Microdisney: C/D?

"Horse Overboad" is now the official theme song of the 2008 Noodle Vague World Drinking Cup squad.

Also, is O'Hagan the Paddy equivalent of McAloon (incidentally, who reached greater heights of sophiscation and/or greatness?) or does he deserve a more complex description? Is Coughlan the supreme whingeing leftie rock lyricist? is some straight bullshit.

I suddenly realized the genius of Birthday Girl after like 20 years. Really nifty lyrics hidden under pop-sheen:

"When I'm wed
I will dream
In a champagne haze of my first affair

Like a private joke
On the one I love
Between myself and me"

and then later the wonderful uplifting:

People die
So will I...

I still can't get behind the whole Clock Comes Down The Stairs album, but paying attention to the lyrics definitely changes things.

Their website has a rather interesting (which does not mean good) live version of them doing No Xmas for John Quays.

Man, I hate it when I come back to ILM to check in on a band that I've randomly gotten into again, and find that I was the last person to post about them.

Anyway, weird how well Clock Comes Down The Stairs has aged. It was one of the very first "indie" albums that I bought back when I was in college (it showed up in the bookstore cut-out bin. Also got into Eno and Kim Fowley via that bin). At the time, I sort of liked Horses Overboard and didn't really notice anything else, and I totally assumed I'd forget about it entirely. And here we are like 20 years later and I'm playing the hell out of Birthday Girl again (and have about zero interest in hearing Big Black's Atomizer, as an example of what I really loved 20 years ago).

Funny, cause I saw the vid for 'Time' by Culture Club on the oldies channel in our gym yesterday and I've had 'Singer's Hampstead Home' going around in my head since.

My go-to Microdisney album is the Peel Sessions compilation. It's just the right tracks and the right sound, I tried the recent 2cd compilation. "Daunt Square To Elsewhere", but it didn't do much for me.

I remember reading Cathal talking about an encounter with MES. MES just dismissed him with "You aren't Irish" and walked away. Microdisney passed me by, but I remember Only Losers Take The Bus. Might have to investigate.

They were fucking great. Really interesting sound. Sean O'Hagan was playing around big time with very ordinary compositions.

MES just dismissed him with "You aren't Irish"

Uh, what?

I enjoy eating my words. Just picked up the "Daunt Square To Elsewhere" anthology and it's all fallen into place, the bile and bilge of Cathal and the sweetness and charm of Sean. Rumor has it Cherry Red will finally reissue their albums? Let's pray they don't master them from a scratchy old LP.

i bought a cd by them in london about 20 years ago. listened to it once. it was rubbish. dispensable indie.

classic. an amazing band, crooked mile is brilliant (angels, bullwhip road, mrs simpson, everybody just wants to dream, the whole goddamn thing) as is everybody is fantastic (dolly, moon, dreaming drains, escalator in the rain, the whole goddamn thing). 39 minutes wasn't very good save for the afirementioned lead single, but i need to check out the clock came down the stairs cos i only heard what was on the peel sessions. AN HONEST REAPPRAISAL, PLEEZE!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfWuKH7qdDs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05eZUuvBKqk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BHVi_5gmuE

I love 'em, thoigh less so with the Virgin stuff, and they'd agree. The new reissues are ace, and make a good case for them being *the* underrated band of the 80s. Their problem was always in their subtlety and sly wit, humor and refusal to act out cliché. Four or five years ago in Budapest, I saw this middle-aged woman doing a kind of cabaret thing, which included odd interpretations of several Microdisney songs, of which she apparently had no specific knowledge. Were they big over there?

I've lived there for several years, and have never met a Hungarian who's heard of them. That sounds fantastic though, what you saw.

I like them.

But I'm a Sean O'Hagan fanboy.

Also, I like 39 Minutes...

xpost(? I'm not sure how these work...I posted it in the Stereolab thread): http://www.southlondonhardcore.com/2013/12/episode-96-sean-ohagan.html

fuck

do i have to now dig out 'valhalla avenue' from the archive ..

don't think i have ever listened all way through the album.

at one time i have all three cd singles (and box !) of the big hit ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq_F0SKFHHo

Song puts a big smile on my face.

have = had

btw anyone that decides they are rubbish after listening to one album once is a fool.

Love Your Enemies is on spotify, for anyone who was not aware

crustaceanrebel, do you remember which Microdisney songs were performed in the cabaret act? I would have loved to have seen that

How's the sound quality on the recent reissues? I recall being appalled by the very thin sound on the 1996 remaster of Clock...

have cherry red taken them from the original tapes? their reissues are normally spot on cos they work from the fan's perspective.

Mondays I go clubbing,
Just outside of Leipzig in a pin striped suit,
And a bunch of roses,
Strolling through the vestry being beaten up,
By those English b-boys, Soho tea-boys.
I forgive them all because they are really into what they do.

Love that verse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFXheatfJ7E

Video really does it for me for some reason.

Man, I couldn't really get into The Fatima Mansions as much as I would've liked to. "Blues for Ceausescu" is pretty great, though...

al the stuff i posted above was on virgin and its all gold. i wonder if some people would regard it differently if it were released on rough trade, an infinitely cooler label.

fatima mansions did some good stuff, but it's different. and mostly not as good as microdisney, a delberate reaction against the subtle nuances, cathal sick of being ignored, musically far more rudimentary.

Definitely to interesting to see/observe just how different the two creative minds were. It'd be nice if they could hook up again someday.

i love the contrast between cathal and bono. one is just real you believe every word he says, the other is bono.

The new reissues are taken from the master tapes, with the exception of two tracks - "Harmony Time" and "Money For The Trams," for which master tapes could not be found. They sound good, though, and they weren't on the previous CDs. "Everybody Is Fantastic" was meant to have eight Peel session tracks instead of four, but suitable masters could not be found. Sound quality is better than the 1996 ones, for sure. And the liner notes - brief interviews providing the contextual backdrop(s) of the recordings - are good, too. And of course, you get a handful of Peel session tracks that weren't even on the Peel Sessions album.

The Budapest singer was . . . odd. She seemed like she'd probably lived through hard times. Kind of attractive but cold and somewhat feral. I was meeting some friends at a rundown bar, paid no mind to the cabaret standards, until I realized, hey, I know those songs. (Well, half of them maybe.) It took me a while to realize the source. The tunes were pretty different (Brecht / Weill -styled) but entire verses and choruses were identical to Microdisney lyrics. She did some similar stuff in Hungarian, which I can't say anything about. Of course, I was intrigued - there were maybe twenty people in the bar, most of them solitary sad alcoholic kinda guys. I paid my respects during a break. She said she'd been singing these songs every Tuesday (or whatever day it was) for twenty years and shrugged when I asked about their origin. I wish I would have gotten to the bottom of it but she wasn't too friendly and I don't even know that her English was that good. All the songs were from the early period - "We Hate You South African Bastards" and "Everybody Is Fantastic." I remember "Sun" and "Before Famine," but there must have been half a dozen others. There was a weird song in English about the national anthem, but I don't know where that came from. If anyone knows about her, please let me know. It's kind of haunted me!

truly bizarre, but yeah fascinating

"Everybody Is Fantastic" is my favourite, along with the "In The World" EP. Could never really get into "Clock" despite liking the songs, I think because I always find the cheap-sounding keyboard they used on it a bit distracting.

Sad to hear(from a Quietus interview) how badly Cathal was fucked over by record companies in the 90s.

http://thequietus.com/articles/10815-cathal-coughlan-microdisney-fatima-mansions-north-sea-scrolls-interview

Also quite surprised that he and Sean did have a one-off reunion as Microdisney some time back, but it seems like it was just that, a one-off.

shame :(

I know nothing about this band but what a great name

crustaceanrebel, that sounds really creepy and incredible. I'd love to bring that story up to Sean or Cathal.

Dug em! Had a chat with Cathal at WFMU once, in the Fatima Mansions era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWMauvNnI5s

That's one of the ones where the Peel version is...different. Check the ending...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnbbG4Pd-0U

Compared to many bands, a lot of those Peel sessions are different enough that you do need to hear. I'd aver that most are better than the "official" studio versions, though it's all good.

Cathal's spoken outros were brilliant.

https://www.nch.ie/Online/Microdisney-02Jun18?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=fbpost&utm_campaign=Microdisney&utm_content=announce

That's great news.

This might also be of interest: https://soundcloud.com/ucc98-3fm/iron-fist-in-velvet-glove-the-story-of-microdisney

Iron Fist in Velvet Glove – the story of Microdisney
produced by Paul McDermott

Iron Fist in Velvet Glove – the story of Microdisney is a 60 minute radio documentary produced by Paul McDermott for UCC98.3FM and funded through the television licence fee under the BAI’s Sound & Vision scheme.
The documentary details how Cathal Coughlan and Sean O’Hagan met in Cork in 1980 and formed Mircodisney. The duo moved to London in 1983 and released four critically acclaimed albums for Rough Trade and Virgin records before disbanding in 1988. Microdisney’s 1985 album The Clock Comes Down the Stairs topped the UK Indie Charts upon its release and regularly features at the top of “the best Irish album of all time” list

i got a ticket! it sold out pretty fast actually

AHH FUCK why didn't see this two days ago?? I've had Microdisney on my mp3 player all week as well, really feeling them at this time of year.

This is probably never going to happen again, is it.

https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2018/event/microdisney

Absolutely.

https://www.guitars101.com/forums/f145/microdisney-2019-02-19-cork-ireland-aud-flac-remastered-691157.html

Full set from Cork for download at the link:

Track List:

1 - Intro
2 - Mrs Simpson
3 - Horse Overboard
4 - Our Children
5 - Birthday Girl
6 - Past
7 - Are You Happy
8 - Genius
9 - Begging Bowl
10 - A Friend With A Big Mouth
11 - And
12 - Rack
13 - Everybody Is Dead
14 - Pink-Skinned Man
15 - Sun
16 - 464
17 - Loftholdingwood
18 - Gale Force Wind
19 - Band Intros
20 - United Colours
21 - Singer's Hampstead Home
22 - Town To Town
23 - High And Dry
24 - The Night

Just got this Coughlan/O'Hagan website off the ground, will be growing it over the coming months:

https://coughlanohagan.com/

This is a fair revival.

Now, stop.

I've been obsessively listening to Microdisney's Love Your Enemies since Cathal's last LP came out a couple weeks ago. Golly, I think it should be elevated to classic album status and canonized immediately. It's a truly original little compilation/EP/hybrid, whatever. You get bits of Felt/Durutti Column, OMD, Steely Dan, Black Flag in one album. I want so badly for it to get its due, as well as the band itself.

Idiots
Fucking ugly fools
Fucking idiots
Fucking idiots
Fucking all my friends…

Is there a more cathartic verse in pop music?

LOL read that as "Is there a more Catholic verse in pop music?", which I think Cathal and Sean would appreciate. It is of course a hybrid: Cathaltic.

I thought this said Wednesday: C/D? Wednesday is classic. I have no thoughts on Microdisney

Really? Other than having a cool nickname (Humpday) what the hell does Wednesday have going for it? I can't think as single good song written about Wednesday. Wednesday is pretty much yesterday's news afaiak.

Umm, hmm, I'm sure there's a nice Wednesday Adams instrumental on the Addams Family Values OST.

Wednesday Week, the undertones.

(xp) Uh excuse me, only another Irish band that's all ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FswDoZKFXVc

(xp) Beat me by a millisecond there.

BREAKING: The death has been announced of Cathal Coughlan, the Cork music legend who fronted such acts as Microdisney and Fatima Mansions... more to follow pic.twitter.com/ktq2Udl36x

— Irish Examiner Arts & Culture (@IEArtsCulture) May 23, 2022

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck :(

These performances feels very poignant now. Think it may've been the last time Sean and Cathal were on stage together?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKcA0HimgmE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCwgJJW09pg

I was there!

Four years ago, and it feels a lifetime away now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnudQE0Oi4Q

“464” has been blowing me away lately. What a marvelous, weird song.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001x9fs

^ documentary on bbc4 this weekend

Thanks for that.

(specifically Friday at 10 and then iPlayer i guess)

https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2024/0314/1437812-new-microdisney-film-is-raw-and-tinged-with-sadness/

I loved the doc. Full marks, and I say that as a Microdisney agnostic, so for the believers it must be quite something.

I havent seen it but apparently there's a clip of me and my mate Ray at their Cork gig on the documentary. Anyway to see this for people who don't have BBC in Ireland? Maybe ze torrentz?

I saw most of the doc last night, I was delighted and amazed it existed, I don't think it was any good tho really, which is a general observation about music documentaries

I presume that this was the final show in 2019 and not one of the early ones.

(xp) Agreed. It wasn't very well made but I'm so pleased Cathal and Sean got at least some of the attention they deserved - at long last.

Yeah that

I was out with a friend tonight who also loved this who is also not particularly into Microdisney. Perhaps the less one is into them the more likely it is they'll like it? I thought their story was really fascinating even if it was the usual talking head formula.

I enjoyed it a lot, fairly standard talking heads, cut and paste old footage format. Some great clips, lolled at their appearance on the Tom O’Connor show. Pedant nitpicking, I was mildly annoyed that they were talking about 83-85 era indie but used clips of 77 punk singles to highlight this.

Found a clearly unwell Coughlan talking about his regrets for his behaviour really moving. I hope he found peace before he died.

Enjoyed the documentary as well despite the fairly standard format. If nothing else, the positive feedback might encourage someone to make Microdisney's albums available again. Crooked Mile and 39 Minutes have been out of print for ages and the cheapest used copy of the 2013 re-release of Everybody is Fantastic is going for £75 on Amazon. Even the 2-disc Daunt Square to Elsewhere anthology is now as rare as hen's teeth.

Crazy to think that the only Virgin era CDs are the original 1980s editions. Hopefully someone like Cherry Red or LNTG will look at getting expanded editions done.

Also the complete Peel Sessions, which is the best music they ever recorded.

Agree with that. There were unfinished sketches such as 'Half a Day' on the Peel Sessions which it would be nice to hear again.