The Sun Always Shines On Radio

When news broke among Irish music insiders early this year that Ian Dempsey of Today FM’s Breakfast Show fame was planning an album called Sounds Of Summer, it didn’t quite set pulses all aquiver. The nightmare scenario was a tedious mix of the obvious interrupted only by the even more obvious, like the Beach Boys, Bryan Adams ‘Summer Of ’69’, ‘California Dreamin’, and such like.

But to avoid this eventuality, Dempsey cannily asked his listeners to come up with suggestions. “We wanted to have something that reflected the feel of the programme, with listeners’ favourites and a fair sprinkling of Irish tracks,” he explains. “We began working on the album in earnest back around March. At the start we made a list of a hundred tracks. It was like being back at school! Some had to be dropped immediately because we knew we wouldn’t get the rights. Like, I’d loved to have a Bowie track on it. ‘Let’s Dance’ or ‘China Girl’ would have fitted the mood nicely. I had great help from Brian Adams, the music controller at Today FM, and Graham Molloy had a big input too. We all worked with the people from Sony to whittle down the short-lists and we came up with a compilation that I feel defies everyone’s expectations of what could easily have become a cliched selection.”
In fact, Dempsey’s twenty-one track compilation scores on all fronts, especially as it’s the only non-import album in Ireland featuring The Corrs and Bono’s vital version of Lee Hazelwood’s ‘Summer Wine’.
“That track delayed us a little. Both Bono and The Corrs were happy to have it included, but getting clearance from the copyright owners MTV took a while,” Ian explains. “But it was worth the wait, as it gives the album that essential exclusive ingredient.”
As well as classics such as Van Morrison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ the selection list also features such local gems as Mundy’s ‘July’, ‘Sunlight’ from The 4 Of Us, The Walls’ ‘To The Bright And Shining Sun’, Jerry Fish’s ‘True Friends’, as well as The Pogues and honorary Irishman David Gray.
Add in international delights from the likes of Destiny’s Child, The Ramones, The Cure, and Travis and the result is an album that’s as good as this summer has been. Some will argue that Dempsey could have done better than Chris Rea’s ‘On The Beach’ or the Hall And Oates choice, but all in all the lad done good. Apart from the glaring omission of Kevin The Gerbil’s 1984 reworking of ‘Summer Holiday’, I reckon he got the mix just about right.
And the public seem to agree. Almost immediately on release, the album moved to number two in the Irish compilation charts, aided, no doubt, by the scorchio weather we’ve been enjoying this year.
So will this be the first of many compilations bearing the Dempsey brand name? Dempsey admits, although his cheek was bulging at the time, that there might be such moves afoot.
“We’ve thought about a Christmas album and maybe a winter album, but who knows. This was a real challenge to work on, trying to get an album that wasn’t just a bunch of random tracks but which stood up as a listening experience in its own right. So of course I’d love to do another one.”

Ian Dempsey’s Sounds Of Summer is available through Sony Music