Derek Barter - Bass guitar, vocals
David 'Kid Gretsch' Connolly - Guitar, vocals
Seamus Duggan - Vocals
Eoin 'Skins' Hanna - Drums
Other members
'Ozzie John' Healy - Drums
Albert Cowan - Drums
Special Guest Star
Paddy Brady - Guitar
Influences
Beer, unemployment, boredom and football.
Seamus' List - (I won't speak for the others but mine include(d)): Louis Armstrong, The Auteurs, Agnes Bernelle, Big Black, Big Star, The Birthday Party, The Blades, Blondie, Billy Bragg, Captain Beefheart, Buzzcocks, Johnny Cash, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Alex Chilton, The Clash, Lenard Cohen, Elvis Costello, The Count Five, Country Joe & The Fish, The Cramps, Ivor Cutler, The Dead Kennedys, Desperate Bicycles, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Jim Dickinson, Bob Dylan, Echo & The Bunnymen, Einsturzende Neubaten, The (mighty) Fall, The Fatima Mansions, Foetus, Gang of Four, The Go-Betweens, Vic Godard, The Golden Horde, Woody Guthrie, Half Man, Half Biscuit, Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra, John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf, Husker Du, Iggy & the Stooges, The Jam, Joy Division, The Kinks, Link Wray, Luggage, Madness, Magazine, Microdisney, Momus, The Monks, Morrisey, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Willie Nelson, Orange Juice, Gram Parsons, John Peel, Pere Ubu, PIL, The Pixies, The Pogues, Elvis Presley, The Radiators, The Ramones, The Saints, Scritti Politti, Serious Drinking, The Sex Pistols, The Skids, Slade, The Smiths, Son House, The Sonics, Sonic Youth, Sparks, The Specials, Carl Stalling, The Stars of Heaven, Stiff Little Fingers, Swell Maps, Patti Smith, The Subway Sect, Talking Heads, Tav Falco Panther Burns, Television, That Petrol Emotion, Them, Thin Lizzy, Richard & Linda Thompson, Those Handsome Devils, The Undertones, Tom Waits, Wire, X Ray Spex, XTC, Neil Young, The Young Gods, The Zombies
Some of Eoins' influences follow -
Zappa, Neil Young, Primus, Captain Beefheart, Oysterhead, Television, Public Enemy, King Crimson, David Sylvian, De la Soul, Can, Kraftwerk, Steely Dan, That Petrol Emotion, PJ Harvey, PIL ,Bomb the BasS, Neneh Cherry, Portishead, Cameo, Beck, MC5, Patti Smith, dinosaur jr, Giles Contraire, Alice Cooper, Buffalo Springfield, Cocteau Twins, Prince, Youssou N'dour, The Specials /Special AKA, The Beat.
Sounds Like
A dreamlike merging of Mark E Smith and Bob Dylan backed by the Velvet Underground (featuring Hubert Sumlin) with strings by the Russian Philharmonic scored by Shostakovitch with backing voclas by Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin and Patti Smith - guitar overdubs by Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd with extra rhythm from Talking Heads with atmospheric sounds provided by Brian Eno in collaboration with Pere Ubu and additional percussive sounds by Einsturzende Neubaten.
This soundscape is then recreated without any of the above.
The Knocking Shop (aka The Phantom Jets) were formed in the early nineties when everyone else wasn't looking. Operating largely in secret they built a fanbase that could pack a generously sized cutlery drawer.
They released one cassette only album (Half Orphan) around fifteen years after this was a valid way to release anything. However as it cost £110 to record and as cassettes were cheap it broke even - unlike albums by many of their better known contemporaries!
Although operating a rotating drummer policy the core of the group was bass player Del 'Boy' Barter, guitarist Dave 'Kid Gretsch' Connolly and vocals from Seamus 'Jet Phantom' Duggan (said vocals heard to their best effect on the instrumentals to which he cleverly wrote no words to in order to enable him to go to the bar during gigs). Drummers were 'Ozzie John' Healy, Albert Cowans and Eoin 'Skins' Hanna.
They played everything from surf instrumentals to country dirges and are remembered fondly by a significant minority of the ex members.
MORE "HISTORY"
The Knocking Shop/The Phantom Jets played with a number of bands in a number of forgotten venues and I thought I'd mention some and maybe spark some memories for those who were there. I edit this when vague memories return from the mists of time. Anyone who can help fill the gaps left by senility please do.
Bands(many are still going, remarkably): Luggage(an inspiration - rumoured to exist on life support machine somewhere - The Great Lost Band see http://homepage.tinet.ie/~independentrecs/luggage/luggage.htm), Sack (still going strong: see my freinds), Holemasters (starring Dave from http://www.roadrecs.com/), Female Hercules, Pet Lamb, Ash (while they were very young), Wormhole, Grief, Cuckoo, Striknein DC?, Saville, Bambi, Pincher Martin, The Idiots, Jam Jar Jail....
Venues: The Attic (my favourite-I heard it had been knocked down while putting up posters for a gig there. You could see yourself in the mirror behind the bar and it nicely bridged that gap between bedroom posing and pissing yourself because you've been fool enough to expose yourself to insane levels of ridicule. Also the floor shook and if you jumped you could skull yourself.), The Rock Garden, Slattery's(site of an infamous Spinal Tap moment when we were locked in a corridoor above the venue while listening to our introduction through the floor), Fibber McGees, The Blind Piper (after a long, long trek to the idyllic village of Caherdaniel), Whelans, The Junction, The City Arts Centre (for the D.I.Y. Festival), The DA Club, Barnstormers(in two locations), The Ormonde Print Gallery, The Finglas Inn (where we had a session swapping curses with an inept soundman), USIT....
The Undertakers and The Nackers will be be pulling up their aforementioned vehicles of choice to the backdoor of The Tavern in Carlow at 10 pm on Friday 13th July. Like all the best things in life, there is no Cover Charge.
PS In the event of aspersions being cast upon the recently deceased mother of a nacker - and slash hooks being introduced to add substance to particular points of view that might be expressed into the doubtless lively intercourse that would follow such an assertion - The Undertakers will be on hand to render services relevant to their profession to those worsted in the repartee...
PPS You probably find it hard to believe that that wasp-waisted young lady on our poster is actually from Tinryland in County Carlow. If you were to harbour doubts about the veracity of that statement, you'd be completely correct as I downloaded her off the internet. Besides which, Tinryland ladies tend to be built for stamina rather than speed and usually have a more agri-practical physique...
How she goin’ KS? Just to let you know the ‘takers are now up on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/theeundertakers where you can catch several moments of madness from our recent EP launch….
Hi KS just to let you know you can download our punkabilleriffic CD "Carburettors, Crankshafts and Cadavers" in its entirety with the CD Art for free up at www.theundertakers.ie .....
Online Now!
