“In which I have a surprisingly emotional conversation, with Paul McDermott, about Toasted Heretic’s surprisingly emotional third album.”
Julian Gough

Episode Notes

Audience Warning: This episode contains references to child sexual abuse.

Released in 1992, Another Day, Another Riot was Toasted Heretic’s third album. It was released by Liquid Records, a subsidiary of Solid Records.

Toasted Heretic were from Galway and they preceded Another Day, Another Riot with two cassette-only albums, Songs For Swinging Celibates (1988) and Charm and Arrogance (1989). These albums were followed in 1990 by The SMUG EP, which included ‘They Didn’t Teach Music In My School’ a song about child sex abuse in Ireland. Toasted Heretic’s cassettes were distributed through book and record shops and via mailorder – a cottage industry both physically and geographically outside the Irish Music Industry.

Toasted Heretic were: Julian Gough on vocals, Declan Collins and Breffni O'Rourke on guitars, Neil Farrell on drums and Aengus McMahon on bass. Q magazine once declared them, “powerful articulate and original”, while Mother Records described them as - too original.

Ticket Stub - Jazz Me Bollix, The Shelter, Cork (26 October, 1991). Photograph by Paul McDermott. Another Day, Another Riot (1992, Liquid Records) original album artwork. Image from Discogs.

Toasted Heretic’s independent releases ensured that by November 1991 when they preceded Another Day, Another Riot with the single ‘Galway and Los Angles’, the band’s fanbase was large enough to secure its release a chart position. The single reached the No. 9 spot in the Irish Charts, spending three weeks on the Chart. Subsequently upon its UK release the single was awarded Melody Maker’s coveted ‘Single of the Week’ accolade. This was exciting, one of OUR bands were going overground. ‘Galway and Los Angeles’ was followed by the single ‘Another Day, Another Riot’ the album’s title track. The world was their oyster – but as they told us in the press release of The SMUG EP – they didn’t even like oysters.  

In this episode I discuss the album with Toast Heretic’s singer and lyricist Julian Gough. Our conversation includes a chat about all of Toasted Heretic’s recordings. A novelist, Julian resides in Berlin and is also the author of the successful children’s book series, Rabbit & Bear.

Another Day, Another Riot was remastered and reissued by the band in 2021 and is available on streaming services.

In the Episode Julian mentions that Toasted Heretic recorded a cover version of ‘It’s A Sin’ by Pet Shop Boys for Bernard Lenoir’s “Black Sessions” on French radio station France Inter. That complete session, including their version of ‘It’s A Sin’ can be heard here.

*Special thanks to Rob Cotter for lending me his copy of The SMUG EP. My own copy was robbed from a bag of records in the DJ box of The Village, Cork some time in the early 90s. All these years later I can still name the ten records the thief made off with - a pox on the bastard!

For Further Listening/Reading:

From the Archives: Julian Gough (Toasted Heretic)
In 2005 Toasted Heretic released Now In New Nostalgia Flavour which compiled their first two cassette albums (Songs For Swinging Celibates and Charm and Arrogance). The band played a gig in Dublin to promote the release and I spoke to Julian before he took to the stage in Whelan's. Julian chats about how Toasted Heretic recorded and released those first two albums from the band's hometown of Galway.

Another Day, Another Riot is available on Spotify

To Here Knows When column in The Goo on Another Day, Another Riot…