Garden of Eden Tullamore

mirandapanda · 20-08-2012 5:08pm #1

Hi, does anyone know where the Garden of Eden club in Tullamore is/was? U2 played a gig there in the 80s.

Rabidlamb · 21-08-2012 2:26pm

Heard it was the Harriers but that could just be bar talk.

mirandapanda · 21-08-2012 3:34pm

Do you know the name of the street it's on?

Rabidlamb · 21-08-2012 3:50pm

It's was the Harriers Athletic track on the Charleville Road as far as I remember.

bheart65 · 21-08-2012 5:40pm

Yep, it was in the Harriers. They played there in 1980, I saw the ad in an old Leinster Express paper one time. Did a quick search online which brought this up

http://u2theearlydayz.com/index.php?p=1_201_11-05-1980-Tullamore-Harriers-Club

followed by this - the bit at the bottom is gas!

http://u2theearlydayz.com/index.php?p=1_29_02-03-1980-Garden-of-Edan-Club

Here's another site showing the setlist

http://www.u2gigs.com/show44.html

Rabidlamb · 22-08-2012 9:17am

This will add confusion but I just e-mailed a friend whose more knowledgeable than myself.
This was his reply.

U2 never played in the Harriers and I can guarantee that 100% (Old Man has heard it a million times!!)

They did play the Garden of Eden, Not sure was it as U2 or as there original name (Feedback???) will stand to be corrected on that one!!

The Garden of Eden was down behind Cliffords (High Street House) where the apartments are now in the Dunnes Stores Car Park, It was the Cinema after the Garden of Eden

I'd believe him far more than me, also his father worked in the Harriers for decades & he would know the truth.

mirandapanda · 22-08-2012 12:57pm

Thanks rabidlamb, I'll take his word for it

bheart65 · 22-08-2012 5:27pm

Well if anyone from the Leinster Express newspaper could look up their 1980 archives, there is definitely an ad for U2 playing The Harriers, Tullamore.

mirandapanda · 22-08-2012 5:36pm

True, I just found two different sites that have the same gig date, 11/05/1980, one says Garden of Eden club, one says Harriers club.

bheart65 · 22-08-2012 5:46pm

Maybe the confusion is solved by the second link I gave above, the date on that is shown as 2nd March 1980 when they played the Garden of Eden as support for a show band. Maybe the gig in May was played in The Harriers and somehow they've been combined into the one gig in people's memories? Either that or they were meant to play the Garden of Eden but demand for tickets might have went up and they upgraded to The Harriers, ah I dunno

An Ri rua · 22-08-2012 7:27pm

I was 7 then and my recollection was that the car park beside Cliffords and where the old cinema was was called 'The Garden of Eden'. That was what people referred to it when the cinema was still there. We used to park in there in a Beetle (for an eternity) while my father did business in Kennedys solicitors. Sigh....

It definitely wasn't behind Cliffords but just to one side of it technically. Behind the road as it stands now and behind Tasty takeaway. Well ok, slightly behind Cliffords too. A gravelly wasteland.

My recollection has always been that U2 played the Harriers. I do not recall anyone ever mentioning ballroom space in the Garden of Eden complex. But perhaps there was. I will ask a former showband member later tonight.

The likelihood of 2 gigs sounds very remote.

The Scawgeen · 22-08-2012 9:04pm

The Garden of Eden was previously known as the Central Ballroom. U2 did indeed play there in 1980. There was a very small crowd there that night. Bono's wife (girlfriend at the time) and one or two others were standing at the side of the ballroom watching the band when a couple of scraps started (as usual) Bono stopped playing and pleaded from the stage with those who were fighting but it fell on deaf ears.

It's fair to say more people were watching the fights than watching the band. After a few minutes the band started again and the two doormen did their best and threw out the trouble makers one or two I know who shall remain nameless as they are fine upstanding citizens today

Anyway the week or two before a band called Square Deal played the Garden of Eden and I thought at the time they were the better band. When it was the Central Ballroom previously it was mostly showbands that played there. But when it became the Garden of Eden it seemed the owners were experimenting with rock style bands.

The Scawgeen · 22-08-2012 9:08pm

I should have mentioned, I think, I could be wrong though that Ricey Scully ran the Garden of Eden and booked the bands at that time.

Stavro Mueller · 26-08-2012 12:29am

An Ri rua wrote: »

I was 7 then and my recollection was that the car park beside Cliffords and where the old cinema was was called 'The Garden of Eden'. That was what people referred to it when the cinema was still there.

That makes sense. U2 playing in Tullamore is before my time but I know someone who has mentioned them playing in or around what was the old cinema.

An Ri rua · 20-11-2012 2:42am

Well lookee here folks!

More confusion! U2 did play the Garden of Eden on 2nd March 1980. Not sure whether they were supporting anyone? It was the Boy tour.

And guess what? Here's the full bootleg http://vivalesbootlegs.blogspot.ie/2010/12/u2-garden-of-eden-tullamore-ireland.html

I tripped across it as I was searching Google for a UFO witness account I wrote up a few years back.....

Don't ask !!!!!!

EDIT !!! Supporting the 'Tony Stevens Showband' http://www.irishshowbands.net/pg_westernunion.htm and sadder news here re Tony Stevens http://www.iangallagher.com/TONYSTEVENS.html

QED People.

fog arty · 19-02-2013 4:00pm

It was the grand central ballroom, Horslips played there and as far as I know U2 played there later when the name changed. It was down road from Tasty takeaway where apartments are now.

Garden of Eden Tullamore

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