St Vitus Dance are:
Haydn Boyle - Keyboards
Noel Burke – Vocals, Guitar
Phil Freckleton – Bass Guitar, Guitar
Peter Hesketh – Drums, Percussion
Damien Magee – Guitar, Mandolin, Button Accordion
Kevin O’Neill – Lead Guitar
Influences
People We Like In No Particular Order: The Velvet Underground, Love, Jacques Brel, Scott Walker, Bill Hicks, Wire (oh, and The Wire Too), Drew & Josh Friedman (not related to Dean as far as we know), The Kinks, The Zombies, The Lovin' Spoonful, Teenage Fanclub, The Byrds and Gene Clark solo, The Undertones, Kocani Orkestar, 13th Floor Elevators, George Pelecanos, Rogue Wave, Television, Pernice Brothers, Ros Serey Sothea, Sly and the Family Stone, Calexico, Benjy Ferree, Okkervil River, Robert Mellin & Gian Piero Reverberi, The Go-Betweens, Jason Falkner, Lee Hazlewood, Oliver Postgate, Orange Juice, Apples In Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Toots and the Maytals, The Monochrome Set, Richard Thompson, Band of Horses, Zookeeper, The National, Taraf De Haidouks, Spoon, Ennio Morricone, The Stars of Heaven, Microdisney, Mikis Theodorakis, Jonathan Richman, Magnetic Fields, Sambassadeur, The Shins, John Barry, Lambchop, The Beatles, Nino Rota, Grandaddy,Al Green, The Left Banke, Candi Staton, Wilco, Eric Matthews, Johnny Cash, Nyah Fearties and probably a lot more but who has the time these days?
Belfast band St. Vitus Dance fell together sometime in the summer of 1981. Marked out from the beginning by their own brand of sixties-tinged, intelligent pop the band were a bright spot on an otherwise largely dour landscape. The band went through a few personnel changes and several years of activity on the increasingly healthy local scene which culminated in the album Love Me Love My Dogma which was released on the Liverpool based Probe Plus label in 1987. No angry political diatribes here, rather a wryly humorous series of reflections on the lesser documented side of life in the Belfast of that time. Tales of late night taxi ranks, down at heel bars, and a rocky outcrop high above the city bearing a strong resemblance to Bonaparte in profile. The album was critically well received and the band migrated across the pond where a year of infrequent gigs and poverty finally did for them.
In May 2005 a reconstituted St. Vitus Dance (including most of the Dogma era line-up as well as a long lost veteran of the band’s very first incarnation) accepted an invitation to perform at Belfast--s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival with the legendary Bid (Monochrome Set/Scarlet--s Well). The night was something of a triumph and coincided with the first ever CD release of Love Me Love My Dogma. Another sell-out gig at the Crescent Arts Centre followed before the end of that year and encouraged by public response band also began writing, rehearsing and recording the songs which have now been brought together on the album Glypotheque (Probe Plus).
The band recently celebrated both the 20th anniversary of Love Me Love My Dogma and the launch of Glypotheque with a gig at Belfast’s Black Box Theatre. The album was officially released on 7th April, 2008 - watch this page for details and news of any more upcoming gigs.
Hello,thanks for your comment.yes,below Japanese comment means "many Thanks for being a friend.".i still love late 80's classic indiepop bands and will love them forever.and you,i know your great sounds in 80's.needless to say i feel your sound changed,but truly love Glypotheque songs.yes it's peaceful,melodious and never changed good songs...i love 80's and 00's St.Vitus Dance music very much!
and does Probe Bus Label run even now? anyway thanks again for your timeless good music :)
I've been waiting, hoping, til I see you, just to ask you if you would ... remove those comments on the bottom of Jan 4 and 10, which were left by a hacker, cheers. M
Nice to meet you, chaps! Thanks a lot for thinking of me. And I would like to confirm that the June Brides have now officially forgiven the spitty tyke in Belfast!
Thanks for the add, guys! I've been trying (in vain) to track your album down for decades now! I still have a few of the songs on tape, and to be fair, I DID buy the Bunnymen album Noel sang on - did he go to see them at The Limelight on the Evergreen tour? McCulloch was a t****r when I asked him to sign some stuff. Will was nice though!
Hot on the heels of a storming set supporting the Von Bondies last month, Stagger Lee are back in Belfast to play a headline show in Lavery's tomorrow night with special guests Saint Dudes!!
Hope you can join us and make some noise!! Doors 9pm.
Thanks for the add! I'd love to get a copy of the new album - any word of a release date?? All the best and looking forward to seeing you gigging in Belfast again soon!! (hint hint!!) Aidan
many thanks for adding me.i'm very glad that i could find you."Love Me Love My Dogma" is very great album! both CD and LP i have. anyway many thaks a lot. best wishes.
