Well, okay, it's SOMETHING HAPPENS, so that's
overstating it a bit. Still, having
taken
a fair few industry beatings over the
years,
the band are no longer inclined to
simply
turn the other cheek. At the end of
a year
in which they toured the States with
Warren
Zevon, released a "Best Of ..."
and are bringing it all back home for
Christmas,
Olaf Tyaransen finds the band can snarl
as
well as smile.
"It IS the end," says Tom Dunne,
mournfully gazing at the copy of his
band's
newest release, a 'best of' compilation
wittily
entitled "The Beatings Will Continue
Until Morale Improves." I've just
nervously
placed the artefact in the centre of
the
table of this Donnybrook drinking establishment
and asked the ever so tactful question,
'Does
it represent a tombstone for Something
Happens?'
"Yeah, it's dead, dead in the
water,"
agrees drummer Eamonn Ryan, wearily
nodding
his head with a resigned, faraway look
in
his eyes. "The band is finished."
Eh?!?
My heart skips a beat (damn those amphetamines!)
and in the far corner of the room a
pin drops
with an almighty clatter. For what
seems
like an eternity nobody says a word.
And
then, sad fucks that we are, we all
burst
out laughing. Something Happens --
Ireland's
top rock combo, and second most famous
Fab
Four -- to split up and call it a day?
Not
a chance mate! When life hands these
guys
a lemon, they make lemonade. Or something
like that.
Of course, I could be forgiven for
asking
the question, since journalists have
been
asking it of them for what seems like
most
of their career. I was, after all,
only thinking
the thinkable and expecting the worst
(as
is expected of me). Though the band
have
been busy of late supporting rocker
Warren
Zevon on a tour of the United States,
hit
singles have been a bit thin on the
ground
for them since they lost their Virgin-ity
and reverted back to their current
independent-but-proud
status. Finding yourself sans recording
contract
after ten years' hard graft would demoralise
any band. And when you start releasing
retrospective
compilation albums with ironically
masochistic
titles ... well, what's an overworked
and
underpaid music journalist like myself
supposed
to think? Eh?
"I always felt that Something
Happens,
the band, could break up at any moment
and
I feel every good band should have
that capacity,
you know," Tom reflects. "We
were
trying to break up after the 'Burn
Clear'
single, that's why we called the E.P.
"Two
Chances." We reckoned we had two
chances
of doing anything. It's kind of a good
way
to live. So we don't have any immediate
plans
to break up. We have loads of immediate
plans
to do other things like make another
album
and try to get some more work going
in America."
"We've only ever done it album
by album
anyway," says Eamonn. "If
you went
back over the history of the band,
you'll
find that after every record the press
speculation
was 'Something Happens to be dropped'
or
'Something Happens to split up.' So
you learn
to live with that. I mean they're seeing
it in the long term. We just see it
record
by record. But we do want to make a
new album.
That's important to us."
"And the other side of that coin,"
continues Tom, "is that the other
headlines
we'd get would be 'Something Happens
to be
the next U2,' 'Something Happens to
break
big,' 'Something Happens to make it,'
you
know."
To date, Something Happens still haven't
made it big, at least not as big as
their
obvious potential would suggest they
could
(and should). They've been on the verge
once
or twice, metaphorically picking five
of
the winning Lotto numbers and losing
out
on the sixth at the last moment. They've
neared the top of the corporate rock
ladder
only to suddenly find themselves riding
that
cruel snake back down to square one
again.
They've been fucked by fate and overdosed
on irony. Examples? Well, they lost
their
contract with Virgin the same week
that 'Daisyhead"
won the coveted Single of the Week
award
in the New Musical Express. So, if
Virgin
were to realise their epic blunder
and offer
them another deal, would the band ...?
"We probably would," laughs
Tom.
"We definitely would," laughs
Eamonn.
Of course they would! After all, you
can
only be fucked by the same Virgin once.
"There's
no hard feelings where money's concerned,"
Tom explains. "To this day we
still
get on very well with the Irish end
of it.
And, I mean, both sides have been very
helpful
because a lot of the tracks on "The
Beatings..." were licensed through
Virgin
so we had to do it through them to
put it
out on BMG. So they've been fine, you
know.
"The English end of the company
had
changed completely when we were dropped.
When we were signed, we knew the heads
of
all the departments and the people
we worked
with. In the weeks and months coming
up to
us being dropped, most of the people
we worked
with had been fired. At one point it
seemed
like the band were the only part of
the company
that was still there. And the writing
was
absolutely on the wall. It was just
a matter
of time."
Of course, Something Happens weren't
the
only Irish band to get dropped by a
major
label at the time (though they're one
of
the few not to have broken when they
hit
the ground). There had been a golden
age
when bands from the Emerald Isle were
a must-have
for any respectable major record company
with Midas corporate dreams of discovering
the next U2. Inevitably, however, the
Celtic
rock market became saturated, and soon
after,
the great purge came and P45s started
flying
as the companies discarded the bands
the
way ravers discard Es during Drug Squad
raids.
Are they bitter now about getting caught
up in what was essentially a fashion
thing?
"Well, I don't really think that
was
so much the case with us," says
Eamonn.
"You know, we'd a very good relationship
with Ronnie Gurr -- the guy who signed
us
-- and the whole thing with us came
outside
of any scene that was going on in Ireland
at the time. It might not have appeared
that
way from the outside but that was the
case.
I think record companies in general
did get
cold feet and run -- probably rightly
so
-- from the amount of Irish bands that
they'd
signed. But that was more just the
timing
than anything else."
"Yeah," Tom agrees, "I
think
we were always seen as a stand-alone
type
of product, you know. They liked our
songs
and they liked our gigs and they thought
we had a capacity to develop. In fact,
right
up to its dying day, I can remember
talking
to the head of Virgin A&R; and
he was
very embittered by what was going on
within
the record company and he was saying,
'well,
I don't really give a shit. I think
I signed
two of the best bands in the world.'
And
he was talking about ourselves and
That Petrol
Emotion. He just reckoned that we were
two
superb bands. That was no business
thing,
it was nothing to do with the fact
that we
were Irish or any of that crap. He
just thought
that the Petrols and ourselves were
two great
bands."
Something Happens have recently returned
from a two-month tour of America where,
on
an almost nightly basis, they had the
dual
role of playing both as Something Happens
AND Warren Zevon's backing band. "It
was brilliant over there, really easy,"
Tom enthuses. "It was a very comfortable
bus, nice hotels, nice gigs, and quite
a
strange situation, really, in that
we were
going on doing a Something Happens
gig --
which occasionally was quite difficult
--
and then going on and playing with
Warren
Zevon to rapturous applause from the
same
crowd. It was weird, but it was also
a bit
of a safety net in that no matter how
difficult
your own gig was, you'd still get on
really
well with the crowd and be liked by
them
or whatever. Kinda like (adopts loud
American
drawl) 'Hey, it's those fuckin' assholes!
They're comin' back on. They're gonna
do
more!' I heard that sort of remark
more than
once."
But how did they manage to swing the
Zevon
support slot?
"We have the same tour agent,"
Tom explains. "When he finished
his
last album he decided he wanted to
go out
with an electric band because he nearly
always
tours acoutically. So he went to see
the
tour agent who played him a few of
our records
and that was it really. We got the
gig."
And what was he like to work with?
"He's a very complex group of
guys,"
laughs Tom. "Nah, basically he's
a very
nice guy. He's very entertaining to
be around.
Very mood driven. I grew to like him
an awful
lot over the two months. He's a real
old
school rock star. And very temperamental
-- especially with the backstage catering.
He used to have a constant supply of
Diet
Coke and he'd sometimes reject an entire
crate on one sip from one can!"
Ah, the mindless decadence of rock
'n' roll.
Aside from the huge quantities of (diet)
coke being consumed, the tour had its
occasional
Spinal Tap moments as well.
"Yeah, our bus went on fire,"
Tom
laughs. "That actually was quite
touch
and go for a moment. Comic as well,
though.
It happened in the middle of the day.
Strange
to say, there were people asleep at
the time!
If it had happened at night, when you'd
had
maybe a few drinks, people wouldn't
have
woken up as quickly and the thing was
that
the smoke was actually being pumped
into
your bunk. So I can't imagine a more
dangerous
thing than to be unconscious from drink
in
your bunk with smoke being pumped into
it.
Then the comic elements came when Warren
was sending various members of the
band back
onto the bus to get his belongings.
Kind
of 'Hey Ray, get my bag would ya.'"
For Eamonn, though, the fire represented
a missed opportunity.
"It's a shame one of us couldn't
have
died because our record sales would
definitely
have improved," he observes. "You
know, just a non-essential member."
"I had to wake Pat Fitzpatrick
(sometime
Happens' keyboardist) up," remembers
Tom. "I pulled across the curtain
to
his bunk and I couldn't see him because
there
was all this white smoke. So I shook
him
and he woke up and I didn't want to
frighten
him by saying the bus was on fire,
so I said
-- and he'll always remember this --
'Pat,
there's something not quite right here.
You
should get up.'"
Did you lose any equipment?
"No, just the bus itself. The
fire was
contained in the air conditioning unit
underneath
the bus and it didn't really break
out of
there. But there was a lot of smoke
damage,
and there was some damage to the engine
as
well."
Despite the much-needed exposure that
the
Zevon tour provided, Tom is aware that
a
lot more effort is going to be required
before
Something Happens can even begin to
have
any real impact in America.
"I still wouldn't say that we're
that
close to breaking it yet," he
muses.
"At the same time, I'd say there's
definitely
an underground of support for us everywhere
we go. I mean, we went down very well
in
most places. But I can see what we
have to
do to break America. I can really see
it
very clearly. I've no doubt at all
that the
band -- with the right tour and the
right
album -- would do enormously well over
there.
Right now, we have half of a new album
written
and the "Planet Fabulous"
album
is coming out there after Christmas,
so we're
hoping that it'll do a bit of work
for us
while we're working on the next one.
Ideally
if we can get the next one ready for
release
by April or May, then we could possibly
tour
it over there for the summer."
Would they regard Ireland as bit of
a no-go
zone at this point in their career?
"I wouldn't say it's a no-go zone,"
remarks Eamonn, "but I think that
until
we make significant headway elsewhere
we're
not gonna do big business in Ireland
again,
you know what I mean? The circuit that
used
to exist in Ireland doesn't really
exist
so much anymore -- the live circuit
that
is -- and going playing gigs down the
country
doesn't happen so much anymore. Some
of them
are fine but there's very few venues
left.
I mean, we've put together something
of a
tour for this 'best of' record between
now
and Christmas but there are actually
very
few of the old venues we used to play
that
still exist. Most of them are now discos
or raves or they've changed in some
way.
I'd say it's much harder for new bands
to
get started over here these days. When
we
began there was huge circuit. You could
play
all over the country."
Band manager Conor O'Mahony arrives
in to
briefly discuss some business with
Eamonn,
and I use the opportunity to ask Tom
about
his burgeoning new career as a part-time
radio DJ as the "Totally Irish"
he's been presenting on 98FM over the
past
couple of weeks. He's adamant that
it's not
a move away from the band.
"I'm kind of taking it on a look-see
basis," he says. "It's good
fun
and I really enjoy doing it. I love
getting
to hear that much music and getting
to play
that much music. I think it's good
that someone
like me gets to do it because I do
know that
I'm doing it very well. I've an awful
lot
of experience with bands and with what's
going on. So I get a chance to draw
a bit
of attention to a few bands that deserve
it, you know, and maybe introduce them
to
a broader audience in a way that's
not gonna
make people turn off their radios or
dismiss
it as a specialist show."
Listening to the show one night (as
part
of my exhaustive preparations for this
interview,
of course), I noticed that he was playing
Morrissey. Which is all well and good
but
hardly "Totally Irish" now,
is
it?
"Yeah, Morrissey is Irish,"
Tom
insists. "All the parents of The
Smiths
were Irish. So my argument here is
that if
it was a football team they'd be putting
on the green shirt. So I'm trying to
introduce
one artist a week who has an Irish
connection.
I brought in Elvis Costello, very dubiously
I have to admit, because his real name,
Declan
McManus, sounds Irish and his wife
has an
Irish name. And he owns property here.
But
the first band I did was Oasis."
What do you think of the Britpop bands,
incidentally?
"I think they're bloody great.
For the
first time in about ten years you can
actually
name four English bands off the top
of your
head that are just really, really good."
Eamonn rejoins the conversation in
time to
reveal that he's a huge Pulp fan.
"I find them very reassuring,"
he laughs, "because it took them
so
long to get anywhere. They're my heroes
now.
Them and Soul Asylum. Bands than can
have
brilliant hit singles after twelve
years,
they're the ones I like."
Speaking of brilliant hit singles,
were you
chuffed when "Parachute"
was voted
the Best Irish Single Of All Time recently?
"It was really lovely," smiles
Tom. "And I'm really glad that
it was
a genuine poll. When I heard that we'd
won,
I was delighted, but then I thought
it might
just have been five calls to the station
or something. But I actually spoke
to the
radio station and it was really around
700
calls. So I was delighted."
Talk turns to the subject of the recent
MTV
Europe Video Awards and Bono's controversial
statement about the French nuclear
tests
(and the masturbatory inclinations
of that
senile bootboy, President Chirac).
How do
Something Happens feel about bands
using
their fame and status to highlight
various
issues?
"I'm not really sure," says
Tom.
"In U2's case, I think they can
be very
simplistic in what they say and a lot
of
the time it seems to be more to do
with record
sales and publicity than any genuine
feeling
on the subject."
Eamonn is a little more forgiving.
"I don't really think that there's
a
general answer to that. I think every
band
is different. I mean U2 have been bombastic
from time to time. But then, against
that,
there are other things they do, like
their
involvement with Amnesty International
and
so on. They sell millions of records
and
Amnesty's address is on every sleeve
and
that can only be a good thing. But
every
band is different. I mean, Costello
has done
some brilliant political commentary
and it's
much more subtle."
As it turns out, Something Happens
have been
indulging in a spot of political commentary
of their own of late, having recently
written
a song called "Hello Divorce,
Goodbye
Daddy."
"Well, we're really just poking
a little
fun," Tom laughingly admits. "You
know, being tongue-in-cheek by taking
the
phrase that the anti-divorce campaign
used.
But with a chorus of 'Send that woman
to
Hell/Get her out of my house,"
I couldn't
really say that we're being all that
serious."
As with most 'best of' albums, the
history
of Something Happens is more or less
written
in the grooves of "The Beatings
Will
Continue Until Morale Improves."
So,
seeing as they insist that it's not
a tombstone,
are they, in any sense, closing a particular
chapter of the band's life with this
album?
"Probably," says Tom. "It
sounds like an awful cliche, though,
doesn't
it? But I do feel a kind of 'where
to next?'
thing regarding musical direction.
I can
kinda see now that the first album
was just
us getting to know how to write songs,
the
second album we were getting quite
good at
writing songs, the third was a bit
of a kneejerk
reaction against the record company
and the
way things were going. And then the
fourth
was really re-affirming that we were
very
complete songwriters. And now it's
just a
case of where to take it."
Looking back on the past ten years,
is there
anything you'd like to change about
the history
of Something Happens?
"I'd be taller if I could do it
all
again," ventures Tom, smiling.
Eamonn gets realistic: "Ah, you
could
spend forever mulling over things you
should've
done and things you shouldn't. And
there's
lots of things you see in hindsight,
but
hindsight's like 20/20 vision. You'd
drive
yourself crazy."
Well, as people then? Have the band
matured
much over the past ten years? Like,
are you
better behaved when you go on tour
these
days?
"Well, we're just learning to
become
a difficult teenage band," laughs
Eamonn.
"But we should start settling
down around
our 20th anniversary."
"Touring on the road is a very
strange
experience," says Tom, with a
faraway
look in his eyes. "You're so far
from
home and it's just so strange to meet
people
in that crazy environment of drink
and, erm,
other things (smirks). It's a trip,
you know.
And the trick is to find some kind
of level
ground while you're out there and not
wind
up in an asylum or something. And also
not
to go the other way and become really
puritanical."
"We've always had loads of fun
touring,"
says Eamonn. "And I think the
fact that
we all basically get on with each other
helps
enormously. You know, we like to watch
(laughs).
Particularly when you're stuck on a
tourbus
for long periods of time. Like, it's
one
thing going down and doing a one night
show
in Ennis or somewhere. But that's not
touring.
If you're doing two or three months
across
America you've really got to get a
daily
routine going. But it's nothing like
a normal
routine where you get up in the morning
and
eat breakfast, you know. But if you
can get
into that you'll have a great time."
Tom: "Usually when you go on tour
you
start off trying to control yourselves.
Two
weeks in you're thinking so far, so
good.
But suddenly you reach a point where
you
can't really remember starting the
tour and
you've no conception of when it's going
to
end. That's when all the rules go out
the
window and you start drinking beer
at 9 a.m.
And you're thinking, 'Well why shouldn't
I be drinking at nine in the morning?
All
I'm doing today is driving for 22 hours.'
"But to answer your question,
I think
we are a little better behaved these
days.
Before, I think we always had a bit
of a
schoolboyish attitude to it all. You
know,
we couldn't believe people were actually
flying us to these places to play our
music.
I think we had a sense of kinda, drink
as
much as you can now because they'll
want
it all back tomorrow (laughs). And
as regards
anything else, I don't think anybody
would
do anything at this stage that might
jeopardize
their marriage or relationship. I think
everyone
is more mature, and aware that their
personal
relationships are worth more than any
short
relationship they might have with somebody
they'd meet on the road."
When I put it to them that Something
Happens
have always had something of a reputation
as the nice guys of Irish rock, they're
quick
to refute it. "It's just a vile
industry
rumor," snorts Tom.
They do, however, feel that certain
sections
of the media have taken advantage of
their
easygoing nature over the years. And
now
they've decided to bite back.
"I'd say that for a long time
we've
been perceived as being very ... nice,"
Eamonn mutters, "but I think we'd
be
less forgiving now of certain people
that,
erm ... I'm going short of naming names
here
but ... oh quick, say something Tom!"
"Will I have a go at Kevin Courtney?"
(Irish Times journalist).
"Eh, no, no. Maybe you shouldn't,"
says Eamonn. And then, realizing that
there's
really nothing to lose: "Ah, fuck
it,
go on, yeah."
"I find the inconsistencies in
his opinions
just absolutely amazing," says
Tom.
"Like, when we were selling out
three
nights in the SFX, which I felt were
three
average nights by Something Happens'
standards,
he was writing about them. And he portrayed
us as the band that can't fail, you
know.
A band with so many aces that it just
couldn't
possibly fail. And then when the perception
changed, he reviewed us again at a
show in
the Tivoli. And it was a really great
show,
one of our best. And yet it was reviewed
as a show by a band who obviously can't
make
it. A band with so many drawbacks that
there's
no way we could ever make it. And then
when
he came to reviewing "The Beatings
Will
Continue Until Morale Improves,"
he
described the songs as ranging from
bland
to derivative. And these are songs
that he
himself played on Grafton Street when
he
busked. And that, to me, just completely
sucks."
Eamonn is a little taken aback by Tom's
vitriol,
but not really surprised: "I would
say
that's probably the first time in an
interview
that I've heard anybody actually pick
a name,"
he says. "I don't think we've
ever really
done that before. And some of that,
I think,
is born of frustration over the years
where
there have been certain gigs and certain
reviews and certain people, and I guess
you
never really feel free to have a go
back.
It's not something that's really open
to
a band without it sounding like sour
grapes
or like you can't take a punch on the
chin
or whatever. These days though, we're
more
inclined to just say 'fuck it.'
"I'd a massive row with somebody
very
big in Irish radio a couple of months
ago,
who was drunkenly trying to get me
to be
thankful for our one play a week or
whatever
it is. And my angle was obviously slagging
the conservative approach of most Irish
radio.
But without getting into the nitty-gritty,
it's just that a year or so ago, I
wouldn't
have had a go because I'd be thinking
'oh
we need this guy, he's important to
us,'
or whatever. These days it's just like
'ah,
fuck off!'"
"Basically, we've always been
very polite
to people," says Tom. "And
I've
found over the years that some people
take
advantage of that and say one thing
to your
face and something different when your
back
is turned. Now that I've realised who
these
people are, I'm just not going to bother
being polite to them."
Ah, but look, 'tis the season to be
jolly
-- so let's not end this otherwise
delightful
conversation on a sour note. Let's,
instead,
be blindingly original and ask Tom
about
his future plans.
"Just with everything that's happened
over the last few years I now find
myself
thinking in increasingly short terms,"
he says. "You know, if I can make
certain
things work in the coming weeks, I'm
really
happy with that. And if I can enjoy
it, I'm
even happier. At the moment, my whole
world
goes from now until the 1st of January,
at
which point we'll probably have done
twelve
Irish shows which I'm obviously hoping
will
go well, we'll have done the Tivoli
show
which I'm really looking forward to.
I'll
also have done another few weeks of
this
radio thing which I'm hoping to just
get
through.
"And then the situation around
us will
have changed. The album will be coming
out
in America and certain things will
be happening
around that. I'll have to put my head
down
to write new songs. And I really just
want
to enjoy all that. But for the moment,
January
1st is as far as my whole world goes."
Here's hoping that the beatings will
have
ceased by then.
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