Play of the Day – get Pronged

The Prongs are playing in Dublin next Saturday, November 15 with Cork avant noisers Big Boy Foolish. It promises to be an evening of post punk noise that will have your foot tapping and your mind wondering what is going on. Tickets are available here.

Hey! Dandy is the latest single by Irish band The Prongs and serves as a signpost for their forthcoming second lp. Time-travellers back to pre-EEC Dublin, John Fleming and Niall Toner Jr offer you a vivid sociopoetic portrait of Ireland’s early-1970s velvet (coat) revolution. Hey! Dandy is an infectious and striking paean to young blades who left Ireland not as migrants but Byronic adventurers on a pre-decimal coin Celtic beatnik grand tour. Escaping monochromatic economic dourness and pervasive poverty of the mind, these brave vagabonds sought not work but European adventure. After stints in Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome and Paris, our Hey! Dandy pioneers returned to Dublin circa 1972 fuelled with sharp new tastes and revolutionary ideas. Their culture found form in the Dandelion Market. Hey! Dandy’s epic narrative sweep is propelled by the swagger of Toner’s early-1970s proto-punk rock as Fleming sketches an EEC prehistory often forgotten in later Irish new wave countercultural triumphs.

In a stylish Dandelion Market time-tunnel video shot and edited by the hugely talented and cinematic Susan Gleeson/Rebeldiamondz (filmed at a convincingly fake junk retail outlet at the Digital Hub Flea Market on Sunday, 28th September, 2025), The Prongs set out their punk beatnik stall. The Prongs thank all the people of the Digital Hub Flea Market (especially We Love Markets’ Emma Brereton), and our friends and loyal customers Eugene Connolly (Prongs Underground painting purchaser), wig procurer Joe Kelly, Prongs badge buyer Niall Toner Sr and Psychogeography ditherers Drew Meldon and Paul Rooney. Special thanks to Paul O’Brien for his Now Now Express novel-inspired Underground painting (reserve price is still 75,000 guineas, inquire within), Dave Clifford for his treasure trove of live bootleg cassettes, Dee Murphy for the glam cowboy hat, the late Michael Talbot for his Airfix Model plane and the late Teresa Talbot for her red anglepoise lamp and 750-piece jigsaw. Eagle-eyed students of popular culture will note a sinister brazen appearance by The Photographic Brains at the end of the video: The Prongs warn you to keep a sharp eye out for these dastardly chaps going forward.