ciaran, i know ya baby, and you're talking out of your 'trying too hard to be cool arse'. i guess it goes back to the same old cork/dublin divide. fred are a damn fine band. i know this is just one person's word against another's, but trust me, i wouldn't support anything or anyone that i thought was lame. cork has a reputation of producing comedy/quirky bands that just simply freak the fuck out of the civilised dublin folk (the sultans of ping f.c. anyone?). but fred are good. that's all i'm going to say. hmmm...

I think Mr.C is right Dublin is the center of the universe and there isn't a hope anything good can happen outside the pale. Rock of sense. Finger on the pulse. bab.

The only people who ever seem to talk about a Dublin/Cork divide are people from Cork. He didn't like the band because of their music not where they come from. http://www.kaboommusic.cjb.net

I'M FROM DUBLIN. Fuck off look around, your in the nile river swiming. bab.

Interesting comment from the Monkey.....but I think you may have missed a certain bias in the review....the review states that Dublin is producing the best bands...." and if this is the best Cork have to offer bring back the Frank and Walters". Now, interestingly enough, the Frank and Walters have not (to my knowledge anyway) gone away completely, and furthermore, the comment suggests that in the Cork/Dublin battle for Irish Rock supremacy, in the opinion of the author Dublin has it sewn up. Now if that is not a Dub or a wanabee talking about a Dublin/Cork divide, then I don't know what is. As for him criticising the album, fair enough if he was to give a fair criticism of the album, but it seems that he didn't do very much homework on the band, or the album, and it sounds like he didn't want to review it in the first place. As for his hugely profound insight ".... without ever making it out of second gear, and with an over-reliance on the use of bass to boot. " I think this kind of says it all about the quality of reviewer we have here. Let me think of a band that doesn't use bass, doesn't think that its important to have a relatively solid bassline behind a song. This guys opinion is enlightening from the point of view that someone thinks it is worth publishing, for me its a perfect example of lazy journalism, and this seems to be admitted in the opening salvo of the review. Shame Corkboy

In fairness to the author of the review, it was a review of the album, and not of any particular live performance. While the review seemed very cynical, unfounded and groundless at first, I can understand how someone who hasn't witnessed a live Fred performance would not get as much out of the album as those of us who have. Perhaps it would be a good idea for the author to go along to a Fred gig and do a review of that? I've seen Fred a few times now but the best performance I witnessed was (surprisingly) in the Savoy around Christmas when they were supporting the Frank & Walters. Even after the Frank & Walters had played, I still had Fred tunes in my head for days afterwards. They really worked the crowd throughout the whole set and kept it going through such an energetic performance.

i'm not one to criticise but it appears to me that this guy is a fucking idiot ive been living in the states for a few years now and i was given a copy of freds album so i sat down and listened to it and to be fair i thought it was crap so i put it on the shelf.Anyway a few weeks later i had a few friends over and we were drinking before going out so my friend threw the album on and by the time we were onto song two and jagermeister four everybody was up and dancing and that right there is what fred is all about. while we are on the subject of the cork dublin divide id like to say that at the moment neither side is exactly making waves outside of the island, apart from u2 the two biggest bands outside of irelandd are still the corrs and the cranberries and what marvellous ambassadors for irish music they are. ill admit that the frames are a great band because i know that they are and they would be a lot bigger if they had had the balls to leave ireland like rubyhorse did(who are in my opinion the best band to come out of ireland since u2) they did letterman a few weeks ago which is something the frames can only dream of and they are by the way a cork band. Also the cream of local talent isn't from dublin or cork anyway Ian whitty is from kerry and Damien rice and david kitt are both from kildare, dublin has just claimed them as there own, it seems kind of patethic that dubliners have this bizarre insecurity after all it stands to reason that if 900000 more people live in Dublin than in Cork then of course it is going to have a bigger music scene but just because people are based there does not that they are from dublin

Heard the album, loved the tunes, continued dancing to the songs with stops in them.

Also..I don'tlike the way fred are described as a silly/quirky band. They have an amazing positive attitude and sing fantastic pop songs with clever lyrics and catchy tunes. Does a band have to sing about misery to be taking seriously....NO! they don't. Fred are simply...cool. Not silly, not quirky, just really good. Great musicians, great songwriters and fantastic entertainers. Pity they're from Cork though. Edited by - Sadler on 02 Aug 2002 02:39:52

as far as i know david kitt and damien rice have both applied for dublin passports and hope to be citizens within the year. their changing their names to Kittster and Damoricer bab.

But Kittser's Da Tom Kitt has been TD for Dublin South Central for years so, nah, he ain't from Kildare if you asked me. tobble