The world lost one of the all time greats yesterday.
Mani’s kindness and hilarity will never be forgotten, Mani’s incredible basslines will always be adored. A true rock n roll star with a truly beautiful soul.
Gary Mani Mounfield R.I.P.
On top of Brit Award and Rolling Stone Award wins, along with two Grammy nominations, Romance has now been nominated for the 2025 Mercury Music Prize, another thoroughly deserved nod to this incredible record.
Across 16 months from May’24 through to August’25, Deego, Carlos, Grian, Curley, Tom and Chilli hit the Romance tour stage 162 times, wowing sold-out audiences across the globe while also taking in their largest English and Irish, 40,000+ cap, headline shows to date, across Belfast, London and Manchester.
Even after 10 years of working with Fontaines DC across 5 album releases and hundreds of gigs, their songwriting genius, incredible live performances and sheer strength to take on and absolutely smash every single night of such extensive tours, never ceases to blow my mind. Best band in the world.
Against a backdrop of a world sickened by Israeli barbarism and heartbroken by Palestinian suffering, Fontaines DC used their platform to rally support for the people of Palestine. Across the world, at every one of their 162 live performances, their message was heard loud and clear while through projects such as the Carlos designed Bohemian’s jersey and the “Ceasefire EP”, over half a million euro has been raised for the incredible work being carried out by Medical Aid For Palestine ( MAP ) and Doctors Without Borders ( MSF ) throughout history’s most documented genocide, hopefully influencing other artists to utilise their platform in a similar way.
The record is an irrefutable masterpiece, and the Romance tour will be forever remembered for bringing so much joy to hundreds of thousands across the globe. Big love, Huge Respect and a gigantic “Fair play” to Tom, Curley, Deego, Grian and Carlos X.
Also big love to every member of their incredible crew, led by the all time great that is Marcus Haughton, and to my partners at Wildlife: Emma, Ian and Shiv, the XL recordings gang, James Ford, Chilli Jesson and of course Dan Roberts and Alex Bruford, all of whom contributed in their own incredible way, in making the album, the album campaign and the Romance tour so bloody wonderful! X
After 3 incredible sell out performances at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, Fontaines DC finish yet another fantastic 24 show sell out tour of the U.S and leave with a US AAA Number 1 in “It’s Amazing to be Young”.
Even after a decade of working with these guys, their ability to deliver such powerful and mesmerising live shows every single night, never ceases to amaze me!
Big Thanks to their crew and tour management for being so so brilliant too.
@fontainesband@deego_iii@carly_rings@tomcolll@roycurley@grianwhitegold@mmmmm_haughton@sezzjay
The thought of not knowing what bands and artists are coming through the Dublin scene right now was too excruciating to bear. I have now decided to continue curating the Bank Holiday Sunday Free Parties at The Workman’s Club. Come along!
May Bank Holiday Sunday
Sun May 4th
Venue
Midnight Wayne @midnight_wayne
Anemoia @anemoyeah
Black Nylon @blacknylonband
+
The Karaoke Club!
Upstairs:
Myself & @thereverendtonybones playing very good tunes
Doors 8pm
Free Admission
@workmansclub
After 15 years as the resident music snob and late night noise curator, I’ve made the decision to hang up my Workman’s boots.
When we opened our doors in 2010, I set out to ensure that Dubliners had a place to go to hear great alternative, predominantly guitar driven music and that the country’s newest acts were welcomed in and given a stage to develop and hone their craft, mainly through my Bank Holiday Sundays. I’ve had the pleasure of putting on everybody from Girl Band to The Murder Capital, Inhaler to Just Mustard, in their earliest days, and then watch them go on to great success on the world stage. I’m confident they’ll be joined soon by the likes of Gurriers and Cardinals!
Then of course there is Fontaines DC, named “The Fontaines” at the time, who I invited to take the first-on slot of a May Bank Holiday Sunday bill in 2015. They went on to play almost every subsequent Bank Holiday Sunday until the band and I were ready to start independently releasing music in 2017. The rest is history.
I leave the gaff with many great memories of many great nights: secret/last minute shows by the likes of Ride and The Murder Capital, Grace Jones pulling pints, Morrissey asking me to play more Morrissey ( I didn’t know he was a Zionist prick at the time! ), The Wu-Tang’s impromptu live show and Mac De Marco hogging Karaoke Club slots, to name just a few. And then of course the many Aftershow parties featuring everybody from Interpol to The Super Furry Animals, Happy Mondays to Idles. As a punter, you never knew who you might bump into!
Every city in the world should have a Workmans but most aren’t fortunate enough. Places like this really shouldn’t be taken for granted.
I wish the very best to the great @vancekass_ in guiding the venue through these really turbulent times for Dublin’s nightlife sector and I also want to say a big Thanks to every artist that has worked with me down there over the last 15 years. An especially huge Thanks goes to my team of long term Resident Dj’s that have soundtracked so so many fantastic nights for so many people:
@djdeece@thereverendtonybones@robsmithireland@ianfall@kellyanne_byrne@colindevinemusic@samuelmorrissey
In about an hour, the best band in the world release their fourth LP “Romance”, to the world.
I’ve been extremely privileged to witness the journey of these 11 incredible songs from rough demo through to release and as I’ve said to the band at every album recording session since Dogrel, “you’ve done it again”. Once again, Grian, Carlos, Curley, Tom and Deego have delivered a truly truly fantastic record which honestly floors me with every listen. Once again I thank Fontaines DC for repeatedly making me the proudest manager on the planet. The talent and vision of the 5 ‘Taines never ever ceases to amaze me!!!
Big Thanks to James Ford for the impeccable production and Big Thanks to XL Recordings and my partners at Wildlife for working so hard to ensure the band’s vision for “Romance” was fully realised.
Buy the record, turn off all the distractions, put it on the record player and gift yourself a listen. It really is a phenomenal album.
Fontaines DC - Romance - 23rd August 2024
@fontainesband@xlrecordings@james_ellis_ford
The Guardian - 5*
NME - 5*
Rolling Stone - 5*
DIY - 5*
Spin - A-
The Irish Times - 4.5*
