Rifles fired up Dublin punk scene

*Sydney might have been homebase to the Celibate Rifles had a special affinity for playing in Ireland. There is strong evidence to suggest they performed there on a number of occasions and had a loyal following. In 1987 Hot Press music writer Paul O’Mahnony wrote that they were “occasional visitors to these

shores”. They played Dublin in 1986 with local band The Slowest Clock as the support act. The same four piece group – Frank Pryce (vocals), Gerry Fahy (guitar), Brian Neavyn (bass) and Pete Kinsella (drums) – also supported the Rifles at the Underground in August 1988, which would appear to be when Albo saw them play live. It was quite a night apparently. An account of the gig on irishrock.org remarked that “the drummer played one-armed”. The Slowest Clock broke up in 1990 but in their time they also supported big acts of the day such as A House and Something Happens, amongst others. The Rifles were also in Dublin in 1987 according to the date on a photograph taken by George Curran and published with a story ‘All our lives spent Underground: Dublin’s finest music venue remembered’ written by Paul Page, published on Betweenthebars.net. “Situated on [Dame Street] one of the busiest intersections in the city centre, a passer-by would easily miss it if it wasn’t for the iconic London Underground rail symbol that marked the narrow doorway leading down to its subterranean location,” Page wrote. “A tricky, tight staircase (perilous if inebriated) brought you down to a long, narrow bar – immediately to the right and just behind you at the foot of the stairs stood the tiny stage. When the band were playing, a trip to the toilets was fraught with the risk of decapitation. That trip usually involved a well-timed duck under the neck of a guitar to make it through. The bar itself wasn’t anything special – it wasn’t plastered with posters or rock memorabilia. It wasn’t a hang out for Dublin celebrities. It was a place for genuine music fans, there was no bullshit VIP area (incredibly, such a thing existed in Dublin nightclubs, even in the grim 80s) or welcome mat laid out for Dublin scene-sters.” George Curran had some great memories of the place and a rare photograph of the Rifles on stage. “You could get close up to the band due to the“intimate”nature of the venue. Only problem was trying to take a photo and jostling for space with people coming and going to the loos. Happy Days!.” Decades later the Underground – in the basement of what is Peadar Kearney’s pub in Dame Street in the city centre – appears to have rediscovered its roots as a lively punk venue. There is a great photograph of the Rifles that places them in Ireland. All

the band members are wearing ‘Italia 90’ Ireland tee-shirts in a venue they were playing at that time. As anyone who lived through it will happily remember the whole country went soccer crazy as Ireland did well in the FIFA World Cup that year. The Sydney boys were keen to join in the craic it seems. They also made a strong impression on Ireland’s top music commentator and presenter, Dave Fanning. “For a long time I didn’t know who the track [Pretty Colours (1984)] was by but thanks to the wonder of the internet I finally figured it out,” Fanning said in an article. “It’s a fantastic track and one I never grow tired of.” High praise indeed! Punk rock began in the UK but was embraced in Ireland where it would hugely influence dozens of young and emerging local artists and groups, including the Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers,

Shane McGowan and U2 would all carve their own sound from its foundations and bring it into the mainstream. That influence has spread to the United States where Celtic groups like the Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly and Black 47 are two of the leading proponents of this frantic style of music. Albo is not the only leader of a nation to have mixed it up on the punk scene. Back in 1979 at the height of his fame as the UK’s punk poet John Cooper Clarke was in Dublin for an event at the Project Arts Centre. “I was ably supported by your president, Michael D Higgins [himself a poet],” he told the Irish Examiner newspaper some years ago. “I’ve since met Michael D at a film festival in Galway… he went to a great deal of trouble to point this out to me!.”