Ballroom #56 Stagger Lee play with Spellbound, Lungs and Page 27 (Friday 22nd of September) in the Lower Deck, Portobello Doors 9pm €8 entry Free CD-r NOTE: This was due to be a tour date for the Black Diamond Heavies and the High Plain Drifters but they've been forced to cancel. Spellbound When you look at the Psychobilly movement of the 1980’s, Ireland is not a country that springs to mind as having played much of a part. However, in 1986 the bars and clubs of Dublin were quite literally crawling with demented rockabillies and quiffed-up mutants. Spellbound was formed in 1986 by brothers Frankie and Adrian Hayes, who came from Bray, Co Wicklow, 15 miles south of Dublin City. Unlike other Irish bands of their time, Spellbound decided to head directly to mainland Europe, where their 1988 debut album ‘Mystical Madness’ was very well received and notched up many thousands in sales (amazingly, that album was never released in their home country). The boys blazed a brief trail across the rockabilly and psychobilly festivals of Germany and Scandanavia before, it seemed, vanishing back into the ‘Hellfire’ woods of County Wicklow. Tentative moves toward a re-union were made in 2003 when guitarist friend Doyley (Klingonz, Demented are Go) contacted the Hayes brothers to inform them that copies of ‘Mystical Madness’ appeared to be changing hands on the internet for astronomical sums and to suggest he sit in on some gigs, if they could find a bass player. They drafted in Simon Farrell (ex- Sharkbait) and this was the line-up that appeared at Die-In-Style’s ‘Kings of Psychobilly 3’ At Speyer, Germany in November 2003. Unfortunately, both Doyley and Adrian were forced to drop out soon after due to existing commitments, and were replaced by Dave Mc Donald (ex- Kroozers) and Brian O Higgins (a drummer Simon worked alongside while touring with American rockabillies The Blue Moon Boys). Their most recent album, ‘A Fistful of Spells’ is the result of ever-increasing calls from fans for that long-awaited follow-up to ‘Mystical Madness’. The 2005 Spellbound line-up, while remaining true to the style and spirit of the original, brings the band bang-up-to-date with a new batch of original songs, alongside some (previously unrecorded) versions of old-school, rockin’-psycho classics. http://www.spellbound.ie/ Lungs Featuring members of Oak and Inches, Lungs formed in early 2006 and made their live debut at the excellent Rock and Roll Motherf**ker minifestival in April 2006 (according to them "where we played a storming set to 12 people and the rest of the bands hahaha") They've also done a tour of Ireland with UK rockers Threads. http://www.myspace.com/lungsmusic Stagger Lee Feral blues and Rock'n'Roll noir; songs of jealousy, debauchery and treason. Stagger Lee embody the spirit of Robert Johnsons Devil-at-the-crossroads and Mavis Staples sultry gospel cry combined with the energy and attitude of artists like The Stooges, The Cramps and Siouxsie Sioux. Supports in Stagger Lee's young life have already included the Long Blondes, The Grates, Sleater Kinney, The Kills and Jon Spencer Blues Xplosion. They were recently invited to play as part of the Fringe Festival in the beautiful Speigeltent. New photos up on the website: http://www.staggerlee.moonfruit.com http://www.myspace.com/staggerleeband Page 27 Page 27 are Dublin based rock band with influences ranging from Smashing Pumpkins to Led Zeppelin. So far they've release a demo and are about release a 7" single. To date they've played with acts like Colm Quearney and Ham Sandwich and got the thumbs up from Donal Scanell, the Walls and Lisa Hannigan. http://www.myspace.com/page27music