Reformed Dublin punk act The Radiators From Space re-scheduled their cancelled gig last Saturday to play a special show for two fans who had travelled all the way from Japan and California to see them.
The band, who recently released a new album covering classic tracks by Irish beat and psychedelic groups of the 1960s and early '70s called Sound City Beat, were due to play their first gig in over five years at Dublin’s Academy venue but had to cancel due to the illness of founding member and Pogues’ guitarist Phil Chevron.
When the band learned that two fans, Carmen Santana from California and Yasunori Hoshino from Japan, had travelled all the way to Ireland to see them, they held a free impromptu gig in Dublin pub The Leeson Lounge and invited the diehard fans up on stage before the encore.
“We’d been rehearsing for the gig and when we heard Carmen and had come all that way to see us we thought f*** it, let’s just hold a gig anyway,” Radiators member Pete Holidai told RTE Ten. “Carmen and Yasunori actually know the Radiators via their interest in The Pogues. We got them up on stage before the encore and introduced them to everybody. It was a nice moment.”
Pete Holidai introduces Carmen Santana and Yasunori Hoshino. Photo by Ronnie Norton
The Rads played songs from their albums 1977’s TV Tube Heart, the Tony Visconti-produced Ghostown from 1979, 2006’s Trouble Pilgrim and Sound City Beat, as well as tracks from Holidai’s solo album The Devil’s Guitar.
Also In the audience last Saturday night were former RTÉ newsreader Anne Doyle, Horslips' Barry Devlin and Jim Lockhart, who works as a producer in 2fm, and BP Fallon.
The Radiators from Space, whose line-up also includes U2 album designer Steve Averill (and the man who gave U2 their name), drummer Johnny Bonnie and bassist Paddy Goodwin, currently have no plans to reschedule The Academy show.
