“…the endemic mistrust of dance music that makes it a rock and roll island also means that the new noises of the Eighties – hip hop, house, techno et al – have been, at best ignored, at worst patronised”
From the 10th Birthday anniversary of the Face in June 1990. Words Sean O’Hagan, Pix Steve Pyke
Fine article, very prescient…
But 22 years since The European City of Culture?
Yikes!
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At least Scary Eire came along in a couple of years time to shake things up.
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Fascinating article. Its interesting how much the Irish musical landscape and scene and the attitude has changed in the last 20 years. ‘The Vibe’ haha. House, Hip Hop and club culture in general are the big things at the moment, and we haven’t any generation defining band since U2 really. Even though I love it at the moment I do hope things will get better
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I had a penfriend from Manchester in the late 80’s who used to send me mix tapes of acid house so I think I was a bit ahead of the Dublin hippies in that regard though it woulden’t be till about 1995 till I went to a real rave.
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I remember this article when it was originally published, and I think the kindest thing that can be said about it is that it is massively inaccurate. Dublin has always been a city that is as musically diverse as it is vibrant. Let us not forget that The Face never had faithful coverage of cultural activity as its central remit, it was always more interested in focusing on, and building up what it felt to be cool at that particular moment.
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