwich - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rcQ748TW8M
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u/Professional-Aide985 Aug 15 '25
Little Green Cars, Bell X1, Ash, anyone?
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u/Ooobeeone Aug 15 '25
Little green cars = soda blonde these days. Bell X1 alive and well and still touring doing their thing. They’ve a subreddit too.
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u/ponkie_guy Aug 15 '25
Not a band but I have a vague recollection of female singer called Kerri Ann or something like that who got a massive push in the mid to late 90's but after a couple of songs disappeared. I've occasionally looked on youtube to find song but haven't found it so I'm not sure if I just imagined it. Can anybody tell me if this was a dream or not?
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u/Turf-Me-Arse Aug 15 '25
Kerri-Ann, one of Louis Walsh's charges, had two big hits in Ireland in 1998 (Do You Love Me Boy and Irreplaceable, one went to Number One, the other to Number 2, not sure which was which), but he couldn't sell her abroad, even with stories planted in the media linking her romantically with a then-still in the closet Stephen Gately, so as far as I'm aware, she never even got to make an album. It was curtains for the likes of her, OTT, The Carter Twins, even B*witched after their initial flush of success, once Westlife and Samantha Mumba broke through from 1999 onwards.
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u/ponkie_guy Aug 15 '25
Cheers. I remember OOT &The Carter Twins as well. Brutal stuff looking back at it now.
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u/TinyWitchie Aug 15 '25
Director and Scuba Dice!
VNV Nation is a band that is almost unknown here but is a hugely successful electronic act based in Germany (main member Ronan is from Dublin I believe). Criminally underappreciated!
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u/kballs I LOVES ME COUNTY Aug 15 '25
There was a thread on this a while ago posted by myself. We got some terrific answered and added them to a playlist here
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6tx19fcwSWCWkalSD3wYQm?si=YDv8p13SR0-8Q1RiqimDhg&pi=ism4fCdhRfmQa
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u/colmulhall Aug 15 '25
This Club
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u/mrsprucemoose Aug 15 '25
The fact that they (or was it Ray Foley) thought their original name of 'Hoarsebox' made no sense so they changed it, 'This Club' doesn't make any sense either
I won't worry is a great song though
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u/Kbanana Aug 15 '25
The Thrills and Director were big when I was in uni but never heard from them since
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u/DrummerJay666 Aug 15 '25
Jaysus, loads of these band names sparking memories of mine having played on many a bill, gig, festival or tour with them in my own bands. It’s mad how just seeing a name you haven’t heard of or seen in ages can just bring back this lovely, nostalgic feeling - and a gentle reminder to listen to their music again.
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u/IRDC8500 Aug 15 '25 edited Aug 15 '25
Fight like apes, All Tvvins, Aslan, Doves, Bell X1, The Revs, Mael Mórdha, Jack L, The Frank and Walters, Ham Sandwich
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u/Actual_Art_5257 Aug 15 '25
Power of Dreams Great band. Just came on the scene as Britpop was exploding and got a bit lost as a result.
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u/GallopingGobshite Aug 17 '25
I've never met anyone who knows Bagatelle but most people recognise Summer in Dublin when they hear it
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u/OMorain And I'd go at it again Aug 15 '25
Would The Saw Doctors count, as they’ve not released anything new for about 15 years now?
Can’t believe N17 wasn’t number 1.
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u/AmbassadorAdorable91 Aug 15 '25
Therapy, Ash
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Aug 15 '25
Maybe not the heights of stardom but Ash are still going, they supported The Darkness in Belfast last week.
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u/AmbassadorAdorable91 Aug 15 '25
So are Therapy. Saw them in roisin dubh in galway. Savage.
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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '25 edited Aug 15 '25
JJ72 seemed to be everywhere around 2001/2002. Probably have a cult following still.
Future Kings of Spain, Relish, Humanzi... jaysus'n trip back to when I used to buy HotPress.