Ireland In 50 Albums, No 25: Paradise in the Picturehouse, by The Stunning (1990)
An early incarnation of The Stunning.
During last year’s Rugby World Cup, The Stunning’s anthemic ‘Brewing Up a Storm’ was introduced to a whole new audience when it soundtracked an advertisement for a popular lager. The song’s enduring popularity is at odds with its reception upon release in 1989.
The band’s first three singles (‘Got To Get Away’, ‘Half Past Two’ and Romeo’s On Fire’) were all chart hits in 1988. ‘Brewing Up a Storm’ came next but according to Steve Wall, the band’s singer and guitarist, “It got no radio play, we were told it was too 'guitary'. We were scratching our heads.
“There was a record signing in Golden Discs on Grafton Street and nobody showed up. We were so embarrassed; it was like a scene from Spinal Tap. We were pretending to be customers, flicking through records. One person came in and asked for an autograph and didn’t even buy the single. The album was to come next, so we were really concerned that it was going to be a flop.”
Joe Wall, the band’s bass player and Steve’s brother, tries to explain the song’s appeal. “Despite getting the thumbs down from Irish radio when it was released ‘Brewing up a Storm’ has always connected well with audiences. It’s got a straightforward primal quality, you can tap your foot or pogo to it,” he says.
“The chorus is a rousing call to arms and you don’t have to know the words to sing the ‘Da Dada Dah’ bit and it’s also got a memorable riff.”
‘Brewing Up a Storm’ proved to be an anomaly in the band’s upwards trajectory because when debut album Paradise in the Picturehouse was released in August 1990 it spent five weeks at the top of the Irish Albums Charts. Its success was a vindication.
“There was a view within the Dublin music scene that anything from outside Dublin was deemed to be pretty uncool,” recalls Steve. “We weren’t really taken seriously at all; we were called all kinds of things in reviews. There was quite a condescending viewpoint at anything that was coming out of the country, as if it hadn’t earned its stripes.”
The Stunning formed in 1987. “We were all sharing the same house, an old farmhouse in Galway. It was like The Monkees,” remembers Steve.
“Everyone had a diverse taste in music. Cormac the drummer had all kinds of stuff like Television and fantastic Blue Note jazz albums that he inherited from his dad. Derek, the guitar player, was a really well known DJ in Galway and he had this incredible record collection of rare soul cuts and world music. Myself and Joe grew up listening to stuff our mother and aunts were into. We grew up in Dublin and it was all stuff like Motown, The Beatles, The Kinks, all the crooners.” The band got a residency at the Hilltop Hotel in Salthill and quickly built up a loyal following eventually gigging all over the country, often seven nights a week. “I’d go to a coinbox in Eyre Square in Galway and book a tour with a notebook and a bag of 50p coins,” says Steve.
“Until I discovered that the Great Southern Hotel had an actual payphone in the lobby and it was warm with clean toilets and you could order a cup of tea. That became my office for a while.”
The band’s self-financed records were recorded with producer Chris O’Brien. “I was at one of the band’s earliest gigs in The Hilltop Hotel in Salthill, so I really got an insight to what The Stunning were all about,” says O’Brien. “I just knew I had to work with them and luckily they asked.”
The album was recorded in starts and stops and according to O’Brien, “There was a very tight budget, somewhat minuscule compared to their UK counterparts with maybe two days in some of the smaller Irish studios of the time to record and mix each track.
“A lot of The Stunning’s songs arrived fairly well formed and the task was to capture the band with the excitement of a gig and make it jump out the small speakers,” explains O’Brien. “Their songwriting was consistently great and their growing confidence as a live act certainly helped when they arrived in the studio.”
Despite the start-stop nature of the recording sessions there’s a real coherency to Paradise in the Picturehouse. “It’s essentially a compilation of the bands early singles and various album tracks recorded over a two year period,” says O’Brien.
“Even though the songs were all different styles they all shared Steve’s distinct voice, Derek Murray’s almost country guitar, a tight rhythm section and their use of brass glued the sound together. I would hope that I added some of that glue too.”
Paradise in the Picturehouse went multi-platinum in Ireland and most of those sales were on the preferred format of the day. “The percentage of cassettes was something like 85% of sales, it came out on CD and vinyl too but it was Walkmans and car stereos,” says Steve.
Joe puts The Stunning’s longevity down to the fact that they never followed music trends: “We didn’t even follow our own trends.” “Our first four singles were completely different style-wise. It didn’t occur to us to try to stick to one style. We judged each song on its own merits and we would often ditch song ideas that sounded hip and trendy but didn’t quite cut it as songs as far as we were concerned,” says Joe.
“Maybe that’s stood us well in the longterm, at the end of the day people connect with good songs and style is secondary.”
The Stunning were often dubbed ‘The Hardest Working Band in Ireland’. “I think that actually has a lot to do with the band’s longevity,” reckons Steve.
“One time we were playing somewhere like Bunclody, and the place was stuffed. I remember a young lad coming up to me afterwards and he said, ‘if you don't mind me asking, what the hell are you doing playing here?’ To them it was like: ‘Are we that important?’ People would still come up to me and say, ‘I remember the time that ye came to Loughrea and played in the Temperance Hall. We couldn’t believe it, that The Stunning were coming.’”
Reflecting on the album, Steve says, “My lyrics were influenced by the Ireland that I’d grown up in. A Catholic education coming through in songs that were written back in 1987 and 1988.”
Of ‘Half Past Two’, one of the album’s most endearing songs, Steve says, “I tried to capture the vibe of a Saturday afternoon in Galway, that thing of looking around and spotting the talent, being young and fancy free in your 20s.
“The guy is getting ready to go out, he’s done himself up, he’s thinking maybe I should make the bed just in case. The word condom wouldn’t sound good in the lyrics of a song anyway but even then you couldn’t really say it. “Maybe I should buy some rubber balloons just to play it safe.”
But he couldn’t have bought “rubber balloons” anyway because you had to go to a doctor and get a prescription to get condoms.” Styles go in and out of fashion, but Paradise in the Picturehouse’s substance has guaranteed its longevity. For Steve it’s simpler: “It’s a lovely recording and it still sounds fresh.”
The Stunning followed Paradise in the Picturehouse with their second album, 1992’s Once Around the World. The band broke up in 1994. Steve and Joe formed The Walls and have to date released three studio albums. In 2003 The Stunning reformed and continue to play sold out shows up and down the country. Joe Wall is a tutor at BIMM music institute.
Steve Wall will appear in John B Keane’s Sive at the Gaiety Theatre from January 27. We Come Alive, The Stunning’s concert film, is available on the RTÉ Player.
- Paul McDermott’s podcast To Here Knows When – Great Irish Albums Revisited is available on all listening platforms.
