BELFASTOUT OF

They’ve united a homeland known for its divides. But now APlastic Rose and The Rupture Dogs need to focus on the UKat large. This month Daniel Robinson sat down with bothbands to find out where the Irish scene’s been, where it’sgoing and the horrors of DIY tours....Belfast has been brought to it's knees

by a community of acts steadily rising

and roaring since And So I Watch You

From Afar first alerted the country to

a scene then largely unrealised with

their mini-festival “A Little Solidarity”

just over two years ago.ago.

Solidarity was a historic moment in

time for Irish music that preceded the

boom of bands like Lafaro, Two Door

Cinema Club, General Fiasco and

ASIWYFA themselves. It would never

be an easy feat to match, never mind

go beyond.

Over the last month Back Track spoke

with The Rupture Dogs and A Plastic

Rose, two Belfast bands in their infant

stages at the time of Solidarity who've

since established themselves locally

and before Christmas were involved in

the winter-long “You Are” festival, a fif-

teen gig NI-wide toast to what the na-

tion had going musically.

A Plastic Rose felt like the time had ar-

rived to spearhead a campaign that

would give the “momentum a kick up

the arse” and “gel people together”

once more.

It takes massive balls

to do what we've

done”

“I felt like after ASIWYFA went away

there was a lot of pressure for them to

be involved in the scene. But they can't,

they're doing their own thing. Instead

of passing the baton on they just put it

on the ground and went 'Right, away

you go'. We felt like 'Right, we'll take it'”

said Gerry Norman of APR, “It takes

massive balls to do what we’ve done, I

don’t think anyone can deny us of that.”

BreakingWORDS: DANIEL ROBINSON

PHOTOS: CRAIG MCCOLLOUGH

“GERRY NORMAN

F e a t u r e s . . . M u s i cBACKTRACK

7

­­Of course many might argue that

every scene needs it's leaders. With-

out forerunners to motivate the up

and coming and unheard of and to

draw interest from the wider world, a

scene will choke on the fear of fruit-

less touring, recording and promo-

tion.

So when indie-hopefuls Panama

Kings called it a day last year just as

Fighting With Wire seemed damned

to post-production hell, Lafaro had

caught their break traipsing around

Europe with Helmet and ASIWYFA,

while still as adoringly conjoined to

their homeland as ever, had flown the

nest with the aid of Them Crooked

Vultures and years of graft, APR were

ready to fill in the gap.

“It was more of a void than a pressure

really,” agreed guitarist Ian McHugh.

“There were just no figureheads, no-

body locally really putting the work

in.”

Although dented by delays, APR's

headlining Mandela Hall performance

culminated the celebration, once

again consolidating a moment for NI

music. But did the tireless grass-roots

publicity pay off?

“I don't think it could ever have failed.

It was more of an idea and there was

no real pressure for there to be twelve

hundred people there, but we got

more people to that gig than some

chart-topping bands last year.” af-

firmed Gerry, “Even before it was a

success people just applauded us for

trying”.

What place then did The Rupture

Dogs have in all of this?

The Belfast enthusiasts of all things

raw and grungy were barely out of

school when the thought of Solidarity

rolled around the heads of ASIWYFA.

Now senior noise-makers of the

North, they've opened for the Sopra-

nos-soundtracking Alabama 3 and

been announced by Placebo's ex-

sticksman as the loudest three-piece

he's ever heard.

There were just no

figureheads, nobody

putting the work in

Glasgowbury”s a celebration

of the scene for summer, we

wanted to start one for the

end of the year

““

Ian McHugh

A Plastic Rose: Gerry Norman at the You Are finale

The Rupture Dogs: Gareth, Allan and John

The Mandela afterparty

4NI

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