Spellbound
+ Guests
Andrews Lane Theatre
Fri 19 June
Doors 8pm
Admission: €10
When you look at the Psychobilly movement of the 1980’s, Ireland is not a country that springs to mind as having played much of a part. However, in 1986 the bars and clubs of Dublin were quite literally crawling with demented rockabillies and quiffed-up mutants.
There were plenty of live bands for them to follow too (for those, at least, who weren’t making the weekly trek to psychobilly ‘Mecca’ The KLUBFOOT at London’s Hammersmith Clarendon), The Klingonz (who quickly moved to London to save on bus fares!), Sharkbait (who disbanded at their peak when lead singer Dave Finnegan landed a leading role in Alan Parker’s motion picture ‘The Commitments’),there were Punky and ‘Cramp-ish’ bands like The Gorehounds, Kill-Devil Hill and the Boneshakers, while The Kroozers, Those Handsome Devils and The Crazy Wolves stayed closer to a ‘traditional’ 1950’s sound.
Spellbound was formed in 1986 by brothers Frankie and Adrian Hayes, who came from Bray, Co Wicklow, 15 miles south of Dublin City. Unlike other Irish bands of their time, Spellbound decided to head directly to mainland Europe, where their 1988 debut album ‘Mystical Madness’ was very well received and notched up many thousands in sales (amazingly, that album was never released in their home country). The boys blazed a brief trail across the rockabilly and psychobilly festivals of Germany and Scandanavia before, it seemed, vanishing back into the ‘Hellfire’ woods of County Wicklow.
Tentative moves toward a re-union were made in 2003 when guitarist friend Doyley (Klingonz, Demented are Go) contacted the Hayes brothers to inform them that copies of ‘Mystical Madness’ appeared to be changing hands on the internet for astronomical sums and to suggest he sit in on some gigs, if they could find a bass player. They drafted in Simon Farrell (ex- Sharkbait) and this was the line-up that appeared at Die-In-Style’s ‘Kings of Psychobilly 3’ At Speyer, Germany in November 2003. Unfortunately, both Doyley and Adrian were forced to drop out soon after due to existing commitments, and were replaced by Dave Mc Donald (ex- Kroozers) and Brian O Higgins (a drummer Simon worked alongside while touring with American rockabillies The Blue Moon Boys)
Their most recent album, ‘A Fistful of Spells’ is the result of ever-increasing calls from fans for that long-awaited follow-up to ‘Mystical Madness’. The 2005 Spellbound line-up, while remaining true to the style and spirit of the original, brings the band bang-up-to-date with a new batch of original songs, alongside some (previously unrecorded) versions of old-school, rockin’-psycho classics.
Andrews Lane Theatre 