A visit to the independent record label Wednesday Works run by Roscommon dairy farmer Anthony Brennan.
Dairy farming is a full-time job for Anthony Brennan from Cloghermore, near Elphin in County Roscommon. However, he manages to find a couple of hours a day to run the independent record label 'Wednesday Works' along with two other like-minded farmers.
The idea to form the record label was born during a night out in a pub in Tulsk. This decision to do something different produced their Wednesday Works first release by Dublin band 'Serious Women' in early 1994. David Constantine from Serious Women approves of Anthony’s un-cynical attitude to the music business.
His whole idea is just to create records that he's really proud of and to work on things he thinks are really good and by believing in the now, in the future it will take care of itself.
The Wednesday Works record label is independent in every sense. Funded by Anthony Brennan and his two partners, it releases the records it likes, when it likes and when possible on seven-inch vinyl. One example being, funding a single release for the band The Acrobats of Desire.
Peter Jones from Dublin punk band Paranoid Visions and the FOAD Musick label recalls that Anthony, while idealistic, was completely clueless about the record making process.
All he knew was he had five hundred quid in his pocket and he wanted to spend it on a record for somebody.
Wednesday Works is about making music, not money. Nobody is signed to the label and every release is a once off. No genre of music is off limits. Anthony loves listening to the demo tapes and his aim is to develop them to the point where they can be heard on the radio or performed on television.
I'm in it for the music, if I was in it for the money I'd have given up a long time ago.
This episode of 'Popscene' was broadcast on 1 November 1997. The reporter is Pearse Lehane.
