I thought Microdisney were hugely talented, underrated and never got the credit they should have.

But with Fatima Mansions, Cathal Coughlan took things to a new level.

The seeds of rebirth were sown with an appearance on Snub TV under the moniker of Cathal Coughlan And The Fatima Gardens singing Dear Dad [from an Edward Barton tribute LP called Edward not Edward].

Then Against Nature came out in the autumn of 1989 and things exploded from there.

:applaud: :thumbsup:

I only know parts of Bertie's Brochures, but the other four albums are all highly recommendable. My undeniable favourite is Viva Dead Ponies with fantastic songs like A Pack Of Lies, Angel's Delight, Door-To-Door Inspector and the title track to name just a few. Coincidentally I just listened to it yesterday.

"Keep music evil!" :devil2:

On the whole I like Cathal's successional four solo albums even a bit more, especially last year's "Foburg".

Former Microdisney partner Sean O'Hagan's High Llamas sound totally different. Nevertheless I also enjoy most of their records a lot.

Viva Dead Ponies.

I think I prefer Cathal solo these days (there's only so much raging angst I can be bothered with) but Fatima Mansions were brilliant. Viva Dead Ponies.

Valhalla Avenue might not be my favourite album of all time, but it wouldn't be far off.

Viva Dead Ponies for me too. What's Cathal up to these days? I lost track after Black River Falls, which was so brooding and morose I felt he was turning onto a caricture of himself. But oh, that voice......

dont know

but my wee sister claims to have snogged one of them

he's just made a rather good 'concept' album called Foburg

I have the "Valhalla Avenue" LP and it's so stunningly good I often wonder why I haven't bought any of their others.

I have a Microdisney LP and it doesn't do much for me, really.

To coin a phrase, what should I buy next?

Are you a woman?

:lol:

Not last time I checked, no.

Viva Dead Ponies
Lost In The Former West
Foburg

Thanks mate.

What I think I liked best about "Valhalla Avenue" was sort of early 90s type sound, with the drum machines &c. I think they went well with the guys voice. And the lyrics were summat else :applaud:

Odd then, that it's taken me 15 years to get round to thinking about buying another one.

Are they reasonably easy to get hold of?

Reasonably, and mostly fairly cheap. Amazon's your best bet.

:thumbsup:

Viva Dead Ponies will be reissued soon accompanied by a compilation. There is also a Microdisney best-of out on Sanctuary on the 27th September entitled From Daunt Square To Elsewhere. Reissues of the Microdisney albums to follow in early 2008. There's also a 90 minute documentary about CC in the works called The Adventures Of Flannery, don't know when that's due though.

As for anybody seeking recommendations for further CC-related listening, might I suggest the following:

Viva Dead Ponies (possibly my favourite album of all time)
Against Nature (Failing that try to pick up a copy of Come Back My Children which has AG in its entirety as well as the Hive EP and a few B-sides).
The Clock Comes Down The Stairs (Microdisney's best album)
Lost In The Former West

and any/all of Cathal's 4 solo albums.

The Microdisney compilation is well chosen and hopefully will bring in a few new fans. Old stagers like us won't be happy until the albums get a reissue which happily are coming soon.

A live gig accompanying Everybody is Fantastic would be, er, fantastic.

For Viva Dead Ponies I hope they
- Include Thursday [Radioactive left it off their pressing, instead substituting it with Blues For Ceausescu and Only Losers Take The Bus]
- Restore the original Kitchenware artwork. The re-jigged sleeve isn't nice.

Over on www.cathalcoughlan.com, someone has seen a rough cut of The Adventures Of Flannery. Can't wait for it.

Come Back My Children is pricey on Amazon Marketplace. Several people have reported 'disc rot' with their copies. It was pressed on vinyl too.

Viva, Bertie's, Valhalla and Lost are all readily available cheap on Amazon Marketplace. Along with various singles. Against Nature isn't as common and the vinyl version seems to be come up for sale more often than the CD.

All of Cathal's solo works are worth a purchase. Grand Necropolitan seems to be out of print though.

Did you or anyone ever see Microdisney live? While I saw Fatima Mansions half a dozen times, I never caught Microdisney. Pity.

It's being released by Kitchenware/Sony, so at least with Kitchenware's involvement there's likely to be some decent quality control.

Never saw Microdisney live unfortunately.

I never got to see Microdisney but saw Fatima Mansions lots of times, and Cathal solo a couple of times. Agree that the new album, Foburg, is very good.

The Fatima Mansions album I keep going back to is Bertie's Brochures, I just think his voice is incredible on this, and the slightly less, er, overblown instrumentation is maybe why it still has legs for me. Seeing them do Shiny Happy People at the Clapham Grand complete with angle grinder was quite something.

I loved Viva Dead Ponies at the time too.

Still mourning the loss of my Bugs Fucking Bunny t-shirt. It just gave up the ghost eventually.

Looking forward to the re-releases, I wasn't aware they were happening, so ta for the info.

just me going for Lost ... then :)