#21

Possibly at the same show as you (also the only time I saw them live). I’d heard stories of Fearghal being this loon on stage, with crazy theatrics. Think he just set fire to a newspaper when I saw them, and yeah, it was all a little underwhelming in the end. A shame really.

@tilty there was a strange buzz about them. Never really hit the mainstream, but were certainly getting heavy play on the Evening Session and their videos popped up on the music channels. Always remember turning on The Box, which was this weird music video request station that really only played the hits of the day (as you would expect from such a format), and the video for Twinkle playing. Completely unexpected.

#22

There certainly seemed to be a real excitement about them among people I knew, althought it’s hard to say if that would make them any bigger than something like Girl Band! On the other hand, the singles definitely got a lot of play on radio, tv and crappy indie clubs. Think if they’d released another album faster they might have been able to go somewhere.

#23

My main source of music info at the time was the melody maker and whilst i don’t think they ever made the cover (which was a fairly low bar in the mid ‘90’s) they were pretty bigged up by them and discussions of the crazy live shows @Shoebox1976uk mentions.

Remember quite a bit of discussion on the letters pages about the lyrics. I wonder whether a brutally honest lyric about domestic abuse would be released in 2019.

#24

Almost definitely not.

#25

I remember them being bigged up on the radio in Sheffield (can’t recall what station it was) and I kept unsuccessfully pushing them on my friends and gf. I do remember thinking I couldn’t understand why they weren’t much more popular.

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#26

Fucking hell, goosebumps listening to them now. Incredibly evocative album for me

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#27

They did kind of reform! I saw them at the barfly in 2012. Went with two mates who were expecting/wanting a somber reading of the record, and the singer was steaming drunk and in the crowd loads having a whale of a time and the guitarists were going for it like they were in a nu metal band.
I thought it was bloody brilliant…but I was also a bit drunk!

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#28

Ah well, won’t bother searching that one down then!

#29

I like Submarine a lot. It’s very derivative though, they came into their own with Heartworm. I believe the third album was shelved wasn’t it?

#30

I don’t think it was a full re-union, as in two of the original line-up opted out. I saw them as well around that time.

#31

Wiki says it was released in 2000 (which is much later than I thought) and it peaked at number 65 in the Irish charts. Just seems to have vanished.

#32

The 3rd album was rubbish, I was so annoyed when I bought it.
Fergal had a solo album but I’ve never heard it.

As for the insane live reputation, that came from the Submarine years, they calmed down a lot on the Heartworn years.

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#33

just to repeat much of what’s already been said in this thread, i absolutely love heartworm, the lyrics in particular are absolutely brutal and delivered perfectly

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#34

Heartworm is right up there with the greatest ever Irish albums. Haven’t listened to it in years, but having a listen now & it really does stand the test of time.

My personal Whipping Boy story… My mates band supported them at a small gig a few years after Heartworm was released, maybe around 98/99 direction. A couple of us went along to help with the gear etc. Being skint students, we tore into the rider with abandon, I got quite a nasty glare from Fearghal.
IIRC the rider consisted of warm cans & sandwiches.

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#35

Discovered them this year - can’t recall how - possibly from some general shoegaze/early 90s digging (my most covered area but still a few unchartered waters) …only heard Submarine but got really into it…looking forward to checking out heartworm based on the above

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#36

Adore Heartworm, one of my all time faves. It’s very evocative of an intense relationship I was in at the time, “Twinkle” was kind of “our song”. I couldn’t listen to the album for a good few years after we broke up, but still give it a spin now and again and find myself belting out the lyrics!

I never clicked with Submarine, seemed way too much like they were trying hard to be My Bloody Valentine. The self titled third album was a huge disappointment after such a long wait.

Got hold of the two ltd edition 7"s off eBay a few years ago

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#37

If you haven’t heard their cover of Caroline says, you really should.

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