The roots of folk-punk!?

I went to see Flogging Molly this weekend and had a great time, the band was fantastic live and drinking excessively seems to be par for the course when watching these sort of Irish folk-punk bands.

So, I wanted to do something on my blog this week to tie in with this.

The Pogues were probably the group who pioneered this type of music and again they are another fantastic live act who I’ve been lucky enough to see.

Of course Shane MacGowan first started off in The Nipple Erectors – later The Nips – who played a typical late 70s style punk but with a rockabilly influence.

But what’s interesting is that fellow band member Shanne Bradley also went on to be in another folk/punk group around in the 80s – The Men They Couldn’t Hang.

I guess maybe the idea of crossing folk with punk may have first started within The Nips?

The Nips

01. King Of The Bop 02. Nervous Wreck 03. So Pissed Off 04. Stavordale Rd, N5 05. Venus In Bother Boots 06. Fuss & Bother 07. All The Time In The World 08. Private Eye 09. Gabrielle 10. Vengeance

Also, when I was thinking about this blog I discovered that Flogging Molly front man Dave King was previously in another band, in this case heavy metal group Fastway – which also featured Motorhead guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke.

Now I recognised the group immediately because they had done the soundtrack to this cheesy horror film from 1986 called Trick or Treat which had enjoyed a certain kitsch vogue among me and my friends.

The reason for this was because it was just so ‘Heavy Metal’ – the basic story line was something like metal star sells his soul to the devil and dies, but can come back to life if the secret occult message in his last record is played backwards. Teenage fan goes and does just that with ‘hilarious consequences’. The film even had a cameo from Ozzy Osbourne.

So in danger of turning my blog into a film soundtrack site here is the soundtrack to Trick Or Treat – just don’t play it backwards.

Trick Or Treat

01. Trick Or Treat 02. After Midnight 03. Don’t Stop The Fight 04. Stand Up 05. Tear Down The Walls 06. Get Tough 07. Hold On The Night 08. Heft 09. If You Could See

River’s Edge

River’s Edge was an independent American cult film from 1986, although I probably didn’t see it until 1988 on video. The film’s tag line of “The most controversial film you will see this year” was probably a key factor in what drew me to it.

What I really liked about the film was that the characters in it really reminded me of my group of friends a lot – not that we were ever involved with any murders of course – but the way they dressed, the music they listened to and the general way they hung out together.

At the time, I thought Keanu Reeves would go on to be this really cool star of independent cinema, then next year Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure came out - although I have to admit I liked that too.

The soundtrack was also great, mainly thrash metal – Slayer, Hallows Eve, Fates Warning – but it also had tracks by Agent Orange and The Wipers, which is probably the first time I heard these groups.

River’s Edge OST

Hallow’s Eve – Lethal Tendencies/Slayer – Die By The Sword/Fate’s Warning – Kyrie Eleison/ Slayer – Captor Of Sin/Slayer – Evil Has No Boundries/Agent Orange – Fire In The Rain/Slayer – Tormentor/The Wipers – Let Me Know/Burning Spear – Happy Day