Heineken Green energy Presents.... TURN Temple Bar Music Centre Saturday 4th May Doors: 7.30pm €10 About Turn The stage, illuminated by glaring white lights, shows three young men, immaculately dressed in tailored suits and skinny black ties, creating enough noise for an entire symphony of sheet-metal workers. The guitar chords crash and scorch, the bass rumbles menacingly and the drums pound out the rhythm with the authority of a sergeant major. All the while, that voice carries over the top like the cry of a fallen angel. It’s at this point, three songs in, that my friend Trev, a card-carrying Plus One who has been dragged to more gigs than Delia Smith has made hot dinners, turns to me and says, “This is the best fucking band you’ve ever brought me to”. That band is Turn and my mate Trev was dead right: they are the best fucking band I ever brought him to and they are about to re-introduce themselves with the blistering In Position EP. But then again, it is no surprise that their latest work is so bloody good. Two years ago, Rock Sound described them as “the exuberance of the Pixies with the edgy angst of Nirvana producing in-yer-face slabs of sheer sonic beauty”, while Melody Maker portrayed them as having “more energy than a Duracell bunny with attention deficit disorder”. Formed in 1998 by long-time friends, Kells-based Ollie Cole (vocals/guitar) and Ian Melady (drums), the last part of the Turn jigsaw was complete when Ollie met bassist Gavin Fox in The Factory Studios in Dublin, recognising immediately that the young Santry musician was destined to be part of the band. “The first time we rehearsed we wrote this song called ‘I Still Believe’ which we still play now, and we were just standing in the room looking at each other going ‘Fucking hell, that’s great!’,” Ollie recalls. “It was easily the best thing any of us had ever done.” The songs flowed, one after another, from the searing, ear-bleedingly raw ‘Beeswax’ to the gentle, acoustic ‘Gav And Anne’. All the while, the trio built up a live show that was second to none. Visually, the smart suits set them apart as much as the quality of their music, and the ferocity of their live performance had Melody Maker hailing them as “the band destined to fill stadiums but stay flawless”. Tours with Wilt, Seafood and Idlewild, saw the trio reaching an ever-increasing audience, and broadening their fanbase across Ireland and the UK. Three limited edition seven inch singles, ‘Facedown’, ‘Beeswax’ and ‘Beretta’, were all playlisted on BBC Radio One and London-based XFM, as well as featuring in discerning Dublin rock station Phantom FM’s Top 10. Indeed, the mighty ‘Beretta’ continues to be one of Phantom’s most popular songs ever, and was also named as one of the singles of the year for 2000 in Barfly magazine. Popular demand meant that all three singles eventually surfaced on CD in the form of the excellent Check My Ears mini-album. Their debut album proper, Antisocial, followed in late 2000 on Infectious Records, and surprised many, this critic included, by the sheer diversity and maturity of the fare on offer, from the full-on sonic assault of ‘Too Much Make Up’ to the melancholic magnificence of the title track, the best song they ever recorded, until now. Critically acclaimed and displaying a vulnerability that until then had been hidden behind the raw power and volume of their stage performance, Antisocial was a watershed for the band and the resulting tour saw them sell-out venues throughout Ireland and the UK, culminating in a show-stopping performance at the summer’s Wittness festival. Unfortunately, the year 2000 wasn’t a great one financially for their then record company and in the ensuing reshuffle, Turn found themselves without a label. Bloodied but unbowed and, like the Murphy’s, mercifully not bitter, Turn regrouped, reflected and recharged the batteries for a fresh assault on our senses and our airwaves. The first fruits of this labour come in the shape of the magnificent In Position EP, six tracks which give a perfect shapshot of Turn circa 2002. The title track starts off somewhat reflective, before spreading its wings into a gloriously noisy, paradoxically uplifting chorus. Then there’s the beautiful, tender ‘Catch On You’, the gorgeous ‘After We Go (Again)’, the brooding and bruised ‘The Reprise’ and the plaintive lament of ‘Every Mistake’. Arguably their finest moment, ‘Heartattack’ perfectly captures the dual faces of Turn, the loud raucous, almost punk rawness and the emotive, heartfelt, aching lyricism. However, dismiss Turn as poe-faced, super-serious shoegazers at your peril – if you don’t believe me, try getting them drunk and asking them to play the hilarious ‘(Don’t Bring Out) The Euro’. Collectively and individually, they are possessed of a wickedly wry sense of humour that has been known to reduce respected and not-so-esteemed journalists into tears (of laughter). The good news continues with word that Turn have a brand new album’s worth of songs ready for release later this year, and judging by the hordes of A&R persons vying for their attention on a recent tour of Ireland with Wilt, 2002 should be a very good year indeed for the trio. In position, indeed. John Walshe February 2002 What They Said “Side-stepping every rock cliche but fulfilling every rock dream: the band destined to fill stadiums but stay flawless” – Melody Maker “Angular guitars and heartfelt melodies collide like an indie band tackling nu - metal , all of which suggest that they're shaping up to be something rather special.” – Kerrang “The exuberance of the Pixies with the edgy angst of Nirvana producing in-yer-face slabs of sheer sonic beauty” – Rock Sound “They have that ambition, that drive to succeed, and they have the songs to back it up….more combined talent than the entire Premiership” – Hot Press