Who needs bathrooms? ([email protected])
Sun, 23 Aug 1998 09:36:17 -0600
Talkin 'bout my generation
Kevin Courtney reminisces about summers past
with some other Slane veterans
I remember my first trip to Slane. The year was 1981, it was
the inaugural concert at Slane Castle, Thin Lizzy were top of
the bill and they were supported by a young Dublin band
called U2. There were no CDs, mobile phones or laptop
computers, and no Britpop, hip-hop or drum'n'bass. I didn't
have a VIP laminate, an Access All Areas badge, or a
backstage pass. In fact, I didn't even have a ticket. So myself
and a friend crawled under a barbed wire fence, dodged into
the woods, and came out somewhere along the back wall of
the Castle. After some deft footwork, we found ourselves
smack dab in the VIP area, which was something like
Rodney and Del Boy ending up at a reception in Buckingham
Palace. We grabbed a glass of champagne, and were just
about to tuck into the hors d'oeuvres when we were spotted
by a security guard, who shouted, "Oi! How did you get in
here?". Abandoning our expensive plonk, we bolted towards
the main area and managed to lose our pursuer in the crowd.
We arrived near the stage just as a youthful U2 were going
on to play tracks from their d�but album, Boy, and we
thought to ourselves, sure isn't it a great oul' rock'n'roll
world. Nowadays it's much more boring - I just flash my
lammo at the gate and I'm ushered through to the inner
sanctum, where I'm force-fed caviar and Dom Pee while
Denise Van Outen chatters in my ear. But sometimes I long
for those days of my youth, when cheap thrills like cider,
soggy sandwiches and sneaking into Slane were all I needed.
Eyewitness: Dave Fanning
Broadcaster Dave Fanning has been at every Slane event
since 1981. This year, he will be introducing the acts on
stage, along with No Disco presenter Uaneen Fitzsimons
`I remember the first Slane, standing backstage and watching
Phil Lynnott arrive by helicopter. There wasn't such a big
vibe about hanging around the castle - everyone was either in
the crowd or backstage. 1987 was memorable because I
was seeing one of my favourite people fail miserably - David
Bowie. That was also the year I got my binoculars nicked.
The Rolling Stones in 1982 was like a great big circus, and
the stage had these two big catwalks that spread right out
into the crowd like a pair of wings. When Keith Richards
walked down one of the catwalks, he was standing just 50
yards from us, and that was cool. Bruce was the biggest
thing going in 1985, but Slane was the biggest crowd he had
played to up till then. Bob Dylan did a solid enough gig in
'84, but he played as if he was in the Baggot. Queen was the
first Slane where it rained, and there was a bad vibe with the
crowd down the front, because there were so many people
there.
Eyewitness: Leslie Dowdall
Leslie Dowdall was the singer with In Tua Nua, who opened
for Bob Dylan in 1984. In Tua Nua's lineup also featured
Steve Wickham on violin, who later joined The Waterboys.
Leslie is now a solo artist, and her d�but album, No Guilt No
Guile, features the hit single, Wonderful Thing. Her second
album, Out There, is released at the end of the month
`I have a huge recollection of playing Slane. We couldn't
believe our luck - it was one of our first outdoor concerts,
and it was an amazing day. We were young, not very well
known, and so we were thrilled to be playing Slane in front
of 50,000 people. We had just one single out at the time,
Coming Through. "After we played, Bob Dylan invited me
and Steve Wickham backstage to meet him. We were
thrilled - Dylan was a legend to us. He asked us to come on
stage and sing with him - I was up there with Dylan, Bono,
Van Morrison and Carlos Santana. I didn't own many Dylan
records, so I didn't even know the song he was doing,
Leopardskin Pillbox Hat. I said to Bono, `what'll I do?' and
he said, `just sing la la la!'
"The most embarrassing thing about the day was the dodgy
outfit I wore. It was designed by someone who is now
famous - I won't mention who - and it looked like a cross
between a Venezuelan wedding dress and something out of
Dallas. It had massive shoulder pads, an ostrich feather,
pencil skirt, big high heels and earrings that looked like CDs.
I don't know what I was thinking - I suppose I wanted to get
dressed up because it was our big gig. It was a beautiful day,
the sun was out, and we thought we'd landed."
Eyewitness: B.P. Fallon
B.P. Fallon was conducting his own radio show, The B.P.
Fallon Orchestra, in the year Dylan rolled into Slane. As
befits Fallon's status as a friend to the stars, he was spotted
having dinner with Dylan in a city centre restaurant after the
gig
`Dylan was the most memorable one for me - he had a great
band which included Mick Taylor (ex-Rolling Stones) and
Ian McLagan (ex-Faces). I watched from the side of the
stage, and Dylan was rocking. The best moment was when
he and Van Morrison sang It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.
"The worst Slane was definitely David Bowie - all that Glass
Spider rubbish and those dancers. Terrible. I didn't go to
Queen on principle, because they had played in South Africa
during the apartheid r�gime. I saw The Rolling Stones gig,
but it wasn't a patch on their current tour, which is a great
show."
Eyewitness: Eamonn McCann
Journalist Eamonn McCann was writing a music column for
The Sunday World at the time Bruce Springsteen performed
at Slane with no support act
`I've been to practically every Slane, and they've all had their
moments, but I would probably say that the most exciting for
me was seeing Bruce Springsteen for the first time.
Springsteen had the ability to handle a huge crowd, and this
was the biggest crowd I'd ever seen. Absolutely gigantic. He
played a four-hour set, but there wasn't one dull moment.
You really felt at one mind with the crowd, and when he
played an acoustic set in the middle of the concert, the entire
crowd was completely entranced. Rock'n'roll doesn't get
much better than that. I was moving between the main crowd
and the VIP area, what I call `the white people's section'
where the elite were hanging out, and the class distinction
was very pronounced at Slane that year - after all, it is a
lord's castle. It was better to be in the crowd and among the
people. That's the real test of a performer's authenticity, and
Springsteen passed the test, of course. "Another memorable
gig for me was Bob Dylan's, because I was standing at the
side of the stage, with Bono and Paul Brady, and thinking
this was one of those great moments. That was also the year
I was passed a joint by a leading member of the Fine Gael
party."
Eyewitness: Billy McGuinness
Billy McGuinness plays guitar with Aslan, and when the band
played Slane in 1987, as support to David Bowie, they were
being hotly tipped to follow U2 into international stardom. It
all went a bit awry for them, however, and their many ups
and downs have been charted in a recent no-holds-barred
biography by Damien Corless, entitled Aslan's Crazy World.
The band has just released a Best of . . . compilation, and
will soon be releasing a remixed version of their best-known
song, Crazy World, in the UK.
`It was all a bit of a blur, because we only had a half-hour
set. I said to the crowd, `it's great to be playing in Lord
Mount Charles's back garden', and that quote was picked up
by the media. We had just done our d�but album with EMI,
the same company Bowie was on, and that's how we got the
gig. Now we're back with the same company after 10 years
- it's amazing how things come around! Slane was the biggest
crowd we'd ever played - we've played F�ile since then, and
supported Bryan Adams at the RDS, but that Slane gig was
still the biggest. It was a great vibe, mingling backstage with
people like Peter Frampton, and the sun even shone. We
tried to meet Bowie backstage, because he was our biggest
hero, but we couldn't get near him. We didn't mind, though -
it was just wonderful to be there, playing in front of all those
people. "There's no Irish band playing Slane this year, and I
think that's sad. There should always be an Irish band
opening Slane. It doesn't matter who it is, I just think
someone from home should get a chance. We go on about
helping young bands, but we haven't even got one Irish band
playing. It'll be the first big gig I've seen where there's no
Irish bands - even the Big Day Out had Junkster. "I
remember we watched Big Country, who were supporting
Bowie as well that day, but really we were just caught up in
the whole vibe of playing Slane. We thought, `this is our big
break, and we're gonna take on the world'. There were
international scouts over from the UK to watch us, and we
thought we were going to go all the way to the top.
Slane: a musical history
1981: Thin Lizzy, U2, Hazel O'Connor, Rose Tattoo, Sweet Savage,
The Bureau.
1982: The Rolling Stones, The Chieftains, George Thorogood &
The Destroyers, The J.Geils Band
1984: Bob Dylan, Santana, UB40, In Tua Nua
1985: Bruce Springsteen
1986: Queen, Fountainhead, The Bangles, Chris Rea
1987: David Bowie, The Groove, Aslan, Big Country
1992: Guns 'N' Roses, Faith No More, My Little Funhouse
1993: Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Van Morrison, The Saw Doctors,
James, The Blue Angels
1995: REM, Oasis, Spearhead, Sharon Shannon, Belly, Luka
Bloom
------------
Condensed from The Irish Times:
(Prarit's note: The entire article can be found at :
http://www.irish-times.com/irish%2Dtimes/paper/1998/0815/fea20.html )
Lord Mount Charles has gone through fire - and litigation - to make the concert
at his family estate happen this year, as he tells Katie Donovan
`You need that crossover appeal that will attract a wide
audience, and The Verve certainly have it in songs like
Bittersweet Symphony and Lucky Man. I went to The Point
to see them in concert and was deeply impressed." Henry
Mount Charles is aiming to attract 50,000 to this year's
concert in Slane.
Back in 1981, at the first Slane concert, which featured Thin
Lizzy and U2, there was an audience of 18,000: "You need a
hell of a lot more than that today, otherwise we'd all be
bankrupt." The biggest attendance for Slane was in 1985,
when Bruce Springsteen attracted a crowd of 100,000.
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