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Bio:
Wonderful indie pop band formed in early 1989 by the three Finnegan brothers,
evolving from an their earlier band called The Nobody's.
Another brother James Finnegan managed them and footed the bill for the recording
and the first pressing of 250 copies of their debut single, released through Danceline
Records. This single was famously championed by John Peel. It is more easily found as the
UK pressing on Decoy.
"I'm Hardly Ever Wrong" is one of the finest indie pop singles ever recorded.
The band became very hot property following the single's release, with A&R men
coming from all over the world to sign them, yet inexplicably they chose to
sign to a small indie label with no money: Decoy Records. 17 year old singer
Julie McDonnell left the band shortly afterwards, choosing to stay at school,
and she was replaced by Eileen Gogan, who debuted on the second EP "Silly Songs for Cynical People".
Without proper financial backing, the band failed to capitalise on their early
success and seeemd to disappear after a third EP in 1991. There was no debut
album and the band split the same year.
The Would Be's returned in 2000 with a new singer Karen Cunningham.
Eileen Gogan performs as Melba.
I'm not sure how long the 2000 reunion lasted but the original lineup (minus Pascal Smith)
returned again circa 2012, apparently spurred on by the inclusion of their debut single in
Tony Clayton-Lea's '101 Irish Records...' book. A couple of new singles were
released ('Ivy Avenue', 'Let's Play Dumb') but I'm not sure if these were
tangible releases or downloads. Paul Finnegan played drums.
Before Julie McDonnell there were two earlier singers who appeared on the
first two demos: Rosie Finnegan (no relation to the band) sang on the first
demo tape, two tracks from which appear on the Comet Tape #3 sampler in 1988,
while Patricia Cullen sang on the second demo, from which one track
was extracted for Comet Tape #4 (1989).
Notes:
"Logic Makes No Sense To Me" was previously recorded in a faster version by The Nobodys
Notes:
The Decoy compilation collects the 1st and 2nd EPs. Why Decoy chose to release it
with the same title as one of those EPs escapes me! There are no CD bonus tracks on
the Decoy edition. Toy Factory in Japan added the 3rd EP (DYT26) to their CD release.
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.