Vincent Hanley documentary

The memories of MTUSA... sitting in a mates house on a Sunday afternoon with a few of us watching it and drooling over Belinda Carlisle / Madonna / Kim Wilde.... memories. Outside the pretty girls I vividly remember the ZZ Top videos and Money for nothing video.

Anyway, I remember Vinny doing DJ in Katy Daly's in Killaloe one Saturday night, he was fantastic, was a real eye opener to see how much better one seriously professional DJ like he was, over the local DJ's. He had the floor full from beginning to the end of the night.

Talked to him briefly and seemed like a decent bloke, sad that he along with so many others died of HIV/Aids. Even worse is thinking how badly a lot of gay people were treated in those days. And I won't say I was any better than average in those times, I'd hope I'm a lot more tolerant now - I certainly try to be much more open minded about other people's choices anyway.

Program was interesting though, seemed like he enjoyed life to the fullest at least before he died.

Where our house was located we couldn't get RTE 2, reception was so bad we could just barely get 1. Our grandparents just up the hill had perfect reception so caught MT-USA the odd time there. Wasn't overly gone on the choice of songs, there was an overemphasis on American acts, yeah I know that was the point of the show, but a lot of what now would be termed yacht rock. The thing that looked most impressive at the time to me were the computer generated graphics for the opening titles and between break bumpers.

Have recorded this and look forward to watching it. I well remember MT USA as 'must see' viewing every week.

I wasn't very much aware of the Charles Self murder and investigation but from the details outlined by Bill Hughes on radio last Sunday, it was pretty awful. Add it to what we saw in 'Crimes and Confessions' a few weeks back and it gives a damming picture of policing in Ireland in that era.

I thought it was a good documentary. Vincent's sexuality was really the main topic of it. I suppose that's reasonable enough as it was the (forced) hiding of it that shaped him and informed his path in life.

Yeah, I think it definitely set the template for that show.

Well it was his sexuality that killed him. I don't mean that in a homophobic way either.

If he was an alcoholic or drug user you'd find they would have concentrated on that if he died of liver failure or over dose.

As he kept his private life very private I suppose there was always the question of how he caught the virus...was it an unlucky one night stand or a long term partner that didn't know they were sick until it was too late etc.

The documentary addressed this, he was engaging in extremely risky behaviour, as was his right as a consenting adult, but there was a certain inevitability that he would catch the virus in doing this. Maybe he felt it was worth the risk, maybe he thought it would never happen to him.

From a cultural point of view I did enjoy the documentary. The same way I enjoyed "it's a sin". I do however wonder about the purpose of the documentary. He lived his life in private. I don't think his friends were "setting the record straight" so it seems abit voyeuristic probing into a dead man's private life especially when he guarded it so well when he was alive.

Fair play to his friend giving him CPR though alot of people wouldn't, not in the 80's to someone with aids.

Not sure if many of his immediate family are alive. His brother, who featured in the Fab Vinny doc from 2017, passed away a couple of years ago and I'd imagine his parents are deceased. The quote in question was someone (Hughes i think) quoting Vinnies father from the time of his death.

RTE Guide from Feb 1984 promoting the start of MT USA

ah the RTE guide that and smash hits and shoot magazine the highlight of my week, simpler times simpler country...you know in a strange way for all its faults (and it had many) i kinda miss the place 😐️

I'm from Clonmel and grew up there at the time. I remember it well. Don't remember the rocks being thrown but wouldn't be surprised. Not to condone it on any way (the town was and still is, a kip) but unfortunately this would have happened anywhere in Ireland (and many other places) at the time.

It's quite staggering to see how the gay community was treated then. Homosexuality was illegal! Gay meant pedophile to pretty much everyone, you could get AIDS from a toilet seat. Houses vandalised, careers ruined forever. Sure, you have the usual idiots everywhere today with their homophobia, especially in eastern European countries and the middle East. But it is nothing on a par to not so long ago.

I do remember MTUSA and remember loving it. We rented a VCR at the time (very fancy) and would tape it every weekend (assuming you taped the right channel). As others have said and the name implies, it was mainly aimed at the American music scene. We had Top of The Pops for everything else. It gave us this image of a optimistic, youthful, open America. THE place to go (Unfortunately usually by illegal emigration, given the time). The people were younger, the fashion better (!), the music lighter (if not quite as interesting) than music you see on TOTP, hell, even the weather was better (of course all in the opinion of a 1980's kid). It was VERY influential for it's time.

Regarding the RTE tapes being lost, unfortunately this is VERY common everywhere. Tapes were recorded over regularly. Remember, these were not your VCR tapes, these cost terms of thousands at the time and everyone taped over them. Who at the time would think that people 40 years later would want to dig up an old episode of Wanderly Wagon and play it on their thin computer thing or TELEPHONE!!! over telephone lines.

I haven't gotten around to watching the doc. Must do