Troublegum

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The Mercury Music Prize nominated Troublegum from 1994 and Infernal Love, the follow-up from 1995, are both issued as multi-disc deluxe editions. The two albums spawned a number of UK top 30 singles in what was the band’s most commercially successful period. People will watch old football hooligan videos and think, ‘that must have been amazing’. For a band like us, that lived through it – there was a reason we weren’t direct. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sourcesin this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Kneecap performed during the Electric Picnic Festival in Stradbally, Co Laois last year. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA That’s the one thing it’s still the same subject matter but with a 20 year on perspective. During the time of Britpop people would say how can you still be angry when you are 30? and I would reply ‘how can you not?’ When I was as growing up people left home at 19 and married the girl down the road and then you see them again at 35 two timing their wives, an alcoholic and you wonder about all the great advice they gave you about the lyrics. There is still also a lot of literature that comes into the lyrics and also we just see what is around us and the frustration and how we fit into the world and how people fit in with eachother and that’s what drives the songs at the moment.’

In 1993, Northern Irish three-piece Therapy? were touring their major-label debut album Nurse to ferocious crowds in the USA and Europe, but they couldn’t have predicted the success that was yet to come. Troublegum, their 1994 follow-up, would sell more than a million copies and produce the hit singles Screamager, Nowhere, Turn, and Die Laughing, songs which still elate fans to this day. The rest is history. Troublegum was unleashed in February of 1994 via A&M Records, hitting the top 5 in the UK album charts, seeing the band splashed all over music media, and earning a rare Mercury Prize nomination for an album of its relative heft and heaviness. When Therapy? came along, I was at probably the lowest point of my life. I only say this here so that you can understand why I have such strong feelings about the album that others may not share. It was a six month period that I muddled my way through not exclusively because of this album, but with the help of this album being a majority shareholder nonetheless. Every emotion I was feeling in my life at that time was mirrored in Andy Cairns music, lyrics and vocals on this album. However, Troublegum doesn’t remind me of that time at all, nor does it make me maudlin or upset because of it. Certainly it is still the best tonic to put on when I get down, or get angry. It does still draw out any anger I have in me when that is needed. What it does do is make me smile, because this is one of my magic talismans; an album I can put on at any time and draw from it the good feelings or power or inspiration or whatever it is I need, just from listening to it. I caught with Andy Cairns, vocalist and guitar player from the trio to discuss what therapy has done for him… The opening salvo still never fails to deliver. Part of its charm is that there is no pause between songs. Each keeps coming straight after the previous song has finishing, or segues into it. It’s like one big long live set, with no pause for talking, just get into the next song. From the very beginning you are left in little doubt as to the direction that the album is taking. “Knives” comes at you wielding those glittering blades with anger and those crazy eyes. The vocals scream, the drums hammer and the guitars are guttural. There’s plenty of crazy in this song, and it is all the better for it. The alternative punk version of the angst-ballad comes next with “Screamager”, jauntily bopping away while Andy explains his taunts and echoes throughout. The catchy and simple chorus and fast paced punk guitar adds to the flavour. The segue into the hard core guitar riff of “Hellbelly” is then accompanied by the heavy hitting drums and ripping bass riff that crushes throughout the song. I love this song (but then again I love them all). The slightest of pauses leads into “Stop It You’re Killing Me” which continues in the same vein of what has come before. It’s hard hitting musically and lyrically, another great song to sing along with, especially when you are feeling aggressive. From here the wangling guitar riff opens into “Nowhere”, once again at a great pace that gives you everything whether you are at the gig or at home in the lounge room. This period of five songs to open the album is the equal of any other album I know. It’s non-stop, it gives you no time to rest, and it is adrenaline-inducing fun.

Knives" – 1994, with "Knives" (kiddie version), "Pantopon Rose" and "Nowhere". This single was a US only promo release. Andy: I got an awful lot of criticism in the press for Trigger Inside. I was reading at the time The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer, about the Jeffrey Dahmer case in Milwaukee, by Brian Masters. And this is going to sound very convoluted, but there's a bit whenever he was young – I'm paraphrasing here – that he brought a present to a teacher at school. The teacher thanked him for the present, and as he left the he saw the teacher put his present in the bin. I actually had exactly the same experience at Ballyclare Primary school, whenever I was really young, of giving the teacher a gift and seeing her put it in the bin. With Jeffrey Dahmer, his reaction is all part of an enormous complexity in the guy's character or whatever, but the line 'I know Jeffrey Dahmer feels' came from me relating to that incident. Not relating to his killing spree, but relating how you can feel, even at the age of eight or nine years, as if your whole world has been a lie when someone does that to you. The second studio album from Trent Reznor’s industrial noise project featured March Of The Pigs, Closer and the original version of Hurt, later covered by Johnny Cash. The dance duo released their third album, which included Sad But True, featuring guest vocals from Alison Goldfrapp.

When we first played Screamager to the record company they said, ‘We’re not sure your fans are gonna like this!’” laughs Andy. “But once they gave it a push it ended up being a hit, and because it worked everyone seemed to like it. [Chris] Sheldon was pencilled in to do the album and he was saying, ‘Have you got anything else like that?’ I had a song from an old band I’d been in that became Nowhere and I had Turn as well, so we demoed some of this stuff and it sounded great, and we just decided to make a whole album of it. Having people criticise you at that time, was something we were only getting used to,” Cairns explains. I remember my younger brother being like, ‘That's a punk band! Punks razorblade grannies, and they spit on children!’ That was a media outrage. Then I got into The Clash and the Sex Pistols, I got a little tiny spiky hair cut. The Devil inside, Therapy? - on tour with Jesus Lizard and Helmet - reach New York (Image credit: Getty Images)Is that why you did some of the things you did, like purposefully not making Troublegum 2 and adding cellos to Infernal Love? I find myself in a strange position of wanting some sort-of self-aware version of 'troublegum' (perhaps catchy pop music that espouses 'making trouble'?)without any hint of the 'religious-tinged' wine. I would recommend skipping the album, but I cannot stop you from listening to it, I suppose...

You’ve just released Hard Cold Fire, your 16th album, and you’re 34 years in now. Would young punk Andy Cairns be surprised at all this? It will be good fun when we set out round the UK. It’s the 20th anniversary of Troublegum tour which will be great to revisit and then loads of festivals and tons of shows later in year with the new album which we are working on right now.’ Find sources: "Troublegum"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( October 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Michael is still in Northern Ireland. He’s happy there. I was there for a while but when I got married it made more sense for me to move because when I was living in Ireland leaving my partner on her own whilst we were away touring for months on end didn’t seem fair. These days it’s not a problem where the band lives because you can send ideas and mp3s online and get together a few days before a tour and it all works out ok.’

11 Issues

That short vinegary burst of hatred that makes you hold grudges were too wearing though so I let that go but there is still enough vitriol in my system. We were given our first gigs by a DIY not-for-profit punk organisation called War Zone in Belfast. You would do your own posters, they would photocopy them in their office, and then you'd go around town and pin them up on telegraph poles. I was doing the poster in Fyfe’s bedroom, using a Letraset. which was a sheet of transfers that looked like typeset. We started doing it on an A4 piece of paper, and realised we’d started far too far to the left. Fyfe went, ‘That looks really odd, there’s a big gap.’ The album’s release and initial impact presaged another year of intense touring, including appearances at UK metal mecca Donington, and Irish alternative festival Sunstroke. While it all represented a moment for the band’s music, it placed huge pressure on the people behind it.