May 15 1988 Membranes, Pleasure Cell, Not Our World Connolly Youth Hall
May 18 1988 Membranes, Not Our World Underground
May 20 1988 Membranes, Not Our World, A House, Louis Stewart Christchurch Cathedral
John Robb of The Membranes was the musical catalyst for me to start putting on regular gigs. His boundless energy and passion for good music rubbed off. The Membranes were keen to return to Ireland and Hugo no longer wanted to be involved. I was more than willing to help out. I rang some venues and arranged for the band to stay in Paddy’s parents’ house. I asked the editor of Sunny Days fanzine how would someone get a gig in Cork. He asked why and then said he could book a venue.
As well as the Cork date, we booked three Dublin gigs – one gig for NCAD as Paddy was in college there, one with The Pleasure Cell at the back of NEW BOOKS in Temple Bar (headquarters to Communist Party of Ireland), and one in the Underground. When John got back to England he told everyone he knew in bands (which was an awful lot of people) that they should visit Ireland. That lead to a lot of phone calls and interest from people wanting to come over. When people say to me that’s it’s easy to say “just do it yourself”, I think back to those Membranes gigs and remember that’s exactly how we started. The only guarantees given to the band was that they would receive any money that was made on the night. The Membranes were happy with that arrangement as they would let to visit Ireland, let people hear their band and even perhaps get some money for it. Perfect! I had started playing in a new band, called Not Our World (N.O.W.). We got 7 songs ready before The Membranes came over. With those 7 songs we got ourselves on the bill of all the gigs and did the “tour” with them.
