“Great to be asked to do this wonderful series on behalf of Revelino - talking about the making of our debut and lots besides.”
Brendan Tallon

Episode Notes

Episode eight of To Here Knows When - Great Irish Albums Revisited focuses on Revelino’s self-titled debut album released in 1994 on Dirt Records.

Revelino emerged in 1994 fully formed. They were an incredibly tight, professional unit with a three-guitar sonic attack. When they gigged in support of their debut album they played to packed venues nationwide. It’s probably fair to guess that most of their audience first came across the band when Donal Dineen enthusiastically endorsed their ‘Happiness is Mine’ video on RTÉ’s No Disco - I know that’s where I first heard the name Revelino.

Revelino were from Balinteer at the base of the Dublin mountains. Brendan Tallon was on vocals and guitar, Bren Berry played guitar, Ciaran Tallon (Brendan’s younger brother) also played guitar, Alan Montgomery (or Monty) was on bass, and Shane Rafferty played drums.

In this episode Brendan Tallon, the band’s singer and songwriter, joins me to chat about the years spent gigging in and around Balinteer with his first band Crocodile Tears. From there we move onto the years in The Coltranes and their decision to go professional – give up the day jobs, go on the Dole and move into a house together, or as Brendan describes it: “like The Monkees without the hits.” We then talk about the years spend gigging up and down the country and their single with Son Records before getting into: recording with Pete Holidai and his help in the studio; gigging in venues in South Co. Dublin; gigging nationwide; putting Revelino together; writing the songs and song craft; the different recording sessions for their debut album; working with engineers and producers; big support gigs with The Kinks, Echo & the Bunnymen and Televison; the support of John Peel; the band’s Broadcaster and To The End albums; calling time on Revelino; the reissue of Revelino in 2020; and the writing and recording process of his debut solo album Love in These Times. I really enjoyed this chat.

Brendan, Bren and Shane had all played in The Coletranes. And Monty had been a member of The Dixons.

In the last episode Stan Erraught talked about a time in 1989 when The Stars of Heaven recorded demos for Mother Records and there’s a Mother Records link here too. The Dixons 1989 single ‘I Have Fun’ came out on Mother, and The Coletranes 1991 single ‘I Wake Up’, came out on Son Records, a subsidiary of Mother. There is also a link back to episode four of To Here Knows When, Revelino’s debut album was released on Dirt Records a label set up by Blue in Heaven’s Shane O’Neill along with his brother Brian.

It didn’t happen for The Coltranes - but far from been beaten the lads retreated and regrouped, Ciaran and Monty joined and the three-guitar Revelino emerged fully formed, they had put the time in, they had spent years in practice rooms, they had gigged all over the country – they were the walking embodiment of Malcolm Galdwell’s ‘10,000 Hour’ rule. They were also brilliant live, a three-guitar attack, soaring harmonies and great, great pop songs. I had the great pleasure of witnessing some of their gigs in Cork in the mid-90s and they were always great live. They also looked great - they looked like a gang, a real band.

Revelino followed their debut album with one of their greatest songs the non-album single ‘I Know What You Want’ (I was disappointed that a remastered version of this track didn’t appear on the extra EP that accompanied last year’s reissue of the debut, but you know, what the hell do I know!). This in turn was followed by their second album, Broadcaster in 1996. ‘Step On High’ was released as a single from the album and it received huge support from John Peel on his BBC radio show, with the DJ even once declaring: “I love that record to the point of madness”. A copy of this 7” was found in Peel’s wooden record box after his death alongside his favourite sevens - a great honour for the Ballinteer lads in fairness.

They played in New York in 1997 and Neil Strauss perfectly summed up their sound in the New York Times when he wrote that: “Revelino was a consummate band, playing driving, catchy psychedelia tinged power-pop. It’s best songs, like ‘Happiness Is Mine’, were beautiful, harmony-laden confections full of falsetto singing and buzzing guitars.” If you never caught Revelino live, just go back to the start of this paragraph and reread Strauss’ quote.

A third album - To The End - followed in 2001. Revelino’s songwriting skill and recording prowess were without doubt on an upward trajectory from the late 90s into the early 00s, but like a real-life example of the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns it simply wasn’t enough to sustain them and the band ultimately called it a day.

When I worked with Frontline Promotions in the mid-90s we promoted a few Revelino gigs. The second I saw the above image tweeted last year I recognised it as a Frontline flyer that was designed by Andrew MacDonagh (DJ Fork). Frontline were Philip O’Connell (ex-Nun Attax) and Ally Ó Riada and for much of the 90s Nancy Spains was our home venue. Phil had leased a crappy photcopier/printer from a guy I had gone to school with (a guy who ended up in jail for ripping off Cork City Council - but that’s another story entirely). The printer was a piece of crap that weighed a tonne and only printed shitty one colour jobs. Andrew’s task was to come up with designs that once printed on coloured paper would look OK. He'd sit at the computer in the corner of Frontline’s Thompson House office, fag constantly in mouth, swearing at Phil, “this piece of shit!” We’d all laugh. He was hilarious, he was also a gent and he always had a smile on his face. We’d spend hours talking about records - he was a sounding board. Andrew sadly died on 24 July 2021 and we lost one of the true legends of the Cork music scene. His Irish Examiner obituary is here.

In October 2021 during groundworks on the site of the demolished Nancy Spains the skeletal remains of six people were found. The remains are believed to predate the 19th century building on the site - things could get rough at Frontline’s Yum Yum dance club on a Friday night - but not that rough!

For Further Reading/Listening/Viewing:

To Here Knows When column in The Goo on Revelino…

Myself and Brendan also talk about the fact that Revelino’s ‘Step On High’ was in John Peel’s 7” record box. We chat about the documentary John Peel's Record Box (directed by Elaine Shepherd) which was first broadcast by Channel 4 in 2005. The documentary can be viewed below:

If you want to read more about Brendan’s songwriting craft and the writing of Love in These Times then I highly recommend his interview with Niall Crumlish from April 2021 for Niall’s great Psychiatry and Songs blog. It was one of the first pieces that I returned to in preparation for my own interview with Brendan. It can be found here: Brendan Tallon: “I Love The Power of A Pop Song”

Ciaran Tallon now plays guitar with Klubber Lang alongside ex-(sic) bass player Ciaran McGoldrick on vocals and bass, ex-Mexican Pets drummer Fin O'Leary and Ronan McHugh - who of course produced Revelino’s debut - on keyboards. The band have released some brilliant tunes on Fifa Records, including this absolute stomper: