Irish folk group goes somewhat popsike for UK release
Label: Major Minor
Year of Release: 1969
Here's a scarce record I've passed on a few times in my life before now, purely because its online reputation is somewhat weak. Rated 2 out of 10 on 45cat and 2 out of 5 on Discogs, and with sniffy comments piling up on collector's sites, it surely wasn't worth breaking a five pound note for, never mind a tenner or more?
But wait. Perhaps I'm getting old and soft, but when I first put the stylus down on this record a couple of weeks ago after picking it up for the cost of some loose shrapnel, I was instantly delighted. Anyone reading the somewhat childlike, groovy title and expecting phasing, backwards guitar solos or even unusual lyrics is going to be disappointed, but treat "Candy Floss Man" for what it is - a rich and lively piece of folky, paisley harmony pop akin to the Fifth Dimension - and you may find yourself perking up and twitching about the room with the joys of Spring. The flip side "Perry Square" is also a lovely period piece, bringing to mind bright technicolour trips to the local park full of beaming people who, in my neck of the woods at least, never truly existed. Still, their false memories are a delight to wallow in for awhile.
We 4 were, of course, not really a hip group at the time, which complicates things further and possibly also explains this record's reputation. Consisting of John Harrington, Larry Hogan, Suzanne Murphy and Dennis Mowatt, they were from Ireland and spent most of their time on the folk circuit there, singing in both Irish and English. In 1969 they spread their wings to go on a much more ambitious European tour for five months, which possibly explains why Major Minor got excited enough to release this as a single here. Try though they did, it sold in disappointing quantities.
The group returned to Ireland to continue as before, eventually grinding to a halt around 1972 in recording terms, though it's possible they may have carried on touring for awhile after that (information on the group is actually rather scarce despite their live popularity at the time). Suzanne Murphy moved on to a significantly more successful career as part of the Welsh National Opera, becoming globally renowned for her soprano voice. Sadly, John Harrington and Larry Hogan have since passed on.
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9 comments:
Four words: lost potential Eurovision winner.
Their track "The World Outside" was covered by Deirdre O'Callaghan in the 1967 Irish national song contest and utterly floundered - so they had their shot at Eurovision.
This could well have clinched it for them, I agree.
speaking of the fickle world of eurovision, only yesterday I was listening to Saskia & Serge's 1971 dutch entry "Tijd" on YT and the consensus of opinion (albeit mostly retrospective)seems to be that it is even better than the winner Severine but finished =6th - this led me to check the NL charts for that year to see what lofty heights it reached and oh dear.......Nada, a flop
Eurovision is an unjust world. Most of my favourite Eurosongs were relatively poor finishers. Every year I gamble on the contest and literally every single year so far, I've got it wrong.
I landed a gamble a few years back, it was the 2nd year of the divided voting system (50% panel experts & 50% public vote).I figured that almost without exception the song that gets the loudest and strongest reaction in the arena wins. After the panel vote the one which had the audience out of their seats was only in 3rd place, so I checked the in running odds (9-2)and got 'stuck in' - it absolutely stormed away with it, ka-ching!
A lost Eurovision flounderer that did all right in the end - "Fantasy Island". The Abba-sounding track came fifth in the Dutch finals but ended up a big hit for Tight Fit.
my favourite fact about Eurovision - the winners in '71 '72 & '73 were all sung in French, yet none of them represented France
Sometimes a tune just presses a button. Perry Square was played one Saturday morning a year or two back by splendid DJ Steve James on Serenade Radio and I knew immediately that it would be one of my favourites. I just love it. I've got squillions of compilation cds of similar types of stuff (mainly Teensville, Cherry Red, Sundazed, Ace etc etc, the usual suspects) but somehow this didn't seem to have been picked up so I bagged a copy off discogs. Marvellous. And the Major Minor centre and sleeve are fantastic.
A big reason I stopped running this blog was actually the constant difficulty finding things which hadn't been released elsewhere, and "Perry Square" is a rare example of something affordable and neglected barely anybody knows about! I agree, it's a burst of joy - I regularly play it myself.
Hopefully people will catch up to it eventually.
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