Irish bands who made it here, but were good enough to make the grade elsewhere?

sweetie

weadick wrote:

Juniper another band that springs to mind. Had two great singles.

They broke up into Bellx1 and Damien Rice!

I think David Kitt, Turn, Revelino should have done better abroad.

chicorytip

"Tokyo Olympics".They were the Irish Spandau Ballet or Spand O'Bally, so to speak.

Anesthetize

chicorytip wrote: »

"Tokyo Olympics".They were the Irish Spandau Ballet or Spand O'Bally, so to speak.

Jesus that sounds horrible.

Fluffy Cat 88

Royseven, Rubyhorse, The Frames all had some great songs.

The Thrills, Republic of Loose - no!

Ciaran_B

Bawl should have been in that Divine Comedy 'clever, indie-pop' area. They were worth a few crossover hits at the end of the 90's.

eviltimeban

sweetie wrote: »

I think David Kitt, Turn, Revelino should have done better abroad.

Jaysis David Kitt was dreadful, I could never understand how he was popular. His voice was just about one of the worst I've ever heard.

Relish are the only Irish band from the last 20 years that should've done better. Their first four singles were all top quality, amazing production, great song-writing, peerless vocals and great guitar playing.

"Rainbow Zephyr" is a truly great song (we'll forget what Westlife did to it) and there's about three or four more good songs on the first album (beyond the singles). There was a bit of filler but not much. I suppose it was the wrong time for their 'unique brand of classic rock' (to paraphrase the Simpsons).

I admit I never listened to them beyond the first album. I think the problem was they were based in Ireland, signed to EMI Ireland, instead of being more UK centred (even though they were from NI). EMI Ireland did f**k all for any bands it ever signed.

Welsh Megaman

Rubyhorse should have been absolutely massive in America.

I hate pigeonholing, but to me, their sound was very similar to Matchbox 20 or The Dave Matthews Band - perfectly suited to US Rock radio.

RainyDay

chicorytip wrote: »

"Tokyo Olympics".They were the Irish Spandau Ballet or Spand O'Bally, so to speak.

Great live shows in the Baggot, and a good album too.

Paddy2012

I remember Biffy Clyro saying Kerbdog were a big influence on them, I think Whipping Boy definitely deserved more success internationally as Heartworm still sounds fantastic and I think A House deserved more attention as songs like Endless Art were kind of ahead of its time. I think even with the internet the Irish music scene is still in a bit of a vacuum and it's still difficult for Irish acts to break through in the UK and internationally. Although I'm not a big fan of their music I think Kodaline deserve a lot of credit for being one of the few acts to achieve this in recent years.

unjedilike

Cuckoo were a great band, Mike Got Spiked, too

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Said in an earlier post that I see no reason why anyone should expect a lot of the names being mentioned here would have any appeal outside of Ireland. I'm not dissing or slagging any bands here, I'm just pointing out that a lot of them are basically addressing Irish audiences from an Irish point of view. Love them or hate them, I just don't get it why anyone seriously can't understand why 90% of Irish music has zero appeal/relevance to record buyers in the US and UK.

Some slightly off-topic examples (non Irish). I love The Clash and The Jam. But in no possible way would I ever expect The Jam to be even remotely successful in America while The Clash remain hugely popular there even still to this day. Likewise I really love The Who and The Kinks, but never in a million years am I surprised that The Kinks never made it in the states, good and all as they are. The Who on the other hand made music (like The Beatles and The Stones) that didn't focus on their own local neighbourhoods.

The Kinks in 1965 were on the edge of superstars in the USA. Unions stopped them

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/kinks-in-america/

dr.fuzzenstein

My Bloody Valentine

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

loyatemu

Deleted User wrote: »

The Kinks in 1965 were on the edge of superstars in the USA. Unions stopped them

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/kinks-in-america/

Going off-topic here, but they had good success in the states in the 70s after Lola was a hit and they adopted a more rock style.

traprunner

The Joys who became Junkster. Signed with RCA, released an album and then disappeared.

RainyDay

sweetie wrote: »

Revelino should have done better abroad.

Indeed, though they did leave one great album as their legacy.

fiachr_a

traprunner wrote: »

The Joys who became Junkster. Signed with RCA, released an album and then disappeared.

Garbage/Curve copycats who deserved to disappear.

Ardent

Could never understand how The Stunning never made it outside Ireland. It's a real pity.

Elemonator

There is some Irish bands which are big abroad and not here, Primordial have already been mentioned. In the international metal scene they are pretty well known. Friends brother actually went to school with bassist.

MrJones2013

Bell X1 are quality, surprised they haven't made it elsewhere, they have some quality tunes.

I can't believe the bashing the Republic of Loose were getting earlier in the thread, they have some unbelievable songs, ridiculously catchy lyrics and their sound is different and fresh no matter how often you listen to any of there albums.

I think that if these two bands were American or British they would have made it big, they're under appreciated here....we don't deserve them!

NIMAN

They have split up you know?

stampydmonkey

Few been said before, Frames I think shud be massive. Delerentoes too. Great lyrics and songs on all albums.

JJ72, Future Kings of Spain had great potential

MrJones2013

NIMAN wrote: »

They have split up you know?

Yeah I saw that a while back.

Queen-Mise

Deagol wrote:

Can't believe no-one mentioned The Stunning yet?!

Ardent wrote:

Could never understand how The Stunning never made it outside Ireland. It's a real pity.

Out of all those bands at that time The Stunning were the best. I saw them Saturday night for the first time since the Feile, they really do put on a great show.

On a side note, I saw Hot House Flowers for first time two weeks ago, what struck me about them was how happy whole gig was. Same true of Stunning there wasn't a maudlin note in either show.

GottaLaugh

Queen-Mise wrote: »

Out of all those bands at that time The Stunning were the best. I saw them Saturday night for the first time since the Feile, they really do put on a great show.

On a side note, I saw Hot House Flowers for first time two weeks ago, what struck me about them was how happy whole gig was. Same true of Stunning there wasn't a maudlin note in either show.

I love many of the bands mentioned here, but believe that much of our favour for them comes from green tinted glasses and the fact that their gigs were the background to our youth.
I loved The Stunning (my first gig), but would challenge anyone to name enough songs of theirs on which a successful UK/US mainstream career could have been built. Listened to objectively and in passing the quality was lacking. Be it the songs, the recordings. This is true for many Irish bands even those, that I absolutely love (a House, The Fat Lady Sings).

murphyebass

Whipping boy.

Heartworm is without question one of the best Irish albums ever recorded.

Saw them a few years ago and my god they were woeful but in their day they could have been huge.

alchemist33

From my youth I loved The Fountainhead and more recently I expected Ryan Sheridan to be bigger.

mr_edge_to_you

Mundy. Mind you I don't who thought it would be good business to include Mexico as a double A side on July. Both great songs but I think they couldve been marketed better.

I would regard BellX1 as being successful. They've been on pretty much every major chat show in the US.

Likewise I think Glen Hansard (maybe not The Frames) would be regarded as successful international. Anyway, he's a national treasure.

I just noticed the other day that a Kopek song called Bring It On Home was on the American Reunion (American Pie series) soundtrack.

Even though they were primarily a covers band, what about The Commitments? (Probably be an interesting thread in its own right - what would the characters be doing today?)

We're a talented little country all the same, aren't we?

BuilderPlumber

There have been way too many great bands and singers who were good but were not promoted properly in Ireland let alone outside of Ireland. The main reason for this of course is the obsession with talent competitions that benefit presenters more than performers, boybands and boyband singers doing country/folk music, and singer-songwriters.

The current orientation on 'original material' is biased too. Not all original material is good, in fact most of the modern stuff is poor with various singer songwriters in pop and current Irish country music writing the most awful songs. Many of our greats from Luke Kelly to The Commitments thrived on traditional material and covers of great songs not common in Ireland.

When one sees what is pushed and pushed by our media at home and abroad in the last 20 years, one word unfortunately comes to mind: Westlife.

Deadwards.com

A long, long time ago I worked as a sound engineer in Dublin. I worked with a lot of good bands, some really bad ones but 2 that I honestly believed would make it. They were Juniper (now Bell X1 and Damien Rice) and a lesser known band called Ramp (later Ramp DC).

Both Juniper and Ramp had amazing musicians in the bands but what really struck me about Juniper was their work ethic. They would do their own original music at gigs in venues such as Eamon Doran’s at the weekend but at the same time, do covers at local pubs during the week. Juniper all lived together and were constantly recording new music and ideas.

Ramp on the other hand suffered with internal tensions and eventually fell away.

To this day, I still wonder what became of all the guys in Ramp. I hope they found a different calling as individually they were all sound lads.

All bands at the time really struggled to be noticed and taken on by record companies which at the time was the only way to get noticed to a greater audience.

greenspurs

As previously mentioned - BellX1 , great lyrics, great tunes, fab live , and Paul Noonan is an immensely talented songwriter.

Watercress - from Belfast. Saw them dozens of times in the 90's - very talented musicians, and great songs.

Picturehouse - really liked them, but they just disappeared ?