U2 at the Dandelion: An Interview with John Fisher
Original Story by Harry Kantas (2020-02-24)
The Dandelion Market was a popular market for buying and selling used and new goods in the 1970s in Dublin, in a building that was the old Taylor-Keith bottling plant, now a car park through the week. In 1979, two enterprising guys by the name of John Fisher and Eoin O’Shea set up a stall called Sticky Fingers selling badges and other punk merchandise, and as a way to get more traffic to their stall hatched the idea of setting up a performance space to bring music fans to the market. The power room of the market became a makeshift performance venue with a stage made out of beer crates and chipboard and hosted a number of bands including a young band called U2. The first performance happened on April 21, 1979, and performances at the Market continued for almost a year, ending in February 1980. I had an opportunity to speak with John Fisher to discuss the market, and U2’s performances at the market back in 1979.
U2 played the Market a total of eight times. Fisher confirms the following dates were the only dates that U2 played at the venue:
- May 12, 1979: U2
- July 28, 1979: U2 (Performance with The Strougers)
- August 11, 1979: U2 (Performance with The Strougers)
- September 9, 1979: U2
- September 15, 1979: U2 (Performance with The Scheme)
- September 22, 1979: U2
- November 17, 1979: U2 (Performance with The Epidemics)
- December 23, 1979: U2 (Performance with The Threat)
Recently, I sat down with John to discuss the Dandelion Market and these now legendary performances by U2.
H: When was the last time you were around these parts?
J: I’m not that far away. I used to live in South Williams Street, down the road for about 9 or 10 years, near St. Patrick’s Cathedral, so I haven’t gone far from there!
H: What are you up to these days? By the way, thanks for hanging out!
J: Cheers, yeah! I make videos—it’s all kinda commercial, corporate videos
H: You’re not involved in music anymore?
J: That’s what I wanted to do. But in Ireland, there’s not a lot of bands doing videos…
H: As far as I remember, when I first moved here, I started looking at how U2 got started, and I started looking at other bands, as well. There were no promoters back in the day. The only way to get a band to play was college gigs.
J: College was a big source, that’s right, [University College Dublin in] Belfield was one.
H: Trinity College here in Dublin, Queen’s University in Belfast, and all those places.
J: And even nearby here, Kevin Street—I remember going to see The Boomtown Rats at Kevin Street College. But only very occasionally. You’re right, the colleges were good. But there were about four or five promoters, a couple still going, Pat Egan is still a promoter, he would have been doing gigs, and a few guys, but it was all quite casual. In some ways it was hard for bands to get taken seriously, to break it big. But it was actually easy enough to get local gigs, just to walk into a place and say, ‘‘Hey, can we play here next week? We have a band.” And just made up a name.
H: What would you say the capacity is [at the Dandelion Market], would you have any idea?
J: Funnily, I do. I was thinking about it fairly recently. I was talking to The Edge about two weeks ago about the Market. And I have a note, I think it’s the biggest amount of money we took, it was 50pn for every gig, every time, and the biggest amount we took was the old pounds, 157 IEP. For U2’s last gig for us.
H: Was that a double bill? It was U2 and somebody else?
J: There was a support band, The Threat. But it wasn’t a double bill, it was pretty much U2. What happened was, I had this other band, the Threat, due to play there. And U2 were just coming back from London after their first trip there. It was kinda…
H: ‘‘It’s going somewhere.’‘
J: Yeah. They came back and said, “Look, we’d love to play our last farewell type thing. This is the weekend we can do.” So I asked The Threat would they kind of stand aside and support the band. So I think that’s how it transpired.
H: Do you remember, were there any other bands that made it out of there? You know, that became bigger?
J: The Blades were really big.
H: I’ve seen the dates you posted, I know a few good bands played.
J: The Blades are still going.
H: I think they released something very recently.
J: They did. They kind of do a gig every Christmas and they released an album this year.
H: I think I met a member of The Blades at a U2 gig somewhere, at a bar. Can’t remember his name, but he was telling me stories of playing around the same time.
J: They’re playing in December. So they were probably the band that were the closest [to U2]. A lot of people tipped them more than U2 to succeed.
There was a band that came down maybe three times, from Belfast, called The Outcasts. Great punk band. They’re still going. They’re still playing.
H: Was it mostly punk bands?
J: Yeah. There were two guys working at the stall, you know, we had one very big stall, and then sometimes in summertime it might take up a second stall somewhere else in the Market, so we had two or three guys working for us. And two of them set up a band and they played maybe on the third weekend. Rocky De Valera and The Gravediggers. They were more for rock n’ roll, rockabilly.
There was a film made called Shell Shock Rock by John T. Davis in Belfast, about the punk scene in Belfast. And we showed it at The Market one weekend. They had a couple of other Belfast bands. Rudy from Derry. We had a mixture. There were a few punk rock bands and a few more new wave-y bands… There was a bit of a mix of both, but punk was really close to our hearts.
H: Did it all get kick started after The Clash played Trinity, do you remember? Cause that was like the Summer of Punk. Everybody kind of got started at the same time.
J: Funny, I was reading a thing just today, an interview with Bono and Elton John, talking about the importance of Joe Strummer. I think Bono called it Day Zero or Ground Zero. It was that gig for him, for so many people in Dublin, it was when everything started. I’ve written a couple of pieces about that gig in Trinity. Such a good gig. And because it was the first time that an English band had come to play here
H: What was that like? Was it weird for the Irish punk fans to watch an English band play around that time? Just after the Troubles, right?
J: Yeah, that’s exactly right. It was wonderful. And the night before that, the gig in Belfast was cancelled because of the trouble with the army and with the locals. It was very edgy. And then they were playing in Trinity. First time I walked into Trinity: ‘‘Oh, that’s where the posh students go.” I remember going into one of those very posh halls [at Trinity]. Big, high ceilings and portraits of people all over it.
H: I studied in Trinity for a year, I remember all those places, they are still as posh as you describe them!
J: We had a great day there I think last year, or two years ago. It was the 40th anniversary of the gig. In fairness to the guys who worked in the Students Union, there were a couple of them at the show last year, they really pushed the boat out, getting these punk bands out, and with The Adverts and different people. The Buzzcocks… they were helping to sow the seed.
H: How did you get started with the Market?
J: I left school in ‘76, and my friend, who was my partner…
H: Eoin O’Shea?
J: Eoin, yeah, he wanted to get money to go to a couple of gigs in London that summer, so we set up the stall in the Market up in the Liberties selling everything we could lay our hands on.
H: Bootleg stuff?
J: No, no. Sunglasses, pins, patches, stuff that you’d want to get rid of. And we went to England that summer, saw The Rolling Stones in Knebworth, and then went to the Reading Festival, which was like Glastonbury. In between that, we were in London for a few days and it was summer of ‘76, it was the first punk sound happening. And then at the gig in Reading, Eddie and the Hot Rods played, and although they were an R&B band, it was punk, the attitude was punk.
And they had badges, “I Caught The Rods at Reading” or something. I remember seeing a few other badges, “Rolling Stones in Knebworth,” and suddenly in London, there were badges everywhere. So we came back and the NME, the newspapers, the backpages and all the small ads: badges, badges of the bands. And we thought: “Oh, this could be good!”
So we started buying, maybe 50, the normal pricing, you know we were selling this, “Can you give us a better price?” And bit by bit, we came back to this market, it had been in Baggot Street beforehand. So we started selling the badges and it was starting to go well. Back then bands like Status Quo, Led Zeppelin, even those bands wanted the big badges, and the punk ones were tiny button ones. Then they just started getting bigger and bigger, by the week almost. So our stall was doubled in size.
H: But were you originally a fan of the scene, or did you just see a business opportunity?
J: For me, it was the music. Eoin is a great entrepreneur. He loved music, but he would be more, “This could work and here’s how we can build it.” And me, I hadn’t had a clue about the badges even!
H: What age were you at the time, yourself and Eoin?
J: He was a year younger than me, so then I would’ve been 20. And I’d been working five days a week in a shop that was down in Temple Bar, selling TVs and record players, Monday to Friday, then Saturday to Sunday here [at the Market] and going out almost every night.
I was working for 13 pounds a week, and then at the weekends, if we’d done well, we’d make 100 quid each. Forget the five days a week! [Laughs] And Eoin was in college, he was studying in UCD to be a solicitor, and he is a solicitor still!
H: Did you ever think, “This is working, why not do it full-time?”
J: I think, at that point, I was so laid back and so much enjoying it and getting into playing music myself.
Because for me, I didn’t see the long term plan… maybe just this weekend.
We did other markets too in the summers, for a year or two, and Christmas holidays, when Eoin wasn’t in college and had time off, maybe we’d go to the market in Kildare.
On Tuesdays, every second week there’d be a market there and we’d set up there, or we’d go as far as Tullamore or other places. And then we were selling badges to some other people, up to Belfast. We were kinda doing festivals then, the biggest one would’ve been when Rory Gallagher played near Cork.
We’d print out Rory Gallagher t-shirts and have his badges, and then here, Status Quo played in Dalymount Park, we’d set up and sell outside. I remember a guy coming out—this is outside the venue, just set up, there’s no rules—a guy coming up from the management and opening his jacket with a gun: ‘’You guys should bugger off!’’ “No problem!” [Laughs]
H: How did you set up the space for the performances? I think I read somewhere that you said the bands had to come over and help as well.
J: We had very very few rules, but one of them was—if the gig is, let’s say at 3pm, you had to be in at 11am, something like that, and help build the stage.
Because this was open during the week, it was the car park, and it had different entrances. Some kids would come in from York Street and could get in there sometimes through the roof, or through a broken window. And kids being kids, they just trashed the stage, which was usually a few beer crates and bits of wood. Maybe once or twice a month we’d buy a new sheet of wood and put over the crates.
H: Did the bands have to bring their own gear in?
J: Equipment, yeah. Amps, lights, everything, cause it was, as my sister used to call it, “The Black Hole of Calcutta.” ‘Cause it was pretty dingy and dirty and not nice, we would just whitewash the walls, that’s all we could do.
Apart from that, it was an empty space. If you walked around here on a Saturday morning, because it was a car park, there was always stuff being thrown out; beer bottles, sometimes bits of wood. And we’d just come along and nail down a few bits. But the bands had to come down and sweep up the place with us, build the stage. We’d help, but it was just one kind of rule that we had.
H: Did U2 ever show up to set up?
J: They weren’t the best! The first week there was one or two of them that arrived kinda early, kicked around a few things, and they had a sound guy—not their own sound guy, but a guy, a sound engineer in Dublin that would do sound for us. And he’d have to come around and help build the stage or whatever. They weren’t too pushed about doing it!
H: Sounds about right!
J: Then within a couple of times that they played there, they already had help from two people helping them to get in the gear, build the stage with us. They wouldn’t really get their hands dirty!
H: You got to work the lights for them at one gig, right?
J: Yeah, there was one time. Lights were just a lighting tripod with three cans on each side, and Niall, the sound guy, didn’t have anyone else to do it, so he said to me “Just do it!”
H: Had you worked lights before?
J: No. But it’s just like you press the buttons. I was kinda getting into it. At times I thought I was doing quite well. I did sound work, I knew a bit about it. I kinda knew the dynamics of what you should do but maybe I was getting too cocky with it and pressing a few too many buttons. It ended up at one point with darkness on one side, and whoever was on the other side got full blast of all the lights! That was a bit funny, but it was grand.
H: So you weren’t asked back, then…
J: [Laughs] No. Not for the last tour.
H: One other thing. I’ve been looking at your personal listings from those gigs. They were only weekend gigs, right? Because I’ve seen elsewhere on the Internet Wednesday shows listed and other weird dates, and I’m thinking, “It was a car park, it would kinda be impossible to have gigs outside the weekend, right?”
J: Yep, you’re absolutely right. Purely Saturday and Sunday.
H: How did you compose that list—from memory, or did you keep a diary at the time?
J: It was made up at the time. Eoin had the complete original list in 1979, and I remember that by 1980 I got the list off him and made a copy of it.
H: Do you remember U2’s backdrop at all? Do you remember if they used to bring it themselves, or what was the story there?
J: It certainly was not ours, we didn’t supply any. I don’t remember, was it a backdrop, or was it just spray?
‘Cause behind the stage, every week the band would just spray their name, so the backdrop became just more and more names. And it was only every three months we had to whitewash the place so it might end up clean again.
H: I thought it was a backdrop ‘cause it was a bit elaborate looking.
J: It’s possible; I do have a vague memory of just a big white cross.
H: We can look it up. There’s one picture when you look up “U2 Dandelion;” there’s one picture that pops up. [Points at photo] It’s a bit elaborate for a spray job, but I’m not sure.
J: Oh yeah, that’s not spray paint, definitely. That’s as you say, a backdrop.
[Looks at the photo] Sticky Fingers—that was our stall. I have a feeling that could possibly be Eoin! Kinda looks like him.
IMAGE: Picture of Poster shown by John to Harry
[John takes out his phone and shows me a picture of a poster. It lists U2 and a band called The Threat in bold lettering with equal-sized logos. It was meant to be a poster advertising a Dandelion Market gig.]
J: I was talking to Edge the other week. He was curious about this [points to the poster on his phone], whether it is genuine or not. And I wrote back to him, after I had thought about it, and said: “To me that’s fake and the reason that I think it’s fake—I don’t think we ever printed posters for gigs, it just wouldn’t make sense.” There were only maybe 100 people coming to a show, for 50p a head. And another thing was, the band took all the money.
Either Eoin or I would stand at the door and take the money, 50p. Getting in, there was no ticket, no stub. I think that was one of the other questions—”Do you have any tickets?” No tickets. Give me 50p, you go, you walk in, and people didn’t leave. There were no toilets, no nothing.
H: Interesting you say that now. Have you ever been to the Museum of Dublin?
J: Oh yes, I have; I haven’t seen the U2 room yet though.
H: I was involved in curating that exhibition. We were looking for any posters from the Dandelion, and I remember thinking, “I don’t think there were any.” We even reached out to a few people who would’ve been around the Market back then, and no one remembered of any existing.
J: Yeah, we definitely didn’t have any posters. I don’t think U2 did posters back then, either. And if you did make a poster, because again it’s only 100 people—the only posters the bands did then might say “U2,” with blank space at the bottom and you get a marker and write something like “Dandelion Market, the 28th”, so you can use the poster for more gigs.
H: Moreover, that was in December, right? So, by then U2 had already released “Out Of Control.” So, they had a template poster back then. It was the cover of U2-Three, then there was an empty space at the bottom, and then they would just write the venue, exactly as you describe it. And none of these posters have the U2 “Three” cover on them.
J: That was one thing. We didn’t make them, and even if U2 made them, they wouldn’t have given The Threat that big font, which is better and bigger than theirs! And they also wouldn’t have known who would support them. [We would approach a band and say] “Ok, you can play the support slot.” But no, The Threat—this gig might have been different, would be the main act.
The only other thing I thought of was, if a fan was in college, like a design college, somebody may have printed these posters on the college machine, 20 or 30 of these, and put them up just in the Market or something. It wasn’t the band. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t The Threat.
H: That would make more sense actually, cause that looks like an expensive poster as well. It’s not white on black. It’s black on white.
J: Exactly. More ink used. And the only printer in Dublin who was doing printing then was Tony Bradfield, who was the only rock n’ roll printer. His minimum is 500. So again, that is…
H: …more than the capacity of the place!
J: Right!
IMAGE: Newspaper Advert for U2 with The Strougers
H; Do you remember much from those farewell gigs, before U2 went to London or when they came back? Do you remember any of the songs they played?
J: Honestly, no. I don’t remember much at all. I remember, I presume it’s from one of those two shows, standing back and kinda going, “Whoa, something is happening.” The place was packed! The crowd was going mad! And the sound was suddenly coming together. Edge had found his sound, they were starting to sound like something different.
H: So there were eight gigs they did there. You saw a bit of a difference, right?
J: Yeah, generally, that’s from the first time they came in. I have a vague memory of covers of some Bob Marley songs.
H: Peter Frampton—they did a lot of that back then.
J: Peter Frampton, really? But then, bit by bit, the crowds were getting bigger, the reactions were getting bigger and the sound just kinda coming together.
I don’t have any major memories. What would happen, particularly in winter time, was, because of the whole Market, everyone would have lots of lighting on, heaters maybe, to keep their feet warm, and when bands started playing, it would always trip the whole power supply. The whole Market would suddenly go into complete darkness. And there was one guy, right at the back here, who had a stall selling singles and records. And he worked for ESB [the Irish Electric Supply Board], so he had the job to come up to fix the fuse—old-school fix, replacing the fuses and putting them back up.
The Market would be so jammed here, particularly on a Sunday, it was a busy day. I don’t know if you’ve been to a Camden Market; it can be crazy, it was like that. Trying to get there, it could take you five minutes.
H: Was there any trouble, were the Guards ever involved or called?
J: No, it never got to that point.
H: No fights?
J: Oh there were always fights, big fights. At the stall we’d have rock n’ roll, punk badges, and the mods and the rockers would get into fights. But here at the top of Stephen’s Green, that’s where the gangs met, at a record shop, very well-known Advanced Records, punks would hang out there. There would always be fights around here and up around Grafton Street. But there was never any trouble at the gigs.
IMAGE: Dandelion Market sign covering the Car Park Sign (Via an RTE Archive)
H: Did the band or anyone close to the band ever have their own stall at the Market?
J: Regine Moylett—she had a shop called “No Romance.” The first punk shop. It would’ve been maybe about three shops in. She would’ve sold pins and badges and stuff like that.
H: Would those shops also be open on the weekends, when the gigs were on?
J: Yeah.
H: I’ve been in Ireland for 12 years now, and every time I meet someone new, the moment they realise I like U2 they all go ‘’Oh yeah, I saw them back in the day at the Dandelion Market!” Which, if I’m doing the maths for the capacity of the place and the number of times U2 played there, it definitely doesn’t add up!
J: [Laughs] I know!
H: What do you think of that? Do you see it as a compliment?
J: Yeah, absolutely.
H: It’s like a cultural thing now, right?
J: Oh for sure, big time. Sometimes I hear people say, “Oh, I remember seeing U2 there one Saturday night,” or they say something that’s not true. I don’t think they’re lying. You kinda super-impose some memories on yourself and it becomes locked in your brain. So I think they’re just mixing up events from their memory.
I was just saying to Edge, met him at a party a couple of weeks ago, Gavin Friday’s party, we were talking about Dandelion. I said, “I’m thinking about recreating the venue and getting you guys in to do something sort of special, a video or something.” But again, looking at the dates, sometime in November 2019 would have been exactly 40 years ago. It really is a milestone.
IMAGE: U2 Get In Free Card (Photo courtesy of Jeff Muir)
H: Have you held on to any U2 or other memorabilia from that time?
J: The only thing I do have somewhere is, I think at the very last show, or the second-to-last show, and I presume it was Paul McGuinness, gave me these little business cards that just said ‘’U2 Free.’’ And he said, “This is a free pass to get in to the gig, so if you see any friends of the band, just let them in.”
So i still have two of them left over, and I gave one to the Hot Press Hall of Fame, when it opened, every ticket stub and poster I had and every gig I’ve gone to, which was a lot.
And when they opened The Hall of Fame in Abbey Street, they got the posters and just plastered them onto the wall. And then they had the tickets from the gigs I’ve been to in cases. But then they closed down. And all my stuff has disappeared somewhere!
H: Wow, so sorry to hear that, that’s terrible!
J: So they had one of those [“U2 Free” cards], and I have one, the very first kind of backstage pass; well, like a free ticket.
H: Was it like a business card size?
J: Yes, maybe slightly longer. Just the U2 logo and “Free” written on it.
H: Typewriter style? No images?
J: No, nothing like that. Red lettering, and white background.
H: U2 aside, do you have any other fond memories from the Dandelion Market?
J: The Outcasts were probably one of my favorite bands. The energy that they had.
H: What were they like? Can you remember how they got started? They didn’t have a record at that time, right? They had a single out, I think?
J: They had a single, with Terri Hooley from Good Vibrations, a single called “Self-Conscious Over You.” Getty, the guitar player, he’d just hit the strings so hard, his fingers would be bleeding, and the stage after they were done had blood all over it.
H: Really? Wow!
J: They were a great band to watch
H: How was the Irish punk scene? It was a relatively new scene when you started doing it. How were they compared to the shows you saw in London when you went up there?
J: Irish punk bands… my first thought would probably be that mostly they were kinda copying what they’d heard from London. There were exceptions. Like The Radiators. They were truly unique. They were worthy of it. Their first album was very punky, great lyrics. Their second album, Ghost Town, was phenomenal. They were going away from punk. It was unique, it was Irish. I guess most Irish punk tended to be, “Let’s just be angry, let’s spit, the same way they do it over there!” To me, punk was over in nine or ten months, maybe.
H: What do you mean?
J: I remember, in Trinity, the same place I’d seen The Clash, maybe six to eight months later… not sure exactly. I went to see The Buzzcocks. I remember leaving the gig thinking, “It’s over.” It was fake; something wasn’t the same. Another thing, it changed from punk going to new wave. The Jam were going far more mod, I absolutely loved that. The Clash were the one band to me that kept it going for a good while. I loved rockabilly song records. I love my rockabilly. The Clash were going that way.
H: Yeah, they were pretty diverse.
J: The Jam, Adverts, The Pistols… the dream was over. And they had nowhere to go from there. You can only be angry in a three-minute song for so long. And everyone was getting annoyed with all that spitting.
H: Did you ever catch the Virgin Prunes live?
J: Yeah. I was talking to Guggi on a radio show on the phone, we were talking about the Dandelion, and he sold cowboy boots, he had a shop there. He was talking about that, and we were talking about the gigs and U2. And I said, “You guys would be there playing with U2.” And he said, “I don’t think we ever played there.” And in my memory I can see from where I was standing, watching them. He could be right, I could be right. I definitely was working when they supported The Clash, and myself and my brother were at the front of the stage, working security. Another band, Berlin, played, and the Prunes came out. People were going so mad; we were holding the barrier. When they finished, it was building up for The Clash, people getting even more wild. We were thinking, “The hell with the 25 quid, it’s not worth it!” So it was around then that I know, particularly Trevor Strongman, and Guggi and Gavin. So we’ve seen a few gigs.
I remember, maybe 15 years ago, they asked me to maybe do some work with the band. Can’t remember if it was maybe a video or promoting their album; they had an album out.
It’s funny, there’s still a gang of people I see around town who either had stalls at the Market or played in bands. There was a painter, Graham Nuttle; he had a stall in the Market, and people went on to own shops in town, got their start.
H: How long did that last? You were involved until the mid-80s?
J: I think when the gigs stopped, there was trouble and thievery, punk had come and gone, people started not coming in not quite as much. And I kinda had to say I had to move on. Eoin kept the stall going, at the weekend. The music stopped, and I went to London for a bit to see if maybe I’d get involved in something over there.
The Market went on only up until ‘81. They demolished it. And I have a bit of a video. I was already getting into doing the video stuff back in ‘82, maybe, and the old Market had been flattened; nothing had been built. I was going for a job at CBS Records, so I made a mini-documentary of it. It was like my application. Instead of writing a CV, I made a video about it. And I got different people to say, “Yeah, John is a great guy!” I snuck through the barrier and filmed in the rubble that was left. I came across the footage about five years ago.
H: Is that available somewhere? Is it online?
J: I have it at home. I can’t even remember where it is now. I showed it just to my partner and daughter, with that hair. Very English-y accent. I was born in London. Lived there until I was 11. My accent back then, when I was 23, was very London-sounding. Didn’t recognize myself!
I’d like to take a moment to thank John for speaking with us about the days at The Dandelion Market. The Market itself is no more. The closure was first announced at the end of 1980, and stall owners were notified in January 1981 that they would no longer be able to operate the trading centre. The building was torn down shortly after and the St. Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre was built on this location. The shows themselves have become part of the legend of U2, and many claim to have seen the band at these early shows.
Full List of Gigs at the Dandelion Market (April 1979 – March 1980)
APRIL 1979:
Sat 21: The Noise Boys
Sun 22: No Gig
Sat 28: Rocky DeValera & The Grave Diggers
Sun 29: Room Service
MAY 1979
Sat 5: Berlin
Sun 6: Zebra
Sat 12: U2
Sun 13: Fit Kilkenny & The Remoulds
Sat 19: Highly Contagious / High ‘n’ Dry
Sun 20: The Letters / The Black Catholics
Sat 26: Roumantics / The Strougers
Sun 27: The Blades / Strange Movements
JUNE 1979
Sat 02: Jaroc / Lydon Shunt
Sun 03: The Rage
Sat 09: A.P.B.
Sun 10: Free Booze / The Discords (Free Booze was a band that Hozier’s father played in.)
Sat 16: The Blades / Revolver
Sun 17: D.C. Nien / The Modulators
Sat 23: Room Service / Blue Angel
Sun 24: Sidewinder / The Haze
Sat 30: The Boy Scoutz
JULY 1979
Sun 01: Too Much Yin
Sat 07: No Details
Sun 08: No Details
Sat 14: Blackout
Sun 15: Dreamdates (Boy Scoutz, The Sinners, Fabulous Fabrics)
Sat 21: Free Booze
Sun 22: Uncle Waldo / P45 / Crisis
Sat 28: U2 / The Strougers
Sun 29: New Versions / The Blitz
AUGUST 1979
Sat 04: New Versions
Sun 05: The Atrix
Sat 11: U2
Sun 12: The Moondogs
Sat 18: The Tearjerkers
Sun 19: Emerald
Sat 25: Berlin
Sun 26: The Threat / Social Fools
SEPTEMBER 1979
Sat 01: D.C. Nien
Sun 02: D.C. Nien / Human Error
Sat 08: Brown Thomas Band
Sun 09: U2
Sat 15: U2
Sun 16: The Blades
Sat 22: U2
Sun 23: Square Meal
Sat 29: No Gig (The Pope playing in Phoenix Park!)
Sun 30: The Scheme / Static Routines
OCTOBER 1979
Sat 06: The Resistors
Sun 07: The Roach Band
Sat 13: The Atrix
Sun 14: The Atrix
Sat 20: The Resistors
Sun 21: The Epidemix
Sat 27: New Belson / Soul Survivors / The Vain
Sun 28: D.C. Nien
NOVEMBER 1979
Sat 03: Population / The Strougers / The Regents
Sun 04: New Belson / The Scheme
Sat 10: The Cheaters
Sun 11: Neon Heart / The Alternatives
Sat 17: U2 / The Epidemix (John: “U2 farewell gig when they went to London for the first time”)
Sun 18: Sacre Bleu
Sat 24: D.C. Nien
Sun 25: D.C. Nien
DECEMBER 1979
Sat 01: The Outcasts
Sun 02: The Outcasts
Sat 08: New Versions
Sun 09: The Threat
Sat 15: Shock Treatment / Lovers of Today
Sun 16: The Epidemix / The Bogey Boys
Sat 22: The Male Caucasians
Sun 23: U2 / The Threat (John: “U2 just back from first trip to London”)
Mon 24: Dino & The Dolphins
Sat 29: Low Profile
Sun 30: The Scheme
JANUARY 1980
Sat 05: The Epidemix
Sun 06: The Setz
Sat 12: The Epidemix
Sun 13: No Gig
Sat 19: No Gig (John: “I don’t remember why there were no gigs – maybe a bus strike?”)
Sun 20: No Gig
Sat 26: No Gig
Sun 27: Strike
FEBRUARY 1980
Sat 02: Berlin
Sun 03: Da Dudes
Sat 09: The Parasites
Sun 10: No Details
Sat 16: Shell Shock Rock / Shock Treatment (John: “Shell Shock Rock was a John T. Davis film about The Outcasts)
Sun 17: Shell Shock Rock* / The Sect (*John T. Davis film about The Outcasts)
Sat 23: Nun Attax
Sun 24: Dynamo
MARCH 1980
Sat 01: Rudi / The Outcasts / Big Self
Sun 02: No Details
Sat 08: The Muff Divers
Sun 09: The Epidemix
Sat 15:
Sun 16: Strike
Sat 22: Banditz
Sun 23:
All these listings come from an a list that John had composed within the last few months of the final gig, using records from the shows, as well as newspaper adverts and the like.
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