Punk hero John Robb: 'Fontaines DC are really on that trajectory to be huge'
John Robb will interview Spider Stacy of The Pogues at Clonakilty International Guitar Festival
Hot on the sulphuric heels of his last book, 2023’s hefty tome on Goth culture, , John Robb returns with a spoken word tour inspired by his recently published collection covering his 40 years in journalism, , which features a selection of interviews from his fanzine days through to his period contributing to music weeklies like NME up to his website Louder Than War.
It’s a ten-day hike around the length and breadth of Ireland, and having done similar spoken word and music tours with his long-running post punk band The Membranes, Robb is relishing the prospect of going off the beaten track.
“It’s mega,” he exclaims. “I’ve done it before. And this one’s even more like this because some of the places I’m doing are really small towns — the real Ireland,” he cackles conspiratorially.
Speaking with Robb after his opening night in Kilkenny, which featured him in conversation with Cork visual artist Aideen Barry, he was surprised to be reminded he had played there in 1986 on The Membranes’ first ever tour.
“Some of the people at the event were actually at the gig,” he relates. “They were saying people still talk about us turning up there, like these weird punk rockers. People in Ireland have good memories.”
Perhaps he can be forgiven for forgetting he played Kilkenny. Through a lifetime of writing, performing and producing bands, Robb has acquired a wealth of stories and opinions. Inspired by Punk, 16-year-old Robb formed The Membranes in 1977.
As a journalist, he has built an impressive CV, from being the first person to interview Nirvana to coining the term Britpop years before it came into common currency. Of the former, he colourfully recalls sharing floorspace in a cramped New York City flat with Nirvana and fellow grunge heavyweights Tad while he interviewed them over the course of a weekend.
“That was a bit of a mad trip,” he recalls. “At the time, it was like, ‘ah, jeez, we have to stay here. There’s no space on the floor.’ But now, years later, it was like sharing a flat with The Beatles for four days,” he laughs.
That punk spirit will be in evidence in his Irish appearances. The first half of the evening will see him talk about his life in music, while the second sees him in conversation with a variety of interesting guests, which will so far have included among others the aforementioned Barry, Elvera Butler of Reekus Records and John Perry of The Only Ones, and Cathal MacGabhann of The Altered Hours.
“It’s kind of interesting to interview somebody else who’s creative to find out what their life is like. Is there a parallel life, an opposite life, a different life, different inspiration?” he muses.
The thrust of his opening talk is about growing up in Blackpool as a teenager and the transformative explosion of punk.
“Punk was amazing,” he recalls, “musically and stylistically. But also it kind of said to you that you could do it yourself, which we had no idea how to do it, but we just did it anyway. Which I think is a great way to make art. You’re so inspired by it. But often nowadays I think there’s a lot of barriers. There’s an expectation that everything should be the fully finished version. But that fumbling around trying to get it together is actually where you find your space. You know by getting it wrong you're kind of getting it right.”
He recognises something similar in Ireland at the moment. Describing what he sees as a renaissance of bands, he enthuses about Lankum, ØXN and The Murder Capital, as well as the general state of creativity on the island.
“I went to Ireland last year, every town I went to people were giving me demos of bands, and they’re all really amazing. I mean not all the bands will make it, which I don’t think really matters in the end — it’s not about making it. But there was so much amazing creativity bubbling away under the surface.
"I think now, people when they get to bands they don’t think of it in career terms. It’s just a space to be creative. When I was a kid, people used to say ‘have you been on Top of the Pops?’ Like that was a measure of if you were very good or not. Right now it doesn’t matter because of the internet. You can create a very small space to exist in and be creative.”
One current Irish band that impresses him above all others is Fontaines DC. Robb missed out on another first — releasing the first Fontaines single. He encountered them while they were attending BIMM in Dublin, where he was a guest mentor, and came close to putting their demo out.
“They’re proof you can start bands who are still creative and find different ways of making music, but you can still be really popular as well,” he insists. “You know they’re really on that trajectory to be huge. Arctic Monkeys huge. Not just a big indie band but the next level up.”
On another level again is Oasis. Before the announcement of their reunion, Robb was invited by Noel Gallagher to interview him for . After the initial euphoria of their big announcement an angry and confused fanbase began to wrestle with the concept of dynamic pricing.
Robb gives an even-handed assessment of the situation: “They didn’t start it, did they? Most bands use dynamic pricing. Airlines use it. Football clubs use it. It’s weird now this stuffiness - ‘what have Oasis come up with this ticket thing?’
"Well they haven’t. That’s how all big bands sell tickets. It’s mad capitalism, isn’t it? Nick Cave does it. There are people like Paul Heaton who won’t use it."
While Robb feels that money might be a factor, the actual buzz might be the bigger factor.
- John Robb appears on Friday 20th at the Seamus Ennis Arts Centre, Naul, Co Dublin, with special guest Niall McGurk (Hope Promotions); Saturday 21st at The Greyhound Bar, Tralee, with special guest Paul Smith (Blast First/ Mute Record) and Spider Stacy (The Pogues); and Sunday 22nd at Clonakilty International Guitar Festival with Spider Stacy
- Jim White and Marisa Anderson, De Barras, 6pm Friday, September 20: Free The collaborative album between Jim White and Marissa Anderson, Swallowtail, is a union that needed to happen. White is the intuitive, mercurial drummer with legendary instrumental rock trio The Dirty Three, as well as a host of renowned artists; Anderson is the doyenne of the American primitive guitar style. Together they weave footstamping spells.
- George Lowden, Scoil na mBuachailli, 7pm, Friday 20: A guitar festival celebrating a landmark anniversary without George Lowden would be incomplete. The bespoke creations of the Downpatrick luthier have been prized by everyone from Paul Brady to Pierre Bensusan, and no better musician to play their way around one of them than he.
- Niamh Regan, Scoil na mBuachailli, 7pm, Friday 20: The combination of raw lyrics, mellifluous vocals and instrumentation that is both dreamy and dramatic has made this Galway singer-songwriter an essential artist to see on any line up. She follows her startling Choice Music Awarded debut with the more groove-laden .
- Stanley Super 800 -, Venue TBC, 9pm, Saturday 21: Much loved, yet under-appreciated, the Cork quartet went their separate ways over a decade ago, having released two albums, including the 2007 Choice Music Prize-nominated . Having featured in the inaugural 2005 Guitar Festival they reconvene to unleash their brand of urgent and effervescent indie pop.
- See clonguitarfest.com
