Dr Strangely Strange to play West Cork show next week

One of the most fearlessly experimental acts of 20th century Ireland, Dr Strangely Strange, are gearing up for an intimate show at Lehanmore Community Centre, on the Beara Peninsula in West Cork, on August 4.

The psychedelic-folk outfit also joined forces for a gig in Kenmare, Co. Kerry, over the weekend, at the Carnegie Arts Centre.

The setlist for the Kenmare gig included songs from across Dr Strangely Strange's catalogue, including classics from 1969's Kip Of The Serenes (released via Island Records) and 1970's Heavy Petting.

"Doctor Strangely Strange, Ireland's first and only Psychedelic Lounge Act have reconstituted themselves in a final desperate bid for the big time and are undertaking a short but vivacious tour of the Southlands," founding member Tim Booth remarked in an announcement on his Facebook page. "[T]his is your chance to see this infamous outfit at their very nearly best. Marvel as they introduce the on-beat to the off-beat in a truly Pavlovian manner. Thrill to their subtle misunderstanding of chordal dissonance. Be astonished at their grasp of the infinite and so forth. You know it makes sense..."

Tim Booth also designed the very first Hot Press logo, in the run-up to our inaugural issue in June 1977:

The original Hot Press logo, 'The Flaming Truth' (June 1977)

“Anything that was halfway worthwhile was countercultural,” Horslips' Jim Lockhart said of Dublin in the late '60s/early '70s, as part of an interview with Hot Press last year. “The Strangelys were brilliant. They represented a whole stream of what was possible at the time...

"[T]here was certainly a feeling that young people had a possibility of making themselves heard, in a way that they really hadn’t been able to up until that.”

Dr Strangely Strange – who were also name-checked by Philip Lynott on Thin Lizzy's 1972 track 'Brought Down' – were the subject of an acclaimed 2019 book by Adrian Whittaker: Dr Strangely Strange: Fitting Pieces To The Jigsaw.

Tickets for Dr Strangely Strange at Lehanmore Community Centre, West Cork, are €20, with doors opening at 7pm.