I cannot honestly tell you how I got into this band - my only touchpoint is possibly a rewatch of this life?
It was JOYOUS to hear them played at the Fontaines/kneecap gig the other week.
There must be fans here
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I can tell you how I got into this band
it was from DiS
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Heartworm is the best Irish album of all time. There’s nothing like it. These’s some brilliant stuff on their first album, back when they wanted to make as much noise as possible.
Saw them a few times on the first album and they were great. Never noticed the Nick Cave influence on Fergal till I watched this.
Anyway, brilliant band, but they’ve still to turn up on my top 50 album list. I wonder if they will. 
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Mentioned it before but I went to this:
Which seemed like an odd mini revival they did for a laugh? They all seemed steaming drunk, played the songs with loads of heavy metal riffs and generally seemed to be having a laugh/whale of a time.think it was the original singer and drummer only.
Think at the time, fans were outraged that they did that to the songs, but I thought it was great, wish someone had videos of it. I was steaming too mind…
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When i was 14 or 15 and hitting as many record shops as i could, the singles off Heartworm were always in the reduced section at loads of places. I think having signed to a major (?) there were unrealistic expectations of a 1995 breakthrough to the mainstream.
Picked up the singles on the back of some great write ups in the music press and i think they supported Smashing Pumpkins around then too.
Never really got on with any of their other stuff but Heartworm is an all timer for me. So powerful. Also might have had a tear or two when We Don’t Need Nobody Else came over the PA before Fontaines came out the other week up in Newcastle.
Equally, the fact that both my kids sing along to Twinkle given Fontaines covered it has made me sob in the car on more that one occasion…
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I heard them on the radio at Uni then immediately bought the album. i only ever heard Heartworm but boy did I listen to it a lot.
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Reckon Fontaines like them
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Absolutely love Heartworm, wish I’d got to see them live at the time.
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Mainly due to them being massively inferior to Heartworm! Submarine is pretty good but very different and more discordant than Heartworm, the self titled follow up is just not that good.
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Not the Eugene Robinson band then ?
remember hearing him ranting about them stealing his band’s name, might have sued them as well? such a grumpy sausage isnt he
Yes, he’s a fierce fella
Early days DiS review of Heartworm…
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Absolutely love Heartworm, my brother and I got into it in the 90s when we were young . Bought the reissue vinyl a year or two ago and it still really stands up. Flawless record.
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Any excuse to post this.
The boys covering Lou Reed and doing it better. It’s warmer, and a lot prettier but that last line is still chilling.
This band meant so much to me.
I remember seeing them play a show in the Olympia in Dublin. One of the bigger venues at the time and they sold it out. It was a huge gig for them and they honestly fucked it up for the first two songs. They just couldn’t get it together. But with the good will of the crowd they locked in and played one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen. Fergal climbed up two floors of balconies and kept singing and it was the first gig I ever saw there the band played a wall of white noise from their pedals at the end of the show and it was the loudest thing I had ever heard. I still remember the smile on everyone’s faces as we wondered, dazed, out onto Dame St, wondering what could ever live up to that.
Magic band.
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Do you remember who the support was? I could’ve sworn I was at this but I think I’ve just imagined it!
I’ve consulted with the two of the guys I went with, and we think there were two supports, one of whom we think were Irish. Remember having a conversation about them and not having heard of them. We ended up getting there late on (drinking…) and I think we literally caught the end of the support before the band came on.
If the room helps it was an upstairs venue , square room, with bar at the back. Not very big.
Sorry, this doesn’t really help much! You could try asking them on Facebook, they’ll likely reply!
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Haha thanks! I’ve partially figured it out via Gmail archive. Tieranniesaur (feat. Annie from Chicks) were one of the supports. I have an email from them saying I was on the guest list but whether I made it as far as the gig is another question!
They played with some other Irish bands (Grand Pocket Orchestra and Land Lovers) the day after and I was definitely at that. I don’t remember the music but I do remember telling Mark from Ginnels how amazing his music was. He was politely bemused as far as I remember.
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Good band.
GREAT band. Played a show with them in Cork that got shut down by the GardaĂ. Bad idea doing a gig in the basement of a terraced house.
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Big love for Heartworm from me too. An all-timer. Seem to remember Melody Maker giving We Dont Need Nobody Else single of the week and being hooked from there.
There’s a mini-album worth of b-sides from the Heartworm singles that are all good. The cover of Caroline Says II is, as mentioned above, chillingly good. The acoustic version of Twinkle is for me even better than the album one. Honorable mentions to Here I Am and Disappointed.
On the subject of overlooked great Irish albums, another gem from the 90s is Perry Blake’s eponymous debut album. It’s brilliant dark chamber pop.
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