Episode Notes

Episode eighteen of To Here Knows When - Great Irish Albums Revisited focuses on Grand Parade by The Frank & Walters.

“I must admit that without the Frank & Walters I don’t think I would be in the music business today. Instead I would probably be working on a building site in Manchester. I owe so much to The Frank & Walters.”
Noel Gallagher

One of my all time favourite gigs was The Frank & Walters in Sir Henry’s in October 1992. This was a big hometown gig after their initial success over in the UK. I had managed to squeeze into the raised area to the right of the stage – the perfect spot. I’ll never forget it, the lights dimmed and out of the PA came blaring the theme from The Famous Five television show.

As the song faded the lads walked out on stage and Henry’s erupted. I had never seen anything like it – our conquering heroes had returned. I still have the bright orange triangular ticket stub from this gig that my buddy Jim Comic printed. It’s a thing of beauty. The Franks were supported on the night by another great Cork band – LMNO Pelican. ‘Call Yossarian’ from their Boutros Boutros EP is one of the greatest Irish songs ever.

In January 1993, The Franks were on Top of the Pops, ‘After All’ was at No. 14. The following week it had gone up to No. 11. Relentless touring followed, culminating in a Friday night headline slot on the Melody Maker stage at 93’s Reading Festival. To put things into some kind of context, further down the bill on the Friday were Chumbawamba and The Flaming Lips. Blur headlined the same stage on the Saturday and a reformed Big Star on the Sunday. When the promotional treadmill for their debut album, Trains, Boats and Planes finally ended the lads retreated home to Cork. Batteries needed recharging and songs for a second album needed to be written.

Writing those songs took a bit longer than the band had planned, this was quintessential “difficult second album syndrome”.

In November 1995 The Trashcan Sinatras, label-mates of The Franks, played a gig in Nancy Spains in Cork. That night at a post-gig lock-in as we all sat in one corner of the venue, The Franks and their Go! Discs A&R man sat apart deep in discussion. We eavesdropped on their conversation and I imagined the A&R man asking, “Come on lads, where are the songs like, where are the songs?”

A few years later, in September 1996 Paul told Michael Ross in The Sunday Times, “We were in England for two and a half years, touring solidly. We were on Top Of The Pops, we were overwhelmed by all the attention. We didn’t know what we were doing. We had one album out, we painted ourselves into a corner with our ‘whacky’ image, and we weren’t getting anywhere. I associated music with stress. I got to the point where I couldn’t even look at my guitar. So we just went back to Cork and played pitch and putt and didn't even try to write songs for a long time. We just wanted to live a normal life after the manic years in England.”

Thankfully, Paul did eventually pick up the guitar again and the songs flowed. Dave Couse from A House – who had produced the band’s first EP was drafted into produce the album. By then Go! Discs had been sold to Polygram, thanks in no small part to the huge solo success of the guy who shared that earlier “Single of the Week” record with The Franks, the Jam’s Paul Weller.

The Franks took the completed album with them and returned to their first home – Setanta Records. ‘Indian Ocean’ and ‘Colours’ would be released as singles and while they didn’t receive the acclaim of the band’s first few EPs, over the long haul they have proved to be some of the band’s most popular songs.

I can remember getting goosebumps in 1997 when I first got Grand Parade and leafed through the CD booklet. There was a photograph of an old ESB logo. This was the logo from the 1930s, it depicts a flash of electricity over water and according to the ESB Archives, “it was designed by Frank Brandt to symbolise the production of electricity from the Shannon Scheme.” You can spot these beautiful logos all over the country and I had taken the above photograph of the logo on an ESB substation around the corner from the Mercy Hospital sometime in the early 90s. It was a moment of strange serendipity – I knew I’d love the Grand Parade.

Episode seventeen of this podcast focused on A House. During the course of our conversation I said to Dave Couse that ‘After All’ had been a great song for The Franks. Dave, quickly shot back at me, “Paul,” he said, “it’s no ‘Tony Cochrane’.” He is dead right! In a long career with seven albums to their name, Grand Parade, for me is the greatest.

For Further Listening:

To Here Knows When column in The Goo on Grand Parade…

Grand Parade can be heard below: