Cathal Coughlan Weekend: Only Losers Take The Bus

If non-fans recall The Fatima Mansions, we'd guess it would be for this song - Only Losers Take The Bus - rather than any of the others. It wasn't a top 40 hit or anything, but it got played on Snub TV and we remember it making a deep impression on the people we were flatsharing with at the time. Not a good one, mind. But deep.



[Part of Cathal Coughlan weekend]

Cathal Coughlan Weekend: Blues For Ceaucescu

Of course, when the Fatima Mansions did this on a Peel Session, a nervous BBC made them change the line about "Dickie Mountbatten" into "somebody famous" - almost as if linking a senior member of the Royal Family to the Kincora child abuse scandal was going to be a problem of some sort. This story never gets mentioned when they make programmes about banned records on Radio One, perhaps because it doesn't feature Mike Read; or, more likely, that nobody much wants to mention 'Prince Charles' godfather' and 'child abuse scandal' in the same breath.

Wonderfully, under the video on YouTube someone has posted this angry comment:

What does this have to do with Ceausescu?

Bah! Just when I was hoping for some footage of a despotic madman overseeing parades and throwing the mentally ill into orphanages, I get some pop music instead...

Assuming you know what you're after, here's the video:



[Part of Cathal Coughlan weekend]

Embed and breakfast man: Cathal Coughlan weekend

There's not many people who you would feel pride knowing they spat on you, but - especially since it was accidental - I've always viewed the spit-spattering that I got in the front row of the Fatima Mansions at Liverpool Poly during a particularly rousing Blues For Ceaucescu as one to tell the grandchildren about.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet and YouTube, you can enjoy one of Ireland's most politically-astute songwriters without the need for a sneeze guard and - of course - without incurring a story which will just lead your children's children to look at you in a confused and frightened manner before having you put away.

To get us underway, Microdisney doing Birthday Girl live - complete with an pre-watershed introduction from the great Ivor Cutler:



More Cathal across the weekend:
Microdisney - Singer's Hampstead Home Live
Fatima Mansions - Blues For Ceaucescu
Fatima Mansions - Only Losers Take The Bus
Cathal Coughlan - Dusty In Here Live

Elseweb:
Cathal Coughlan official site
Cathal's MySpace
Cathal Coghlan on Wikipedia

Purchases you could make:
Microdisney double CD anthology
Fatima Mansions - Viva Dead Ponies
Cathal Coughlan with the Grand Necropolitan Sextet - Foburg