The Medusa Fora

I used to go see them with my friends at a number of their Midnight At The Olympia shows in the late eighties and early nineties. I also saw them play at a record store, and at The Dublin Airport. It was always great fun. One time at a midnight show, Frankie Lane gave this long sob story before he sang a song. He said he was so poor that he could not afford to put Rice Crispies on the table for his family. Later that week, I went with my mate McGuirk to The Super Crazy Prices in Finglas (my fav all time name for a grocery store..so wonderfully politically incorrect). We went to see the lads again that next weekend. We smuggled in the box of Rice Crispies, and got good seats near the stage. After Frankie sang his first song, McGuirk fired the box of Rice Crispies right at him. The box hit Frankie and fell to the Olmpia stage. Frankie picked them up and madly waved them over his head in joy, as they kicked into the next song. Ahh, the good old days.

Seven Towers wrote:I used to go see them with my friends at a number of their Midnight At The Olympia shows in the late eighties and early nineties. I also saw them play at a record store, and at The Dublin Airport. It was always great fun. One time at a midnight show, Frankie Lane gave this long sob story before he sang a song. He said he was so poor that he could not afford to put Rice Crispies on the table for his family. Later that week, I went with my mate McGuirk to The Super Crazy Prices in Finglas (my fav all time name for a grocery store..so wonderfully politically incorrect). We went to see the lads again that next weekend. We smuggled in the box of Rice Crispies, and got good seats near the stage. After Frankie sang his first song, McGuirk fired the box of Rice Crispies right at him. The box hit Frankie and fell to the Olmpia stage. Frankie picked them up and madly waved them over his head in joy, as they kicked into the next song. Ahh, the good old days.

Indeed, I was a guest singer with the Fleadhs a couple of times at those Olympia shows. I remember we did a sort of Western Swing version of Rodgers and Hart's "Where Or When" one night. The band supported the Pogues on a number of shows over the years. Pete Cummins (bass) and John Ryan (keyboards) were from the Irish pop/rock group Grannies Intentions, who had a legendary album Honest Injun on Deram around 1969 or so and came close to having a breakthrough single with their version of "Never An Everyday Thing", later a Northern Soul stomper for Eli Bonaparte. John played keyboards on "Under Clery's Clock" and "Plura Belle" by the Radiators in 1989. I last saw Frankie Laine at a festival in Scandinavia the Hellfire Club did a couple of years back.