Episode 31 - Twist by The Fat Lady Sings

Episode 32

Twist

by The Fat Lady Sings

*Twist* (East West Records, 1991). Photograph by Paul McDermott.

Episode Notes

Episode 32 of To Here Knows When - Great Irish Albums Revisited focuses on Twist by The Fat Lady Sings released in 1991 on East West Records.

Nick Kelly joins me to talk about the debut album by his band The Fat Lady Sings. It’s a long chat that takes in everything from witnessing The Fall soundtrack Michael Clark & Company’s ballet performance of I Am Curious Oranj at Sadler’s Well Theatre in 1988 to making a film about cycling to Glastonbury to raise awareness of more sustainable gigging models.

The Fat Lady Sings was formed by Nick Kelly in Dublin in March 1986 and a few months later the band upped sticks and moved to London. After a few singles the line-up settled on: Nick Kelly (vocals and guitar), Tim Bradshaw (guitar), Dermot Lynch (bass) and Robert Hamilton (drums).

In September 2022 I was re-shelving some albums when I realised that my copy of *Twist* by The Fat Lady Sings sits directly between The Fall’s *I Am Curious Oranj* and The Fatima Mansions’ debut album *Against Nature*.
I Tweeted a photo and Nick Kelly replied, writing that it was: “funny to realise how viscerally (if not musically) connected I’ve always felt to The Farm and The Fall (also Fat Larry’s Band, Falco and the Fat White Family).”

I think its quite appropriate that in my record collection it’s The Fat Lady Sings that keep Mark E Smith and Cathal Coughlan away from each other. It’s a nice jumping off point for my conversation with Nick.

*Photograph by Paul McDermott.*

During the mid-80s as A&R men congregated in Dublin looking for the next U2, it seemed that any half decent band was in with a chance of securing an international record deal - indeed an awful lot of rubbish bands also seemed to get a break, but as Nick explains in this episode he felt that he had no choice but move to London.

In London The Fat Lady Sings would go on to self-release four highly regarded singles. With Terri Hooley’s permission they re-activated his Good Vibrations label to release their debut single ‘Fear and Favour’. It was a clever move.

Reviewing the single for the NME in November 1986, Danny Kelly wrote: “Another Dublin debut, and that rarest of beasts - an apologetically adult pop song. REMarkably simple and disciplined.” He ended his review by commenting on the band’s name: “Any band that’d voluntarily saddle itself with such an appalling name is probably profoundly useless, so ‘Fear and Favour’ must be a fluke. But it’s an insistent, and very fine fluke.”

In January 1987 Music Week wrote: “Legendary Belfast label Good Vibrations returns with its first single in nearly four years, launching yet another highly promising new Irish band. Its passionate vocal and insistent beat should ensure attention despite the ungainly name.”

15 months later in March 1988, ‘Be Still’ the second single was released and Danny Kelly in the NME described it as, “ambitiously epic and enigmatic.” He may have liked the song but he also continued to have a pop off the band’s name writing that the single, “amply compensates for their obvious deficiencies in the name-picking department.”

‘Arclight’/‘Momento Mori’ 7” (East West Records, 1991). Photograph by Paul McDermott.

‘Arclight’ followed in 1989, a gorgeous tune, the Melody Maker wrote that it, “combines a sense of craft with tuneful naivety. There’s an internal conflict between a melancholy lyric and a lush, agile musical backing.”

Reviewing one of their gigs in 1989, Record Mirror wrote: “Nick Kelly, lead singer with this Dublin quartet, is quite an engaging character. A chubby figure in a gaudily floral shirt, eminently cheerful but still capable of extracting plenty of passion from the dark recesses beyond his gob. The stadiums of the rock world are ready and waiting.”

It’s extraordinary to think that body-shaming was acceptable in the music papers at the time. The Fat Lady Sings eventually signed to East West Records in Europe and Atlantic in the US. The body-shaming continued but this time it was for crude promotional activity. In May 1991 The Gavin Report, the respected radio industry trade publication, noted that: “Atlantic’s Graham Hatch and Tod Elmore wandered the streets of New York in search of fat ladies who wouldn’t mind mugging for the cameras. Why? To promote their new band The Fat Lady Sings, of course!” Unbelievable.

Record Mirror mightn’t have been fans of Nick’s floral shirts but they were right about the stadiums. Constant touring followed, and the band picked up such a huge live following that they were able to sell out Dublin’s National Stadium and London’s Town and Country Club. The fact that a band who had yet to release an album could sell out one of London’s biggest venues wasn’t lost on the music industry, so much so that Music Week ran an article all about the sold out gig - not a review but a comment on the fact that the band had managed to sell out the famed venue. David Stopps, the band’s manager told the publication, “I don’t know if there’s another band around in this position.”

East West Records released Twist in 1991. ‘Arclight’ was re-issued and this time around it was awarded ‘Single of the Week’ in Sounds magazine who declared: “Technically a re-release but there should always be space guaranteed for a song of the calibre of ‘Arclight’ – one of the most achingly beautiful songs of recent years.”

‘Arclight’ reached No. 7 in the Irish Singles Chart – one of five singles lifted from the album - the others being: ‘Dronning Maud Land’ (6), ‘Man Scared’ (17), ‘Deborah’ (17), and the title track Twist’ (14) - that all went Top 20 in Ireland.

The NME called Twist, “a trembling monster of a pop record” and declared The Fat Lady Sings, “Ireland’s finest band.” They released a second album, John Son in 1993, ‘Drunken Logic’ the second of three singles released from the album gave the band their biggest UK chart placing, reaching No. 56 in July that year. They broke up in early 1994. Nick went on to release a number of highly regarded solo albums and has also released two albums under the Alien Envoy moniker.

In recent years he’s been recording and playing gigs with his old friend Seán Millar (aka Doctor Millar) as Dogs. For over 20 years now Nick has been working in film, he has directed short films, music videos and adverts and in 2017 his debut feature film, The Drummer and The Keeper won the Best Irish First Feature at the Galway Film Fleadh. He’s currently finishing The Song Cycle, a documentary about cycling from Ireland to Glastonbury, playing gigs with Seán Millar en route, the film aims to start a conversation about more sustainable ways to tour live music (further information about the film is below).

I’ve been a fan of The Fat Lady Sings since I first heard Fanning play ‘Arclight’ on his radio show, late one night in 1989. I bought it on 7” upon its reissue in 1991 and it remains without doubt one of my favourite Irish singles of all time.