SUMMER nights of live music and horse racing return to Leopardstown Racecourse this week with Something Happens who perform at the famous track on June 8.
This is the first of eight fun-filled evenings of live concerts and racing. Something Happens will be followed by a fantastic line-up of thrilling Thursday nights at Leopardstown Racecourse that feature The Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow (June 15), HamsandwicH (June 22) Hot House Flowers (July 13), The Riptide Movement (July 20), The Stunning (July 27), Sister Sledge (August 10) and Happy Mondays (August 17).
Something Happens scored international success with the track ‘Parachute’ from their second album ‘Stuck Together With God’s Glue’ and the band’s unforgettable live performances cemented their place as one of this country’s finest bands of the early nineties.
TRACK RECORD WITH TOM DUNNE FROM SOMETHING HAPPENS
1. Best gig you’ve been to in Dublin
Bowie at the Point, 2003. It was to be his last performance in Ireland, his health troubles started soon after. It was a truly remarkable gig. His band were great and it has been revealed in interviews since that he had never been happier on stage. Life on Mars was followed by a two-minute-long standing ovation, a sudden outburst of adoration and love for the man who had lit up our lives. You could see he was startled. Eventually he had to ask us to stop.
2. Most Memorable moment in Dublin
Something Happens, The National Stadium, May 1989. We’d been building up steadily, bigger venues each time, but this was a huge venue to take on. And it was just one night on a busy tour so I didn’t really appreciate it until we walked on stage that we’d really done it. I remember looking out, all the audience were on their feet, singing along with songs we’d played in the Underground (maximum capacity 30) only two years earlier. And I thought ‘I saw Thin Lizzy here! And now we’re here!’ It was amazing.
3. Most ‘Want to forget’ moment in Dublin
I agreed to a photo shoot with a radio campaign. I didn’t read the fine print. Two models in bikinis arrived. It sounds like I should have liked it but it was just mortifying. Stephen’s Green, Saturday afternoon. “Now both of you drape around Tom.” AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
4. First album you bought and last album you bought
First was probably David Bowie live. My mother trying to convince me to buy Rod Stewart’s ‘Sailing’, me determined to stick with Bowie. I called it ‘David Bowie Live’ to rhyme with give in the shop. “Live” said the shop assistant, as in hive. I’m still embarrassed. The last album I bought was the latest ‘A Tribe called Quest’ album. Love them!
5. When you’re not playing music, what else do you do?
Em, eh…..look after children? I listen to music for the show all day long and then play it live on air each night from 10pm. It takes a lot of listening to sort the wheat from the chaff. I’m endlessly fascinated and absorbed by it. When time allows, I am writing a book about my days in Something Happens and I am also working on a screenplay for a TV sit com, and yes, it’s music based!
6. Who are your influences?
Punk rock changed my life. It opened a curiosity in me that has never gone away. It had a certain purity that is in all great art. Since then I have found that echoed in other music, films, books and TV. When I joined the Happens we shared a love of REM and The Replacements, that has never gone away.
7. If you weren’t in Something Happens, who would make up your ideal band with you as frontman? (Musicians past and present)
Be in no doubt I am in the ideal band. I could not imagine a guitar player I’d rather see stage right than Ray Harman, or a more passionate bassist than Alan Byrne or a more powerful drummer than Eamon Ryan. And this is the band I’ve been in all my life. I have to be honest and insist that no super group could compete with that. Of course, if push came to shove I’d sell each of them into slavery for two weeks as lead singer with The Bangles.
Any tips on life?
Enjoy every sandwich, we are all we have.
9. First person you’d invite to your party
I’m much more impressed by sports people then rock stars so the entire starting line-up of United’s 1994 team, particularly Eric Cantona.
10. Last person you’d invite to your party
The referee that sent Nani off against Real Madrid in the European Cup some years back. That should have been our year.