Full Holland Drive

The shocking photograph on this page shows what happens when Irish hacks and musos travel abroad without adult supervision.

While I can’t comment on whether the debauchery was fueled by industrial strength superskunk, at least one member of the party had to be medivacced back to Dublin and currently remains wheelchair-bound in the Trinity Street Home For Bewildered Journalists.
A small price to pay for being able to report on Ireland’s participation in Eurosonic, a 150 group, 23 radio station talentfest that’s taken place annually in the Dutch college town of Groningen since 1990.
Hal had sensibly decided to grab an early night, but fellow Sons of Erin Iain Archer and The Revs displayed a talent for post-gig revelry which if an Olympic event would guarantee us team gold.
They had every reason to be in celebratory mood having gone down a storm with the 500 locals who’d squeezed into the Huize Maas venue for their showcase. Along with the aforementioned Revs and Hal, the international line-up included bands from Sweden (Strip Music), Scotland (Sons & Daughters), Denmark (Diefenbach), Norway (Helldorado) and England (The Go! Team).
The sense of occasion was added to by the huge German radio truck parked outside and, under the watchful ear of 2FM’s Ian Wilson, relaying proceedings to the folks back home.
For all of their excitability and extravagant eye make-up – Goth is alive and well in rural north-east Holland – it’s noticeable that cloggy rock fans A). Don’t cough up a tenner and then spend most of the night at the bar; B). Have little interest in Anglo-Irish notions of “indie cool”; and C). Are prepared to be won over by acts operating outside of their own sphere of musical interest.
In other words, whether it was “gitaarpop”, “synthesizerrock”, “Schotse Americana” or, as in Iain Archer’s case, plain old “singer-songwriter”, everybody was listened to with rapt attention and an open mind. Full-marks as well to the Eurosonic organisers for the two stages at either end of the venue which facilitated seamless Later With Jools Holland-style handovers.
The first surprise of the night was the transmogrification that The Revs have undergone in recent months. The not-entirely-convincing punk posturing of old has been replaced by a more considered, dare we say it, more mature guitar sound that should impress the Big Star/Teenage Fanclub/Posies brigade. Crucially, on new songs like ‘Give Me Something To Believe In’, ‘I’m A Bomb’ and ‘Your Last Day’ those choice ’70s influences are used as a jumping-off point from which to create something that’s uniquely theirs.
I’m not sure if the same can be said of Hal whose adherence to West Coast orthodoxy is, if anything, even stauncher than The Thrills. As Let’s Bottle Bohemia has taught Conor Deasy & Co., there’s only so much flogging of second-hand goods you can get away with.
Which brings us to Iain Archer, the ex-Snow Patroller and co-author of ‘Run’ whose Flood The Tanks album was one of 2004’s bitter-sweetest treats. Last spotted arriving four-hours late for the hotpress Christmas photo-shoot – Kerrygold mightn’t melt in any of his orifices, but this boy knows how to party! – he performed with such emotional intensity it can only be a matter of time before he joins his Nordy mates in chartland.
“It’s like Eurovision, only with better hair and clothes,” Archer subsequently jokes of the Groningen experience. “I was shitting myself beforehand because we were going out live on radio, then forgot about it until the second-last song and shat myself all over again! It’s weird going on stage and realising from the quizzical looks that nobody knows your songs, but great when you gradually see heads nodding along to ‘em. You have to go outside your comfort zone to broaden your audience.”
How effective has the “I. Archer” credit on the Snow Patrol album been in bringing new fans on board?
“It’s impossible to quantify in terms of sales but, yeah, a lot of people have picked up on me through Snow Patrol. Which I have no problem at all with because, one, I loved every moment of my time in the band and, two, it’s an amazing song that anybody would be proud to be associated with.
“An incredible experience for me was driving through Hackney the Sunday afternoon the chart was announced, and realising when the DJ took a break before reading the top 5 out that ‘Run’ was in it. I was so excited I nearly ploughed into the car in front of me!”
I don’t want this to start reading like a Nuts interview, but there are one or two legendary tales of excess pertaining to Ian’s stint with Snow Patrol.
“Which, wishing to remain married to my wife, I’m not going to discuss here!” he laughs. “There were moments of gross stupidity like leaving an all-night party to go and play the Thomastown Under-16s at football. I?still shudder at that!?My favourite Snow Patrol moment – because I’d left by then and witnessed it from the safety of the front-row – was Gary getting his kit-off at the Songwriters Festival in the Royal Festival Hall. That lacked grace on so many levels.”
Does Lightbody fill his trousers?
“There was a guitar in front of his genitalia, but his rear-end was a sight to behold! There were eyes everywhere watching to see how the hell he’d get off without flashing the lad. This was a gig that Badly Drawn Boy was performing at, so the place was packed.
“Funnily enough,” he continues, “that night was responsible for me signing to PIAS in Europe. Having celebrated Gary’s nudity with voluminous amounts of beer, I was persuaded to dash back home for my passport and travel over with them to a record company conference they were playing in Belgium. When we got there the guy said, ‘There’s 20 minutes, get up there!’ and the entire PIAS staff saw me do my thing.”
The moral of the story being that indecent exposure and drunkeness are the key to getting ahead in the music biz.
“Absolutely,” Iain agrees before moving on to the rather more serious subject of his musical heroes.
“Being from Bangor, one of my early ones was Van Morrison who my dad played with in a skiffle group. He’s some great stories about them busking together on the corner of Hadford Street, most of which end with the observation that even then he was a hilariously cantankerous character! Saint Dominic’s Preview was definitely the album that enriched my younger years, though.”
The last person he completely fell under the spell of was Elliott Smith.
“It’s sad that he had to die before one of his records made it into the American top 20, but the fact that it did makes you realise you don’t have to go the obvious catchy chorus route to find a mass audience.”
Not that Archer’s adverse to a spot of radio-friendliness.
“Another major thing for me in 2004 was Colin and Edith making ‘Summer Jets’ their BBC Radio 1 Record of the Week,” he enthuses. “I’ve just done a new version of ‘Boy Boy Boy’ with Steve Osborne, which 2FM are welcome to play 20 times a day if they want.”
Hopefully such generosity of spirit won’t go unrewarded.b

• The second single to be taken from Iain Archer’s Flood The Tank album, ‘Boy Boy Boy’, is out in April.