Culture That Made Me: Broadcaster Pat O’Mahony on Féile, Rory Gallagher, and David Byrne
Pat O'Mahony currently presents For The Record, on RTÉ Gold.
Born in 1961, Pat O’Mahony grew up in Kildare town. In 1988, he became co-host of the Head 2 Toe fashion show on RTÉ television, the first of several national TV and radio broadcasting roles over the years, including eight years covering for Dave Fanning on his RTÉ 2fm music show.
While living in London, he produced the Emmy Award-winning series for Discovery in 2003.
In 2022, he began presenting radio show For the Record, which delves into people's record collections. The third series is currently running on RTÉ Gold, 6pm, Sundays.
Both parents are from Cork. Dad was from outside Bandon. Mum, who is from Castletownbere, is still alive, 95, and flying it in Kildare. When I was six or seven, they bought a stereo. There was a small inheritance that came from somewhere. It was one of those wooden Stereogram thingies where you lifted the lid and there was a big radio on one side and a record player on the other side.
They bought a load of records, Bing Crosby's Christmas album, Joe Loss Plays Glenn Miller, South Pacific, Annie Get Your Gun, Larry Cunningham, The Ludlows. I loved them all. I still have a bunch of those records.
An album I loved growing up was by Horslips. “The best and oldest furniture cannot be rearranged / If it suits the way it is there is no need to change…” The album cover was shaped like an accordion. I still have my brother's copy of it. It's falling apart, so it’s been well wrapped up, but I go back to it again and again. The first gig proper I went to see was Horslips – about ’74 on The Táin Tour – in Lawlor’s ballroom in Naas.
A year later, December ’75, I saw Rory Gallagher on his Against the Grain Tour in Dublin’s Carlton Cinema. The eldest brother had bought which I played to death on the parents' stereo.
“When I was a cowboy out on the Western Plain.” I was offered the ticket last minute.
I remember going up to the gig wearing slacks and a sports jacket. Everyone else was in Wrangler denims and lumberjack shirts. I didn't know. I honestly didn't give a rat's ass because the gig was just brilliant. The energy of it. I knew enough of the songs. I was gob-smacked by it all.
I went to all the Féiles, including the five in Thurles. They were great – the variety of acts you saw. We got on television for the one in Cork – for Féile ’95, a bunch of us persuaded RTÉ to put it on television. We went down with Ray D’Arcy, Dustin, myself and a TV crew. We had such craic for the weekend. I remember The Stone Roses were last on the Sunday night. They were only okay because Ian Brown couldn't sing for nuts. He was offkey most of the time.
Féile kept going, but it dribbled out. They tried one in the Point Depot in ’96. I stuck my head into it and left. It was awful.
I remember one year David Byrne played at Féile. It was 1992. I love Talking Heads. All the drinks were being served in these crushable paper cups, a certain brand of soft drink that might be red. They were under everyone's feet, crushed. This was an evening-going-into-nighttime gig.
At one stage, someone threw one in the air. Then someone else threw it in the air. David Byrne had turned his back to the crowd, playing to his drummer for about 20 seconds. By the time he turned around, the air was full of these crushed paper cups – like midges – thrown in the air. His jaw just dropped.
I remember seeing R.E.M. at The SFX in 1984. I still have the handwritten ticket. It cost £3.25. I was in my flat, close to Drumcondra, listening to Fanning interviewing them on the radio. I distinctly remember they said, “We're not playing Radio Free Europe anymore. Already in our short career, it’s become a bit of an albatross. We've stopped playing it on the tour.”
When they finished their interview in Donnybrook at the radio building, I strolled down to The SFX. Ten minutes after I arrived, they walked out on stage. What was the first song they played? Radio Free Europe. That was a wonderful gig. There was only a few hundred people at it.
I’m a huge David Bowie fan. Alan Yentob did a documentary about Bowie when he went to the States and was on cocaine. It’s from 1975. It was made for BBC's brand. It’s Bowie during one of his many creative peaks. He was doing himself untold damage by taking way too much cocaine. I remember watching the documentary going, “This is dark, way dark.” is one of those documentaries that’s dated, very of its time, dark, but revealing.
We were packed off to the Tower Cinema in Kildare – we've a round tower in Kildare, hence the name – as kids. I have no memory of what we saw. As I got older and started dating, I remember bringing a date to the late-night film – God bless her, the poor girl. There she was expecting a movie, and she got Led Zeppelin in concert. Lots of people walked out because they were obviously expecting a movie they could have a snog at. Instead, they got Page, Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham strutting their stuff.
When Twin Peaks was first broadcast, I didn’t miss a single episode. The weirder it got, the more I loved it. The sheriff and Kyle MacLachlan’s FBI character never got on. They rubbed up the wrong way from the get-go.
In one episode, there's a meeting in the police station boardroom one morning. MacLachlan is late. He walks in. The sheriff stands up. The two of them hug and sit down. It's not mentioned again. My jaw dropped. It was the funniest thing. That episode was directed by Diane Keaton. I loved the show’s music. Twin Peaks on so many fronts was wonderful.
on Channel 4 on Friday evenings for a period in the ’80s was must-see. I loved Muriel Gray. She was one of the best TV presenters I've ever seen – intelligent, witty, wry, self-deprecating, accurate, everything you would want in a television presenter. Jools Holland was all over the shop, Paula Yates all over the shop.
It was of its time. It was exciting. It was live, so it was dangerous. I remember the show was taken off air for a few weeks because during a live promo Jools said the F-word. You never knew what was going to be on. There were interviews, videos, reports, and live music in the studio. They almost copyrighted the handheld camera up the nose of the guitarist shot. It was all so different and unexpected.
