August 15 1991
Heavenly, Pecadilloes
Barnstormers
2 weeks after the political hardcore noise of MDC came Heavenly. Rising from the ashes of Talulah Gosh, Heavenly were pure unashamed pop. There was something infectious about both them and Talulah Gosh. This provided a great opportunity to put forward music of different styles. It was a chance to counteract a criticism being put forward about Hope that we only went for one type of music. In truth, we were still only going for bands that requested us to help them get a gig in Ireland.
Other than that there was no taste test. I was really happy putting a flier for the four August 1992 gigs into REACT. There was a huge diversity in bands, their sound and their lyrics. However there was a common bond between MDC, Heavenly, Dawson, Long Fin Killie, Herb Garden and Decadence Within (all the bands to travel in August) – independence. People didn’t need to sign to some huge record label to get gigs outside their own city/country. People like ‘Hope’ were more than willing to help them with it. Leagues was regularly helping out now and he brought his friend Johnny from Powerful Mellow to see these “new” bands. Johnny recorded many Barnstormers gigs on his 4-track recorder. The Heavenly recording is perfect. As an aside, I think Heavenly were the first band we put on that used keyboards.
