More on Garret FitzGerald May 24, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Economy, Irish Politics, Northern Ireland, The Left.add a comment
It’s difficult to weigh up Garret FitzGerald’s legacy at this point, in a way it’s too early, despite the fact he was Taoiseach as far back as the 1980s. As a character he was a character, albeit a lot more complex than some of what’s been served up over the last while. You’d wonder what it was like to grow up in a house with two veterans of 1916.
Some interesting expressions of sympathy in the Dáil last week. Enda Kenny and Shane Ross might suggest that the arrival of the Queen provided the culmination of his work, but hearing Gerry Adams speak I wonder if that is a greater exemplar of that work (even if GFG might never have expected or intended such an outcome). Mind you, good to hear Ross remind people that all was not sweetness and light along the way for Fitzgerald, not least in the infamous ‘Out, out, out’ response by Margaret Thatcher.
But this in a sense points to a counter-narrative little of which was articulated at the weekend. Partially that was due to the immediacy of his passing. But part of it was due to a subtle and in some instances not so subtle reworking of history.
As a small example a few of us may recall how as recently as March 2010 Leo Varadkar, now a Minister in the government of this Republic, publicly criticized FitzGerald in the Dáil for his stewardship of the economy in the 1980s.
Two senior Fine Gael TDs clashed last night over comments comparing Taoiseach Brian Cowen to former Fine Gael taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.
The party’s spokesman on enterprise, Leo Varadkar, during an exchange with the Taoiseach in the Dбil yesterday, likened Mr Cowen to Dr FitzGerald. In the course of the debate on the Cabinet reshuffle, Mr Varadkar told Mr Cowen that he was no Seбn Lemass, no Jack Lynch but was like Dr FitzGerald, who he contended had tripled the national debt and had effectively destroyed the country. He also suggested to Mr Cowen that he should “enjoy writing boring articles in The Irish Times in a few years’ time”.
That, perhaps, was indicative of a somewhat different approach to his legacy than we were treated to during the weekend. One crucial point is that while FitzGerald was largely of the orthodoxy that orthodoxy saw him as in some respects a failure by the time his two terms as Taoiseach came to an end. How else to explain that when the Progressive Democrat’s were founded in 1986 they took both Fianna Fáíl and Fine Gael TDs, but more importantly as a political formation they ate much more into the Fine Gael vote than the FF one.
Indeed the vindication of the man came more from his calling it largely right, though hardly being alone in this, about Haughey and social issues than any great achievements in the economic or other spheres.
Anyway, there has been plenty of laudatory material in the media, and the thread on the CLR was fairly harsh – rightly so in some respects – perhaps not so much in others.
So let me point to an achievement, a disappointment and a sort of achievement, each in turn.
For the first it is difficult to underestimate his effect in political terms for Fine Gael in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Whatever about the rather shabby professorial image he had it somehow connected with a broad range of people pulling them into the FG orbit. I remember meeting some years back people from around the country who had been a little older than me at the time and who had joined FG because of GFG – a happy accident of initials too when one thinks of it. And while he wasn’t quite the anti-Haughey, he was something different in terms of presentation. In that perhaps he was blessed by his choice of opponent.
Lest this seem like a mean-spirited analysis positioned in the left, let’s consider the following. Stephen O’Byrnes, later a member of the PDs and once an FG member, wrote an interesting book on the latter party called ‘Hiding Behind A Face’ [the quote is taken from Bono]. The thesis was that that “face” was twofold, literally in the case of Fitzgerald and conceptually in the sense of a liberalised FG but that FG remained a socially conservative creature. O’Byrnes’s thesis of course came from a right-economic position as well, but that in no sense invalidates it. The PDs were genuinely wedded to socially progressive policies and their appearance was driven in some measure by a sense that FG were failing in that respect. My sense from O’Byrnes when I interviewed him for research I was conducting in the 1990s on contemporary Irish politics was that he genuinely respected Fitzgerald but didn’t see him as able to deliver.
But O’Byrnes considers his work in encouraging Young Fine Gael to be central and important to the later evolution of FG. Indeed one could posit that without his work in Fine Gael in the late 1970s it would have been much much less well able to deal with the mid to late 1980s and much more open to the depredations of the Progressive Democrats [notably the parliamentary party of FG remained solid in the face of the new party].
Yet O’Byrnes is in no ways soft in his critique. It’s probably difficult for people at this remove to remember how chaotic the governments he was Taoiseach in actually were. That he managed to eke out the best part of a five year term for the second was, in retrospect, both an achievement but also near incredible. They most certainly didn’t feel stable at the time.
Which isn’t to say that his governments weren’t important. In some ways I’d think of him and them as pivotal, albeit presumably unknowing at the time, in terms of future developments.
For the second, a disappointment, we’ve heard a lot about how he dropped the ball on his ‘constitutional crusade’ (a term which post-9/11 has a curious ring to it). There’s that, but in fairness to the man he did set in motion dynamics which came to fruition – at least partially – a decade or more later. If there hadn’t been the efforts on divorce in the 1980s it’s more than likely that a mid-1990s referendum would have been lost. I remember all too well the difference in terms of the reception campaigning on those issues in the 1980s and in the 1990s. Time had moved on, he had made significant errors – the legacy of some remain with us to this day, but even the half-steps taken were better than no steps at all. It’s also sometimes easy to forget just how difficult those half-steps were in the context of a party, FG, that was riven between social progressives and conservatives during the period. That the conversation moved even incrementally was no small achievement because prior to this that conversation was suppressed.
That said there’s a long history in this state of confusing socially progressive policies with economically progressive policies – in part because [most of] the former have in the long term proven easier to engage with than the latter, in part because this remains a middle and upper middle class dominated polity where their interests are mistaken for the commonweal. There’s also been the additional aspect of a pro-EEC/EC/EU approach being interpreted as a short-hand for progressive thinking and finally and allied to that a technocratic approach being likewise.
In other words far too many in various formations saw the process of social liberalisation as not merely equivalent to a process of economic progression, but ultimately one and the same thing – albeit with the former vastly outweighing the latter. That many of centre and right could sign up to the former only confused matters still further, but it explains – to me at least – how easily parties nominally of centre left and right such as the LP and FG can cohabit.
For me a greater disappointment was that having projected a sort of rhetorical social democrat position he clearly wasn’t a social democrat when in government.
Wrong party – needless to say, as Alan Dukes found out some years later when he tentatlvely sought to rebrand FG as social democratic. But also a party which as evidenced by the infamous shoes incident (and almost entertaining to see how a certain FG potential Presidential candidate’s name is left out of the initial IT report on GFG’s death in that regard) had little instinct for the working class. And that extends directly to him as the Taoiseach of the day.
Wrong instincts, perhaps though perhaps not. More recently his writings in the Irish Times seemed increasingly to attempt to straddle the gulf between the orthodoxy and at least some sense of social equity, to varying effectiveness and with the former winning out again and again. But then again he also seemed to be playing footsie with the PDs in the not so distant past so his politics following his retirement seem a little mixed even if at all times there was a sense of some effort to engage with ideas. As was noted in comments Tony Gregory was no great fan, although intriguingly to also judge from TG’s last RTÉ interview some of those around Greogry expected much of Fitzgerald.
And wrong time, in that even had he nascent social democratic instincts, social democracy itself was already being ‘captured’ philosophically by what would later come to be known as neo-liberalism where the differences between centre left and right of centre were smoothed away by the false allure of technocracy and a curious amnesia on the part of many social democrats as to just what the function of social democracy was.
O’Byrnes’s book, written in the late 1980s, is particularly interesting in this regard. He notes in the first ten pages that FitzGerald was regarded with some suspicion by other FG Ministers in the 1970s as ‘too close to Labour’, but the word social democracy only appears on page 27… ‘Many were uneasy about FitzGerald and his social democratic leanings’. And the term only reappears on page 52 when O’Byrnes notes that ‘By definition the bulk of the party’s Dáil deputies returned in 1977 would reflect [the solidly conservative farming and business sectors] concerns. Neither they, nor the electorate were social democratic or radical innovators.’
And what’s fascinating to me is how this term is never parsed in any great detail. What did social democracy mean in an Irish context? We are never told.
Were that not enough, on economic issues it’s clear that the FG party in 1980 were far from social democratic in inclination. As O’Byrnes recounts Peter Barry was ‘aghast’ to hear Charles Haughey preaching austerity when he became Taoiseach. ‘Charlie Haughey was stealing Fine Gael’s clothes. Telling the Irish nation that they were living behind their means, that the good times were over. There was going to have to be some austerity. But these were Fine Gael lines!’.
Some might suggest that self-described social democrats might indeed be willing to implement ‘austerity’ in 1980s, and as we know there’s been some appetite in subsequent years for them to do so. But in 1980 it is reasonable to suggest that the economic approach of social democracy internationally was to adopt Keynesian policies at odds with the outline above [one can argue that the French SP/PCF government of that period being one of the last to do so openly but one can also point to lower key approaches along that line by European SDPs when in government]. But all of this is to ignore the fact that Fine Gael then, as now, was not a social democratic party.
And Fitzgerald couldn’t deliver across a range of fronts because – well, he couldn’t deliver, not in that party, not in this society as it was then and not as he was then. What then was the legacy for his party? Decency isn’t tangible enough, though he was decent, and on an ideological level it’s thin. Who would call Kenny a social democrat? And many many would have reservations about Gilmore – at least on a functional level. It’s the very fact that this sort of social progressive [and very slightly economically progressive] strand which he represents, at least in the public imagination, has no clear existence in Fine Gael as it now is that demonstrates that that side of his legacy is near paper thin.
As to a ‘sort of an achievement’, it is coincidentally appropriate that the Left Archive should have document posted this fortnight from Sinn Féin and the Workers’ Party issued in response to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. In retrospect this seems to me to have been a curtain raiser for later developments. Most significantly in that it diluted absolute British sovereignty over Northern Ireland. The irony that this was fashioned to blunt the impact of a newly politically oriented Sinn Féin is hardly novel. But it didn’t appear in a vacuum. As was noted elsewhere on the site one can point to a number of things which gave it impetus, not least the politicisation of SF in the aftermath of the hunger strikes and other incidents, such as Brighton. But that he engaged in that process and that the British accepted this was to his credit.
It saw the reshaping of politics in the North and on the island more broadly thereafter. The fact that it bypassed Unionism provided a salutary and educative moment and perhaps demonstrated in a wider context that change could be achievable and could be implemented.
What’s interesting is how in 1985/86 the AIA was regarded – at least in the official pronouncements – as an end in itself. Unionism, though and rightly, knew better. And perhaps others as well. Did Fitzgerald realise what the AIA meant in terms of future developments? Probably not in the specific but he must have had some sense that this would open a chink that would never be closed. And for that he did the island no small service and in a way which was far away from the overblown hype of many another initiative.
But this was an approach fashioned directly to shut down Sinn Féin and Republicanism on this island and to politically sideline it. FitzGerald’s approach to the early peace process certainly sat firmly within at least one part of the orthodoxy. His was one of no engagement at all with Republicanism.
Does that “achievement” outweigh the disappointment? Again, too early to say. It’s worth pointing out that there’s some truth along the lines of the point made here before the weekend that rarely was someone judged more on their aspirations than their achievements. That in itself is not an unknown dynamic on the left, either in Ireland or elsewhere, but the difference was that he operated at the heights of Irish politics for the best part of two decades and was a Taoiseach twice during that period. If not him, in respect of doing something – anything, then who?
But then, perhaps too much is asked of him. He remained coy about the actuality of his devotion to social democracy. It is more the impression that is all and that perhaps tells us a lot both about the nature of Irish political activity [though when measured against the vulpine image of Charles Haughey, well, little doubt that FitzGerald as noted above that was blessed in the nature of his opponents]. Perhaps equally telling in terms of legacies and unintended ironies is that despite his own instance of debt forgiveness on the part of the AIB as recently as the week before last Richard Bruton was dismissing the idea of general mortgage forgiveness in the current context as ‘moral hazard’. Well. Yes.
I never met the man, never came close to him, but by all accounts he was enthused, engaged, courteous and thinking analytically about the issues that affected this state up to the very end. One can demur from many of his political positions while still wishing that there was a bit more of that about.
The luck of the Irish is that everyone wants be Irish for a round at the pub…not so much the rest of the time May 23, 2011
Posted by yourcousin in Culture, US Politics.5 comments
On the heels of Barack O’bama celebrating his Irish heritage, something which all Americans (especially politicians) feel obligated to do I wanted to take this opportunity to categorically deny any and all blood connection with the island of Ireland. To the best of my knowledge I am not now nor I have I ever been Irish. And if by some chance there was someone way back hundreds of years ago who was Irish, well I’m sorry for that, I really am.
Also if it turns out I’m wrong and members of my family turned out to be Irish way back when I promise not to ascribe them my political beliefs because I’ve no way of knowing what they thought. I mean I would hope that they share my belief that Monarchy is an abomination to humanity, but who knows?
Oh and has anyone noticed that O’bama dyes his hair? Which is fine I guess but one would think that if you were going to go through the trouble of dyeing it once you would do so frequently enough so that one it’s not so obvious as one day you’ve got black hair and the next your gray.
Okay that was a side tangent, but it’s true.
In the wake of O’bama’s great Irish homecoming I just wanted to reassure CLRer’s that their very own loudmouth resident alien is in no way connected to Ireland other than having an unhealthy interest in Irish politics.
We may now return to “more important blog issues”
Left Archive: The Socialist Perspective on Northern Ireland and the Anglo-Irish Agreement, The Workers’ Party, November 1986 May 23, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Left Online Document Archive, Workers' Party.4 comments
To download the above document please click on the following link: WP HILLSBORO
This document, issued by the Workers’ Party in November 1986, provides a companion piece to the document posted up in the Archive last week from Sinn Féin analysing the Hillsborough Agreement. However whereas that document appears to have been more about explaining the SF response to the AIA to its own members this one, as evidenced by the Foreword which outlines the history and status of the WP at that point, is directed at an external audience of the British Labour Party – a point which is made explicit in the Conclusion.
The WP supported the AIA, albeit with considerable criticisms at the manner in which it was arrived at. The document quotes Tomas Mac Giolla, speaking in the Dáil arguing that:
No attempt appears to have been made to involve the political representatives of the Unionist community in Northern Ireland in this process at all. Indeed they appear to have been deliberately excluded and treated in an offensive manner.
And he continues…
I was particularly disappointed at the dismissive attitude expressed in the Agreement to the concept of a Bill of Rights. This was a fundamental demand of the Civil Rights Movement, it remains a major objective for all democrats in NI, and it is something for which there is substantial support within both communities in NI.
The issue of armed struggle looms large as does the response and how that would affect Sinn Féin and the IRA.
On the other hand were this Agreement to be rejected by the Dáil it would be seen as a major boost to the Provos and a mandate by the majority of people’s representatives for a continuation, indeed an escalation, of terrorist activities. In these circumstances we have come to the conclusion that the lesser of two evisl would be to reluctantly vote for the Agreement.
And he argues that ‘The most effective reassurance that could be given to [Unionists] would be the establishment in Northern Ireland of democratic devolved government…. This Agreement can only have meaning if it leads to peace and the beginning of political dialogue in NI. If it replaces alienation of Nationalists with alienation of Unionists then the position will be worse than before.’
A document from the Belfast Press Conference of the WP Northern Ireland Regional Executive engages with an economic aspect of the AIA:
Let us now turn to Article 10 (a), dealing with economic and social development.
We can only describe this section as an insult to the intelligence of any worker, employed or unemployed throughout Ireland or indeed Britain. Thatcher has presided over the destruction of the British economy and the longest dole queues since the ’30s.FitzGerald has gone down the same monetarist road and the economy of the Republic is literally coming apart. Are they going to do an economic U-turn. Or are they hoping for goodies from Reagan? And let us ask carefully and concretely, at what price? Is this island to become a base for Pershing and Cruise missiles?
And on the same issue it takes unionism to task.
We also wish to expose the hypocrisy of the DUP and the OUP as they now hurl abuse at Mrs. Thatcher. Isn’t this the same lady they supported while she decimated our workforce, slashed the NHS, cut the Education service to ribbons all the while enabling her slick capitalist friends to make fortunes on the stock market? Now Paisley, Molyneaux, Smith and Robinson want the NI working class to follow them down a dark road which at the end can only lead to bitter suffering and anguish for our class.
The WP clearly states that these loud-mouthed former close allies of Mrs. Thatcher never had, and never will have our class interests at heart.
The document expresses hope for a British Labour Party victory in the next election and contains a Ten Point Programme, including 9. The complete elimination of fascist terrorism in Northern Ireland and 10. The Introduction of a planned approach to the total demilitarisation of Northern Ireland.
Sunday, May 29th: 2nd Rockin Road Festival in aid of St Josephs School for the Bind & Visually Impaired in Drumcondra May 22, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Culture.add a comment
Sunday 29th May has been ear marked for the 2nd Rockin Road Festival in aid of St Josephs School for the Bind & Visually Impaired in Drumcondra. Last year’s inaugural event saw 1,000 adults come through the gates on a wonderfully sunny day, to enjoy bands as diverse as These Charming Men, Liz Is Evil, The Mod Fathers and Oona & The Devils; all of whom gave their services free of charge. There were also vintage vehicles on display form clubs and individuals across the country including scooters, hot rods and motorbikes. The atmosphere was fantastic and hopefully this year can match that.
The event will again take place in the Grounds of St Josephs, with rolling green areas for picnics, plenty of space for dancing and if we’re really lucky sun bathing with live tunes from the stage. This year’s eclectic line-up consists of; thumping Rock- a- Billy tunes from Spellbound, classic Ska from The Very Specials, and lots of indie /punk sounds covered by The Josephs & Mouthpiece; classic guitar & RnR from Joe Fury and The Hayride, as well as the highly anticipated reunion of The Great Western Squares after 10 years! Djs H-Bomb Gav and Beep Beep will provide tunes to keep the mood flowing throughout the day. We also hope the array of vintage vehicles that arrive will surpass last year as they were of great interest to those in attendance. The back drop of St Josephs castle building and the grounds edged by mature trees gives this event a real boutique festival feel, and a sense that as well as enjoying a great day out, you’re part of something which will become an annual event on everyone’s calendar.
The event itself will run from 12 noon to 8pm, and there is a very simple admission policy; All adults €5, All children free. Simple! Last year we raised €5,000 and this went towards improving the equipment and general environment of blind & visually impaired Pre-School children with multiple additional disabilities who are extremely vulnerable and left even more so due to the repeated Government cuts. We hope to do as well again this year, as with such an excellent line-up at a competitive admission price, where could you find a better day out. There will be hot food & drinks, ice cream van & shop available on the day, but we operate a BYOB policy, so if you fancy a glass of wine or a beer, then you can bring your own and not be charged an arm and a leg as at other events. All we ask is that as there will be many children on the day, please enjoy your drink but do so responsibly.
I would like to give huge thanks to Avtek Solutions Ltd. & Tony Lanigan who provided the entire sound system for the day last year and will be doing so again this year. Needless to say we’d be dead in the water without this massive gesture.
So you have the date and time, you have the line up and you know where it is on…….all you have to do is get yourself, your family & friends, and bit of a picnic and some lemonades (ahem!), and of course the small sum of a fiver to stick in the bucket……….then feel free to dance or relax to the tunes of some excellent bands & Djs for 8 hours. We guarantee you won’t have a better day out for €5 while helping kids who need help. Cheers!
Celebrate! It’s World Goth Day May 22, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.33 comments
Or commiserate…
Sunday Independent Stupid Statement of the Week May 22, 2011
Posted by Garibaldy in Sunday Independent Stupid Statement of the Week.22 comments
What a week. The queen, David Cameron, and the death of Garret Fitzgerald have really pushed all the buttons for the Sindos writers, and we see a welcome return to form after a bit of a fallow period. This is a paper that has spent a long time celebrating how good Anglo-Irish relations have been, and how irridentist nationalism has been defeated, but it seems that once again its writers have been struck by that collective amnesia that lets them write the very opposite of what they had written in the past with just as much passion. They also often fall victim to hyperbole, and downright silliness. Here is a perfect example from John McEntee.
In the last four days, a small, elegant octogenarian woman has singlehandedly transformed Anglo-Irish relations.
Sure she did. Here’s another example of the year zero approach to history that strikes quite often.
Daniel McConnell is of the opinion that the UK and the Republic are in the process of forming a bloc to combat the dominance of France and Germany. Apparently this will be a new era of cooperation.
For decades, the natural and logical close alliance between Ireland and Britain was scuppered due to a deep sense of Anglo-phobia within the Department of Finance and Irish politics generally.
Such pigheaded opposition to a very natural alliance is hopefully consigned to history. As one senior government figure said to me at the weekend, the new Irish-British Chamber is “massively overdue”. Ireland, in its weakened state, needs real friends, who seek to do right by us, and at present, Britain is such a friend.
Is it just me, or did the Republic and the UK cooperate on getting into the EEC, and have the two governments not been working hand in glove for more than two decades on Northern Ireland? Perhaps this new block is in fact not new at all. Not to mention the fact that the idea that the UK and the Republic can counteract the influence of France and Germany is entirely silly in itself.
Anne Harris has also been talking about the queen’s visit, and how she won the public’s hearts and minds (from a distance) when she visited Ireland of the hundred thousand policemen. It was hard to select a quote from this piece, but for me the triteness of the gender references below stood out.
For now we have a different set of memories. And when our beleaguered emissaries go to meet Merkel or Sarkozy or Barroso or the serried ranks of European finance ministers and ECB officials, imprinted on their hearts will be the memory of two great women who rose above history in the Garden of Remembrance and Dublin Castle.
It was matriarchal, it was feminist and it was truly Elizabethan. But here were two Glorianas — Elizabeth the Second, Queen of England, and Mary McAleese, the elective queen of Ireland — surrounded by their prime minister and ministers in a serving capacity.
Without the wonderful coincidence of these two strong women in the right place at the right time, it would probably never have happened. Or it would have been completely different. There was a humanity and a commonness of touch, which, for better or worse, is often absent from the affairs of men.
I hope you’re welling up with joy too.
Yugoslav Sculptures May 22, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Culture, The Left.5 comments
We don’t usually link to other blog posts not concerned with our primary focus of left politics. That said this has a sort of link, a series of memorial sculptures visible across the former Yugoslavia which are quite remarkable.
Hat tip to the Slate Political Gabfest for finding this.
Interview with Phil Hogan, Minister for the Environment May 21, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Economy, Irish Politics.10 comments
Well, another Jason O’Toole political interview in the Mail on Sunday, this time with Environment Minister Phil Hogan. It’s a curious one, to put it mildly. It would be hard to think of a greater difference in character and outlook to the previous incumbent. Fair enough, but what of the contents…
“…I don’t have any relationship whatsoever in a personal, business, commercial sense, with Denis O’Brien. They got the notion I had some business relationships: not at all.’ The media, he says, are ‘putting one and one together’ and coming up with ‘five’.
Interesting. And what of this?
Mr Hogan smiles when I put it to him that he lived up to his monicker of ‘Cute Oul’ Phil’ when plans for a universal household charge were ‘coincidentally’ announced in the Dáil the day the Queen arrived. ‘People can read into the timing of that… but we had parliamentary questions on Tuesday and I just answered the question,’ he shrugs, still beaming. He acknowledges that this household charge, planned for next year, is ‘effectively a charge on property, for the purpose of providing local services’. It sounds like a flat-rate water charge – something he had vowed not to do. ‘There will be no flat-rate water charges. There will be water charges by meter in 2014 and beyond,’ he states categorically
And TINA and the previous occupants of Government Buildings are wheeled in as explanations…
‘We expect it will cost about €500m to roll out the metering programme over three years. The government hasn’t decided how we’re going to pay for the rollout. It’s not yet decided whether it will be from part of the proceeds of the household charge or the National Pension Reserve Fund or some other source.’ It still sounds like a service charge by another name and, therefore, a U-turn on water taxes. ‘But I’m obliged under the EU/IMF agreement to implement the four-year programme. And I have no choice only to bring in this household charge as it was part of the deal negotiated by Fianna Fáil. I would love to be in a position not to bring in any charge,’ he says.
No doubt.
What of the previous Minister?
On his own portfolio, Mr Hogan claims he inherited ‘a dysfunctional department’ from his predecessor, John Gormley. He accuses the former Green leader of ‘badly damaging’ Ireland’s reputation at EU level. ‘There was an enormous amount of legacy issues left to me, including 31 court rulings against Ireland from the European Court of Justice. He allowed them to fester and drag on for the last couple of years. ‘There was a huge amount of procrastinating with the result that we have no waste policy, no water policy, no reform of politics and local government and a damaged international reputation. ‘I also inherited a considerable difficulty in the processing of administration of foreshore applications which was preventing a lot of renewable energy projects, ironically, from being developed, which in turn had implications for the Green economy.’
And…
For ‘foreshore applications’ read ‘Poolbeg Incinerator’, the controversial project in Mr Gormley’s own constituency that the former Green leader successfully stalled throughout his term of office. ‘It’s ironic that a Green minister would actually leave that particular processing of an essential piece of infrastructure in such bad shape, considering the potential it had to meet a lot of his own policy objectives,’ says Mr Hogan, perhaps a little disingenuously. After all, all politics are local. ‘Effectively, he’s left so many legacy issues for me to repair – and the damage with the European Court of Justice and the European Union speaks for itself.’ Christened ‘the Enforcer’ ever since he saved Kenny’s bacon in the botched heave last year, such is his influence now that it’s rumoured the Taoiseach doesn’t make a move without consulting Hogan, his director of elections. So, when the new Environment Minister expresses his opinion, you can be sure he’s singing from the same hymn sheet as the Taoiseach. So, what are the key reforms he plans? ‘I would like to be in a position where we have much more appreciation of the quality of our environment. I’m working on a campaign to make Ireland clean, which is an anti-litter campaign.
Do go on Minister…
‘The indiscriminate and disrespectful view that some Irish people take of our environment in so many practical ways is disgraceful. I’m determined to bring in legislation if necessary and fines, as well as progressive positive policies to help clean up our environment. ‘Secondly, all the legacy issues in relation to our European Court of Justice rulings. The streamlining of the foreshore licence process [/code] and how we can deal with some of the legacy landfill and toxic sites around the country are also a priority for me. ‘Thirdly, I would like certainty about water quality, waste policy and local government policy where we have a stronger local government dimension, with a stronger democratic mandate for the 2014 local elections. I’m in favour of devolution of power from central government to local government.’ He says he is also looking at plans for several referenda – such as one on ‘reducing the term of the presidency from seven years to five years’; the children’s referendum; abolishing the Seanad and reducing the number of TDs to have ‘30% less numbers in the Oireachtas’ [implying a reduction of 15 TDs, to 151]; and also a referendum on ‘varying judges’ pay’. He also has plans for an elected Lord Mayor of Dublin with ‘meaningful powers’ by 2014.
And of climate change? Climate change? You know, the sort of existential issue? Nope, litter is number one on his list.
Not a word.
Safe hands, clearly.
And what of an old pal?
‘I don’t expect anybody would turn their back on a friend. I never would. I would have no difficulty – I would never abandon a friend in their hour of need.’
This friend being one Michael Lowry.
Erm, Lowry’s hour of need? ‘Certainly, anybody who has gone through the traumatic time – whether it was brought on by himself or otherwise – I certainly would have a degree of sympathy for him on a human level. ‘Fourteen years is a long time to be going through the trauma of a tribunal. That’s why I want to reform the system of tribunals of enquiry to ensure we have speedy resolution to these matters in the event of allegations being made in the future.’ Perhaps there is an element of ‘there but for the grace of God’ about Mr Hogan’s defence of his old friend, since Moriarty briefly had him in its crosshairs over a meeting with Denis O’Brien to discuss Esat Digifone’s bid that the Kilkenny TD insisted he could not recall – despite the fact that one of the other people present, Garret FitzGerald’s son Mark, recalled it in detail.
And...
‘Well, I certainly can’t recall any such meetings,’ he says. ‘That’s the honest view I gave to the Tribunal and they accepted that.’ It doesn’t look good when a politician says he can’t recall an event, I remark. ‘I can understand that. But I tried to portray in my submission to the Tribunal an honest appraisal and that was the way I did it. And I’m glad that the judge did not find any adverse comment or findings against me in that regard.’ But what about FitzGerald’s evidence? ‘You’ll have to ask him about that.’ Judge Moriarty described it as ‘coherent’. ‘Well, the judge did not find anything adverse in his findings against Minister Hogan and I’m very happy with the findings,’ he says, referring to himself in the third person. Is he saying FitzGerald’s version is inaccurate? ‘Well, I don’t know. All I can say is what’s in the report. He didn’t come down one way or the other. He certainly didn’t come down against Minister Hogan.’ So, I can say that as far as Phil Hogan is concerned, FitzGerald is wrong in his recollection? ‘You can’t say any such thing! Just read the Tribunal report. I made my submission and Mark FitzGerald made his and the judge had to come to conclusions. And he didn’t, in my case, find adversely against me. It’s a matter for others to make up their minds about anybody else.’
Hmmmm... and this last is so reassuring...
Christened ‘the Enforcer’ ever since he saved Kenny’s bacon in the botched heave last year, such is his influence now that it’s rumoured the Taoiseach doesn’t make a move without consulting Hogan, his director of elections. So, when the new Environment Minister expresses his opinion, you can be sure he’s singing from the same hymn sheet as the Taoiseach.
Protest planned for Dublin in solidarity with the people’s rising in Spain – Today 21st May, 2 pm at the Spire in O’Connell Street May 21, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Economy, European Politics, Irish Politics.25 comments
There’s a protest planned for Dublin in solidarity with the people’s rising in Spain – which is to coincide with many other cities around Europe.
Today; Saturday 21st of May, 2pm at the Spire on O’Connell Street.
(Video) http://youtu.be/RZ55PC-ElSE
(Live from Puerta del Sol, Madrid)
This weekend I’ll mostly be listening to… the NWOBHM… May 21, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Culture, This Weekend I'll Mostly Be Listening to....47 comments
For this I blame EamonnCork. It was a comment of his a while back which got me thinking about the NWOBHM – and many of you will be able to unbundle that particular acronym as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, a sub-genre of rock which lurched into view around 1979-81. If the names Gillan, Iron Maiden, Saxon, Mama’s Boys, Vardis, Tank, Diamond Head, Preying Mantis, Motorhead, and a score of others mean nothing to you then perhaps stop now. But if not…read on. EamonnCork has added some extra text and advice which you’ll find in quotes – for which many thanks.
The roots of NWOBHM
Recently I was toying with the idea of putting up a post in this series about Gillan, that is Ian Gillan, late of Deep Purple (and… er, briefly Black Sabbath). And then it struck me that it was near impossible to go through his solo albums because what he, and groups like his, represented was something that was more a movement than an individual enterprise. And crucially they represented a period where singles rather than albums dominated and when in that respect metal briefly took over the mantle of punk bridging a gap as punk turned into post-punk and thence on to territories new. And what a time. I have a few old SOUNDS magazines from 1981 and 1982 and nearly every issue contains interviews and reviews of metal bands who were charting regularly.
So to look at Gillan in isolation from the NWOBHM would be to almost miss the point of the exercise. Part of the appeal was that this was a wave, a movement and therefore examining any single individual in isolation during that period is to detach them from everything else going on.
That said, the fact that an elder statesman, I exaggerate – but only slightly, like Gillan [then in his mid-30s] could join the fray – albeit away from the sludgey and torpid riff of “Smoke on the Water” Deep Purple had always had a speedy element to their output – was in its own way a telling indication of where metal and the NWOBHM were going.
These weren’t the big beasts of the 1970s, the Zeppelin’s and Yes’s whom punk had loathed (and who would later be redeemed, at least in the former case by critics – Yes, of course, took the fairly clever route into pop by way of one Trevor Horn to arrive at 90125, whose title made no sense to me in the early 1980s I should add). Whatever else one could say about Purple, or Sabbath who would also run a parallel course with the arrival of Ronnie James Dio as lead singer, they had remarkably little pretension. And importantly Gillan when solo was consciously or otherwise mining the rock’n'roll classics and putting them out as singles – many of which were successful.
In a way the NWOBHM was a natural progression from the stripped down rock that Bon Scott era AC/DC and Motorhead were already producing and both those were hardly much more than an added guitar solo away from punk itself [AC/DC were popular at punk clubs]. Both those bands, albeit with a brief hiatus for the former after Bon Scott died, continued to have hits during this period. Curiously though, AC/DC shifted to a slower style of music after their seminal Back in Black with new singer Brian Johnson.
There’s one other influence that’s worth thinking about. That is Van Halen. Their brand of stripped down, speeded up metal as typified on their first two or three albums – the first was recorded in a near live context with mistakes retained – can be heard across a raft of NWOBHM bands. “On Fire” from their solo album, if one removes Dave Lee Roth’s typically over the top vocals could comfortably sit on many NWOBHM albums.
Therefore it’s not difficult to see this tilt by all these bands and later the NWOBHM towards a faster harder form of metal as either a direct response by heavy rock to punk, a reworking of its tropes and a blending of them into the mix or a process of convergence that was already in train.
And there’s arguably an age aspect to this. The older rock and metal bands had been around quite some time. Some, like Zeppelin had – for all their aesthetic integrity – moved a long way from the small clubs and venues that they had started in. The gap between them and their audiences was too great, too obvious, particularly when set against the speedy noisy and exciting racket emerging from punk, something directly positioned in a sense that anyone – literally anyone – could pick up a guitar and play.
The NWOBHM was a wave and one that pulled in a range of bands in its wake, even those like Lizzy [listen to Thunder and Lightening, their last album and the influence of the NWOBHM is self-evident] and Mama’s Boy’s who were geographically distinct. But that didn’t matter because metal completists were [and perhaps still are] at least twice as dedicated as the most fervant collector of 4AD albums. And hence you’d find Gary Moore nestling up against Metallica in vinyl collections even if, on the face of it, their styles are utterly diverse – simply they both use amped up guitars and because metal is a broad and inclusive church and always happy to open the door for new worshipers while keeping a generally benign eye on apostates. Simple geography wasn’t going to matter even in the context of something with the word ‘British’ in its title.
Class, politics and gender
No, no. Don’t laugh. This is serious stuff. Well, somewhat serious. In class terms metal listenership was mixed, at least in Irish terms. In the mid 1980s I was in charge of a group in a youth club on the northside. Those participating could be divided broadly speaking into two groups, a group of twenty or so working class kids who were into reggae and nowt else – and two middle class boys who were into metal – but in school in Kilbarrack hardly five years earlier it was much much more widely listened to (albeit there was an age aspect to the profile, as people aged they transitioned into post-punk). And bands like Lizzy had a broad class demographic (and as an aside you might wonder how much of that transferred to the more radio friendly post-October incarnation of U2).
I also made a couple of phone calls today and the lads I spoke to had the same memory as I had of heavy metal i.e. that it had the most proletarian followers of all. We’re talking West of Ireland here and Dublin may be very different. But I, and they, remember that the hard core of metal fans were the lads who came from council estates or the guys from small farms out the country who tended to be in trouble with the law and ended up either emigrating, joining the army or working in garages. In fact it was almost a 100% working class thing, anyone destined for college tended to look down their nose at it though given that it was by far the most popular genre of music around in rural Ireland, everyone had some nodding acquaintance with it and nobody could resist the charms of AC/DC at a disco. Headbanging was popular given that we were (A) very shy with girls and afraid to ask them to dance and (B) aware that the proper dance to snyth pop was a great deal more sophisticated and camp than we were going to chance in a local hall. But the real devotees, the guys with a million patches and all the albums were a pretty tough bunch. They also took music more seriously than anyone else, they were forever getting away to gigs, usually with older brothers who had full-time jobs in their teens. I travelled with a couple of them to the U-2 Croke Park gig in 1985 (still think it was a great concert by the way) but the lads complained that it was a poor spectacle compared to something like Monsters of Rock and that U-2′s showmanship fell far short of what you’d get from Maiden or Motorhead. There was also the sense in which being a HM devotee was shorthand for being a hard bastard in the same way that being into Kung-Fu had been in the seventies and wearing a Celtic jersey is today.
As EamonnCork noted in the original comment that kicked this off it was a lingua franca, and it was then and remains so ever since. I’m never more comfortable discussing music than with metal fans because the reference points are so clear. The canon is agreed and then it tends to be a matter of finding new or obscure acts.
But let’s be honest, there was no end of sneering from others. Those who had been into punk had by 1980-82 moved onto post-punk and all the myriad streams that flowed from there. It might, though, be fair to note that those who were 16 in 1976 were just about hitting their 20s in 1980 when the next cohort behind them got into metal. That’s no gap at all when you’re 30, but at 16… And metal, or rock more broadly, had taken a big hit after punk, one which it took the best part of a decade to recover, but ironically it was the energy and dynamics of the first part of the NWOBHM which was most influential musically, rather than the imagery of the second part which came to characterise (or infest if you will) metal more broadly.
Politically… well there wasn’t much politics. This wasn’t music advocating a confrontation with the state, let alone the man. Listen to the lyrics of “Strong Arm of the Law” by Saxon detailing the band being pulled over on a drug bust by the cops who discover to their surprise that despite “the clothes they wear and the way they look” they don’t have any drugs. Hmmm… you’d have to have a heart of stone not to find that just the tiniest bit funny, and not for the reasons Saxon might think. But am I slagging Saxon? I am not. Their “Princess of the Night”, a paean to a train was pretty fine, their “Denim and Leather” an odd little bit of almost self-reflection in a genre which didn’t usually bother with such matters. Their “Dallas 1 P.M.” about the assassination of JFK, well let’s just say it was an oddity.
“Strangers In The Night” is a great song and Saxon could be very good indeed. “Denim and Leather” [is] a rare self referential anthem about rock fandom and it does epitomise the closeness between band and fans which seemed unique to HM. It was certainly absent from punk, most of whose leading figures seemed to regard their fans with contempt and irritation. I think there was a certain old fashioned working class decency idea in HM about giving people an honest couple of hours entertainment when they handed over their money
For all the sturm und drang of the guitars and drums, or the overblown lyrical content – particularly when it strayed into matters fantastical, it was fairly safe stuff. One will search mostly in vain for the reports of metal-heads on the rampage in city centres. Injuries where they occurred tended to be mostly self-inflicted, but let’s not go there. Sexism. Well, yes and no. Few would dare to argue that there was much progressive thinking going on there. But in some respects it was remarkably coy – bar the occasional foray into bad taste or worse again outright misogyny [and a big hello there to Venom, amongst others].
If we consider sexuality more broadly it might be unkind to say that this betrayed the concerns of your typical early to mid adolescent male in Ireland [and perhaps the UK at the time], unkind, but not entirely inaccurate. It is best seen as being typical of the issue and reality of sex for them, an aspiration rather than a concrete reality and therefore not unduly overshadowed by more important issues like having an [usually unspecified but generally involving alcohol] good time.
Which is not to say it was entirely male oriented, but women made up only a small number of the bands – though more of the fans – involved, albeit interestingly these were all-women groups rather than being women fronted. And so Girlschool and Rock Goddess, to name but two, because there were just about two(! – though well I remember Lita Ford, more or less straight from the Runaways and others attempts to jump upon the bandwagon a couple of years later), also had more than a hint of that punk DIY ethos. And a punk sound. Listen to “C’mon Let’s Go” by Girlschool and you can hear Ramones DNA threaded through it – I have the single on vinyl somewhere. And Girlschool were not merely great in their own right but also released with Motorhead a dynamic cover of “Please Don’t Touch”…
The Motorhead/Girlschool record is great though amazingly the best bit, the whispered intro, is on the original Johnny Kidd and The Pirates record. Now there was a band who were miles ahead of our time. Girlschool, as far as I remember, managed to avoid being seen as sex objects (at least in comparison with almost all mainstream female groups today), you tended to think they’d be great to have on your side in a fight. The singer and guitarist, name escapes me, had serious cred with male HM musicians but died of cancer in her forties. Very few of the HM people are dead, compared to the punk people, I suspect this may have something to do with the choice of alcohol rather than heroin as drug du jour. It doesn’t do much for you long term but it doesn’t kill you as quickly oy by accident.
Image and music…
And if much of this was unquestionably juvenile, not all of it was. Lemmy, cool as fuck in 1980, was an undeniably adult presence amongst the fresh faces, was perhaps in some sense modern in a way that many of the others weren’t and never would be. But then Motorhead, even with the leather waistcoats somehow had a pared down imagery both musically and visually that transcended most of the sub-theatrical nonsense that others were getting up to.
Which neatly leads us to the output of NWOBHM itself? Ah well, here we run into trouble. Let’s just say that in relation to lyrics and image there were problems. Big problems.
Consider, if you will, Exhibit A – “Breaking the Law” by Judas Priest. In a way this sums up the best and worst of the NWOBHM, and that’s before we get to the fact that Judas Priest had been around for years before the movement took flight. How many years? Well they were founded in 1970 and released their first album in 1974.
First the good. A song, a short song with no real guitar solo. The lyrics? They’d grace many a punk band perfectly. Quite a step forward for a metal band. But then there’s the step backwards, this being metal. The video. The video. Fer Christ’s sake, the video. They hold up a bank with guitars? Believe it or not this was made by Julien Temple of Pistol’s fame. Was he serious? Were they? Who can tell, but the evidence of later videos isn’t comforting.
And where Judas Priest went others followed with a will. Within a couple of years if we examine that remarkable cultural artifact, the video to their song “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming”, we can see Rob Halford had adopted a mixture of sub-bondage leather and studs style which was taken up by Iron Maiden and others (perhaps most entertainingly by US based metal crowd Manowar who almost incomprehensibly ‘refined’ this to a mock Viking/caveman look, and fun fact for completists let’s not forget their first album treated us to a spoken narration by Orson Welles).
That Halford later came out as a gay man was little surprise to most of us and of no great significance I suspect to most of his legion of fans, typifying a beery and usually good-natured indifference to such matters.
I think in the BBC4 doc Metal Britannia Halford actually says that he’d picked up a lot of the stage gear during his voyages in the world of gay S and M and thought it amusing to see the fans and bands following suit. There’s a great documentary about the trial JP went through in America, and I remember thinking at the time how like the West of Ireland the place was, religious fundamentalism, stasis, a general feeling that life was elsewhere. We needed, as my friend Mike McCormack (a great and grievously under-rated writer) songs about hard rocking men loving foxy ladies on the lonely boulevards in the heart of the city.
Def Leppard perhaps characterised the worst excesses of this. One brilliant album – their third if I count correctly, or possibly their second, Pyromania, produced not coincidentally by Jeff ‘Mutt’ Lange (long-time AC/DC producer) followed by a dubious succession of ever more pop-rock output that has, almost incredibly, continued to this very day [it's also worth asking just how influential they were on a later generation of hair metal bands. Well, okay, maybe not that much worth asking].
And these image problems persisted.
Consider too the rather brilliant Tank, whose lead singerAlgy Ward had been in the Damned and before that the Saints – my God, the man was almost a punk aristocrat – and who arguably were the clearest example of a punk/metal crossover, not least because they modelled their approach very very closely to that of Motorhead. Great songs which eschewed much of the swords and sorcery nonsense of their peers, but gaze in wonder at the cover of their album Filth Hounds of Hades, and what of that title… dear oh dear oh dear.
Diamond Head, whose first album contained the none-more-influential “Am I Evil”, didn’t do themselves any favours in the appearance wars either, with a look that was rooted in that of Zeppelin circa 1974. Speaking of “Am I Evil”, listen to that and you’ll see or hear that it provided a template for more than one or two tracks later put to vinyl by Metallica [and the influence was acknowledged by the latter band]. That their second album proper, Canterbury, saw them transform into a cross between prog and a metal inflected new wave/pop did them no favours with their fan base, but made for an interesting and on occasions quite excellent listen.
One genuinely disturbing track from Diamond Head. I think the band, and Venom, meant it man. In the Metal Britannia doc you get the impression that DH might well have taken the old satanic side of things seriously. And people did, I knew lads who were obsessed with rumours of black mass and animal sacrifice in the rural countryside. And Bishop of Achonry Thomas Flynn called in local teachers to warn them that there were satanic messages in HM records if you played them backwards. Which was pretty observant for a man who couldn’t spot a rampant paedophile priest in our village. I used to be fond of the Canterbury album, it’s an odd thing, they’re really trying to create something beautiful but they don’t have the vocal or lyrical chops to do it, yet it’s an extremely gallant failure.
Then there’s Iron Maiden. I’m well old enough to remember the first incarnation with Paul Dianno on vocals, and in particular their breathless classic “Women in Uniform”, a cover of Australian band The Skyhooks. Listen to either of their first two albums, and you can hear on songs like Running Free that punk/metal crossover. Sure, the guitar solos are there, but the singing is rudimentary and all the better for it (indeed listen to most Oi bands, The Business spring to mind most immediately, and you hear a convergence from the other side of the musical Berlin Wall – and a better example again are Discharge who music was clearly inflected by NWOBHM guitar sounds but who remained very clearly punk in output and attitude).
After that the Bruce Dickenson version never quite measured up in my estimation [though, and I've mentioned it before, an infrequent contributor to the CLR is known to have been quite the fan in his day]. Sure, “Run to the Hills” is speedy, but it’s glib and if Saxon used the front page of the Sunday Mirror in one hand for their inspiration, Dickenson-era Iron Maiden always seemed to have a copy of Dennis Wheatley or some novel about 19th century soldiery in the other. But that’s a personal gripe. Who am I to complain? I don’t have to listen to them [one could note also the way in which their imagery was appropriated by Loyalism, a charming cultural cross-pollination to some, to others…].
Or listen to The Tygers of Pan Tangs first album, Wildcat. Their singer at the time, Jess Cox, also exemplified that punk vocals style with a flat but oddly compelling approach – and the guitar work when it eases out of a sub-Pistols chugging is pretty odd too with lots of U2 styled harmonics in the background. An album later – clearly following the Iron Maiden trail – they had jettisoned Cox and taken up with the more rock oriented Jon Deverill on vocals whose tenure saw them have a reasonably big hit with a cover of “Love Potion No.9″. Again, note the way in which, like Gillan, they too were mining older pop and rock and roll standards to give a poppy but abrasive edge to their output.
One of the curiosities of the NWOBHM was how it included some and excluded others. Priest got in, but UFO stayed firmly on the outside. Their 1981 album No Place to Run, produced by George Martin, wasn’t at the races. Perhaps because UFO, unlike Priest didn’t transition their sound to something more hard edged and speedier but remained locked in a more blues influenced style. Others, such as Sabbath managed to speed up but remained somewhat offside. But then in some ways having written Paranoid they could with justification point to being the earliest adapters. Ozzy was there or thereabouts with “Crazy Train” and some of the tracks off Diary of A Madman being equally speedy, but already there was a strong whiff of cheese and the west coast about the enterprise.
Then there’s bands like Jameson Raid with their “Seven Days of Splendour” (and hat-tip to EamonnCork for this one, I’d never heard of them). Listen to them and they seem to more neatly into a Pink Fairies/Hawkwind early 1970s lineage mixed with an element of punk and more than an hint of Thin Lizzy [and expect the Pink Fairies to feature in a This Weekend... soon]. And then one listens to “Do It The Hard Way” [the studio version is unavailable on YouTube] and it sounds like a direct precursor of late Kyuss and early Queens of the Stone Age. Funny that.
And for something not entirely dissimilar look at Vardis whose first album 100 MPH was actually a live recording. They were crossing into the NWOBHM from pretty traditional glam/boogie roots with a side order of punk. Their sound isn’t really like any of the others to be found here, but none the worse at that. And they had an excellent cover of Hawkwind’s “Silver Machine” on their second album.
Preying Mantis – again a tip from EamonnCork – came from an entirely different place being more melodic, AOR and even prog in their approach. Though their “Panic in The Streets” has an interesting edge to it more characteristic is that descending scale which underpins their classic “Children Of The Earth”, not unfamiliar perhaps to those of us who have listened to Rush. Oh yes. As are the multi-tracked vocals on the chorus to those who have allowed the odd Journey album to grace their CD player. But hey, broad church… broad church, folks.
It’s fair to say that one significant problem for the NWOBHM, indeed metal more widely, in the 1980s and afterwards was the release of Spinal Tap, and yes, it’s far too easy to slot much of this into that perspective. Because some of it was awful. Terrible. But it was never entirely clear to me whether Tap was parodying Sabbath era bands or newer arrivals – perhaps both. Either way it in its own way locked into the styles of metal that developed in that decade.
And what of our own contribution to the erm … NW of British Heavy Metal… Mama’s Boy’s. Nice lads who made the sensible decision to modulate their own soft Irish tones by treating the vocals.
Generally treated as a joke band because they were self deprecating and prone to publicity stunts. But Needle In The Groove is great and so are In “The Heat Of The Night” and the brilliant “Freedom Fighters”
Talking of which the latter had a sort of political content. Sort of.
And if “Needle in the Groove” bears certain similarities to “The Strong Arm of the Law” by Saxon, to pick two songs at random, then that’s okay. Venom’s “Angel Dust” was but a hop skip and a jump from Motorhead. And but a further hop skip and a jump to black metal, death metal and so on, and that was both a function of Venom’s interest in all things occult (a trait shared by Diamond Head) and of the music itself. That’s how this worked.
Indeed one aspect of metal, and this was very true of the time and to some extent continues to this day, was a sort of reverence of earlier waves, so to see this as Year Zero in the way punk was, with a similar kicking over the statues of predecessors, would be incorrect. Those into NWOBHM didn’t forswear Purple or Zeppelin or UFO or Rainbow (Rainbow itself was marginally influenced by these goings on and had a number of hits with Graham Bonnet, and later Joe Lynn Turner, fronting them during much the same period, when Ritchie Blackmore adopted a harder edged guitar sound), or Rory Gallagher, or whoever.
And again speaking of an Irish influence as Eamonncork notes:
Parochial point. There were two Dubs in Gillan, Bernie Torme on guitar and Liam Genockey on drums. I always found it amusing that Bernie Torme was actually Bernie Tormey and have had hours of amusement referring to a well known FG figure as Bill Torme at election time.
Everything rocks and nothing ever dies – the rise and fall [and sort of rise again] of the NWOBHM
There are those who argue that the departure of Dianno from Iron Maiden was the death knell for the NWOBHM. And there’s something in that. Look at the differences between Dianno fronted Maiden and Dickenson fronted Maiden or what of the difference between the videos for “Breaking the Law” and “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming”, a mere couple of years between punk roots and seeing it dissolve into metal, all metal.
In fairness though, metal wasn’t the same after the NWOBHM. But then, neither was punk with parallel and intermixed evolutionary processes evident thereafter, particularly, but not exclusively, as regards hardcore.
And it provided an even clearer path for later metal bands who were in no way shy about articulating their debt to punk as much as heavy rock.
As for the NWOBHM itself, it’s amazing how influential this stuff was on Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth who bear the same relationship to it as Oasis bear to The Beatles. Your point about Lizzy is well made, their late albums are hugely influenced by the movement. Of course they acknowledged this by poaching John Sykes from Tygers of Pantang, thus ruining maybe the best band of the lot.
One great benefit was a sense that barriers began to come down between the two areas. Read the comments under many of these clips on YouTube and see how the Pistols and the Clash are thrown in as reference points those into NWOBHM should also be listening to. Read Kerrang! or RockSound today [not that I necessarily am suggesting you should] and you’ll see how both areas and others are now regarded as being interlinked in many ways to an extent that still seems remarkable to me thirty odd years later.
It’s also remarkable to see Def Leppard still gigging. Remarkable, yes, but you wouldn’t catch me at one of those gigs. For me their [first and] last moment was Pyromania. Maiden, Priest and even Saxon are still out there. Most others forgotten, which in some cases is a pity, in others – not so much. Jameson Raid are apparently back together for a gig this summer. Preying Mantis are still gigging. It’s like Robert Christgau once wrote… and not necessarily in a positive way… Everything rocks and nothing ever dies.
So, finally, was it any good. Ach, sure, as Theodore Sturgeon, the US science fiction author wrote,
I repeat Sturgeon’s Revelation, which was wrung out of me after twenty years of wearying defense of science fiction against attacks of people who used the worst examples of the field for ammunition, and whose conclusion was that ninety percent of SF is crud.[1]
Using the same standards that categorize 90% of science fiction as trash, crud, or crap, it can be argued that 90% of film, literature, consumer goods, etc. are crap. In other words, the claim (or fact) that 90% of science fiction is crap is ultimately uninformative, because science fiction conforms to the same trends of quality as all other artforms.
Which leaves 10%, but that’s okay, generally the singles are the ones to listen to. And if we can turn the amps up to 11 maybe more than 10%…
AC/DC – Girls Got Rhythm
Van Halen – On Fire
Gillan – No Easy Way
Gillan – New Orleans [live]
Motorhead – Ace of Spades
Judas Priest – Breaking the Law
Judas Priest – You’ve Got Another Thing Coming
Iron Maiden – Running Free [with Paul Dianno]
Iron Maiden Run to the Hills
Girlschool – C’mon lets go
Girlschool/Motorhead – Please Don’t Touch (1981)
Jameson Raid – Seven Days of Splendour
Saxon – Strong Arm of the Law
Saxon – Denim and Leather
Diamond Head – Am I evil
Tygers of Pan Tang – Suzie Smiled
Tygers of Pan Tang – Blackjack
Venom – Angel Dust
Mama’s Boys – Needle in the Groove
Mama’s Boys – Freedom Fighters
In the Heat of the Night [live from Reading]
Angel Witch – Angel Witch
Tank – Struck by Lightening
Vardis – Let’s Go
Black Sabbath – Mob Rules
Preying Mantis – Children of the Earth
Preying Mantis – Panic in the Streets
Def Leppard Rock! Rock! TIl You Drop
Thin Lizzy – Cold Sweat [John Sykes from Tygers of Pan Tang was the guitarist]
