Gig review: Bumper to bumper at Cork Opera House for the Sultans of Ping
Sultans of Ping at Cork Opera House: Bass guitarist Ian Olney and lead singer Niall O'Flaherty. Picture: Cian O'Regan
It was quite the homecoming for Sultans of Ping at Cork Opera House on Friday night. The first of two sold-out gigs at the venue was partly to mark 30 years since the release of their wonderfully-titled debut album, Casual Sex In The Cineplex, and was also the band’s first live show since 2014.
Many of the 1,000 punters who’d paid about €30 to see them on the night had a long association with the band, some going all the way back to the days of flagons of cider in the Liberty Bar and seminal gigs in Sir Henrys. Others might have jumped aboard at later stages, attracted by one of the frequent reincarnations of ‘Where’s Me Jumper?’.
After decent support contributions by up-and-comers the Love Buzz and First And Coach, the hometown heroes sauntered onto the Opera House stage.
A five-piece in their current incarnation, hey-day stalwarts Niall O’Flaherty, Pat O’Connell and Morty McCarthy were supplemented by bassist Ian Olney (Cypress Mine, Power of Dreams) and Sammy Stieger (the Golden Horde). After nine years without a gig together, they’d be forgiven a bit of ring-rustiness, and it took a few songs and the unleashing of ‘2 Pints of Rasa’ before the band – and the crowd – got into their stride.
With seats removed downstairs, a heaving moshpit gathered energy as the gig went on, and a few diehards found enough space to flop to the floor for the trademark dance of ‘The Turnip Fish’.
O’Flaherty is still the star of the show. By day a historian at King’s College in London, an occasional night sees him strapping on the patent leather boots and transmogrifying into a preening frontman.
The Brighton-born, Carrigaline-raised singer is prone to a bit of banter with his audience, even he doesn’t jab with the same level of chaos-provoking barbs of yesteryear.
An hour in and the main set was closed out with the classic tale of that mislaid sweater. Omitted from the band’s live sets for a while as they sought to be regarded as a serious act, the former novelty hit is now rightly regarded an iconic pop tune. Still catchy, and so clever.
Encores included ‘Let’s Go Shopping’ and ‘You Talk Too Much’, reminding all present of that Casual Sex – just one of three albums they released – contained a serious arsenal of tunes.
On the Dancing In The Disco documentary on RTÉ 2xm earlier in the week, there were tales of the band being battered by beer cans in Limerick, and pelted with coins in Italy. Back on Leeside the Sultans were simply showered with love.
