RTE How Ireland Rocked The 80s

PTH2009 · 27-12-2022 8:36pm #1

Great documentary on RTE now about concerts in the 80s in Ireland

The lineups for Slane were mouth watering with some of those acts in there Prime

Came into the World this day 33 years ago, same night U2 played the Point Theatre on the lovetown Tour

https://www.u2gigs.com/show1067.html

fillup · 28-12-2022 12:18pm

Yeah it was a great watch alright

I was at one of those u2 love comes to town gigs not sure if it was the night u were born though PTH

Was also at u2 in croker in 85, great footage of that in the doco too, brought back lots of good memories

As they alluded to in the docs if it wasn't for the music there was nothing positive going on in Ireland at the time

The 80s were a sh1t show for Ireland

AMKC · 28-12-2022 12:24pm

Why if Ireland was so down in the dumps in the 80s with nothing else happening then why did all the concerts happen here? Was it just cheap to host a concert here then? Who attended them? I am guessing not many Irish as most were too poor.

So was it all people from abroad attending them?

Dial Hard · 28-12-2022 1:55pm

Almost entirely Irish audiences at them. A lot of the RTE/2fm sponsored ones were free - Lark in the Park, etc. And even for the massive stadium gigs, ticket prices were nowhere near what they are now, even adjusting for inflation. My parents took me and my sister to Michael Jackson in Lansdowne Road in 1992 and the tickets were £25 each.

PTH2009 · 28-12-2022 5:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120040533#Comment_120040533

What would that price be in todays money

Dial Hard · 28-12-2022 5:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120041196#Comment_120041196

A *very* rough online calculation would suggest about €60.

hynesie08 · 28-12-2022 5:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120040272#Comment_120040272

Big Jim Aiken was a fcking miracle worker, Plus the likes of thin lizzy, Rory gallagher would put in a word when they were on the other side of the pond.

weadick · 28-12-2022 5:54pm

Good documentary.

Self-Aid has to be the most bizarre and ridiculous concert ever held. Eamonn McCann was dead right.

AMKC · 28-12-2022 5:59pm

When is this repeated? I missed it. It sounds good. I did see it advertised but never seen what day it was on and no I do not want to watch it on the atrocious RTE Player app.

Dial Hard · 28-12-2022 5:59pm

It's available On Demand on Virgin TV. Not sure about Sky.

Dreamweapon · 28-12-2022 6:26pm

@PTH2009 Apologies, but i always assumed you were 20-25 years older!

Entertaining programme but i wouldn't go along with the idea that the likes of Something Happens, The Stunning, An Emotional Fish etc. were of any great import. The first Feile in 1990 was musically dreadful. It wasn't until Feile 91/92 that we started seeing decent acts appearing. Not just Feile but the likes of Sunstroke too. But, hey, that's for the next decade in the series!

head82 · 28-12-2022 6:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120041196#Comment_120041196

Just for the sake of comparison. I went to see Simon and Garfunkel in the RDS, 1982. Queued up outside Golden Discs in North Earl St. Dublin and purchased 3 tickets @ £12.50 each. Total= £37.50.

Went to see Bob Dylan last month in the 3Arena. Purchased 3 tickets on Ticketmaster. €126 each plus booking fees (and every other bleedin' fee they threw at me!).. Total= €407.

hynesie08 · 28-12-2022 6:34pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120041362#Comment_120041362

How much were you earning a week in 82 though?

yagan · 28-12-2022 6:40pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120041252#Comment_120041252

It felt futile, but slagging it off was futile and dumb.

weadick · 28-12-2022 6:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120041395#Comment_120041395

They were 100% right to slag it off and show it up for what it was.

head82 · 28-12-2022 6:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120041375#Comment_120041375

I'm struggling to remember.. somewhere in the region of £60. I was single back then, little or no overheads so £37.50 wouldn't have 'broke the bank'.

Vastly different scenario today though!

yagan · 28-12-2022 6:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120041403#Comment_120041403

Eamon McCann is a crank, even campaigned alongside UKip for brexit.

hynesie08 · 28-12-2022 6:51pm

So 1 ticket was about a quarter of your weekly wage? Not trying to catch you out just intrigued as to how prices have grown in line with wages, seemingly not that much.

yagan · 28-12-2022 6:51pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120041375#Comment_120041375

Springsteen in 85 cost £15, but my hourly wage in the only work I could get in a local petrol station was £1.50. Back then going out for a pint was literally one pint.

hynesie08 · 28-12-2022 6:53pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120041444#Comment_120041444

So ticket prices as a % of the weekly wage haven't hugely spiralled (of course, all associated costs have)

NewbridgeIR · 28-12-2022 6:58pm

I saw Sonic Youth & Teenage Fanclub play McGonagles in September 1990. Tickets were £7.

I saw someone pay £70 for a ticket from a tout outside. Back then, the total rent on a two bedroom flat in Dublin (for four people) was £72 per month.

yagan · 28-12-2022 7:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120041449#Comment_120041449

The thing is associated costs were mostly non existent. Even when in school we organised our buses to big gigs, £5 a head. This was when people used to pack their own food for the day. I wasn't at the Stones in Slane but most of the big events weren't piss ups, people were genuinely there to just be somewhere fun in ireland in the grim 80s.

hynesie08 · 28-12-2022 7:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120041508#Comment_120041508

Oh no doubt, flagon of cider, foil wrapped sandwiches and a 3 mile walk in the pitch black with no mobiles, I wish I'd been there for it.

31-12-2022 12:08pm

Was reading this article yesterday following the passing of Terry Hall. It was long, long before my time of starting attending gigs but would this have been typical in North Dublin at the time or retrospective hyperbole?

‘No violence – we hate violence,’ Terry Hall pleaded the night The Specials played Dublin – The Irish Times

I had no idea we even had skin heads.

That said the article currently has me bopping my head to absolute classic Mirror In Bathroom by The Beat.

NewbridgeIR · 31-12-2022 2:40pm

Paul Tarpey is not impressed.

https://www.facebook.com/paul.tarpey.104/posts/pfbid0rCJKHUoNMWSwoSojQxFE6FUiivqtx5P9ceWhMtXRagkkSNG1wBq9RdefWtqcSq3zl?__cft__[0]=AZW8xOgzooQpiaQgS3AOfBJg7Ql_kQZrnco7LhkiMhqXDJ_NX04x4Y8gm-DtWLnHbCfajSHMBqFR2npaw4fKlCP8Slsn3sLo55uec8978UYrD3RpGaY5ArzNwqwNVUT5TD8&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

dasdog · 31-12-2022 4:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120049108#Comment_120049108

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1ed_GNZDnU

I would have only been a nipper back then but do remember them. There were ones in to music and then just absolute arseholes who caused trouble - heard accounts from some of my older ska friends about them ruining gigs. Still traces of the violent kind lingering around by the end of the decade. I remember at Suicidal Tendencies which would have been around 1989 and attend by thrash/metal/punk types a bunch of them turned up, started causing trouble outside and the bouncers and some of the crowd knocked the absolute shyte out of them which was delicious.