In praise of Donal Dineen.

Donal Dineen was knocking around Whelans last night because of the Milosh gig. I never met him in person, and years ago I figured that if I did, there were a million bum-licky things I would like to say to him. As things turned out I didn't get the chance to unleash one of my vintage beery monologues on him. Lucky for him I suppose. When he landed in, he came across like a friendly Kerry fisherman, weighed down with audiovisual equipment instead of mackerel. All I managed was a quick handshake, and a thick tongued "well Donal, how's it going?" What I would have liked to tell him was that for me, he was the Irish equal of John Peel. That a crackly clock radio on my bedroom floor lulled me to sleep in a hammock woven from exotic ambient indie music for most of the leaving cert years 1997 and 1998.



I remember being at a family funeral in Falcarragh, Donegal for the first ever broadcast of here comes the night, his original show on Radio Ireland, later to become Today FM. All the beds in the house were full, so my twin bro and I fell asleep on matresses in the sitting room near the dying glow of a turf fire that filled the room with its scent because the chimney was blocked. We had a clock radio near us and had tuned into Dineen's debut excitedly, because we liked no disco. I first thought 'shit, he has a bad radio presence, too many stops, dead air, nervousness'. But then Autumn sweater by Yo La Tengo came on. That spare drumbeat, followed by that plaintive, lovelorn synth; it was really something new to me, and it stuck. From that point on, Dineen's show became the most integral part of my bedtime routine. What i loved about it most was the gently insistent way he trained his listeners' ears to new music. Obscure sounds drip fed to an audience by stealth. He would slyly drop a little-known song into the mix every night, and repeat it over the coming nights until four or five days in listeners would be manically texting for the new Casino versus Japan cut. It was light years from Dave Fanning. Dineen I salute you.


Sadly, I rarely manage to listen to the radio this weather, bar the odd BBC podcast of movie reviews and shit. So I hardly hear what gets played on Donal Dineen or anywhere else. However, my mate Dessie, who drives late at night a lot (he's a late night kinda dude) recently assured me its as good as ever. I'm gonna be presumptuous and reckon Dineen would play the sort of tune I'm putting up here. Its in the spirit of his show I hope. Its a remix of Spacemen 3's Big City that Erol Alkan did a while back. I heard it a few weeks ago in Loreana's gaf. It drifted down the stairs as I watched Sky News on the couch. It sort of hung in mid air near her banisters like a wavering mirage. I ran straight upstairs to find out what it was. I've listened to it a few times since, and it has that immersing warmth shared by so many of my old favourite tunes on here comes the night. Oh, and please, could someone please either provide me with a link or the name of the song that Donal Dineen used to play about the Arctic explorers and penguins???? I recorded it into a tape once. I fuckin loved it.

MP3: Spacemen 3: Big City (Remixed by Erol Alkan)