Leslie Dowdall is playing The Brogan Inn in Bandon soon!
Pause, little shudder of excitement, continue.
For those of you too young to remember, Leslie was to many Irish men who are now in their late thirties, the 1980’s equivalent of Jessica Alba. I’m not sure if Hot Press had pull-out posters of her, but they should have. She sang with a band called In Tua Nua who were famous for 6 months in Grangemockler (five miles from Windgap).
I’ve no idea how she has aged and for some reason I can only picture her in my head wearing a big heavy coat rather than anything sexy. This was rural Ireland twenty years ago.
The signs for the gig actually say “Ex-In Tua Nua”. Is this the equivalent of Pat Rabbitte’s election signs saying “ex-Sinn Fein The Workers Party”? No, they weren’t too bad really, they just never grew beyond Ireland.
Thinking of her brought to mind “Cactus World News”. These guys went ballistic in Ballyhale overnight around the same time and I’ll never forget my friend Shaun stating categorically that they would be bigger than U2. When they disappeared without a trace after the first single, the reason given was that they were purely a studio band and had never gigged. Ah bless, the innocence of the 20th Century. If only they’d had MySpace back then.
If baby wasn’t due very soon, I think us auld pair would head out to the gig for a reminisce.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, YouTube is the greatest website ever. They have a clip of her in action! The spectacles weren’t that rose tinted.
UPDATE 1: Looks like we may have missed it, I found something on MySpace saying it was on the 20th. Damn.
UPDATE 2: Holy cactus batman, they have clips of Cactus World News on YouTube too. Check out “The Bridge” which was their only real hit.
UPDATE 3: There is still time! According to her web-site the gig is on Nov 24th. She has also gone all cool and done a MySpace page.
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