A few words on Peace Together, a 1993 benefit album, taking in: Sinéad O’Connor, Peter Gabriel, New Order, My Bloody Valentine, The Fatima Mansions, Cocteau Twins, Andrew Weatherall, Baywatch, President Mary Robinson and Mother Teresa.

Various Artists - *Peace Together* (CD, Island Records, 1993).

Introduction

“One album in which British & Irish musicians focus on strength & hope in the face of adversity,” declares the little circular notice on the front of Peace Together, a benefit album released on Island Records in 1993.

I recently found my cassette copy. I didn’t buy the tape in the knowledge that, “all profits from the sale of this record will be invested to benefit the youth of Northern Ireland.”

I bought the tape to hear two cover versions: ‘John the Gun’ by The Fatima Mansions and ‘We Have All the Time in the World’ by My Bloody Valentine

While I remember Peace Together for those two songs, others might recall the drama and recriminations around the associated charity concerts: Peter Gabriel and Sinéad O’Connor’s no-show in Belfast and Dublin respectively, cancelled concerts in London and Belfast, a poorly attended New Order gig in the Point Depot, the pillorying of O’Connor in the Irish media and her response via a full page advertisement in The Irish Times.

Oh, and while all this was happening the country was obsessing over President Mary Robinson’s meeting with Queen Elizabeth II - the first of an Irish head of state with a British monarch.

And when the papers weren’t writing about the President’s planned visit to Buckingham Palace they were writing about Mother Teresa’s tour of Ireland, her receipt of the Freedom of the City of Dublin, and her visit to the Knock shrine.

In late 2023, under the thirty-year-rule, government papers revealed that Mother Teresa’s congregation in Calcutta sought free tickets with Aer Lingus for her visit to Ireland, a request that was rejected by the Department of Foreign Affairs due to the pro-life movement’s involvement with arranging her programme.

1993 - oh happy days!

If you don’t remember any of that, then maybe, just maybe, you remember Liam Ó Maonlaí and Rolf Harris’ contribution to the Peace Together album - a duet on a version of ‘Two Little Boys’. It was toe-curlingly insipid in 1993, twenty years later following Harris’ arrest and conviction for historical sexual abuse as part of Operation Yewtree, the song became simply unlistenable.

Thirty two years later it seems unbelievable that this collaboration actually ever happened.

*Peace Together* - magazine advertisement.

‘John the Gun’

In 2022 following Cathal Coughlan’s passing I wrote in the Sunday Independent (Curtain Falls on a Life of Exuberant Art and Fire) that, “Cathal’s taste was impeccable. He introduced us, through cover versions, to the songs of Lal and Mike Waterson, Sandy Denny and Fotheringay, Dick Gaughan, Richard Thompson, and one of his heroes, Scott Walker.”

The Fatima Mansions’ contribution to Peace Together was one of the cover’s I alluded to: Sandy Denny’s melancholic folk-song ‘John the Gun’. The song was originally recorded in 1970 for the aborted second Fotheringay album and was rerecorded for Denny’s solo album, 1971’s The North Star Grassman And The Ravens.

“One of Sandy’s finest ever compositions,” wrote Patrick Humphries in his liner notes to the 2011 CD reissue of The North Star... “It was and is a true gem, lyrically ‘John the Gun’ displays a deft mix of contemporary observation and traditional texture.”

In 1993 I don’t think I had ever heard of Sandy Denny. All I knew was that The Fatima Mansions had a song on a compilation album.

As good as Cathal’s interpretation of ‘John the Gun’ was, a new song by The Fatima Mansions wouldn’t have been worth the price of purchase alone, but Peace Together also boasted a new song by My Bloody Valentine.

‘We Have All the Time in the World’

The band contributed a cover version of John Barry and Hal David’s ‘We Have All the Time in the World’. Originally recorded by Louis Armstrong for 1969’s On Her Majesty's Secret Service, My Bloody Valentine’s version was the band’s first new recording since Loveless and their first since leaving Creation and signing with Island Records in 1992. The cover version was the first recording to emanate from the studio the band had built upon signing with Island.

“The nugget here, though, is My Bloody Valentine’s heaven-sent cover of the James Bond classic,” wrote Andrew Collins in his review for Select magazine. “Sampled strings, marshmallow production and Kevin’s voice speeded up to sound like a girl. It is immaculate, and worth investing in alone.”

Chris Roberts in Melody Maker also thought it was the best thing on the album: “My Bloody Valentine do a serene and showstopping version of John Barry’s ‘We Have All the Time in the World’, which elevates them into previously untapped areas of camp and panache.”

Roberts continued: “Theirs is the best track on here by several galaxies. You guessed that already, right?”

Various Artists - *Peace Together* (Cassette, Island Records, 1993). Photograph by Paul McDermott.

“1 Album 2 Help 3 Cities 4 Peace”

Peace Together was announced by Robert Hamilton, drummer with The Fat Lady Sings, and Ali McMordie, bass player with Stiff Little Fingers, in September 1992. “On tour with our bands, whenever people found out we were Irish, they were sympathetic and wanted to learn more about the situation in the North of Ireland,” the two musicians wrote in an opinion column in Music Week, the music industry’s trade publication.

“People are genuinely concerned. Peace Together will not immediately heal all pain and end all violence. But by achieving so little - releasing a record and staging three concerts - we can achieve so much. The funds generated by all this will build a centre for children in Northern Ireland which will provide a haven for them and will be devoted to integration.”

Two weeks later Thom Duffy in Billboard wrote that: “an effort to aid the children of Northern Ireland next year with a benefit single, album, and simultaneous summer concerts in London, Belfast, and Dublin is gaining support among artists and music executives.”

“Peace Together is due to be launched in January with the release of a benefit single, ‘Be Still’, featuring artists from Northern Ireland, the rest of the UK, and Éire. Those already committed to the project include Sinéad O’Connor, Feargal Sharkey, Jah Wobble, John Reynolds, and Hothouse Flowers members Leo Barnes and Liam Ó Maonlaí.”

Duffy continued: “Under the slogan “1 Album 2 Help 3 Cities 4 Peace”, organisers say “Peace Together” will conclude with three concerts - featuring some eight artists each - to be staged on the same day. There are tentative bookings at the 45,000-capacity Milton Keynes Bowl outside London, the 6,500-seat Royal Dublin Stadium, and a venue to be confirmed in Belfast.”

Duffy could be forgiven for getting the RDS abbreviation wrong, but his article served to illustrate the scope of Hamilton and McMordie’s ambition. In December he wrote in Billboard: “Singer/songwriter Nanci Griffith and the London Chamber Orchestra join Sinéad O’Connor and others on a single, ‘Be Still’, set for January release.”

Nancy Griffith did indeed lend her vocals to ‘Be Still’, the Nick Kelly song from Twist, the first Fat Lady Sing’s album, that served as the charity’s flagship single. Peter Gabriel and Feargal Sharkey were “the others”

“A subsequent benefit album due in June will feature Griffith. Irish/American rap act House of Pain, Stereo MCs, The Orb, The Shamen, and others to be announced,” wrote Duffy. None of the other acts he mentioned ended up on the compilation album.

Peter Gabriel, Sinéad O’Connor, Feargal Sharkey, Nanci Griffith and others - ‘Be Still’ (7”, Island Records, 1993).

Concerts in London, Belfast and Dublin

A few months later in April 1993 Billboard had further news. Plans were moving forward with the simultaneous concerts in London, Belfast and Dublin with, “Peter Gabriel’s confirmation as headliner of the Belfast show and the commitment of numerous other artists to the recording effort.”

The big news now was that in addition to the Milton Keynes and RDS concerts, “at a press conference on March 23 in Belfast, the lineup was announced for a May 29 concert at the 35,000-capacity Boucher Playing Fields in Belfast, featuring the Levellers, Maria McKee, Del Amitri and Gabriel.”

Billboard also had information about the proposed benefit album: “The Peace Together album is due for worldwide release by Island June 7 with several well-known songs covered by young artists. Confirmed so far are: ‘Oliver’s Army’, performed by Blur; ‘Games Without Frontiers’, done by Pop Will Eat Itself; ‘Living For the City’ reworked by 808 State; ‘Religious Persuasion’ redone by Billy Bragg, Davy Spillane and Andy White, and Therapy?’s version of ‘Invisible Sun’. Other artists due to contribute tracks are the Fatima Mansions, EMF, Carter USM and Rolf Harris.”

Sadly 808 State’s version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Living For the City’ didn’t materialise. EMF also didn’t appear on the album.

“A pub or a 50,000 seater stadium, we’d be there”

In April Melody Maker announced that the Dublin Peace Together concert would now be held in the Point Depot and not the RDS as had been previously announced. Melody Maker also announced that New Order and Sinéad O’Connor would headline the Dublin concert. Robert Hamilton told the music weekly that New Order had told him, “Were it in a pub or a 50,000 seater stadium, we’d be there. We’re appearing.”

New Order and “The Hoff” on the set of *Baywatch*, 1993.

In April 1993 the band had memorably performed their new single ‘Regret’ on Top of the Pops from the set of Baywatch in Venice Beach, California. The single reached No. 4 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 5 in Ireland. A few weeks later their album Republic shot straight to the top of the UK Albums Chart. New Order’s addition to the bill was a coup for the organisers as the band had last played live at the Reading Festival in 1989 and had last played in Ireland in 1986.

Alongside O’Connor and New Order on the bill for the Dublin concert were a number of Irish acts: Engine Alley, Something Happens, The Stunning, Andy White and Hothouse Flowers (or Liam Ó Maonlaí & Friends as they were advertised on the billboard posters).

“Apathetic Ulster”

Cracks appeared in Peace Together’s plans later in April when the Belfast outdoor gig was downsized to an indoor gig at the 7,000-capacity King’s Hall. The Cork Examiner reported that, “according to music industry sources the organisers had to switch from their original venue in West Belfast to the King’s Hall because of poor ticket sales.” Crisis management went into overdrive and the organisers told the Belfast Telegraph that the move to an indoor gig, “was to facilitate television coverage and that Peter Gabriel preferred an inside venue.”

The London outdoor gig at Milton Keynes Bowl was quietly forgotten about.

‘Be Still’ was released in early May. The single came in multiple formats and featured a Robin Guthrie remix that replaced the vocals of Gabriel, O’Connor and Sharkey with a vocal from Guthrie’s bandmate and partner Liz Frazer. It’s way better than the star-studded version.

Andrew Weatherall’s Sabres of Paradise provided another remix that stripped all vocals from the song. Like his remix the previous year of ‘West in Motion’ by Mother Records’ Bumble, Weatherall turned the Irish instrumentation up to 11. The track is all the better for it.

Reviewing the single in the NME Stuart Bailie wrote: “The Sabres’ mix amounts to a complete rewrite - the same way that Primal Scream’s ‘I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have’ was made into ‘Loaded’. This remix is like ‘Son of Loaded’ with whistles, hand-drums and rimshots firing away in this spacy dub dimemnsion.”

Unlike a lot of the tracks on the subsequent Peace Together album, Weatherall’s remix of ‘Be Still’ stands the test of time.

Remixes by Cocteau Twins and Weatherall notwithstanding, ‘Be Still’ failed to chart.

But things really went into meltdown a few days before the scheduled concert.

On Thursday, May 27, the day before Gabriel’s Secret World tour was due in Dublin, the Belfast Telegraph announced that Peace Together’s King’s Hall concert had been called off. “Poor tickets sales led to concert cancellation,” ran the headline.

The newspaper reported that Gabriel, “appealed to the people of Northern Ireland not to feel badly about him after he pulled out of Saturday’s Peace Together concert.”

“He had no other choice because of a combination of poor ticket sales and disappointing support,” continued the article. “Apathetic Ulster only bought 3pc of tickets for the concert. The incredibly poor response led to yesterday’s cancellation. Even when the venue was switched from the 35,000-capacity Boucher Road Playing Fields to the King’s Hall, ticket sales failed to pick up.”

Recriminations and contradicting narratives began immediately.

Gabriel released a statement to the press: “My original intent was to contribute rather than to be the driving force behind what I believed would be an Irish-led festival. Unfortunately, the eventual line-up, ticket sales and the reluctance of other peace movements to support the show, seem to indicate that it is neither the right time nor the right way to stage such an event.”

The statement continued: “I am extremely concerned that there may be a feeling of resentment amongst the people of Belfast, who live with the problems of conflict and who were faced with an English artist headlining a show to highlight the issues of peace in Ireland.”

Ali McMordie, one of the organisers, responding to Gabriel’s cancellation told Melody Maker: “Maybe it’s difficult for him to admit that we had maybe overestimated his popularity. We were initially told that he could do 10,000 in his own right.”

According to Melody Maker: “McMordie dismissed rumours that Gabriel pulled out because his band were nervous of going to Belfast, following the recent spate of terrorist bombings in Northern Ireland.”

Years later, in 2014, McMordie told Golden Plec that bombings were the reason for the cancellation: “Belfast had Peter Gabriel headlining but there was a bomb just a few days beforehand that blew up the hotel all nine bands were staying in and Mr Gabriel’s band mutinied!”

Newspaper advertisement for Peter Gabriel 1993 Dublin concert.

“Weekend Pussy”

Belfast might have been cancelled but Gabriel did play at Dublin’s Point Depot as part of his Secret World tour on Friday 28 May. O’Connor, who had provided backing vocals on two tracks on Gabriel’s sixth album Us (‘Blood of Eden’ and ‘Come Talk to Me’), appeared live on stage with him in Dublin, as she had at various arenas in the UK the previous week.

Around this time O’Connor and Gabriel were linked romantically in the press and in her autobiography Rememberings she wrote, “I had had an on-and-off fling with him in which I was basically weekend pussy - that would be the kindest way to describe it.”

In Dublin she sang on the aforementioned Us tracks and also returned for the first encore to duet with Gabriel on ‘Don’t Give Up’.

Peter Gabriel and Sinéad O’Connor on stage at the Point Depot, Dublin - 28 May, 1993. Photograph by Seth Kaplan: @sethkap5.

“The 11th Hour”

On Saturday 05 June 1993 the Evening Herald hit newstands in Dublin around noon. There were only two stories on the frontpage and both impacted that night’s Peace Together concert down the quays in the Point.

The large headline splashed across the frontpage declared: “CITY SHUT BY BUS STRIKE.”

The sub-head read: “Dublin deserted as shoppers are stranded.”

Disaster.

“Striking Dublin bus drivers forced a total citywide shutdown of services today - leaving 150,000 passengers stranded and costing shops millions of pounds in lost business,” declared the Herald.

This was BAD news for Peace Together, the deregulation of Dublin’s Taxi industry was still seven years away, the Luas hadn’t even been imagined; ticket sales hadn’t gone as expected and the large walk-up crowd that the organisers needed on the night was now almost out of the question.

And if a city-wide bus strike wasn’t bad enough, the second story on the page would have made the charity gig organisers apoplectic. It was headlined: “Sinéad out of gig.”

“Sinéad O’Connor has pulled out of tonight’s Peace Together concert at the Point theatre,” reported the Herald. “Withdrawing at the 11th hour she said: ‘I have to pull out. Personal problems too large to overcome at the moment.’”

This was now a catastrophe.

*Evening Herald* - Saturday, June 05, 1993.

“Peace Bands Party But Punters Stay Away”

The gig went ahead.

The following days saw a barrage of press reports about the night, all talking about O’Connor’s no-show.

The morning after the gig Barry Egan wrote in the Sunday Independent that, “when New Order make jokes about you from the stage, then you should start to twig that the game is up. ‘We’re sorry Sinéad O’Connor couldn’t make it, but it’s a Bank Holiday,’ quipped NO frontman Bernie - through grinning teeth - as his band played their first show in four years.”

Bernie! We’ll forgive the subbing error.

Egan continued: “All things considered, Sinéad was not liked for pulling out of this show at such short notice. This dislike was accentuated by the fact that she could appear on stage with An Emotional Fish at the Tivoli Theatre in Dublin on Thursday.”

The Sunday Press wrote that, “The organisers of last night’s Peace Together concert at the Point said they were as mystified as everyone else about why singer Sinéad O’Connor had pulled out of the gig at short notice.”

Monday morning’s Belfast Telegraph reported that: “Despite Sinéad O’Connor’s absence, the chaos of a bus strike and the fact that it was a bank holiday weekend in the South, more than 2,000 enthusiastic fans converged on the Point determined to have a ball.”

Aileen O’Reilly in Monday’s Evening Herald wrote under a classic alliterative headline, “Peace Bands Party But Punters Stay Away” that: “New Order took to the stage but even their techno wizardry was echoing back at them in the “intimate” setting of the yawning open space at the Point.”

In Monday’s Irish Press, in an article headlined “Concert Promoters Blame Sinéad”, one of the organisers, concert promoter Neil Storey said: “It is on her own conscience. It’s not the best way to do business.”

The Irish Press also revealed that New Order’s Bernard wasn’t the only person to mention O’Connor from the stage in the Point Depot: “There were loud cheers when Something Happens came on and singer Tom Dunne announced: ‘There will be no Sinéad tonight. We’ll just have to soldier on.’”

The Irish Press also had a pop off O’Connor: “the mystery deepened yesterday when it emerged that the controversial singer made two unannounced appearances over the past week - at Peter Gabriel in the Point and An Emotional Fish in the Tivoli.”

The only sympathetic voice towards O’Connor in the papers came from Hothouse Flowers’ Fiachna Ó Braonáin who told Katie Hannon in the Evening Herald that: “She’s going through a rough time in her head right now.”

New Order playing for the first time in four years was big news for the UK music weeklies so Irish stringers Jim Carroll and Colm O’Callaghan reviewed the gig for the NME and Melody Maker respectively.

Carroll and O’Callaghan both mention the poor attendance and poor sound quality. Carroll also saw fit to mention Sinéad’s two appearances the previous week: “Maybe she was tired or had a sore throat: she had, after all, sung with Peter Gabriel here a week before, and was ligging with An Emotional Fish last night.”

The Irish support acts are described by O’Callaghan as: “a line-up that’s so weak that most of it, I imagine, is later helped from the stage into a fleet of waiting wheelchairs.”

The undercard also came in for criticism in Carroll’s review: “Engine Alley throw crap pseudo-glam poses; Something Happens provide another solid but oh-so-boring set of retro guitar gunk; while The Stunning start moody and bright and end up dull and bloated.”

*The Irish Times* - frontpage blurb (09 June 1993).

Sinéad’s Poem

Following days of press coverage and radio talk shows devoting hours to O’Connor’s non-appearance at the gig, The Irish Times on Wednesday, 09 June ran a blurb on its frontpage announcing, “Singer Sinéad O’Connor issues a plea for understanding in an advertisement in today’s editions.”

In response to the criticism she had faced in the previous days O’Connor wrote a long poem that took up a full page in the newspaper. It started:

“My name is Sinéad O’Connor.
I am learning to love myself.
I am deserving.
I deserve to be treated with respect.
I deserve not to be treated like dirt.”

It continued for another 100 lines and can be read here.

It’s worth reading.

It was a cry for help, it was heart-breaking.

The following day on RTÉ Radio One, O’Connor was a guest on Marian Finucane’s radio show. The phone-lines were opened up and members of the public were put on air to voice their disappointment at O’Connor’s no-show.

This was trial by media.

It was ugly.

“People don’t buy causes”

The Peace Together album was released a few weeks later.

It was a disappointing affair.

U2 and Lou Reed donated a live version of ‘Satellite of Love’ performed in Dallas during the Zoo TV tour the previous year. Pop Will Eat Itself did a cover of Gabriel’s ‘Games Without Frontiers’, Curve and Ian Dury recorded a version of Dury’s ‘What a Waste’, Carter USM covered Elvis Costello’s ‘Peace in Our Time and Blur did a cover of Costello’s ‘Oliver’s Army’.

Apart from the aforementioned tracks by My Bloody Valentine and The Fatima Mansions there isn’t another track on it that I’d wish to hear again, they were all fairly forgettable.

“Any charity record has to stand up as a good record,” Nick Angel, A&R director at Island Records, who coordinated the album, told Billboard. “People don’t buy causes,” he continued. “They’ll buy music they like.”

Whatever about fans buying music they like, one of the contributing artists hated what they’d recorded for the project.

A few years later, talking about their version of ‘Oliver’s Army’ in Select magazine, Damon Albarn said, “It’s a disaster, one of the worst things we’ve done.”

Alex James told the magazine, “What’s the point in trying to improve on something you already like?” Before adding, “Plus you only get half the money.”

That was charitable of him.

“An anti-climax”

The fallout from the Dublin gig continued. A few months after the gig New Order’s Stephen Morris told Hot Press that, “it did prove to be something of an anti-climax. The original idea of doing three gigs and putting on a show of solidarity was a good one but then it just seemed to fall to pieces.”

In the late 90s the Peace Together organisation published a website that told the story of the single, album and concerts. Despite the “charities” section of the website remaining blank, enough money was seemingly raised to fund a studio in Belfast that was used by unemployed musicians. McMordie would years later tell Golden Plec: “I think Snow Patrol used it once.”

In 1993, 88 people were killed in Northern Ireland.

Ultimately, among all of the drama about the concerts, an honourable attempt, by Hamilton and McMordie, to raise money for cross-community integration of young people in Northern Ireland was simply forgotten.

“Ultimately, most people struggled to understand the point /objectives of Peace Together,” reflects music journalist Stuart Bailie who was helping out on the fringes. “All well-meaning but a bit woolly and the people of Belfast were understandably wary of it.”

The bigger message was ultimately lost. It was a real pity.

For further reading…

Colm O’Callaghan wrote about the Peace Together concert on his blog The Blackpool Sentinel: New Order In Ireland.

Paul English wrote about the Peace Together album on his blog A Pop Fan’s Dream: Peace Together (Island, 1993).

Peace Together