'Kaught at the Kampus' gig remembered 40 years later with Grand Parade mural

Legendary Cork post-punk record remembered with a mural on the city's Grand Parade thoroughfare

The city-central murals on Grand Parade, marking forty years since the live recording of post-punk EP 'Kaught at the Kampus'. Pic: Siobhán Bardsley

As one of Cork city's most influential records approaches its 40th anniversary, a pair of new murals on the Grand Parade this week celebrates the cultural contributions of the artists involved.

Recorded on August 30th 1980, at the Arcadia Ballroom on Lower Glanmire Road, Kaught at the Kampus captured four Leeside post-punk bands on stage as part of a showcase gig at the venue, with Nun Attax, Mean Features, Urban Blitz and Micro-Disney (the hyphen being indicative of the band's first Cork-based incarnation) appearing on its eventual split 12" release in 1981, the debut excursion for gig organiser Elvera Butler's Reekus Records label.

In the intervening years, the record has come to be regarded as a document of the Cork music scene at an important juncture, helping to set the tone for the city's subsequent musical reputation, with many of the musicians and personalities involved becoming cult figures in their own right.

The city-central murals on Grand Parade, marking forty years since the live recording of post-punk EP 'Kaught at the Kampus'. Pic: Siobhán Bardsley

Finished and unveiled opposite the Grand Parade Library at the weekend, the murals, produced by Fiona O'Mahony of Conjun Box and Siobhán Bardsley of Cork Zine Archive, feature previously-unpublished photographs of the bands by Ciarán O'Tuama, Pat Galvin and Colm Henry. 

The project was created with the assistance of Cork City Council and Cork City Libraries, with whom Bardsley has previously collaborated, on 2016's Circa '91 exhibition.

An additional panel reprints a fanzine interview with Nun Attax, the Churchfield post-punk band that would later become cult favourites Five Go Down to the Sea?, anchored by legendary frontman Finbarr Donnelly.

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An anniversary edition of the record is due for later in the year via Reekus Records, while a standard digital edition is on Spotify; two of Nun Attax' contributions to the record can also be found on their recent compilation album Hiding from the Landlord, available on vinyl and download via Dublin label Allchival.