Thanks so much to Dermot Lambert for the interview! I wrote about Empty Shell on the blog a long time ago and Dermot was kind enough to get in touch and to answer my questions! Empty Shell released one 7″ back in the 80s. Afterwards Dermot formed Rex & Dino and later Blink who are well known in Ireland! But the story starts here! Time to discover Empty Shell.
++ Hi Dermot! Thanks so much for getting in touch and being up for answering questions about your music and your bands. As I know you’ve been in a few bands, wanted to ask if Empty Shell was your first one ever? Or had you been involved with other bands before?
My first ever band was a band called Point Blank, which was myself and a few friends, most of us couldn’t really play, and there’s probably a whole book in that band, I built a shed for rehearsing in the drummers back garden – really, made it myself out of bricks and concrete and the whole lot, it took a fucking year of my life when I could have been out chasing girls, although I was terrified of girls anyway, so that might explain why I spent a year building a shed. Anyway, just as I had finished building the thing, the drummer told me he was not really into the ‘music thing’ and that I should consider going off and getting a bird (our word for girl). Somewhere in between all that building, we played two shows, one in a school hall, and one in a local pub. I remember both equally well, and both had unfortunate outcomes – I managed to alienate myself from the local community of nuns at the school show, by sticking my two fingers up through the curtains at the assembled gathering of a few hundred local families, before going onstage to play our two songs. Apart from my poor display of manners – for which I must say, I have never been proud, one of those things that seemed hilarious but in actual fact was just not – our two song set also managed to squeeze in another unforgettable lifetime memory. Halfway through our second song, I noticed the audience (for ‘audience’ read, confused, bemused onlookers) begin to laugh and point behind me. Not knowing what was going on, I turned to see the drummer Colm had stopped playing altogether, and indeed had gotten up from behind the kit and was casually strolling across the stage in pursuit of his snare drum, which had evidently decided the best thing to do was get off the stage. I have a feeling that I made some feeble comment about the band sounding better without drums anyway, but I’m sure my mind has done everything it can to erase that moment, although Colm was such a funny guy that in retrospect it was worth doing the gig just so that this could have happened, he just strolled after the rolling snare, as cool as a breeze, you can’t become that cool in life, you either are or you aren’t – Here’s to you Gonno Kane!
On the second show I managed to insult a family friend who went to a lot of trouble to get me a lend of his brand new H&H amp, as my Wimbledon valve amp had died on gig day…..come to think of it, this was the school gig again! Oh dear, I would love to go back to that day and give myself a well earned slap on the head! I couldn’t use this amazing piece of equipment, and decided instead that it was ‘a piece of shit’, which of course it wasn’t, but in actual fact I was. I did later apologise to all involved, and I made many efforts to absolve myself over the following years, although it’s still embarrassing to revisit that day / month /
year! If it’s still possible to apologise, the Ronan I apologise, and Tom I apologise to you also – although Tom you did label me Two-Pricks in later life, so I think you got me back already!
We recorded two songs in four hours with two hippy guys who clearly didn’t like us and who smoked grass all the way through the sessions. The songs were called Faraway Illusions and Almost Sure You Know, and someday when I die, I look forward to hearing those recordings in the room where all the odd socks go. That was Point Blank.
++ What are your first music memories?
My brothers and sisters all had records, I’m from a large family of 11 kids, and I’m in the middle. So I grew up with music ranging from The Beatles and T Rex to Val Doonican and Jim Reeves – I didn’t really like any of it in any real sense (I’ve only recently listened to The Beatles White Album for the first time in my life properly ) – my first actual moment that I
realised the power of music was when I saw The Sex Pistols on Top Of The Pops in 1977, that changed everything for me.
++ What kind of music was heard at home?
What was your first instrument? Guitar. I bought my first guitar for 50 pounds off a guy in 1979. It was a Gibson SG but I hadn’t a clue about the value of guitars, I just wanted to be able to own one of my own, nobody I knew had one. I don’t remember how I met the guy, must have been an ad in the papers, that’s how everything was done then. That guitar must have either been worth a fortune, or else I was robbed, I suspect the latter, anyway I lost it and bought a brand new Westbury thing, which I loved because it was purple. I’ve never had a ‘nice’ guitar, but I have had guitars I’ve loved, especially a red Aria Pro 11 copy of a Gibson 323 semi – amazing feedback, and really light. Oh, sorry, my main guitar is my acoustic, a Yamaha that everybody tells me is shit, but which I love, and which I’ve written almost my entire life’s work on – I bought it in 1983 when it was new, and recently somebody told me it was a vintage, I laughed. I’m a f**king vintage.
My friends in Blink bought me two nice guitars for my 50 th a few years ago. Whereabouts in Dublin were you based? Nutgrove,Southside – harder than anywhere on the North Side ha ha ha
++ How was it back then?
Very exciting, tons of bands, I was young, life is exciting when you’re young – it stays pretty exciting too later.
++ Were there any venues or places you liked to hang out?
The Baggot Inn and The Underground were the best known ones – but my starting out venue was really The Ivy Rooms – all the big bands in 1983 played there – someday I’ll get to relay just how exciting a time that was. Don’t let anybody tell you how grim the 80’s were, we might have struggled, but the world was new, and even though there was always the threat of nuclear war, and we were buried underneath a catholic veil with no real job prospects, people like me thought they could escape through music, and there was enough of us to support each other, just by competing with each other even maybe – it took everything we had to be ourselves – even being in a band was considered ridiculous then, but my family were a great support, and that’s all that ever really mattered in the end. I had my 21 st birthday party in the Ivy Rooms, and my 50th in Whelans – that says it all really I suppose.
++ Any bands that you followed?
Aslan, The Blades, Auto Da Fe, Toy With Rhythym, and of course U2.
++ So how did Empty Shell start?
Started in a scout hall in Raheny, me, Neil and a drummer called Redser, his real name was Dave.
++ What year was it?
1982
++ How did you know the rest of the band members?
We met through Hot Press magazine musicians wanted section – it was a pretty terrifying ordeal for me meeting these lads for yet another audition – I was brutal at auditions – so trhis time round I convinced the lads they were auditioning for me, and that’s how it got started. I remember the feeling of playing with the band, the power of the noise we made, holy shit that was a highlight right there! I still have rehearsal room cassettes from those rehearsals – the scout hall got burnt down at one point, and we had to start rehearsing in Dublin City centre, Alan Furlong’s place, and that was where we entered into a ‘scene’ of sorts, where you’d see other ‘real’ bands rehearsing, and you’d realise you had a lot of work to do!
++ Why the name Empty Shell?
Nuclear Shell
++ Your only release came out in 1986. At the time in the British isles there was an explosion of guitar pop. Did you feel at any point part of a scene?
We don’t say British Isles in my house, but the culture is still very much there, bands like The Cure, Sex Pistols, Stranglers, Souixsy all started around end 70’s and affected me greatly Who would you say were your influences in Empty Shell?
++ What do you remember for the recording session for this 7″?
The recording was after the band had actually split up and I was sick waiting for other musicians to get my life started, so I booked myself and Ellen in to record that song, I ended up playing bass, and we used the other guys images etc on the sleeve, but in truth that band had dissolved into a holding pattern while I worked on Rex & Dino.
++ Where was it? Did it take long?
We recorded it in Paul Thomas’s house, he had engineered U2’s first 2 albums, and in fairness to him he was a good guy in the end.
++ I’ve always been curious about the photo on the 7″ sleeve. Where did that come from?
That guy on the sleeve is a legendary figure in Irish culture, his name is Arthur Fields and you should google him – in 1986 he was locally known, but nobody realised how important he was to so many lives – he agreed to be in the shot if we agreed to let hoim shoot us, unfortunately I’ve no idea where that photo might be.
++ At that time did you have a big repertoire? Perhaps you had already put out some demo tapes?
Not a big repertoire, although the band was in it’s second life-cycle with half new members – the earlier cycle to be fair was a better band I think – that version of Empty Shell had a different singer Declan, who was a great vocalist, and we recorded a few demos, good ones like – I’m tryinmg to get my hands on these – we also did a Fanning Sesssion in Jan 1985 which was very exciting, and RTE say it’s in ‘Deep Archive’.
++ Tell me about gigs, I found that you played at the Roundstown Town Hall in Galway only, but I’m sure you played many more! Did you remember any in particular? Any fun anecdotes you could share?
Yep, three hours beyond Galway in the summer of 1986 we played that date you mentioned, about a six hour drive, no roads in Ireland in the 80’s – when we tried selling 7’ singles after the show, well actually my two younger brothers Terree and Ken were the sales division that day – we were greeted by much laughter, as the locals said they didn’t have record players, the funny thing is though, that nobody has record players now either!
What would you say was your best and your worst gig?
++ What about press or radio in general? Did Empty Shell get much attention? TV?
We got bits and bobs, we did a few TV things and I don’t know if they exist in ‘Deep Arcxhive’ anywhere, but every paragraph was hard earned, and that single actually got slated on it’s first Hot Press review, I was heart broken!
++ Are you still in touch with the rest of Empty Shell?
Alas not. If so, what are you guys up to these days?
++ If you had to look back in time, what would you say would be the biggest highlight for Empty Shell?
Empty Shell had some highlights that none of my other bands had, we were in the first wave of dreaming, and the dream seemed always close – I will always remember my brother Aiden, and Ellen, Kevin Power, Declan, Neil, Ricky, a flat in Booterstown, The Trinity Ball of 1985, a mad night in Mason’s Laboratory on Crane lane where we rehearsed after the scientist had gone home (true story), trying to decide how we’d look by looking through Face Magazine in Aiden’s house, hand-painting posters that we would then paste up all over Dublin on a midnight poster run (ask any band about this, these were truly fun times) and it always seemed possible, everything was possible.
++ And you are still in Dublin, right? I’ve never been, so wondering if you’d recommend any guitar pop tourists some cool places to check out? What would be the traditional food not to miss? Or up and coming bands that you like?
Well if you want recommendations on new music, I’m probably the
bestr person to talk to, I run Garageland, a National project for emerging Irish Artists,
and it endlessly excites me how some new musicians have exactly the lust for life that
music always gave me. Check it all out on www.garageland.ie
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