A House
A House named Matthew | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Dublin,Ireland |
| Genres | Alternative rock,indie rock[1] |
| Years active | 1985–1997 |
| Labels | Blanco Y Negro Parlophone MCA Records Setanta Records Sire Records |
| Past members | Dave Couse Fergal Bunbury Martin Healy Dermot Wylie David Morrissey Susan Kavanagh David Dawson |
A Housewere an Irish rock band that had been a bank band that was active inDublinfrom 1985 to 1997, and recognized for the clever, "often bitter or irony laden lyrics offrontmanDave Couse... bolstered by the [band's] seemingly effortless musicality ".[2]The single "Endless Art"is one of their best known charting successes.
Career
[edit]Beginnings
[edit]Formed inDublinin 1985 by former members of the band Last Chance, vocalistDave Couse,guitarist Fergal Bunbury, Drummer Dermot Wylie were joined by bassist Martin Healy (who had all been schoolfriends atTempleogue College), came together as A House.[3]The band honed their live skills in the pubs of Dublin, performing in McGonagle's club (best known internationally as the venue whereU2cut their teeth in the late seventies), at free gigs in thePhoenix Park,and turns onRTÉ'sTV GaGa andDave Fanning'sradio sessions.
The earliest recorded appearance for the band was on a charity compilation calledBlackrock Youth Aid '85,put together atNewpark School.This was followed by tracks on two live compilations: A House contributed a song whose title is representative of the band's early spirit, "On Your Bike Wench, and Let's Have the Back of You", to theEPLive at the Underground(1986), recorded in September 1985 (and only available) in The Underground club in Dublin, and featuring other contemporary up and coming bands such asSomething HappensandThe Stars of Heaven;theStreet Carnival RockEP (1987) includes songs recorded as Dave Fanning sessions, and finds A House, performing a song called "What A Nice Evening To Take The Girls Up The Mountains".[4]
These beginnings were followed up by two self-released singles, "Kick Me Again Jesus" and "Snowball Down". A House released these on the label RIP Records.
On Our Big Fat Merry-Go-RoundandI Want Too Much
[edit]Recording aJohn Peel Sessionfor BBC radio in theUnited Kingdom,[5]and gaining regional popularity, the band signed withBlanco y Negrowho released the singles "Heart Happy" and "Call Me Blue" in Ireland and the UK.[3]The latter was backed by a video and was relatively successful, receiving appreciable airplay and reaching number 28 in the Irish charts, as well as having some impact in the US. These singles were followed by A House's first albumOn Our Big Fat Merry-Go-Roundin 1988. The band then toured withthe Go-Betweens,and "Call Me Blue" reached number 3 in theBillboardCollege Charts in 1989.
A promo version of "Call Me Blue" for the US tour included a track labelled "Some Intense Irish Brogue" which was a short interview with the band. Even in Ireland, however, some listeners found Couse's "yelp of a voice"[6]not quite suited to the slightly quirky but basically mainstream rock style ofMerry-Go-Round.Following the tour, the band recorded the albumI Want Too Muchin 1989 on the small Irish island ofInishboffin.The response of the press was good, but record sales were poor, and Blanco y Negro decided to drop the band.[2]Eventually they were picked up bySetanta,a London-based independent label tending to focus on Irish acts.[3]
Dermot Wylie also quit the band in this period, to be replaced by Dave Dawson.
I Am the Greatest,new members and the Setanta years
[edit]DoodleandBingo
[edit]Towards the end of 1990 and into 1991, Setanta released two A House EPs:DoodleandBingo.The latter featured the track "Endless Art", on which A House first worked withOrange JuicesingerEdwyn Collinsas producer. A House met Collins because he was also signed to Setanta, and it was the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration as post-A House Couse and Collins remained friends and continued to work together. Setanta also facilitated a relationship between A House and countrymenThe Frank and Walters,with members of A House contributing production work to several Frank and Walters' albums.
"Endless Art"
[edit]With the sort of commercial luck that sometimes hit A House hard, in the week that "Endless Art" was the most played song on British radio, Setanta, which was only teething as a label, could not get enough copies into the shops to take advantage of the situation (Keith Cullen of Setanta had already had to borrow money from his father to fund the recording of the song).Parlophone Recordstried to step in, redistributing 50,000 copies, but by the time these reached the shops it was too late and the re-released version of "Endless Art" (1992) did not get the same radio support, although it did reach the UK Top 50.[7]
"Endless Art" had also benefitted from an accompanying video using clever stop motion animation which gained significant airplay onMTVin Europe, but again due to the bad timing with the song's distribution, the video seemed to be everywhere but the record was not selling. Nevertheless, "Endless Art" became A House's signature, replacing "Call Me Blue" as the song everyone associated with them. The video was memorable, and the song itself – somewhat unusual in its musical approach, and even more so in its lyrics, which led off with a quotation fromOscar Wildeand ran through an extensive roster of famous artists from various fields, all dead, with years of births and deaths specified – stabilized the band as a cult favorite among indie lovers, and is the paradigm of the surprisingly successful"list" style of songwhich Couse has frequently used (the first example of this style had been the title track onI Want Too Much).
At the time, however, the band had run into criticism because all the artists mentioned in the original "Bingo" release of the song were men.[3]Despite the facetious excuse that they thoughtJoan Mirówasa woman,[8]they tried to make amends by making available a second version of the song, called "More Endless Art", which lists only women artists, as the B-side of the single version.[3]Controversy aside, "Endless Art" is frequently featured on representative compilations of Irish rock and pop music. The 12 "single included two other tracks," Freak Show "and" Charity "which had been recorded for the band's second John Peel Session early in 1992.[9]
I Am the Greatest
[edit]The Parlophone distribution of "Endless Art" was the flagship single from A House's new album, calledI Am the Greatest(1991), Parolophone again taking over distribution from Setanta. This new record represented a musical expansion for A House. Alongside new drummer Dawson, the recording introduced two other new members to the band, Susan Kavanagh, who had sung with a Dublin band named 'Giant',[10]and had been working on the TV showJo Maxi,on backing vocals, and David Morrissey on keyboards. This new trio remained with A House until it dissolved although they were less involved in the creative process than the remaining original trio.[2]However, their presence enabled A House to significantly further the transition begun onI Want Too Muchbeyond the fairly straightforward sound ofMerry-Go-Roundto a broader musical palette. This was enabled further on "I Am the Greatest" by Collins's production work, and extra contributions fromSusie Honeyman'sviolin.
Lyrically, the songs on the record addressed themes running from satire of societal and religious pieties, through excruciating examinations of personal fears, to the title track, on which the three core band members ruminate inspoken wordfashion on their lives, their regrets, their jealousies, and the state of music in the 1990s. The cover artwork was, as always, by Fergal Bunbury with an image by Irish photographerAmelia Stein,[11]and a second single from the album, "Take It Easy On Me" (1992), was also released.
Wide Eyed and IgnorantandNo More Apologies
[edit]I Am the Greatestis A House's most significant legacy, and is cited by many as one of the best ever released by an Irish band.[12]But it was followed by two more albums on Setanta.Wide-Eyed and Ignorantwas released in 1994 to little notice outside of the band's fan-base, although the single "Here Come the Good Times"was A House's only UKTop 40chartplacing, reaching number 37.[13]In 2002 this song experienced a rather unusual second life on the Irish charts when it was chosen by popular vote on national radio to be rerecorded, with new lyrics, as a team anthem and charity single by theIrish soccer squadin the run up to the2002 World Cup.
Despite the relative success of "Here Come the Good Times", the good times never really came for A House. In the popular music market place this was probably largely because the band refused to do anything but their own thing, which lent extra resonance to the title of their fifth and final album,No More Apologies,released in 1996. It was already known that A House would call it quits the year after that, butNo More Apologies,a collection of "twisted beauties", allowed them bow out, masters till of themselves and of "disturbing melodies reflecting the world as seen through their own, strangely coloured, spectacles".[2]
Break up
[edit]A House broke up in 1997.[3]The demise of A House was marked by an emotional concert in Dublin on 28 February,[14]attended by the band members' families and packing out theOlympia Theatre.Although visibly moved by the occasion, Couse, ever sarcastic, wondered from stage if A House would have had to break up at all had everyone in attendance bought their records. But no one wanted to leave the Olympia, and A House went out on a high,[15]producing
- a farewell show last weekend [that was] one of the most cathartic and genuinely disconcerting live events that this column has seen or heard in 15 years. No caro meos, no undue fusses and no forced sentiment, A House came over like they’ve always come over, always four and often six-square, cocksure and strutted-up like they knew, just knew, how damned good they were and how damned good it was what they were leaving behind them.[16]
Even so, five years later Couse could still wonder how the apparent fondness of so many fans for his band had never really carried over to record sales.[7]
Critique
[edit]On the release of a best of album in 2002 (The Way We Were) one British reviewer wondered if they were one of the great lost bands of all time, or if most of the world had been right to ignore their "Gaelic charms". On the evidence of the retrospective collection he decided that the answer was "curiously enough, a bit of both".[6]In a specifically Irish context, however, critics writing around the time of A House's demise claimed that there were ways in which "A House is far more important thanU2",[17]and that "their passing also arguably [drew] the safety curtain on the first and last great pop movement this country has either seen or heard".[16]
More than ten years after A House's break-up, critics still held A House in high esteem. In 2008 theIrish Timesrock critics votedI Am the Greatestthe third best Irish album of all time (jointly withGhostownbyThe Radiators), behind onlyLovelessbyMy Bloody ValentineandAchtung BabybyU2.[12]
After A House
[edit]Following the breakup of A House, Couse and Bunbury started a new project together under the monikerLokomotivand recorded an album, but this was never released and Lokomotiv were only ever represented by one single, "Next Time Round" (2000).[2]Couse went on to a solo career and, beginning withGenesin 2003, has releasedthree albumsso far, two under his own name, and one billed as byCouse and The Impossible.Bunbury continues as Couse's frequent musical collaborator and live accompanist. Couse now hosts a weekly radio music show on Irish national radio station, Today FM.
Martin Healy also took on a couple of different projects. He formed the electro-rock band Petrol with French musician Julie Peel, although they failed to progress far; nonetheless, this was Peel's first entry into music, and she enjoyed working with someone who was "kind of famous" in Ireland, although they, "never actually played a gig - only did studio work and rehearsed".[18]A more substantial effort was known asAV8(sometimes "Aviate" ). This began in 1998 when Healy and Niamh McDonald began a writing and performing partnership, to be joined about a year later by French guitarist Morgan Pincot.[19]AV8 recorded an album calledTremor,and was still a going concern in 2002, albeit with a name change to "Sweet Hereafter",[7]but may now be defunct as Healy, with David Morrissey, is currently part of Mark Cullen'sPony Club.Healy has also produced for Pony Club, and for other bands such as She's a Beauty.
Four tracks fromTremor(Fireside / Push / Now and Forever / Never Knew What Luck Was) have been available for streaming and/or download on AV8's website.[20]
Since 2020, Fergal Bunbury has been issuing new recordings on Bandcamp under the name FBU62 (effboosicksteetoo). To date he has released two LP's (This is Not For You and We Were Not There at the Beginning) and six EP's (EP1;40 Shades of Greed, EP2;We Will Never Make These Numbers Work and EP3;Tinsel, EP4;Variations in A Major, EP5; Here Come the Bad Times and EP6; Out of Tempo).
Discography
[edit]Albums
[edit]| Year | Album | UK[13] | US | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | On Our Big Fat Merry-Go-Round | - | - | - |
| 1990 | I Want Too Much | - | - | - |
| 1991 | I Am the Greatest | - | - | - |
| 1994 | Wide-Eyed and Ignorant | - | - | - |
| 1996 | No More Apologies | - | - | - |
| 1998 | A House: Live in Concert(live recordings from 1990 and 1992) | - | - | - |
| 2002 | The Way We Were | - | - | 10[21] |
| 2014 | A House: Access All Areas(CD and DVD of 1992 concert) | - | - | - |
EPs
[edit]| Year | EP | UK[13] | US | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Street Carnival Rock | - | - | - |
| 1990 | Doodle | - | - | - |
| 1990 | Bingo | - | - | - |
| 1991 | Zop | - | - | - |
| 1994 | 360 North Rockingham | - | - | - |
Compilation appearances
[edit]| Year | Albums | UK[13] | US |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Blackrock Youth Aid '85 | - | - |
| 1986 | Live at the Underground | - | - |
| 1986 | Street Carnival RockEP | - | - |
| 1987 | Heads Over Ears: A Debris Compilation | - | - |
| 1994 | A Flavour of the Label(Parlophone promo) | - | - |
| 1988 | Just Say Yo | - | - |
| 1997 | The Sunday Times Music Collection: The Best of Indie | - | - |
| 2004 | The Definitive Irish Rock Album | - | - |
| 2005 | The Definitive Irish Rock Album II | - | - |
| 2005 | Fanning's Fab 50 | - | - |
Singles
[edit]| Year | Song | UK Indie[22] | UK[13] | US | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | "Kick Me Again Jesus" | 24 | - | - | - |
| 1987 | "Snowball Down" | 8 | - | - | - |
| 1987 | "Heart Happy" | - | - | - | - |
| 1987 | "Call Me Blue" | - | 194 | -1 | 28 |
| 1988 | "I'll Always Be Grateful" | - | - | - | 22 |
| 1988 | "I Want to Kill Something" | - | - | - | - |
| 1990 | "I Think I'm Going Mad" | - | - | - | 22 |
| 1991 | "You're Too Young" | - | - | - | - |
| 1991 | "I Don't Care" | - | - | - | - |
| 1991 | "Second Wind" | - | - | - | - |
| 1992 | "Endless Art" | - | 46 | - | - |
| 1992 | "Take It Easy on Me" | - | 55 | - | - |
| 1992 | "Everything's Gone" | - | - | - | - |
| 1992 | "Slang" | - | - | - | - |
| 1992 | "Santamental" | - | - | - | - |
| 1994 | "I Will Never Forgive You" | - | - | - | - |
| 1994 | "A House a Reintroduction" | - | - | - | - |
| 1994 | "Why Me?" | - | 52 | - | 20 |
| 1994 | "Here Come the Good Times (Part 1)" | - | 37 | - | 21 |
| 1995 | "The Strong and the Silent"[23] | - | - | -2 | - |
| 1997 | "Without Dreams" | - | - | - | - |
- 1- Though failing to chart on the U.S.BillboardHot 100,the song managed to chart at No. 9 on the U.S.BillboardModern Rock Trackschart.
- 2- Also failing to chart on the U.S. Hot 100, but the song managed to bubble under theRadio and RecordsTop 50 pop chart.
John Peel sessions
[edit]- Session, 25 January 1987, produced byDale Griffin.[5]
- "Call Me Blue" / "Y.O.U." / "Hit Me Over the Head with Your Handbag Dear" / "Heart Happy"
- Session, 2 February 1992, at Maida Vale Studio, produced by Dale Griffin.[9]
- "Endless Art" / "Charity" / "Freakshow" / "Force Feed"
References
[edit]- ^Allmusic A House bio
- ^abcdeGrant, Matthew (2003), "A House", in Peter Buckley (ed.),The Rough Guide to Rock(3 ed.), London: Rough Guides Ltd., p.2,ISBN1-85828-457-0
- ^abcdefStrong, Martin C. (2003)The Great Indie Discography,Canongate,ISBN1-84195-335-0,pp. 195–6
- ^A House discographyin the Irish Punk and New Wave Discography atIrishRock.org.
- ^abInformation about 1987 A House John Peel Session,BBC,25 January 1987,retrieved2 April2010
- ^abMurphy, John,Review of A House: The Way We Were – Best Of,musicOMH.com, archived fromthe originalon 29 June 2011,retrieved2 April2010
- ^abcMagee, Matthew (28 July 2002),The House That They Built,Sunday Tribune,retrieved4 April2010[permanent dead link]
- ^Couse makes this joke in one of the interview segments on theA House: Access All AreasDVD. He also notes that, given the song includes about 100 artist names, it is quite remarkable that he failed to include a single woman even by chance.
- ^abInformation about 1992 A House John Peel Session,BBC, 2 February 1992,retrieved2 April2010
- ^Irish Rock Discographies - Incomplete Entries: Punk and New Wave,irishrock.org,retrieved20 April2010
- ^'I Am The Greatest "sleeve notes
- ^abBoyd, Brian; Carroll, Jim; Clayton-Lea, Tony; Courtney, Kevin (28 February 2008),"The Ticket's Top 40 Irish Albums of All Time",Irish Times
- ^abcdeRoberts, David (2006).British Hit Singles & Albums(19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 260.ISBN1-904994-10-5.
- ^A House at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin,SetantaRecords.com,28 February 1997,retrieved3 April2010
- ^• "Breaking up is indeed hard to do, as A House found out last Friday night when they played an emotionally charged farewell gig in their home town. The band has always enjoyed a passionate following, and the mood of celebration at the Olympia was tempered by a sense of sadness that grew more pronounced as the show wore on, leaving grown men and women in tears by the time the final curtain came down." - Nick Kelly, "Sadly Giving Back the Keys",Times of London,1997-03-05. • "When... A House finally called it a night in the Olympica Theatre in 1997 it was a pretty emotional night. I know because I was there." -John Kelly,Introduction to performance by Dave Couse,The View,RTÉ One Television,RTÉ, April 2003. At beginning ofvideoArchivedMay 1, 2009, at theWayback Machinelinked to fromRTÉ'sOther Voices, Songs from a RoomhereArchived2009-04-29 at theWayback Machine.
- ^abO'Callaghan, Colm (1997). "That's A-House That Was".Irish Examiner.
- ^Jackson, Joe (13 December 1996). "A House Falls: The Joe Jackson Interview - Dave Couse of A House".Irish Times.
- ^Campbell, John (13 September 2009),Julie Peel and her new album, Near the Sun,Independents Uncovered
- ^A House navigator,IrishMusicDB,retrieved4 April2010
- ^AV8,retrieved4 April2010
- ^"IrishCharts.com listing forThe Way We Were".Archived fromthe originalon 13 July 2012.Retrieved6 October2011.
- ^Lazell, Barry (1997)Indie Hits 1980–1989,Cherry Red Books,ISBN0-9517206-9-4,p. 1
- ^"R&R"(PDF).
External links
[edit]- A House homepagewith discography and lyrics
- TheIrish Music Databasehas anentry and family tree for A House
- A House entry in The Irish Punk & New Wave Discography
- AV8 webpage
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