Get That Monster Off The Stage
July 22, 2017 7:58 PM Subscribe
The story of Finbarr Donnelly and his bands Nun Attax, Five Go Down To the Sea? and Beethoven.
Part One
Part Two
Finbarr Donnelly was born in Belfast in 1962. Escaping the Troubles his family moved to Cork City when he was 12. By the late-70s he had formed Nun Attax, a punk band, who played their first gig on Valentine’s night 1979 in a community hall in Mayfield, on the Northside of Cork City.
Nun Attax are synonymous with the Downtown Kampus at Cork’s Arcadia Ballroom, the lynchpin of the city’s post-punk music scene, where they shared the stage with U2, The Virgin Prunes, UB40, Micro Disney and a host of other local bands. Their live performances were unforgettable, incendiary events an example of which can be heard on the Kaught at the Kampus EP released by Reekus Records in 1981 [reissued in 2015]. In the early-80s the band changed its name to Five Go Down To the Sea? and recorded the Knot A Fish EP 7’’ for Kabuki Records. Soon after the band left recession-ridden Cork for London...
Part One
Part Two
Finbarr Donnelly was born in Belfast in 1962. Escaping the Troubles his family moved to Cork City when he was 12. By the late-70s he had formed Nun Attax, a punk band, who played their first gig on Valentine’s night 1979 in a community hall in Mayfield, on the Northside of Cork City.
Nun Attax are synonymous with the Downtown Kampus at Cork’s Arcadia Ballroom, the lynchpin of the city’s post-punk music scene, where they shared the stage with U2, The Virgin Prunes, UB40, Micro Disney and a host of other local bands. Their live performances were unforgettable, incendiary events an example of which can be heard on the Kaught at the Kampus EP released by Reekus Records in 1981 [reissued in 2015]. In the early-80s the band changed its name to Five Go Down To the Sea? and recorded the Knot A Fish EP 7’’ for Kabuki Records. Soon after the band left recession-ridden Cork for London...
Loved reading how the No-wave NYC scene was important to these kids. Me too!
posted by mwhybark at 8:15 PM on July 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by mwhybark at 8:15 PM on July 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is fucking great and Five Go Down to the Sea? was a kickass band.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 10:04 PM on July 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Joseph Gurl at 10:04 PM on July 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
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Loved hearing this material and reading about it - this was entirely new to me despite my love of the particular moment.
posted by mwhybark at 8:09 PM on July 22, 2017 [1 favorite]