“‘No real downsides, no regrets, we had our chance.’ Another superb addition to this series of interviews with @learnandsing. Dave Long talks about his time in one of the great Irish bands of the eighties: Into Paradise.”
Paul Page (Whipping Boy)

Episode Notes

Episode five of To Here Knows When - Great Irish Albums Revisited focuses on Into Paradise.

Into Paradise released their debut album, Under the Water on Keith Cullen’s London-Irish Setanta Records in 1990. They subsequently made the jump to Ensign Records for its major label follow-up, 1991’s Churchtown before returning once more to Setanta for both 1992’s Down All the Days and 1993’s For No One. I could happily have talked to Dave Long about any of these records but instead this episode shines a light on the first two albums.

Dave Long sang and played bass with Shane O’Neill and Dave Clarke in Amuse and when the others went off to form Blue in Heaven he formed Backwards Into Paradise. The band released numerous demos and gigged throughout the late 80s. Eventually Dave put a compilation of their best demos on sale in Dublin’s Comet Records. Keith Cullen of Setanta Records bought the tape and offered the band a deal, on the proviso that they should shorten the name to simply Into Paradise and move to London.

Into Paradise were Dave Long on vocals and guitar, Jimmy Eadie on guitar, Rachel Tighe on bass guitar and Ronan Clarke on drums.

My conversation with Dave takes in: playing punk gigs in the Magnet bar with Amuse bandmates Shane O’Neill and Dave Clarke; forming Backwards Into Paradise and recording various demos in Dublin; signing to Keith Cullen’s Setanta Records; touring Europe with The Godfathers; signing a major record deal with Nigel Grainge’s Ensign Records; working with The Sound’s Adrian Borland; the writing of music journalist David Cavanagh; playing live with Into Paradise in the UK and Europe; and his love of Deirdre Bair’s biography of Samuel Beckett.

We also chat about the music of A Lazarus Soul and Brian Mooney’s The Next New Low. We discuss Moll & Zeis, Dave’s latest album with his old friend Shane O’Neill and we ruminate on the creative and artistic compulsion to continue to create new music regardless of its perceived success or popularity. It’s a fascinating hour.

Into Paradise recorded their debut album Under the Water in London’s Elephant Studios with The Sound’s Adrian Borland in the producer’s chair. Long was a longtime fan of Borland and of The Sound’s From the Lion’s Mouth so this was a perfect match. Under the Water was released in 1990 to rave reviews. The album was preceded by the Blue Light EP which was an NME ‘Single of the Week’.

When I interviewed Setanta’s Keith Cullen for the Oral History Get That Monster Off the Stage - the story of Finbarr Donnelly and his bands Nun Attax, Five Go Down To the Sea? and Beethoven he had this to say about those early Setanta days:

“I remember Dave Long from Into Paradise had a thing for Five Go Down to the Sea? so the fact that I was working with Beethoven was probably brownie points for me to some extent. There was a bit of a gap between the Beethoven 12’’ and Into Paradise which was due to a lack of money. When I started a record label trying to get through to Adrian Borland from The Sound to produce Into Paradise was a big deal.”

After the success of Under the Water Into Paradise signed to Ensign Records. Nigel Grainge of Ensign had a long history of working with Irish artists. I interviewed him for my documentary Lights Camel Action - the story of Stump and when asked why an Englishman with no connection to Ireland had signed so many Irish artists he answered:

“It was only something I realised pretty much after having success, certainly initially with Thin Lizzy and then The Boomtown Rats, I thought, what’s drawing me to Ireland? It was really funny because things I would be offered that I actually liked were Irish. I started to work it into a project where I then decided to come over to Ireland and start exploring and that’s when I found Sinéad. It continued later with Into Paradise.”

Churchtown was recorded in The Church Studios with Adrian Borland returning to co-produce alongside mixing engineer Chris Sheldon. Ensign released two singles from Churchtown, ‘Burns My Skin’ and ‘Angel’.

‘Burns My Skin’ was well received by the music press. New York’s influential CMJ New Music Report awarded the track their ‘Single of the Fortnight’ describing it as, “a caustic roller-ride - guitars peal, drums pummel - reminiscent of Great British Raincoat Rock, circa 1980 - the Bunnymen/Sound/Magazine - with a thrilling Pixie-ish abandon. The Irishmen know it too - Sound mentor Adrian Borland co-produced.” When Churchtown followed later in 1991 the CMJ was no less enthusiastic writing that:

“Into Paradise is a four-piece that captures much of its intimate surroundings in its music. A high powered rhythm section fuels the guitar-driven pop with music that is hopeful and reciprocally anguish-ridden at the same time. This is wrapped around the searching, painful vocals of frontman Dave Long, who evokes images of Ian Curtis, Robert Smith and Wayne Hussey in his dark intensity. Into Paradise puts it all together with a fine balance of sadness and inspiration, never losing faith and never becoming morose, as they keep control of the turmoil in the polished outer result. Churchtown is an album that comes from within, sophisticated while bucking trends, and honest while avoiding pop pretensions.”

In a really positive Select magazine review for Churchtown, esteemed music journalist David Cavanagh wrote that, “it’s sometimes not clear whether Into Paradise are into cauterising wounds or just rubbing salt up and down them. It’s beyond doubt, however, that Into Paradise will leave people breathless and shaking with Churchtown.” I can vividly remember reading those words in 1991 and deciding there and then that I had to get my hands on Churchtown. The weekly inkies were no less effusive in their efforts to describe Into Paradise: Melody Maker wrote that with Churchtown, “it seems that Into Paradise are even closer to their original vision: music that runs cold through the veins.”

For Further Reading/Listening:

To Here Knows When column in The Goo on Churchtown…

This Episode contains a few references to Nigel Grainge of Ensign Records who passed away in 2017. In Chapter 8 of my Oral History, Lights! Camel! Action! - the story of Stump Grainge recounts his career in the music industry and how he formed Ensign Records.

Below is a special tribute episode of my radio show Songs To Learn And Sing featuring Nigel telling the Ensign Records story and featuring music from some of the bands he signed including: 10CC, Thin Lizzy, Eddy Grant, Sinéad O'Connor, The Waterboys, World Party, Into Paradise, The Boomtown Rats and Stump. The interview with Nigel was was conducted in 2015.

In our conversation Dave mentions an essay about The Triffids written by music journalist David Cavanagh, who sadly took his own life in late 2018. The essay is called ‘Hell of a Summer’ and was first published in Love is the Drug (edited and introduced by John Aizlewood). It’s a great book, well worth picking up and includes some well known journalists and other music fans writing about fandom: Aizlewood on Dexy’s; Stuart Maconie on Elvis Costello; Danny Kelly on The Clash; Lucy O'Brien on Siouxsie and the Banshees; Sid Griffin on Gram Parsons; Sean Hughes on Julian Cope and many more. David Cavanagh’s contribution on The Triffids is easily one of the strongest essays in the book and has been archived here. Cavanagh wrote two essential music books: The Creation Records Story: My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For the Prize and Good Night and Good Riddance: How Thirty-Five Years of John Peel Helped to Shape Modern Life. The Guardian called the former “the greatest book ever written on British independent music”. It’s better than that. “A Perfect Storm?” his Mojo magazine feature from August 2018 - in which he spends 24 hours in the company of Ian McCulloch - is one of the most devastatingly brilliant pieces of music journalism I’ve ever read. It literally brought me to tears.