So much for the thirty year plan
So much for the thirty year plan
Therapy? The authorised biography
Simon Young
Jawbone Press
I remember those early Therapy? Gigs. The menacing excitement watching what was going on onstage. The sound peeking your ears. How three people could make such a Great Wall of noise always confounded me. Fyfe banging away manically on drums, Mikey smiling and moving his head to the sound and Andy being this elusive yet charismatic stage figure. We (Hope) put them on in Dublin on some of their earliest shows. They were always so nice to deal with but we knew we wouldn’t be dealing with them for long. You could just tell that this was a band that could sell lots of records.
With Hope we only put on bands that didn’t have major record label deals. Our reasons were simple enough, if a band signed with a label they would have the trappings of the music business to support them. They didn’t need us. We were on our road, happy with the direction we were heading. If a band were on another road, good on them let them take that journey. There was enough on our road for me to deal with.
Of course that may seem so irrelevant now but it really was important to us. No judgment was passed on those who travelled a different road but for me it meant years, decades and many records would pass before I may hear a bands music.
That was the case with Therapy? And then they asked The Membranes to do some shows with them in ireland. The membranes were staying in my house so I went along. On the night I was reminded of how sound therapy? were. They had no rock star trappings as I talked to Andy about League of Ireland football and we swapped family stories. I felt a bit of a fraud, how could I have ignored them all these years.
Thankfully, for the band, not many others let them travel that road on their own and this book details the journey of 30 years. It is written in yearly chapters and gives a perfect feel for the journey Therapy? went on. All the albums are dissected and lots of direct quotes from the members show how when they started they were just music fans and thirty years later that’s what they still are. Lovers of other people music playing music that suits them. That feeling really comes across here. Times may have changed, creases may be on faces but deep down they are still those kids making a racket.
This is really enjoyable, I read it over 24 hours, thinking of those fun gigs and as a fan of music that moves me, excites me and makes me want to do things.
niallhope
