Film not on ball..
OVER 5,000 people are expected
● to attend the commemoration next weekend of the death of Michael Collins in an ambush at Béal na Bláth in west Cork.
Many others will surely mark the centenary by giving Neil Jordan’s film about Collins another spin.
The scenes in that film depicting
● the events of the original Bloody Sunday have been criticised for historical inaccuracy in the years since the film first screened.
And the Gaelic football game
● was actually filmed in a soccer stadium — the Carlisle Grounds in Bray. Some of those involved included future centre-back Johnny Magee, who said he was only there to meet Julia Roberts.
Those taking part quickly realised
● that only half of the pitch was in shot, so they abandoned their positions to get on screen. That’s where the 15 behind the ball trend in GAA really started...
If the Gallagher brothers’ parents had never left Ireland, Noel would have ended up busking on Grafton Street. As for Liam, he’d have been knocking around Grogan’s pub nearby, telling all and sundry what he was going to do.
Like most there, nothing would ever come of it.
Unfortunately, too many over here bought into the tedium of that time.
Loaded magazine with features on crap footballers in worse clothes, Tony Blair’s cheesy grin, Baddiel and Skinner talking sh**e about football, the rule that everyone had to be married to Patsy Kensit for 15 minutes...
Dozens of bands were hyped up during Britpop. Only Pulp have stood the test of time, and they were around since 1978.
One thing stands out — their whiteness. If you wanted innovation in the 1990s, then black culture was where it was at. Film director Spike Lee was busy, bringing out an astonishing nine pictures in the decade — and there’s a case to be made for the first real 90s film being his Do The Right Thing, even though it was released in 1989.
One of the most powerful parts of that movie is its use of Public Enemy’s Fight the Power.
And the 90s was the decade where hip-hop took over. That’s where many of the most interesting ideas were bearing fruit. It was the same story in dance music, in pop, and in crossover genres.
There were still some fine rock bands around — and Radiohead were one.
But an abiding regret from going to see them at the RDS in 1997 is paying little attention to the support act.
With the passage of time, it’s clear that Massive Attack — with their mixture of black and white influences — were one of the true greats of the 90s. No-one will ever say that about those who appeared at Woodstock ’99.