SONGS FROM BILL'S DANCEHALL
Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 6:27 amPHILIP CHEVRON SONGS FROM BILL'S DANCEHALL
First released as a 12" Vinyl EP in 1981, B&J Music/Seaisland Sound Project (Japan) will release Songs From Bill's Dancehall by Philip Chevron on CD for the first time on its 25th Anniversary on November 11, 2006.
Back then, Philip Chevron (born Dublin, 1957) had just disbanded his legendary Irish punk band The Radiators From Space and it would be 3 more years before he would join his next group The Pogues. Now, in 2006, The Pogues have just completed a hugely successful tour of Japan and the Radiators will release their long-awaited new album later this month.
But before he became such a central figure in Irish rock music, the young Philip Chevron was already deeply involved in the literary and theatre scene in his native Dublin, Ireland, operating mainly out of the city's Project Arts Centre, home at the time to such future Irish luminaries as Liam Neeson, Gavin Friday, Jim Sheridan, Gabriel Byrne, Ciaran Hinds, Neil Jordan, Peter Sheridan and Gerard Mannix Flynn. Philip began as an apprentice to the late Agnes Bernelle, a Berlin-born actor, singer and director who made her home first in England and then in Ireland as a refugee from Hitler's Germany. Philip assisted Agnes in her productions of plays by Heinrich Boll, Frank Wedekind, Gunther Grass, Saul Bellow and others, most in their very first Dublin stagings, and performed in her version of Aristophanes' Lysistrata (1976) for which he also wrote and directed the music.
Bernelle was also, since the late 1950s, one of Europe's prime interpreters of the songs of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill and it was this aspect of her work that was her greatest influence on and inspiration to the teenage Philip Chevron. In 1976, Philip produced her first album of these songs and later, himself and Elvis Costello brought Agnes to a wider international audience with her legendary Father's Lying Dead On The Ironing Board album (1985), which Philip produced and Elvis financed. In 1981, Philip released Songs From Bill's Dancehall, his own youthful collection of songs from Brecht and Weill's Happy End, the musical they wrote in 1929 just after their biggest hit The Threepenny Opera. This was Chevron's first solo record, after two influential albums, TV Tube Heart (1977) and Ghostown (1979) with Dublin punk rockers The Radiators From Space. In 1983, Elvis Costello produced Philip's second solo record, a single of "The Captains And The Kings" (1983), from Irish writer Brendan Behan's play The Hostage. Soon after this, Chevron joined The Pogues and Elvis produced the second Pogues album Rum, Sodomy And The Lash (1985). The Pogues went on to achieve worldwide fame with albums like If I Should Fall From Grace With God (1988), Peace And Love (1989), Hell's Ditch (1990) and Waiting For Herb (1993). They split up finally in 1996 but the full classic line up regrouped in 2001 and have continued to tour, including visits to Japan in 2005 and 2006. Meanwhile, The Radiators From Space have also reformed and have a new album Trouble Pilgrim released on October 20, 2006.
Meanwhile, Philip Chevron has continued to work in the theatre whenever time allows. Along with playwright Jim Sheridan (who later became an Oscar-winning director and screen-writer) he wrote the musical The Ha'penny Place which starred Agnes Bernelle in its Dublin production in 1979. Also that year, Agnes co-starred with The Radiators in Black Champagne in London's West End. Philip was musical director for Kathy Burke's production of Behan's The Quare Fellow in Britain in 2004 and his contribution to Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant Of Inishmore was heard this year at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway. Among many other theatre credits, Philip was delighted to return to Dublin's Project Arts Centre in 2005 to be musical director for Songs In Her Suitcase, a puppet play about the extraordinary life of Agnes Bernelle, who had died in 2002. Chevron's Legends Of Dead Soldiers was a one-man show of Brecht material, including all the songs from Bill's Dancehall. Philip performed this show as a famously controversial opening act to radical Irish band Moving Hearts (with Christy Moore) in Dublin in 1981, proving that Brecht had lost none of his capacity to stir up trouble!
Songs From Bill's Dancehall has, over the years, become something of a collector's item among Pogues and Radiators fans but this is the first time the recording has been made available on CD, remastered by Chevron's long-term collaborator Nick Robbins. It is released with a new booklet, designed by U2 art director Steve Averill and containing elements of the original 1981 artwork and a new sleeve note frpm Philip Chevron himself.
B& J Music/S.S.P SSP-2001
First released as a 12" Vinyl EP in 1981, B&J Music/Seaisland Sound Project (Japan) will release Songs From Bill's Dancehall by Philip Chevron on CD for the first time on its 25th Anniversary on November 11, 2006.
Back then, Philip Chevron (born Dublin, 1957) had just disbanded his legendary Irish punk band The Radiators From Space and it would be 3 more years before he would join his next group The Pogues. Now, in 2006, The Pogues have just completed a hugely successful tour of Japan and the Radiators will release their long-awaited new album later this month.
But before he became such a central figure in Irish rock music, the young Philip Chevron was already deeply involved in the literary and theatre scene in his native Dublin, Ireland, operating mainly out of the city's Project Arts Centre, home at the time to such future Irish luminaries as Liam Neeson, Gavin Friday, Jim Sheridan, Gabriel Byrne, Ciaran Hinds, Neil Jordan, Peter Sheridan and Gerard Mannix Flynn. Philip began as an apprentice to the late Agnes Bernelle, a Berlin-born actor, singer and director who made her home first in England and then in Ireland as a refugee from Hitler's Germany. Philip assisted Agnes in her productions of plays by Heinrich Boll, Frank Wedekind, Gunther Grass, Saul Bellow and others, most in their very first Dublin stagings, and performed in her version of Aristophanes' Lysistrata (1976) for which he also wrote and directed the music.
Bernelle was also, since the late 1950s, one of Europe's prime interpreters of the songs of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill and it was this aspect of her work that was her greatest influence on and inspiration to the teenage Philip Chevron. In 1976, Philip produced her first album of these songs and later, himself and Elvis Costello brought Agnes to a wider international audience with her legendary Father's Lying Dead On The Ironing Board album (1985), which Philip produced and Elvis financed. In 1981, Philip released Songs From Bill's Dancehall, his own youthful collection of songs from Brecht and Weill's Happy End, the musical they wrote in 1929 just after their biggest hit The Threepenny Opera. This was Chevron's first solo record, after two influential albums, TV Tube Heart (1977) and Ghostown (1979) with Dublin punk rockers The Radiators From Space. In 1983, Elvis Costello produced Philip's second solo record, a single of "The Captains And The Kings" (1983), from Irish writer Brendan Behan's play The Hostage. Soon after this, Chevron joined The Pogues and Elvis produced the second Pogues album Rum, Sodomy And The Lash (1985). The Pogues went on to achieve worldwide fame with albums like If I Should Fall From Grace With God (1988), Peace And Love (1989), Hell's Ditch (1990) and Waiting For Herb (1993). They split up finally in 1996 but the full classic line up regrouped in 2001 and have continued to tour, including visits to Japan in 2005 and 2006. Meanwhile, The Radiators From Space have also reformed and have a new album Trouble Pilgrim released on October 20, 2006.
Meanwhile, Philip Chevron has continued to work in the theatre whenever time allows. Along with playwright Jim Sheridan (who later became an Oscar-winning director and screen-writer) he wrote the musical The Ha'penny Place which starred Agnes Bernelle in its Dublin production in 1979. Also that year, Agnes co-starred with The Radiators in Black Champagne in London's West End. Philip was musical director for Kathy Burke's production of Behan's The Quare Fellow in Britain in 2004 and his contribution to Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant Of Inishmore was heard this year at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway. Among many other theatre credits, Philip was delighted to return to Dublin's Project Arts Centre in 2005 to be musical director for Songs In Her Suitcase, a puppet play about the extraordinary life of Agnes Bernelle, who had died in 2002. Chevron's Legends Of Dead Soldiers was a one-man show of Brecht material, including all the songs from Bill's Dancehall. Philip performed this show as a famously controversial opening act to radical Irish band Moving Hearts (with Christy Moore) in Dublin in 1981, proving that Brecht had lost none of his capacity to stir up trouble!
Songs From Bill's Dancehall has, over the years, become something of a collector's item among Pogues and Radiators fans but this is the first time the recording has been made available on CD, remastered by Chevron's long-term collaborator Nick Robbins. It is released with a new booklet, designed by U2 art director Steve Averill and containing elements of the original 1981 artwork and a new sleeve note frpm Philip Chevron himself.
B& J Music/S.S.P SSP-2001
