This Weekend I’ll Mostly Be Listening to… The Blades December 13, 2013
Posted by irishelectionliterature in This Weekend I'll Mostly Be Listening to....trackback
Its mad to think that this time tomorrow night I’ll actually (along with others from this realm) be in The Olympia watching The Blades. Some of you may well be there on the Friday night …. and indeed I’d imagine theres quite a few going to both nights.
The Blades reforming is incredible, they were the one band I would have loved to have seen but never got to. There’s a whole generation like myself who just missed out on them and got into them after they had split. It will be interesting if the demographic at the gigs is all forty plus…..
6to5against put it very well here in comments the other day
You know I was thinking recently that the Blades are one eighties band whose CDs I still play regularly, and I don’t do it with any sense of nostalgia or of reliving the past. I play them because they produced really fine, witty songs that have always stayed with me, the killer brass section really brought something special to the production, and the politics resonates now just as it did then.
That’s very true and it wasn’t just the politics though, there was almost a mystique about Cleary himself. I dont know if its true but I once heard that Cleary wrote the questions to RTE’s quiz show ‘Blackboard Jungle’ ! For me too he had the added attraction of being a Shamrock Rovers fan! which funnily enough as I’ve been playing The Blades in the car the last while my son has recognised some of the tunes from the PA at Rovers games.
I’m sure I’m not alone in that I’m almost as excited about this as my children are about Christmas.
The first clip below gives a nice history of The band.
If you’re going enjoy 🙂
And RTE Archives put up the video for ‘Tell me lies’ which was made especially for ‘Anything Goes’ at RTÉ
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Just home from The Blades – you have atreat in store tomorrow night.
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Cool, looking forward to it mightily. Glad you had a great time…
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BTW, said it before but Ghost of A Chance is my favourite Irish song… ever, really.
Anyone else going tomorrow night? There’s a few of us going…
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Anyone going on Saturday is in for a treat, almost wishing I’d bought tickets for both nights because tonight was just sublime. I’ve cried at gigs before but tonight my cheeks were moist for the guts of an hour and a half. Almost thirty years on, they still hav the the ability to grab your soul and make you feel happy, angry and free all at once.
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I was crying at the queue for the bar before… A great gig though, one of the best of 2013. I think I’ve done something to my back with all the dancing! Sorry I’m not going tonight but you’ll enjoy it.
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Dr. Nightdub, it was a pleasure to finally to meet you!
Last night was very special. Absolutely fantastic gig. Heading again tonight. Yesterday was with mates. Tonight it’s a family affair with my da, two uncles and two aunts.
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It was brilliant, nursing the mother of all hangovers now and the songs are still running through my head…won’t ruin it for anyone going to tonight by listing the highlights but you won’t be disappointed. Dr. Nightdub is right, went from nearly crying to absolute ecstasy to wanting to smash up Leinster House in the space of a few songs…magic.
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Magical. Going again tonight – didn’t intend to, but wouldn’t miss it now.
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If you’re about drop us a line, will be meeting up close to Brogans before hand.
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…and re Cleary being a Rovers fan: I looked behind me at one point and did a double take as I saw pretty much the same line of faces that usually stands behind me in Block G in Dalymount, plus their pet Pats fan from CHTM – any man who can inspire such devotion across the football battle lines is obviously the man to sort out a left unity programme.
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Ah frig yis all. I was nearly going tonight but I’m meeting up with a bunch of my bestest old mates instead for pints. Two of us wanted to go to the Olympia but two didn’t and one of them … anyway long story but I won’t be there. Read today’s IT review and it sounds like Cleary might be willing to keep the show on the road for a few more gigs. Here’s hoping.
Just on the politics…. I read above and the IT said something about the politics too.
Do the Blades do politics? I thought they were just great love songs, boy/girls songs, no?
And WBS I’d take Hot for You over Ghost of a Chance any day!
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Do the Blades do politics?
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“Lending support to various worthwhile causes, The Blades played numerous benefit gigs throughout the 1980s. These included gigs for Rock Against Sexism in UCD in February 1980, for the families of those who died in the Stardust fire in 1981, for the pro-choice Anti-Amendment campaign in September 1982 and for the Dunnes Stores anti-apartheid striking workers in January 1985. In 1986, they famously shunned the ‘back-slapping’ Self-Aid to play the left-wing Rock The System one-day music festival at Liberty Hall.”
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Ah, that’s a pity Joe. Not to worry. If they play again perhaps we’ll all get along together (just like the Irish left should do … ba dum tssss! – No need to thank me).
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That was something else last night. The connect with those in attendance was ethereal. Something that simply cannot be manufactured. Genius. Tight. Pop. Legends.
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+1
Genuine. No front.
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