'The end of a chapter and the start of another': Emperor of Ice Cream reunites after 28 years
Emperor of Ice Cream was the great Cork success story that never happened.
Twenty-eight years ago, the lights went out for Emperor of Ice Cream. At the Half-Moon Club in Cork city centre, the band played their final gig. As the applause faded, so, in a way, did the group’s future.
“The last time we played together was 1995,” recalls singer John “Haggis” Hegarty. “We had come back from London and had recorded a couple of demos with [audio-engineer] Rupert MacCarthy-Morrogh. We weren’t sure what we were going to do next. We played one gig. And that was it. I went back to college. Everyone just drifted off.”
Emperor of Ice Cream was the great Cork success story that never happened. Carried aloft by the whirlwind of hype that had followed the explosion of the so-called “Corkchester” scene in the early 1990s, they’d been snapped up by Sony Records and set to work on a debut album with Motörhead drummer “Fast” Eddie Clark.
Then Sony had a change of heart, and the plug was pulled. But the group reunited remotely over the pandemic, after they started communicating again following a piece about their early EPs in this newspaper's B-Side The Leeside series.
Working between Ireland and New York, they finished their LP, No Sound Ever Dies, a sparkling mix of old-school indie and shoegaze with grunge overtones. It came out in 2020 to widespread acclaim. And now, for the first time since that Half-Moon Show in 1995, they are about to perform together again – a one-off at Cyprus Avenue, Cork on August 26.
“When we finished up all those years ago, the book was closed,” says Hegarty. “During covid, this mad chapter opened where we got to, not re-write history, but tie up a few loose ends. It was special when we got the album: it was what we always aimed for.
“We had done three EPs. The idea in our head was to do three or four EPs and then have an album. We were only together for five or six months when Sony spotted us. We only had six or seven songs. A couple of the other bands would have had 40 or 50 gigs under their belts and a set.”
They saw Emperor Of Ice Cream – named after a poem by American modernist writer Wallace Stevens – as a long-term project.
“Years ago bands would have two or three or four or five albums. You’d watch them grow. I suppose that’s what we had in our head: that’s what we were told [would happen]. We were a week away from making the album and we were dropped.”
His memories of Cork in the 1990s are still vibrant. He works with young musicians today, and his son is in a band called Broken Noses – so he is well aware that great music is still pouring out of Ireland. But for him, the 1990s was a period when lots was happening simultaneously in Cork.
“From when I was 16, we used to get buses down to Leap to see punk bands, buses out to Blarney to a scout hall to see three bands play. You never knew who was going to be playing. It could be [1980s post-punk group] Cow In The Water playing beautiful, strange music.
“They were one of my favourites – you never know what would happen. They would turn up in chemical suits; they’d have strobe lights in washing machines. And they’d invite people you’d never heard of: that’s how we got to know The Shanks. There was a supportive thing in Cork. You could do anything. All the bands were different. Nobody was up against each other. You had the Franks, the Sultans. Nobody sounded like each other.
Hegarty is in Ireland, as is bassist Eddie Butt. Meanwhile, guitarist Graham Finn lives in New York and drummer Colum Young in Amsterdam. They’ve rehearsed virtually – but will meet face-to-face the week before the gig. It will be the first time all four have been in the room together in decades.
“I haven’t seen Graham or Colum in over 20 years. It will be great to catch up. This is the first time we’ve played in 30 years. In one way, it’s the end of a chapter and the start of another. Or is it where the story ends? I don’t know. It will be fantastic to see the lads.”
- No Sound Ever Dies is out now. Emperor Of Ice Cream plays Cyprus Avenue Cork, Saturday, August 26
