While postering with Reddy yesterday for next week’s Punky Reggae Party and Kaboogie! gig, I found myself going to the usual haunts (Simon’s Cafe, Cornucopia, All City etc..) but also to a few new locations. One of which was the Litton Lane Hostel on the quays, just down from O’Connell Bridge.
Two things stood out in their lovely common room.
The first was this painted mural above their fireplace, showcasing a ‘who’s who’ of 1980s and 1990s popular Irish rock music.
l-r: Christy Moore, Sinead O’Connor, Bob Geldof, Phil Lynott (RIP), Van Morrison, The Edge and Bono.
On another wall was a fascinating poster for the December 1991 gig listings for The Rock Garden (the former name for Eamon Doran’s, now called The Old Storehouse). Down in the left hand corner of the poster it says that the gigs will all be recorded by 2FM for future broadcasting.
Some of the names are recognisable – The Frames, The Cranberries, Ocean Colour Scene and The Golden Horde. Others not so much – The Blue Aeroplanes, Big Geraniums and The Ring. All in all it’s interesting to see which bands were popular and were getting gigs during that time.
There were a few other gig posters around the room too including one for James Brown in The Point in 1992. More music memrobillia than your average Dublin hostel it has to be said.
Why?
Well, it turns out that the Litton Lane Hostel Dublin was originally a recording studio (called aptly enough Litton Lane Rehearsal & Recording Studios) and played host to a number of Irish and international artists including Aslan, The Cranberries, David Bowie, Van Morrison, and U2. The hostel’s website has brief entries for Bowie and U2 about their visit to the studio.
Keeping with their roots, the hostels website also has links and information on upcoming gigs in The Twisted Pepper and The Workman’s Club while they themselves host regular gigs in their common room.
Shame the poster pic is so grainy, could do a post and see if anyone still has any of those 2FM broadcasts..
“Shame the poster pic is so grainy”
Yeah, sorry about that. The room was quite dark and I only was using my camera phone.
Toasted Heretic! saw them in UCD that year
I met the Big Geraniums around that time. I guess I was around 10 or something when they had a gig in Nutgrove Shopping Centre (!) Me and my bro were real excited and decided to get their autographs -bought a pen in the ‘Bus Stop’ newsagents for 20p and took our ‘Shoot’ or ‘Match’ (back when I could name every player in the Premiership) out of its brown paper bag for them to sign.
We ran up to the celebrities and when we asked for their signatures, we were flung a dirty look and got a scornful ‘you want me to sign THAT? get some proper paper!’ God, it stung. I was equally mortified and raging at the snobbery.
My bro was oblivious, got all the signatures in the end and we framed it and had it on the sitting room shelves for years.
That Rock Garden poster is a great find Jaycarax!! Brings back some memories. I played a couple of gigs there in 91.
It’s a strong lineup and a lot of those bands were big at the time, or went on to bigger things shortly afterwards. Bands like Swervedriver were very big for a while in Britain and would have been an NME favourite. I even have some of their stuff on vinyl.
Spiritualized are still going, and some of the Irish bands like The Pale and Toasted Heretic reformed in recent years. Bands like The Colossal Men (Thee Amazing Colossal Men), The Coletranes, Shaine, Engine Alley, Pet Lamb and Sultans of Ping FC were all well established in the local scene over the years.
More please 🙂
I was at that Spiritualized gig, they took forever to come out on stage. The sound guy and somone on the stage kept exchanging a pipe smoking signal which I took to mean that Spiritualized were busy getting in the right state of mind.
Was a good gig.