REVOLVER: BRIAN BOYDon music
FOR HIS SHOW at Belfast’s Odyssey Arena, Justin Bieber had requested “12 x Soda” on his rider. After the show, he’s standing in his dressing room holding a soda farl in his hand and asking aloud “What the fuck is this?”.
This is just one of the stories you hear on the Belfast Music Tour ( belfastmusic.org), two of the most enjoyable hours I've spent in recent times.
Conceived and created by ex-NME journalist and current Oh Yeah Music Centre boss Stuart Bailie, the tour was originally an informal affair that focused mainly on the city’s many Van Morrison sites. It has since expanded into an all-encompassing affair.
You may think you already know all there is to know about Belfast’s musical history, but there’s many a pleasant surprise to be found on the tour. And who knew that Led Zeppelin, Paul Robeson and The Clash would all make cameo appearances?
We begin at the city’s famed Ulster Hall, where a guide fills you in on the venue’s picaresque history. It was certainly news to me that Stairway to Heaven got its first live outing here in 1971, or that the riot following The Clash’s cancelled appearance in 1977 kick-started the city’s punk moment in the sun.
From Stiff Little Fingers landmarks to the old Wizard studio where The Undertones recorded Teenage Kicks, and up to Snow Patrol and David Holmes, the tour is very comprehensive, but what really lifts it is the music being played in the coach as you travel around.
After you pause outside Van Morrison’s birthplace in east Belfast and the sounds of Cyprus Avenue fill the coach as you turn the corner into that very address, and later when you hear the majestic Orangefield, you get a real sense of how the streets and avenues of this area impacted on Morrison’s work, and gave it so much emotional resonance.
Morrison, obviously, dominates the tour, which is understandable given that he’s a colossus of Irish music. (It’s a tribute to the exegesis of his work provided by the tour that I found myself – within minutes of its ending – downloading a bundle of the great man’s songs on iTunes and appreciating their brilliance just that little bit more.)
The most poignant moment, though, is when you pitch up at Donegall Road for a look at Ruby Murray’s birthplace.
It’s difficult at this distance to comprehend just how huge a star Murray (1935-1996) was in the mid-1950s: at one stage she had five hit singles in the Top 20. With a personal life that made George Best’s seem boring, Murray’s story is one of music’s great tragedies – and a source of bemusement to many that she is best remembered today as the Cockney rhyming slang for a curry.
The tour is a must for Vanoraks (who have travelled from all over the world to experience it), but there’s also been quite a take-up from fans of a certain age eager to soak up all the Ruby Murray trivia. The tour guide talks about the time he had 44 mature ladies all singing along to Ruby’s Softly Softly as they journeyed down the Donegall Road.
Terri Hooley always said that what he was trying to do with the Good Vibrations label in the late 1970s was to restore the city to the musical health it enjoyed in the 1960s. And you do get a real sense of those days when you stop by the old Maritime Hotel where Gary Moore, Rory Gallagher and Them all cut their teeth.
There’s a free iTunes app (just look for Belfast Music Tour) you can put on your phone to enhance the experience. Really, you have to conclude that this is the best little rock’n’roll tour you could wish for.
If you’re anywhere near Belfast, make a point of hopping on board – you won’t regret it. And Dublin: do try and catch up.
mixedbag
* The new My Bloody Valentine album is, according to the band, influenced and inspired by The Beach Boys’ Smile. That is a very good thing.
* Those Euro 2012 football songs. Good Jesus, they’re bad.
bboyd@irishtimes.com
