Aug 8 1988 Vandals, 3 Ring Psychosis, Not Our World Grattan
Aug 8 1988 Vandals, Not Our World Sides
My friend Alan always seemed to know everything about American bands. He got to hear that Fugazi were touring Europe. He told me they featured people from Minor Threat and Rites Of Spring, from the Dischord record label. I immediately wanted to see them but didn’t want to travel to England for the privilege. I rang Southern, the British distributor for Dischord Records, and asked about Fugazi. They gave me a phone number for Jabs, who I rang inquiring about getting Fugazi to play. Jabs lived in England and helped get the band gigs there. He said he’d ask Fugazi about coming over.
In the meantime Jabs mentioned that The Vandals wanted to come to Ireland. We knew of The Vandals from the film ‘Suburbia’. Although it wasn’t a regular film on any of our screens, Alan, of course, had a copy of it. We booked the Grattan at a cost of £40. A person running a club night at Sides asked if The Vandals could play there too, so the band got to do 2 gigs in one night to cover their travel expenses. They got the ferry into the country that day as foot passengers and we took the bus out to Dun Laoire to meet and greet them. We brought them back into the city by public transport. It just never occurred to us to do it any differently. We didn’t have our own cars and always travelled by bus – why should a band who have just experienced a gruelling boat journey be any different!!
It was that innocence that gave ‘Hope’ it’s spark but probably also turned bands away a little bit. The first gig of the night was completely packed and the second one saw more than half the crowd make the trek across the city to Sides. The owners of the club weren’t
prepared for the audience that the gig attracted and they promptly pulled the plug during the gig. The Vandals only got to play one or two songs. No-one got a refund. We just went home. That innocence again
