ISSUE 30

Heineken Weekender Review, Galway: We met up on FRiday afternoon to get the train over to the west.. Our first stop after dumping our stuff in various houses was a pub called the Blue Note. Not a bad little spot at all. Mostly young crowd.. Donal Dineen from Radio Ireland (or whatever monicker it goes under these days) was doing DJ out in the main part of the pub but we were stuck knocking back pints (and pitchers) of lager to our hearts content (and our stomach's misery) so we didnt really hear much of what he was playing. Afterwards, the posse split in two for Monkey Mafia and the rest of us headed out on the town. No nightclub was particularly appeasing at this time so we went to this little restaurant called Seventh Heaven which was open til about 2am or so. You didnt actually have to buy any food in there, just beer. So we sat there until close, and staggered to Abrakebabra then for some tasty kebabs and garlic chips. Saturday morning was greeted with a monumental hangover and hair of the dog.. so to cure it all we headed into town for some more drinking. But first we went to this pizza place called Fat Freddys (of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers fame) which was ok. Galway is a nice town for walking around actually, all the pubs and restaurants and other places we went to were within at most 15 minutes of each other. Later in the afternoon we visited a pub called Tomas O Riada's, which was quite relaxing apart from the louts watching the rugby match in the front section.. afterwards we visited a pub called Roisin Dhubhs to catch Bass Odyssey. The Cork Drum'n'bass outfit have released one single on the Quadraphonic label already, called "Twilight" and I wasnt that impressed with it, but their set was quite impressive, bar the last track. They played for about an hour or so, maybe more.. I'll be keeping an eye out for them again in the future.
After Bass Odyssey it was time for the main event of the weekend. Spiritualized at the Leisureland Complex. We were slightly apprehensive at first about this venue, having heard horror stories from two nights previously when the House lights had been kept on all night for Primal Scream, the lack of a bar and cloakroom, and a total ban on smoking, but in the end it turned out to be ok. Granted there was no bar, but we didnt care cos we all had our drugs sorted out and we didnt need to drink much more after the afternoon's excursion. Lo-Fi Allstars were on first for support and quite frankly, they were fucking awful. Grade A, prime cut, pure, unadulterated bollocks. Imagine the worst bits of Oasis and some half-assed big beat band merged into one big whining mess. The singer even seemed to think he was the next incarnation of one of the Gallaghers, with his swagger and beering on stage. This lot are recieving loads of press at the moment from the likes of the NME and MM and I cant see why at all. It seems like all you have to do these days if you're an indie band is stick some bloke with a pair of decks or a sampler or a moog on at the side and instantly you're a "crossover" hit. My fucking arse. You gotta have the tunes as well. This lot are muck and its just another nail in the Big Beat coffin IMHO (this lot are signed to Skint).

Anyway after enduring them for fuck knows how long, our acid had seriously kicked in at this stage and after wandering about for a while like loons, Spiritualized appeared in a shimmering white light and launched into their set. For the fools among you that have not bought Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, what can we say? Go out and buy it now.. its a masterpiece. They treated us to several tracks from this LP, such as "Come Together", "Electricity", "Home of the Brave", "Cop Shoot Cop", "A Broken Heart" and "I Think I'm in Love". There may have been others but I was too busy having my brain sent around in a fucking spin to concentrate.. The lights were fairly impressive and thank fuck they didnt keep the house lights on. At one stage we climbed up the stairs to this balcony at the back to take it all in.. it was fairly mental, you could see the whole crowd going nuts and take in all the lights. They played several older tracks as well, such as "Medication", "All of My Tears", "Electric Mainline" and "Shine a Light" which were all brilliant.. at times some of the older stuff just built up and up into this huge big wall of noise that threatened to blow your head up with the vibrations.. quite scary. Also impossible to dance to. You just sort of have to stand there and soak it all up. Theres no beats as such. Its hard to find a rythym to dance to. Its more for the head than the feet. After Christ knows how long, perhaps an hour and a half, they left the stage to screams and cheers from half the crowd, while the other half just stood there wondering what the fuck had just happened. There was calls for an encore, handclapping and foot stamping but after five minutes, the house lights surprisingly went up and we were all suddenly faced with the prospect of getting our brains back in shape for walking back into town for Fat Boy Slim at the GPO. Out of the fire and into the water we went, it was pissing out of the heavens, probably Gods way of punishing us for taking drugs.
What can you do? We strolled back into town to the GPO and arrived about midnight or so. When we got there the place was devoid of music of any kind which was strange considering it was a nightclub. Then we saw signs all over the place announcing new licensing laws in Galway. Apparently all nightclubs are not allowed play music at all between the hours of 11.45 and 12.30, and during this time they have to give people free food (not that any of us could eat at this stage, having necked several E). Also, they arent allowed serve any drink after midnight (again, inconsequential for all of us). At 12.15 the sound system blasted into life again with Mr Norman Cook on the decks. I heard this bloke DJ before in LOndon and he was ok, the best of the lot at a Skint night. I personally am of the opinion that FBS should be dragged into the street and shot for his tracks that he created under the Pizzaman and Mighty Dub Katz aliases, but this evening his DJing was excellent. He played a good, hard selection of Big Beat, techno and house tunes (and allegedly, even some speed garage), and got the crowd worked into a sweaty frenzy. Recognized a couple of tracks such as his own reworking of the Cornershop tune (not brilliant), and Wildchild's "Renegade Master" (which sounds pretty naff when you hear it on the radio but on the floor its pretty mental). All in all it was an excellent night in the GPO. In the lower section Spacehopper were doing their dance/dub thing, and although we didnt catch much of their set, what we did hear was quite enjoyable. After spilling out into the street we hit a party and then headed on home. Sunday was just a relaxed day, recovering mostly from the night before's confusion and madness. We went back to Seventh Heaven for a 3 course meal (not a good idea when your stomach feels like its about as big as a golf ball and your jaw aches with each movement). After that it was down to the Blue Note for a nice afternoon pint, and then the train home.. half of the posse remained for the V Records Night with Jumpin Jack Frost and Razor from Quadraphonic but the head was melted enough at this stage and it was time to call it a day. Overall? Defintely worth the trip. Galway is a nice, compact city and the atmospehere at the gigs and pubs was friendly and outgoing.