Aslan seem to have been Ireland's answer to Canada's The Tragically Hip.
The Tragically Hip were massive in Canada - one of the biggest Canadian bands of all time... in Canada. Gord Downie's men scored an impressive nine number one albums in Canada in a 33 year career, but made very little impact in any other charts.
Like Downie and The Hip, sadly Aslan have only just received a fair bit of attention further afield, once lead singer Christy Dignam passed away (last month). They had racked up a creditable six number one albums, and eleven top ten singles in their native Ireland - but hadn't dented many other charts over the years.
So, to honour Dignam's passing, he is the starting point for this edition of Six Degrees of Kevin Shields.
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Christy Dignam formed Aslan in 1982 with Joe Jewell, Tony McGuinness, Billy McGuinness and Alan Downey. The band, named after C.S. Lewis's legendary lion, played a brand of celtic rock, getting them plenty of recognition in Ireland. Dignam had studied the classical art of bel canto singing, as a youngster, but he struggled with drug and alcohol abuse throughout his life (fuelled by serious abuse as a child). He also struggled with cancer through the last ten years of his life.
Aslan: Crazy World https://youtu.be/QHeiVDSdoCM
Aslan's bass player, Tony McGuinness had actually been born and raised in London. He would join Aslan and write many of their most popular songs, including She's So Beautiful, Comfort Me and Jealous Little Thing. Later he would also work with other artists like Sinead O'Connor and The Script, but he had started his musical journey being influenced by seeing his cousin, Steve Garvey, play in a band.
In the late 1970s, bassist Steve Garvey had been working in a petrol station, when he got the chance to replace Garth Smith in Mancunian punk legends, Buzzcocks. He would go on to play with them from 1977 to the bands first split in 1981, appearing on three classic albums, Another Music In A Different Kitchen, Love Bites and A Different Kind Of Tension. He would also play with them again for a few years later on, between 1989 and 92. In the middle of that he worked on solo projects by both Steve Diggle (50 Years Of Comparative Wealth EP) and Pete Shelley (Homosapien). He also played in the band Motivation with Dave Price (vocals), Dave Rowbotham (guitar) and Snuff (drums). Motivation became Shy Talk, signed with Columbia Records in US and released one album, but Garvey had left by then.
Pete Shelley: Homosapien https://youtu.be/2HwmO_GZfzI
In 1978, Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus (later partners in Factory Record) helped form a band from the remnants of punk band, Fast Breeder - namely, Chris Joyce on drums and guitarist Dave Rowbotham. The band was called Durutti Column, a mis-spelling of the anarchist military unit (Durrutti Column) in the Spanish Civil War, and also a comic strip called Le Retour de la Colonne Durrutti by André Bertrand, that was distributed during student protests at the University of Strasbourg in 1966.
The band was soon joined by Vini Reilly, Phil Rainford and Tony Bower, although Rainford was soon sacked and replaced by Colin Sharp on vocals. They cut two songs for the Factory Records double 7" single, A Factory Sample, that also included tracks by Joy Division, John Dowie and Cabaret Voltaire. The band broke up in a disagreement over the potential use of Martin Hannett to produce their debut album, but Reilly kept going, effectively making the band his solo project. The Return Of The Durutti Column was eventually produced with Hannett and consisted of nine instrumental tracks with a heavy classical influence (from Reilly's earlier training). When Factory Records met their demise, Wilson resurrected the project as Factory Too (under London Records), with 1994s Sex And Death by the Durutti Column being the first release. That record was produced by Stephen Street and included New Order's Peter Hook on the song, The Next Time.
The Durutti Column: The Next Time https://youtu.be/3_J3WHBrvT0
New Order were another band that were born from the ashes of something else. In their case, Joy Division ceased to be, the moment lead singer Ian Curtis died in May 1980. They played their first show - still unnamed at this stage - in July 1980, at The Beach Club in Manchester. The three remaining Joy Division members (Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris) were augmented by Gillian Gilbert (Morris's girlfriend) on keyboards. Long time manager, Rob Gretton, is said to have got the name from a headline in the Guardian - The People's New Order of Kampuchea. Nine years later, New Order found themselves touring the US and Canada on a bill with Public Image Limited, Throwing Muses and the Sugarcubes - a tour that the press would dub, "The Monsters of Alt Rock."
In a trio of re-births, Public Image Limited (PiL) were formed when John Lydon (né Rotten) had quit the Sex Pistols and was looking for a fresh start. He approached his old schoolfriend John Wardle, who shared his love of reggae and dub. It turned out that despite no previous experience, he had a natural talent for the bass - he was also known as Jah Wobble, by the way. They hooked up with original Clash guitarist, Keith Levene, and placed an ad for a drummer in the Melody Maker in May 1978, which was answered by new Canadian import Jim Walker. The band debuted with the single Public Image (that Lydon had written while still with the Pistols) in October 1978. That original line up gradually disintegrated, with Walker not lasting a year, yet they stumbled through, with a variety of line-ups to their first hiatus in 1992. The band, for their final gig in September that year, consisted of John Lydon, John McGeoch (Magazine and The Banshees), Ted Chau, Mike Joyce (The Smiths) and Russell Webb.
Public Image Limited: Public Image https://youtu.be/rIAZ8unRm2c
Russell Webb was born in Glasgow in 1958, and at age nineteen his musical career began, when he dropped out of university to replace Jim McGinlay as bass player in Slik. This bubblegum pop band included Midge Ure (pre-Ultravox), Kenny Hyslop and Billy McIsaac. The band changed their name to PVC2 and took on a more punk sound, releasing one single, Put You In The Picture in 1977 (it doesn't sound much like Vienna, that's for sure!). When Ure left the band to join Glen Matlock's Rich Kids, the others called up Willie Gardner (cousin of sensational Alex Harvey) and changed the band name to The Zones.
PVC2: Put You In The Picture https://youtu.be/dQod5Qwjteg
Webb then went on to join legendary Scots punks, The Skids, replacing William Simpson and featuring on the last two albums, The Absolute Game (1980) and Joy (1981). After The Skids, Jobson and Webb got together with John McGeoch (him again) and John Doyle (both recently in Magazine), and formed The Armoury Show. Forming in 1983, they released one album, Waiting For The Floods, in 1985.
Waiting For The Floods was produced by Nick Launay, one of the most sought after producers and mixers around. Noted for creating raw sounds and mood, Launay has worked with the likes of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire, Talking Heads, Midnight Oil and INXS. He started out at Tape One on Tottenham Court Road, working on K-Tel compilation albums, before getting a job at the Townhouse studio (owned by Virgin Records), where he assisted producers like John Leckie, Steve Lillywhite, Tony Visconti and Hugh Padgham.
The Armoury Show: Castles In Spain https://youtu.be/0k5TmQkQHD8
Launay produced the 1982 single Pagan Lovesong, for Irish post-punks Virgin Prunes. Lead singer (and best mate to Bono) Gavin Friday was approached for advice in the early 1980s by someone from another Dublin band. His advice to the young band member - "get out of Dublin!" That band took his advice - moving from Dublin to Berlin.
The band was My Bloody Valentine - the person was Kevin Shields.
Virgin Prunes: Pagan Lovesong https://youtu.be/ouKEPW8UN24