Updated – Dec 2021
Starting with The Radiators From Space’s ‘Television Screen’ in April 1977 and finishing with The Blades’ ‘Downmarket’ in October 1983. Two of the greatest songs ever to come out of this city.
This was actually a quite a big undertaking:
1. I went through the full list of all Irish Punk & New Wave bands, figuring out which ones were from Dublin.
2. I made sure all these bands were 1st wave i.e. active before 1983
3. Out of them, I picked out the ones that actually released singles. (A surprising number of seminal Dublin punks never got signed or only ever release one single!)
4. Then, I had to find out which singles were already on Youtube and which weren’t. Trying to fill the gaps best I could.
So without further ado, here’s what should be a complete list of Dublin 1st wave punk/new wave singles released from 1977 to 1983.
How can you help?
As you can see, there’s quite a few gaps. I’m suggesting people if they have a single which is currently not digitzed and on Youtube do one of three things:
– Digitize it and upload it
– Give it to me and I can digitize it, upload it and hand it back
– Give to me, I can digitize, upload it and give it a lovely new home!
Finally, if you can help with dates for any of the single release dates (those marked ‘?’) please let me know.
Johnny Thunders with The Radiators From Space, 1977.
1977
April
The Radiators From Space – Television Screen / Love Detective
Aug
The Boomtown Rats – Lookin’ After Number 1 / Born To Burn / Barefootin’ (Live)
Sep
The Radiators From Space – Enemies / Psychotic Reactions
The Radiators From Space – Sunday World / (Why Can’t I Be A) Teenager In Love [Live version not single]
Nov
The Boomtown Rats – Mary Of The 4th Form (Alternate Version) / Do The Rat
Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats, nd. Photographer – Danny Clifford
1978
May
The Radiators From Space – Million Dollar Hero / Blitzin’ At The Ritz (live)
The Boomtown Rats – She’s So Modern / Lying Again
June
The Boomtown Rats – Like Clockwork / Dún Laoghaire
Revolver – Silently Screaming / On The Run
October (Recorded)
The Vipers – I’ve Got You / No Such Thing
The Atrix, c. 1979
1979
?
Strange Movements – Dancing In The Ghetto / Amuse Yourself
The Romantiks – Said If You Needed Me / Little Queenie
Square Meal – Love Attack / Hold On
June
The Radiators From Space – Let’s Talk About The Weather / Hucklebuck /Try And Stop Me
Sacre Bleu – Broken Promises / Mademoiselle Goodnight
July
The Atrix – The Moon Is Puce / Wendy’s In Amsterdam
The Boomtown Rats – I Don’t Like Mondays / It’s All The Rage
Aug
The Radiators From Space – Kitty Ricketts / Song of the Faithful Departed (Acoustic)
Oct
The Boomtown Rats – Rat Trap / So Strange
Sacre Bleu – Move It / Just Another Saturday Night
Nov
The Defenders – Happy Surfin’ Santa / Xmas Up On Venus
Dec
The Boomtown Rats – Diamond Smiles / Late Last Night
Berlin – Over 21 / Waiting For The Future
Tony Koklin – Cinderella / Living With The Times
U2, Dandelion Market.
1980
?
Katmandu – I Can Make The Future / Australia [TV version not single version] [Belfast, Dublin-based]
Square Meal – Someone’s Out To Git Ya / Another Boy
The Alligators – Thrill Power / Having A Party // Just A Little Bit
The Boddis EP:
– Big Self – Concrete Curtains [Belfast]
– The Departure – Stop
– The peridots – Precious Blood
– Chant! Chant! Chant! – What Do You Know?
The Resistors (For Jeanie EP) – Jeanie / Takeaway Love / End of the Line
The Spies – Thinking About The Sun / Hippy Hangover
Feb
The Boomtown Rats – Someone’s Looking at You / When The Night Comes
DC Nien – Nightclub / Things Japanese
U2 – Another Day / Twilight
May
U2 – 11 O’Clock Tick Tock / Touch [remastered version not single]
July
The Radiators From Space – Stranger Than Fiction / Prison Bars / Who Are The Strangers?
Soul Survivors – Move On / Done Stayin’ Around
Aug
U2 – A Day Without Me [remastered version] / Things to Make and Do [album version]
Sep
The Radiators From Space – Dancing Years / Electric Shares, Sunday World, Enemies (On Stage At The Roundhouse London, Feb 1978)
The Blades – Hot For You / The Reunion
Oct
The Atrix – Treasure On The Wasteland / Graphite Pile
U2 – I Will Follow / Boy-Girl (live)
Nov
The Boomtown Rats – Banana Republic / Man At The Top
Berlin – Boyfriends / Central Station
The Blades, nd.
1981
?
New Versions – Like Gordon of Khartoum / What You Want
The Shade – 6:05 / Talk To Me
The Sussed – Don’t Swim On The East Coast / I Wanna Conform
The Blades – Ghost Of A Chance / Real Emotion
The Threat – Lullaby in C / High Cost Of Living
Tokyo Olympics – Dance Movement // Some Kind Of Wonderful – Just Like Me
The Zen Alligators – Call Me Lucky / The Ticket
Jan
Tony Koklin – Claude Monet / Lucky Man
Feb
The Virgin Prunes – Twenty Tens (I’ve been smoking all night) / Revenge / The Children Are Crying / …Greylight
The Brown Thomas Band / The BTs – My Life / Murder On Their Minds
April
The Radiators From Space – Song Of The Faithful Departed / They’re Looting The Town
The Peridots – Open Season / Calm
June
The Zen Alligators – Who Can That Someone Be? / Berlin Wall
July
Chant! Chant! Chant! – Quicksand / Play Safe
Aug
The Virgin Prunes – Moments and Mine / In The Greylight/War
Oct
The Atrix – Procession / The Eleventh Hour
The Teen Commandments – Private World / Italian Girls
Dec
Tokyo Olympics – Radio (Turns Her On) / Radio 2
Tokyo Olympics, 1982
1982
?
A Further Room – Psychedelic Disco / Strange In Rome
The Alsations – 5 Honours And A 175 / Denise Denise
The Camino Organisation – Human Voices // Executivity / The Bust Up Of Love
Kissed Air – Kariba / Kissed Air [Belfast, Dublin-based]
Pop Mecanics – Soldier Boys / It Feels Like I’m Alone Again
Stano – Room / Town
The Shade – Watching You / Touch Sensitive
The Tabs – Million Miles / Gotta Get Away
The Fashions – All I Own In Dublin (Are The Bars) / The Secrets Of Young Brides
The Zen Alligators – You Make My Day (Radio mix) / People Who Make People’s Day
Jan
Autobop – Secrets / Advertising
March
The Blades – The Bride Wore White / Animation
April
Tokyo Olympics – One Step From Paradise / Paradise (Disco Mix)
June
The Zen Alligators – The Invisible Man / The Scorpio Function
Oct
The Blades – Revelations Of Heartbreak / Rules of Love
Nov
Tokyo Olympics – Shot By Love / Shot By Love (Instrumental)
Kissed Air – Out of the Night / Change of Attention
The Zen Alligators, nd.
1983
May
Very Mental – Slaughtered and Maimed EP
June
The Zen Alligators – I Never Forget A Face / Caught In The Crossfire // Side One – Diary Of A Forgotten War
July
Resistors – That’s It / Steal My Love
Oct
The Blades – Downmarket / You Never Ask
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Come Here To Me! 
Many thanks for all your efforts. I’m thoroughly enjoying this and wallowing in the nostalgia.
What about Stano’s Room/Town (1982)? Should it be included.
Also, is a digitised version of that Fashions single available online anywhere? My husband was a big fan.
“Stano’s Room/Town (1982)” – Indeed it probably should be included, will amend.
“Also, is a digitised version of that Fashions single available online anywhere?”
Not that I can find, all the singles above underlined and with green(ish) text are Youtube links – showing that they are available online.
Great List, I will dig out Revolver and put it up.
Paranoid Visions, and the Dead DeVeleras
Cheers for the comment JJ.
Paranoid Visions didn’t release a single till 1986 – out of my time scale.
Never heard of the Dead DeVeleras. Anymore info?
Jaaaz. Was very excited to see the Peridots on the list, till I got to Youtube. The artwork really put me off.
Totally agree!!
But my rule of thumb has been that if it’s already on Youtube, I shouldn’t upload the same song again. Might make an exception for that though!
Have uploaded the A-side ‘Open Season’:
or do live performances not count?
Good list. Good tunes 🙂 You haven’t included either of the first two Virgin Prunes singles, ‘Twenty Tens’ or ‘Moments and Mine’. They should definitely be in there.
You’re totally right! No idea how they slipped through the cracks. Have amended! Thanks for the comment Cormac.
[…] is such a brilliant idea… as Jaycarax writes: After a week of hard work, I’ve finally put together what I hope […]
You might have accidentally/ deliberately left it out because it was a comp rather that a single artist release, but there was also the Boddis EP, with us (the Peridots), Chant, The Departure and, er…. – put out by the two lads from Dundalk who ran the night of the same name in the Magnet. One of them, Philip something, was later in Some Kind of Wonderful, who I’m sure released a single too, though it might be out of your timeframe
sonof tan, that’d be Philip Mullen and Peat Deane from Some Kind of Wonderful. previously with Zebra.
Great post!
the treat- hi cost of living
That’ll be “The Threat – High Cost Of Living” then 🙂
I think so too. 😉
Here it is anyway:
The Threat – High Cost Of Living / Lullaby in C
yea the threat brain was’nt working then
[…] For those interested, check out our previous post – Dublin Punk & New Wave singles timeline (1977 – 1983) […]
Include
Static Routines – Rock And Roll Clones // Sheet Music
The Resistors – E.P. For Jeannie.
Very Mental – Slaughtered And Maimed E.P.
If things like Pop Mechanics are in —–
A Further Room – Psychedelic Disco // Strange In Rome
Also, even if bands like Kissed Air, Katmandu, and were from Belfast, they were Dublin based when they made most of their vinyl marks.
Lose these – Defenders // Alligators // Zen Alligators, The Fashions, Sacre Bleu, at least…. maybe you’ve not heard these, but they’re not new wave or punk. Some home-boys might have convinced themselves otherwise, but really they’re not…..
Was in a state of near collapse from that mild heatstroking type of exhaustion that’s incurred from a day at the beach when i wrote the above last night. Subtract the Static Routines from that list! Close by, but not from Dublin. The others stand, tho’.
You’d also be wanting…….
The Camino Organisaton – Human Voices // Executivity // The Bust Up Of Love
I would strongly lobby for Kissed Air and Katmandu too; perhaps Big Self were living and working in Dublin when they did some of their 45’s too? The thing about these lists is that the moment regionality commands the theme, you’re into a wild and loose science. So the kind of choice framework that allows you to include so many Radiators and Rats records by units that were from Dublin – but were living and working in another town when most of the records were made……. well it also allows you to include such beyond punk fusings as The Peridots and Pop Mechanics that really had nothing to do with the genre that’s being listed, but rather fit an ethic or energy of the time, and tend to be embraced in Irish Punk and New Wave things simply because of this.
It also allows a curmudgeon like me to request things to be excised! Not for any quality control issues mind…. In our local record shop on last record store day, I played Sacre Bleu’s ‘Broken Promises’ as part of a set of seventies Irish Rock from withoutside the whole punk thing; it’s a keen example of ‘straight’ rock of the era. I’m sure the people who made the record would look askance at being drawn into the punk//new wave genre’s in any way…….. On record store day I also broke my own-made rule by playing an 80’s record, ‘You Can Call Me Lucky’ by Zen Alligators. Would you call it popabilly? It stands apart for me from their otherwise pub-rock fare. It’s fair to say that the band would have sounded exactly as they did, completely regardless of the predominant music movements of the day, which is fair enough. Not punk or new wave in any way tho’!
not sure if anyone still discussing this site.no way were peridots a punk band and indeed would question the atrix and chant chant chant as well.the tabs were a soul mod style band.the lookalites,stapaside,soul survivors were def miles away from punk too.VERY MENTAL were punk,used to be called DRUNKEN JURY.STRANGE MOVEMENTS were bray but were a great punk funk band in the vein of pop group,punishment of luxury,gang of 4.SACRE BLEU were about as punk as ODDESSY,absolute mince.THE TEEN COMMANDMENTS were not punk either.THE SUSSED were but were very basic,rory did a lot better with THE WUSSIES FROM KIMMAGE who’s 7″ i have.THE RESISTORS and THE SPIES were good raw punk who had 2 good releases as 7″‘s.THE POP MECHANICS were not punk.the rats were a great early punk band,the only problemm was SIR BOB the plonker who was quick to derrogate and rebuke punk and claim they were not a punk band.I remember asking him to listen to their MORANS HOTEL set and tell me what music it was if not punk.bob slunk to the bar.dont forget “PUNK ROCKIN’ TIL THE DAY I DIE” by EAST COAST ANGELS from 1977-they morphed into THE ROMANTIKS….rocky devalera and the grave diggers and fit kilkenny and the remoulds were punked up rockabilly bands who played very fast ’50’s no’s with some original punk stuff thrown in.LEMME KNOW IF YOU WANT OLD IRISH PUNK RELEASES FROM THE DAY AS HAVE A LOT.
I guess the ‘and new wave’ bit sluices the floodgates wide open on definition, but still, in the main i agree.
dont get me wrong-when i compare the scene here to the 6 counties the real punk music i love was a fair bit ahead of us here.dont get me wrong-the spies from howth, and the kidz from cork,urban blitz from cork,blaze x and black revolvers from tuam were all great.met some limerick punks in their fifties who played in punk bands in 1978 and 1979 which was great.my point is that the sinners,the citizens,fabulous fabrics,skank mooks were all on par with what went on up north but instead we’ d the peridots and chant chant chant and the atrix playing at a much slower pace and with far less angst…..and then these bands are part of our vinyl punk past.which is why i like the dubtones,corrosive machine,jobseekers,excuses,complaints,hooligan etc now releaseing good melodic punk.that’s me rant over sorry all!!!!
have just picked up on the vipers being on facebook.unreal old pictures and snippets.great band pity only 2 appearances on vinyl,both of which i had.time for a retrospective vinyl release lads.great site.how about the gamblers and revolver doin the same!!!
and let me say the undertones were absolutely brilliant the other night and as for their new stuff!!!!!!!forget the trepidation…..it is fantastic stuff.and guess what…their last release and their upcoming new one-ARE ON VINYL!!!!!100mph melody and anger.REST OF IRELAND WAKE UP.
gerry, I was at the undertones on Saturday night and I agree with you they were absolutely brilliant.Have you come across the Statics a new Dublin band brilliant live,
http://barrygruff.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/introducing-the-statics/
sorry mick,only got back to this site,no havent heard of the statics,saw the rats on sat,their set was early stuff,brillo.
[…] Pete Holidai plays with the Trouble Pilgrims and was a member of the classic Irish punk band The Radiators From Space. We have a lot of love for The Radiators on this website, see for example Sam’s ‘Dublin Punk & New Wave Singles Timeline 1977-1983′. […]
[…] For a full and updated list of Dublin Punk & New Wave singles released from 1977 to 1983, check out our previous post here. […]
Where can I buy this single online?
https://www.discogs.com/The-New-Versions-Like-Gordon-Of-Khartoum/release/2233573
[…] very rich musical heritage, which has involved everything from compiling (and often uploading!) a timeline of Dublin punk and new wave 7″s to providing a spotlight to new and emerging acts, across a range of fields. It has also involved […]
https://distro-yrecords.bandcamp.com/album/new-gods-gods-of-punk current dublin punk band with 77 vibe
I was there for all of it with my good friends Brummie and Dustin.They were great times.Dublin became London as it always does.Everyone was a sex pistol even in small villages across Ireland like Hackballscross in County Louth.Looking back the whole punk thing was just a bunch of kids jumping on a bandwagon and getting out of it.Still we all felt very alive and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.
anyone with info/music on The Last Hurrah – circa 1981?
I heard,a since deceased friend(good old ‘woody’) tell me he had a demo tape of ‘the boyscoutz’.I’d love to get a copy of this.know of what are the chances