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Bio:
Fantastic new wave/avant punk quartet formed in Dublin in 1980. Larry Murphy and
Paul Monahan had previously been in the original lineup of The Threat
which split circa September 1979.
Chant! Chant! Chant! won the Best Newcomer Award at the first Stag Hot Press Awards in 1980.
They played numerous gigs
with the Blades, Microdisney,
Moondogs, The End and
The Real Wild West.
They supported The Fall at the Arcadia in Cork on 17 October 1980, John Cooper Clarke
at UCD (with Rocky DeValera), and the
4 BE 2's at Trinity (October 1980, with
John Lydon in attendance to watch his brother Jimmy's band).
They were also one of the first bands to play a Saturday afternoon half hour
gig in Base X Records on Batchelor's Walk in Dublin in 1982.
Tapes of these higher
profile shows may exist. Anyone out there with any live tapes?
Their vinyl debut came with the Boddis EP in 1980 to which they contributed one
track with a memorable bass line, "What Do You Know". They self-released their
sole single the
following year. Described on ebay as "like a cross between XTC and the Virgin
Prunes", both sides are excellent and it well worth tracking down. Just 500 copies were
pressed. It was well received and made the Hot Press chart at the time. John
Peel played it several times on his radio show. They also featured in the pages
of Vox fanzine among others. Vox's Dave Clifford did the cover artwork for the single,
the photographs for which were taken somewhere in the Dublin mountains.
The band was reduced to a trio when Larry Murphy left in early 1982 to play
double bass with a jazz group in London called Alto Affair, who recorded 2-3 cassettes
and played the Guinness Jazz Festival.
When Chant split, Paul Monahan and Eoin Freeney did a short stint with
The End.
Paul Monahan now records electronica under the name M101.
Larry's brother Vinnie Murphy was in The Sinners and also
worked with Stano.
Notes: Only 500 copies were pressed by Carlton in Dublin but approx 900 sleeves were printed, something to do with minumum order requirements or it being more economical to do it that way. Of the 900 sleeves printed, the first few (approx 10 copies according to Lar Murphy) were printed in black and white only, without the gold ink border. The rest of the batch have the gold ink. The 10 black & white copies were used by Carlton rather than discarded. This explains the sleeve variation. So there was no second pressing, as previously speculated.
We need your help to correct and/or complete this entry. If you can provide more information about this band, have scans, photos or any other memorabilia we can use, or spare copies of any releases, then please get in touch.