Happy Days Are Here Again

Once he fronted The Screaming Bin Lids and The Whole Tribe Sings. Now ace songwriter Paddy Nash is back with the Happy Enchiladas.

Eamonn McCann, 28 Apr 2010

Fifteen years ago I predicted in this space that The Screaming Bin Lids were bound for glorious things. They had an angry, uplifting sound and a song that seemed certain to infuse the mind of the multitudes – ‘Running Uphill’, a ballad of wry and wistful mien about the Bloody Sunday families’ campaign for truth, with a hard rock edge and a chorus you couldn’t dislodge.

Ten years ago, I predicted in this space that The Whole Tribe Sings were bound for etc...With Lids Paddy Nash and Deccy McLaughlin out front, the Tribe played across the North and up and down the east coast from Boston to Raleigh and back for two ecstatically-received shows at C.B.G.B’s in New York. Nash’s deliriously infectious ‘Happy’ provided the soundtrack for the coast-to-coast launch of Harp. There was nothing to stop them except that for reasons mysterious they came home broken up.

Now Paddy is back with the Happy Enchiladas and a new album, When We Were Brave, which confirms him as a songwriter on the cool cusp of genius and with a band perfectly attuned to his ardour. ‘Barefoot in Verona’, which he wrote for his partner, ace tambourineist Diane Greer, to sing, is a deliciously wicked pop-song that could incite a Stormont Assembly to jump and down waving their knickers in the air. ‘Martin’, about a close friend who died by suicide, would draw tears from a stone for its sorrow and loss. “When he was young he was the first one out at night/ The last to go inside, he never let you down in a fight/ When he was young he was the tallest in our street/ The captain of our team/ And the boy with the biggest dream was Martin.” ‘Billy Bragg Jeans’ is the sort of love song your partner looks askance at you afterwards for never having written a song like that for her. Trust me on this.

But don’t take my word about the Enchiladas’ oeuvre, my track record on predicting megadom for bands with Paddy Nash in them being somewhat imperfect. Download ‘Billy Bragg Jeans’ for free via paddynash.co.uk – you’ll see for yourself.

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