Nun Attax were an Irish post-punk band from Cork, active from 1978 to 1989. Vocalist and lyricist Finbarr Donnelly, guitarist Ricky Dineen and brothers Philip and Keith O’Connell formed the band as Nun Attax. The group later included guitarists Mick Finnegan, Giordaí Ua Laoghaire and Mick Stack, and cellist Úna Ní Chanainn. Donnelly drowned accidentally on 18 June 1989, aged 27.
About Five Go Down to the Sea? in brief
Nun Attax were an Irish post-punk band from Cork, active from 1978 to 1989. Vocalist and lyricist Finbarr Donnelly, guitarist Ricky Dineen and brothers Philip and Keith O’Connell formed the band as Nun Attax when they were teenagers. The group later included guitarists Mick Finnegan, Giordaí Ua Laoghaire and Mick Stack, and cellist Úna Ní Chanainn. Donnelly drowned accidentally on 18 June 1989, aged 27. Although the band only released four EPs and did not sell many records, their reputation has grown over time. They influenced later generations of Irish musicians, especially a number of later dryly humorous Cork bands. In 2001, broadcaster Paul McDermott produced \”Get That Monster Off the Stage\”, a radio documentary about Donnelly and his bands. The 24-track compilation album Hiding from the Landlord was released in 2020. The band’s first gig was in February 1979 at Mayfield community school in Cork. They soon became leaders in the punk movement that grew around the Arcadia ballroom. They later began to perform nationwide, including Dublin and Dundalk, and began playing at Sir Henry’s on South Main Street. They were influenced by bands such as Andy Foster and Andy Foster, who favoured punk over blues bands, and was managed by Elvera Butler and was known as the Downtown Kampus. They found no commercial success or manager; in 1985, disillusioned with the music scene, they split up.
In 1988 they reformed in 1988 as Beethoven, and released the EP Him Goolie Goolies Man, Dem the following year. They became known for Donnelly’s absurdist, surreal lyrics and stage presence, and their angular guitar and bass parts, and Captain Beefheart-style rhythm section. According to Dinean, their fans were from college and everything like that. They developed a following among Cork’s students and residents of the middle-class south-side suburbs. They played their first gig in a Mayfield school community community club in Cork in 1979. Soon after they began playing nationwide gigs, including Sir Henry’s on south Main Street, Cork, and at the Archadia ball room, next to the Kent ballroom, in Kent. They also played gigs in Dublin, Dundalk and Dublin, and were known as ‘Five Go Down to the Sea?’ in the early 1980s. In a 2017 interview, writer Mark McAvoy acknowledged that Donnelly “probably would have been the most influential musician and songwriter in terms of the Cork music scene and the bands that stemmed from it” while the band was known for its ‘unrealistic’ lyrics and ‘surreal’ stage presence. They began playing covers of punk rock songs such as “Teenage Kicks’ and “Pretty Vacant” and tracks by the Damned in Keith O’Connell’s bedroom.
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