| Author | Message | ||
     Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10265 Registered: 05-2005 |
“He slipped away peacefully in hospital after a long illness.” https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/ artsandculture/arid-40879139.html | ||
| Austin Member Username: Bruegelpie Post Number: 241 Registered: 09-2004 |
Oh Padraig, I'm so sorry to read this news. I know how much you loved his work. I don't understand the "long illness," though, since I think he released an album not too long ago? | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4756 Registered: 03-2005 |
I was rousted out of bed by Pádraig's news. Cathal released a quite good album just last year. He'd collaborated on another project more recently. He seemed to be very busy artistically. I came to Cathal via Pádraig's recommendation. It took a while for me to get him though. Microdisney's records were a mix of highly disparate elements and while I'm a big pop guy, sometimes Microdisney's choice of pop influences were from the opposite side of the pop spectrum than my own usual choices. It was a band who could travel in their career between these two tracks, both of which I love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F8UTpTn TFk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCxEyS_B usA It was when I first heard one of Cathal's solo albums that I was definitely absolutely sold. Here was a guy who managed to fuse together Scott Walker's classic music and Stephen Sondheim's complex theatrical music and still make it a proper pop record of the new 21st Century. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a18cIdHK dUM&list=OLAK5uy_m7Vgwoz6BGTbKG-_vPH3zgS 13QHpiAmtg&index=7 Now and then I might quibble that he was getting a bit too stagey in his music but that's because he truly should have been a musical theatre composer. In a fair world that's exactly what would have happened. He would have taken the baton from Sondheim and today he would be celebrated for it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDSRvVnY wqg&list=OLAK5uy_kNXqDtLfxMrt5H-ZH5L7Hd4 dx4OH_q4fE&index=2 With his talent for dystopic vision he was surely meant to be one of our main troubadours of this difficult era. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDUDKydc o8I&list=OLAK5uy_k4uNU4_wLITvha-FjI5qQcN yQhpEEv1AM&index=3 By 2021 he wasn't flagging at all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KKri0pT mkI&list=OLAK5uy_ls0Zp2SsFng1W39AiiLd4q8 AoQxZ16FHo&index=6 Almost all artists gradually lose their intensity and sparkle as they age. At age 61, Cathal truly had not. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU_J-Xre KWM&list=OLAK5uy_ls0Zp2SsFng1W39AiiLd4q8 AoQxZ16FHo&index=7 | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 385 Registered: 05-2005 |
Black River Falls is pretty good if you haven't heard it Randy. For Microdisney - The Clock comes down the stairs is the pick of the bunch. Fatima Mansions - well it depends on whether you like the ballads or the mad stuff. I like the first one - Against Nature (kind of demos really but good). Some of the stuff is nuts! I wouldn't touch Bubonique with a barge pole. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10267 Registered: 05-2005 |
Austin, reading of the “long illness“ was a great shock. Cathal Coughlan was very recently talking to a friend of mine about playing live again. I’ll have to relisten to the interview to see if there’s any hint of that being a wishful aspiration rather than an expectation. I think it may explain why he was so prolific in recent years with Microdisney, the solo album, the film, singing on Sean O’Hagan’s album and the two Telefís albums he made with Jacknife Lee. He knew his time was limited and there was so much he still wanted to do. | ||
| Mark Leydon Member Username: Mark_leydon Post Number: 360 Registered: 05-2005 |
Awful news Pádraig. He was such a great songwriter. I loved his contrarianism. Also responsible for one of the best album titles of the 80's (We Hate You South African Bastards). | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4757 Registered: 03-2005 |
fsh, my first Coughlan solo purchase was "Sky's Awful Blue." Next up was indeed "Black River Falls," a truly magnificent album. Indeed depending on the day I will claim either "Sky's Awful Blue" or "Black River Falls" as my favorite of his albums but of course I have them all and love them all. Cathal's solo albums were all made with such TLC you can tell that the musicians working with him all believed in him. I ended up with all the Microdisney albums plus the "Love Your Enemies" odds and sods collection. "Clock" deserves its classic status but they're all good. "Crooked Mile" is my least favorite because it is O'Hagan's most Steely Danesque. I bought a couple FM albums but they just aren't my thing. | ||
| Andreas Severins Member Username: Andreas_severins Post Number: 508 Registered: 11-2007 |
What a sad news. RIP Cathal - you will be missed A wonderful GB cover - cathal coughlan dusty in here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54OFwoVK kEI | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 386 Registered: 05-2005 |
I know it's not my business but I wonder what condition CC had. Having seen him a few times in the last eight years I did notice he had a bit of a Keyser Söze gait and up close on one occasion his eyes were buried deeper in his head than I've ever seen on anyone, like pissholes in the snow. I'm no doctor and it's probably none of my beeswax but if anyone sees anything in the public arena aka reputable news sources it would be nice to know. Didn't know he worked in the BBC ... so that's what he was up to!! ("People don't need to kow what I do whenI'm not playing music.") Anyone know, did he have any offspring? Replies from friendlies would be most welcome. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10269 Registered: 05-2005 |
A friend of mine has written a piece on Cathal here https://www.independent.ie/entertainment /music/music-news/microdisney-frontman-c athal-coughlans-well-lived-life-of-art-e xcess-and-energy-41717473.html | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10270 Registered: 05-2005 |
Another piece here https://drb.ie/cathal-coughlan-1960-2022 /?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Dublin%2 0Review%20of%20Books%20145%201&utm_conte nt=Dublin%20Review%20of%20Books%20145%20 1+CID_ea7c6a6c4121fe44e73a1148e6d618fa&u tm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&u tm_term=Cathal%20Coughlan%201960-2022 | ||
| friendly Unregistered guest |
fsh, there's a song on his last album that seems to hint at his illness. 'st wellbeing axe.' |