I’m getting to that age now, many of the bands and artists I idolised as a young man are going the way of all flesh. Unfortunately many of them have been taken too young, Stuart Adamson, Bill MacKenzie, Joe Strummer, Prince…All of whom I’ve mourned in my own way, as many of us have. People that made music that had a massive impact on us, with songs that take us back to memorable times of our lives.
I’m not a young man anymore, so I was taken by surprise today just how hard I took the announcement of the death of the uniquely talented Cathal Coughlan, ex-frontman of Microdisney and Fatima Mansions, an artist who stood head and shoulders above his peers of the time, and one of those who you could say they broke the mould of when they made him. There has or never will be anyone again quite like the enigmantic singer, songwriter, poet, narrator, pioneer… At the age of 61, another of those talented souls who have exited stage left way before their last curtain call.
In no way could I have said I knew Cathal, I had a few short conversations with him, and he was kind enough to correspond with me at the end of last year talking about some brief thoughts on 2021 and his hopes from 2022. I am however feeling the death of Cathal more perhaps than I’ve felt many previous losses of singers or band members, I can only put it down to the effect his muisc has had on me over the years.
I have John Peel to thank for introducing me to Microdisney (just Microdisney I hear you say…) and I still listen to my vinyl copy of the Microdisney Peel sessions to this day. His partnership with Sean O’Hagan was heaven sent, reaching a peak with their 1985 opus The Clock Comes Down the Stairs.
It was really with Fatima Mansions though that my obsession with all things Cathal Coughlan grew. From the debut album and opening track, and single Only Losers Take the Bus, there was no going back. With Fatima Mansions, Cathal and co created a combination of intense and often brutally honest, in your face, nigh on industrial anthems seething with rage and venomous lyrics, but the flipside was a plethora of beautifully enigmatic, near folky, ballads. And what about Coughlan’s lyricism – intriguing, enthralling and baffling in equal parts. Then you had leftfield offshoots like his collaboration with comedian Sean Hughes (yet another late hero of mine) Bubonique. There was no end to the mans talents.
I was fortunate to see Fatima Mansions twice in 1991 in the intimate surroundings of King Tuts Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. I was transfixed by the sheer passion and fervour displayed by Coughlan, I couldnt keep my eyes off him for the duration of both gigs (and that was even being at one with a girl I was desperately trying to woo at the time…maybe I’ve just worked out why it didn’t work*) Even a monitor falling on my toe mid-set couldn’t curb my enthusiasm for the performance. *I did buy myself a Bugs Fuckin’ Bunny t-shirt at the gig, but somehow she went home with it.
Post Fatima Mansions Cathal continued to delight with a series of superb solo albums culminating in last year’s Song of Co-Aklan, his first release in 10 years and an absolute triumph, gaining plaudits from all-comers. Never one to rest on his laurels, Cathal has also recently released a tremendous album A-hAon , in collaboration with ex Compulsion guitarist and producer extraordinaire Jacknife Lee.
In the last few weeks, a companion EP to Song of Co-Aklan also saw the light of day, and in the words of Cathal from a short interview with him from the end last year, there was more on its way:
“… 2021 was a year of bewilderment for me, in music and elsewhere. The fact that there was pretty constant work to do on Telefís really helped me a lot, as did exciting albums from people like Low, Joan As Police Woman/Tony Allen/Dave Okumu, Moor Mother and many others. I worked up a solo live set and then didn’t play it to anyone but myself, which was useful, in a funny way (such folly might have seemed fatal in earlier life). In 2022, there will hopefully be two album releases from Telefís (#2 nearly complete now), and I’ll be completing another solo album. These things are hopefully fairly shock-proof, if it’s not churlish to suggest such a thing in this decade.”
Cathal will leave a huge hole in the life of many, none more so than his wife Julie.
What a legacy he has left, his spirit will live on in the music and lyrics he has shared with us fortunate mortals over the years. Rest in Peace Cathal.
“And you must last ’til the end, learn to love this life, now you must sleep in hungers hall, ’til the clock comes down the stairs…”