My first ever feature article for Hot Press was a piece on a band called The Coletranes roughly four years ago. I travelled around with them on three dates up North when they played in Belfast, Portrush and Donegal.

At the time they were on a nationwide tour. The Coletranes jingle-jangly pop music, which wore its musical influences on its sleeve – which they distilled with consummate skill and finesse – was generating the right kind of excitement both here and abroad. Everything seemed set for The Big Time. It didn’t happen. Too quickly, the initial buzz was superseded by an ominous silence. Now, a couple of years later, a band called Revelino have just released an exceptional debut album, simply called, surprise surprise, Revelino.

As I’m sure you’ve already guessed, Revelino are the new reincarnation of that promising Coletrane embryo. Three out of the five Revelino members made up three quarters of The Coletranes. There are similarities between the two bands. Even one or two of the old songs have survived to tell the tale. Revelino are different – yet still an undoubted maturation of all that The Coletranes were attempting to do. The question of whatever happened to The Coletranes still seems shrouded in mystery nonetheless. Which is why it was the opening topic of discussion when I spoke to Brendan Tallon, lead singer and main songwriter of Revelino, late last Thursday evening, downstairs in Bewley’s, as a thick fog descended on the city outside.