Episode Notes

Episode 43 of To Here Knows When - Great Irish Albums Revisited focuses on Comforter (1994) and The Future is Medium (1996) by Compulsion.

Garret “Jacknife” Lee is a producer and mixer known for his work with REM, U2, The Killers, Snow Patrol, Modest Mouse, Taylor Swift and countless others. He was the guitarist in the late-80s Irish band Thee Amazing Colossal Men who released the album Totale in 1990. Thee Amazing Colossal Men became Compulsion and released two great albums: Comforter (1994) and The Future is Medium (1996).

He released two albums as Telefís with Cathal Coughlan and more recently released Los Angeles with post-punk legends Lol Tolhurst (The Cure) and Budgie (Siouxsie and the Banshees/The Creatures) as Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee

We start in the Cabra Grand cinema at a Siouxsie and the Banshees and Micro Disney gig in 1980 and we work our way up to the present day to Jacknife’s collaborations with Coughlan and Budgie.

Along the way our conversation takes in: Casablanca Moon, Dave Clifford and Vox Magazine, Above the Thunderclouds, Gerry Leonard, Microdisney, Giordaí Ua Laoighre, Cathal Coughlan, Budgie, Lol Tolhurst, REM, Finbarr Donnelly, Five Go Down to the Sea?, Michael O’Shea, Una Ní Chanainn, Joey Mary Barry, The Golden Horde, The Waterboys, Thee Amazing Colossal Men, Virgin Records, Sean O’Hagan, Abbey Road, Nico Bolas, Scott Thurston, Pixies, Compulsion, One Little Indian, Mark Freegard, New Wave of New Wave, Britpop, Paul Tipler, Stereolab, Elektra Records, Interscope Records, Howie B, Green Day, Nirvana, Bush, Bono, Björk, Sack, Into Paradise, The Slowest Clock, 28 Days Later, Kasabian, Snow Patrol, All Saints, U2, the role of the producer, the producer as “disruptor”, The Cars, Robbie Williams, Taylor Swift, Pretty Happy, Modest Mouse, Telefís, Les Amazones d'Afrique, Rokia Koné, Lonnie Holley, Oasis, The Strokes, Sleeper, The Underground, The Pleasure Cell, Guernica, Stano, and Rollerskate Skinny.

This is the longest episode to date - it’s a history lesson.

In their 1993 Christmas double bumper Issue, the NME named 20 new bands as their TURN-ONS of that year.

Rereading the feature brought back so many memories for me, because of the 20 bands mentioned – I bought records that year by 10 of them: Elastica, Tindersticks, Madder Rose, Senser, Credit to the Nation, Palace Brothers, S*M*A*S*H, Voodoo Queens and Compulsion.

In summing up Compulsion’s year the NME wrote: “An object lesson in how to ROCK that marked Compulsion down as the indie AC/DC.”

Rewind three years and the reviews weren’t as kind. In the late 80s Joseph Mary Barry, Garrett Lee and Sid Rainey were Thee Amazing Colossal Men. They released one album Totale and in April 1990 Stuart Maconie in an NME review of the band’s debut single ‘Superloveexperience’ dismissed them with the snarky line - “Amazing’s not the word, pal.”  

Thee Amazing Colossal Men parted ways with Virgin Records and started again. Barry, Lee and Rainey requited Dutch drummer Jan-Willem Alkema. They re-emerged in 1992 as Compulsion. After self-releasing two highly-regarded EPs they signed to One Little Indian.

Comforter, the band’s debut album followed in March 1994. ‘Mall Monarchy’ its first single was awarded “Single of the Week” in both the NME and the Melody Maker.

Courtney Love was the guest reviewer in the Melody Maker and declared: “Now this is a good riff. I like this riff. I’d have used this riff.”

‘Basketcase’ followed in June 1994 and remains a firm favourite of mine. When I announced this episode a friend messaged, “I thought you weren’t a fan?” he asked.

He wasn’t to know that for weeks in mid-1994 I played Compulsion’s ‘Basketcase’ every Saturday night in The Village in Cork, or An Scráidbhaile as it was also known. It seems completely surreal to me that there was an actual recreation of an old Irish village underneath Sir Henry’s in Cork. I swear I didn’t dream this.

One night in The Village somebody robbed a few records from my bag. 30 years later I still remember exactly what was stolen. Sleeper’s debut single, the great ‘Alice in Vain’. The 7” fell back into the bag, so the robber got the sleeve but not the disc, Dinosaur Jr’s ‘Just Like Heaven’ 12” - their feral cover of the classic Cure tune - and Compulsion’s incredible ‘Basketcase’ 12”.

So you see my affection for Compulsion is personal - I bet those three songs never meant as much to that langer as they do to me.

By 1996 Britpop was in the ascendance. Compulsion wanted nothing to do with the party and instead looked to Europe for inspiration from 70s bands like Neu!

‘Question Time for the Proles” the first single from second album The Future is Medium was the band’s broadside against Britpop. “‘Proles’ are bewildered and not very bright kind of people who are being bombarded by these images of the Swinging Sixties,” Joseph Mary told the Melody Maker.

A jingoistic UK music press largely ignored The Future is Medium. How dare Compulsion ruin the party!

Some believers still existed: John Robb in the Melody Maker wrote that:

“Life can be cruel sometimes. There you are with your ferocious guitar sound and smart pop tunes. But your singer has short spiky hair, so therefore you must be punk revivalists. SO you get lumped in with the New Wave of New Wave movement, play loads of gigs, reactivate the live circuit and…suddenly Britpop comes along and no one wants to know cos you’re “punk”. You’re effectively stranded on the fringes of fashion. Does this piss you off? Nah. Dublin boys, Compulsion are made of sterner stuff.”

Robb contined, “The Future is Medium is one huge war zone of guitar filth. Big, bright and brassy, Compulsion are no spent force yet.”

Robb was spot on about the album but unfortunately wrong about the band. Following a Japanese tour in late 1996 Compulsion called it a day. As an Irish punk band they didn’t fit the prevailing UK trend and they were never comfortable with their US label’s attempts to market them as a neo-Grunge band. 

When I announced this episode, a musician featured on a previous episode messaged to say, “Full disclosure, I had no idea that the guitarist from Compulsion and Jacknife Lee were the same person, which just cost me a little piece of melted mind.”

Jacknife Lee has spent his time since Compulsion producing albums. His CV includes U2, REM, The Killers, Taylor Swift and countless others. He has recently completed work on a Pretty Happy album.

For Further Reading:

For the Irish Examiner’s Ireland in 50 Albums series I’ve written about Comforter…

Due to word count a lot of what Sid, Joey and Jan told me didn’t make the Irish Examiner feature. I’ve included some of those conversations below:

I was nicknamed Sid when I was 10. I started playing bass at 16 and I met Joey & Garret when I had just turned 18. I wasn’t a fan of the Sex Pistols and I definitely was not a fan of their bass player. My favourite bass players at time were Barry Adamson from Magazine; Simon Gallup from The Cure; Sting (early Police); Andy Fraser from Free; and Tim Butler from The Psychedelic Furs, so I ignored any comparison to the other Sid, as there was no connection.

However, I remember one night Charlie Myatt, our booking agent at the time, got a great kick out of introducing me as Sid to Glen Matlock from the Sex Pistols. That was wasted on me because I didn’t know who he was.

But then again, I did ask Jackson Browne to change my strings in a guitar shop in LA. He just stared at me in horror, I didn’t know who he was, either. I just thought he worked there.

Starting over with Compulsion was an exciting time, particularly with a certain knowledge of the record industry and we had a fresh taste for music. We started Fabulon Records to release our own records with the idea that maybe down the line we could help other bands get their first releases off the ground. Then we were spotted and signed by Rick Lennox from One Little Indian. We had most, if not all, of Comforter recorded, so we were so ready to go.

There was a lot of energy at our gigs, on stage it was impossible to shoegaze, sway or try to look cool. That wasn’t us, playing those songs live made you react and I don’t think any of us thought too much about our stage moves. All Garret’s injuries were self-inflicted, mis-timed reactions, he had some impressive accidents on and literally off the stage. All my accidents were achieved at street level and usually involved a car. Jan’s knuckles would get trashed at most gigs.

The highlight of Compulsion for me was recording. We recorded a lot of songs back then. A good recording studio should feel like a second home. The Stone Room was a magical place for us. I loved recording that album, I think we all did. I just loved recording with those guys, period.

Sid Rainey in conversation with Paul McDermott

After the whole debacle with the Colossal Men, we didn’t want to just go away and we knew that we’d sort of misfired on that one. We just decided to do what we were supposed to do in the first place, and we were all very close as people and we decided, no, we’re going to do this properly this time. We were frustrated and angry.

I met Garret in the early 80s. The minute I met him, I said, something is going to work here. The man is a ball of energy. Back in the day we used to have a little porto studio where Garret used to work on ideas and I remember hearing some of the tapes he made and it was always brilliantly done. I think his real talent is producing and it’s obviously worked out for him. He was like two different people, when he was in the producer’s seat he would get a great performance out of you that you wouldn’t have expected. I think he’s happier in that role now.  

The thing I remember most fondly was touring in the summertime in a little minibus doing all the festivals all over Europe, it was just great fun and the future was full of possibilities and things were going great.  

Joey Barry in conversation with Paul McDermott

I was with an agency called Session Connection, in early 1990 they sent me a cassette with some songs from the Totale album. I had my audition slot, I arrived in good time and set up my gigantic drum kit. I remember nearly every detail to this day, as this audition would literally change my life. It was a mad name and all - Thee Amazing Colossal Men.

Garret asks me which song I’d like to start with, and 1 2 3 4: GO!

We rawk like pigs, sound great, but after less than a minute the guys just stop playing.

“Oh shit, what’s wrong?,” goes through my mind. Garret asks which other songs I know. So we play another one I’ve learned. It sounds mint, but again, after a minute they just stopped. I’m ever so confused, I’ve never auditioned like that before, but on we plough for another couple of tunes. The same deal, the song fizzles out within a minute each time. Weird.

Garret then asks me, “Do you smoke?”
“Yes.”
“Do you drink beer?”
“Yes.”
“Do you play pool?”
“Yes.”

So we down tools and fuck off to the bar. I am so confused at this point as it took me way longer to set up than I got to play! Fast forward a couple of hours and many pints later. We’re just having a great time, shooting pool, laughing loads and getting to know each other. The three of them suddenly peel away to have a quick huddle. They return and tell me that not only have I got the job, but they want me to become a full-time, permanent member of the band!

My first gig with TACM was the Féile festival 03 August 1990. At some point that year our manager negotiated a buy-out for me with that agency. I think I still have the invoice somewhere, but it was for the princely sum of about £500. I am cheap.

In TACM we had recorded to click, analysed stuff into a corner, endless overdubs/retakes, and in so doing wrung the life out of everything. With funds from the lawsuit we knew we had about a year to do everything, and this time we’d do it all ourselves. Typically, Garret would have an idea which would quickly mushroom into a fully formed tune during rehearsals. Joey would then work his magic (he’s still my favourite lyricist) and the song would be done. Next!

Looking back it kind of feels like we had become a human algorithm or hive-mind, where Garret’s ideas had the effect of making the rest of us play exactly what the songs needed to become whole. Each batch of ideas developed in that manner would push Garret forward to conjure up yet more ideas, like a positive creative feedback loop, and before we knew it we had recorded a large pile of songs. Some were straight up rock tunes (‘Basketcase’) or something filmic (‘Jean Could Be Wrong’) or surfy (‘Dick, Dale, Rick and Ricky’). We just made music that we loved, that genuinely turned us on.

Quite a substantial number of recordings from that Comforter period have never even been released. I found a fair few on cassettes unearthed in a recent attic clear out that I had totally forgotten about. The work rate was also insane, in a typical two-day studio session we would record and mix at least 8 songs. Once we signed to One Little Indian we just handed them this mountain of finished material, ready to go.

We promised ourselves to always perform with the exact same energy for 10 people as for 10,000. Hand on heart, we never went through the motions, every gig was full bore. I can remember when we played at First Avenue (Minneapolis 1994). I counted off the first song, the lads joined in, but before we have played the first verse Garret (+ guitar) took a massive leap over my kit, into me, I tried to catch him but he slipped through my arms and proceeded to slide face down the half a dozen steps right behind my drum stool, crash bang wallop, he came to a halt in a heap, then leaped back up the steps and continued to play the rest of the gig. Blood and bruises on both of us.

For me a highlight was releasing our first EP on our own label and getting great reviews for it. To my mind that meant we had arrived and anything was now possible. Looking back, I would describe our experience as an endless battle with many victories and even more losses. The four of us lived in each other’s pockets for almost seven years, and that made us a kind of singularity, pushing and pulling together with intense energy and purpose; the amount of music we created was quite astonishing.

The last tour Compulsion did was a co-headline in Japan with China Drum at the tail end of 1996. We had always tried to use that band as support whenever we were touring up North; they were just great fun to be around, and the whole singing/drummer thing was a sight to behold live! That tour was a real laugh, sold out venues and we felt like The Beatles with fans following us around, asking us to sign things, some had EPs of which only 200 copies existed. Mad stuff!

But once we got home it became clear One Little Indian were in deep financial trouble and they let go almost their entire roster, keeping only Björk and Skunk Anansie. Compulsion was finished and we all went our separate ways in January 1997. Joey went straight back to Dublin and I haven’t seen him since that day. Sid and Garret stayed in London, doing their own thing and I would see them every now and then. I joined China Drum a few months later.

Jan Alkema in conversation with Paul McDermott

To Here Knows When column in The Goo on The Future is Medium…

For further Listening:

Comforter and The Future is Medium are being reissued on vinyl in January 2025 by One Little Independent Records.

The Jacknife Lee can be heard on Bandcamp:

Bamanan by Rokia Koné & Jacknife Lee can be heard on Bandcamp:

Telefís a h-Aon agus a Dó can be heard on Bandcamp:

Below: Press cuttings from various Irish (Vox), UK (NME, Melody Maker) and US (CMJ, Album Network, R&R, Billboard, Hard Report and others) music publications, click on each image to enlarge. UK cuttings from @nothingelseon.