Threat The
The Threat from; Coolock Dublin Active; 1979 – 198?
Style; Punk
Line up;
Vocals & Guitar; Maurice Foley Vocals & Guitar
Bass; Deirdre Creed
Drums; Longer
The newly formed Threat played their second ever gig last week at the Dandelion. They played a set of short energetic new wave songs with aggression and commitment. So what, you may ask? So do a hundred other little bands up and down the country. True! But the Threat have one big advantage over all the others; his name is Maurice and he’s undoubtedly the star of the show.
Maurice writes all the songs, plays snappy rhythm guitar, sways continually from side to side and sings everything in a clear high-pitched popstar voice. He also wears a feather in his ear and looks somewhat like an amiable cybernaut. He just doesn’t seem to have the moral fibre. The rest of the band consist of Deirdre, formerly with the Boy Scoutz, who holds down the bass duties with competence, and longer, whose drumming tends to be heavy-handed and lacking in variety, thereby devaluing the effect of some of the more subtle songs, especially the Buzzcocks-flavoured “Everything” and the robotic “Government of the Future”.
Still it’s early days yet. What the Threat need now is more discipline (less crash bang wallop and more melody) and more general experience, especially in sorting out their own particular sound. In the meantime the Threat are well worth a visit, particularly to all those with a keen interest in the science of Cybernetics. Ferdia MacAnna In Dublin Magazine.
Gig Guide
26/08/1979 Dandelion Market, Dublin with Social Fools, White Noise
09/10/1979 Magnet Bar, Dublin
05/12/1979 Dandelion Market, Dublin with The Pretty, Driver
Three Ramoniac punk bands in ascending order of aptitude. first on, the Pretty who played a public rehearsal for their friends, squirted some beer about, proved anyone can have their five songs of fame if they possess gall enough and were disappointed by the lack of “prodies” in the audience. I’m not certain if the Pretty are Stiff Little Fingers fans.
Later there was a message from an ally to make sure I mentioned them “I don’t care if you think they’re good or bad”. fair but the Pretty didn’t seem to care either so why the need of a press mention?
Driver were more capable but insufficiently urgent. “Action Time Vision”‘ the opening song, had well organized lyric idea the titles of the other songs hinted at words more interesting than their present 1-2-3-4 treatment; an unidentified love song had the most inventive music. But as yet, Driver are an apprentice band who’ll have to reconsider their navigation and tighten up their mechanics and dynamics before they proceed further.
So far no stars on this Sunday and no pogoing either. The Threat So far solved the second lack and made a stab at the first too. The leader of the three piece Maurice Foley comes originally from England but has his look down pat. Regulation spiky hair, a studded and scuffed black leather jacket, glaring staring eyes and an angular face that’s all sharp ridges and nerve ends. He’ll sing “I’ll teach you the facts of life of my life” in a voice made for the echo chamber and you’ll believe him – though he’ll have future problems with Rotten comparisons.
But he isn’t the Threat’s lone asset. Drummer Longer some times gets over excited but with his all action style, he has good reason, if the threat should stall, he’ll have no problem finding future employment. Their manager later said he’d been in the Artane boys band. That makes sense.
Third in line, ex Boy Scout Deirdre Creed, who belies her previous rating and fits determinedly into a band who are way beyond basic problems of “tightness”. Her presence also ensures the Threat needn’t be docked a conventional punk band.
But pogoer’s delight are what the Threat are. Curiously, with the exception of Strange Movements, they’re the first authentic punk band of merit Dublin has produced since every first generation band went pop, art or elsewhere. And the Threat’s bombardment is accurate, though not completely sustained, through a cold and inclement evening. Lack of variation in their song patterns causes a slackening of interest mid way through, though to their credit, the Threat experiment with electronic gadgetry for “Government of The Future”.
A throwback by London time scales, it’ll be curious to see how the Threat develop and whether they can maintain the militancy of punk while avoiding falling victim to its regimentation of style. They generate the power and already have sufficient songs and a potential following for an excellent E.P.
Oh yes and they had the bonus of being videoed for an exhibition in “A Sense Of Ireland”, an opportunity which should aid their record company recruitment plans. (The pogoer’s enjoyed the media attention too!).
They finished with a “stupid encore” too “The Runaway Train”. In the last line, it crashed, so was that a wised-up joke, a warning to themselves? Bill Graham review Hot Press
23/12/1979 Dandelion Market with U2, Virgin Prunes. The Threat’s set is filmed for inclusion in the Rock part of the London festival “A Sense Of Ireland”
29/02/1980 Rock Against Sexism Belfield, UCD with D.C. Nien This concert is disrupted by crowd trouble. “We realise that there has been trouble at a few different gigs around Dublin, an example of which was after our own gig last Friday in Belfield. We want to make it quite clear that we don’t want any trouble at our gigs. We want everyone, that includes us, to enjoy themselves”. Statement by the Threat
28/07/1980 McGonagle’s, Dublin with Urban Urges
08/08/1980 Project Arts Centre, Dublin
12/12/1980 El Ruedo, Carlow
24/01/1981 Boddis, Magnet Bar, Dublin with The End
10/04/1981 Gaff Club, Limerick. Bands were paid £40 a gig, plus B&B to play at the Gaff Club. The Threat only played the one show, the reason the second was cancelled is not known.
11/04/1981 Gaff Club, Limerick
The Threat, Broken Doll Boddis The Magnet
As Dublin’s only enduring punk band, the Threat have this thing called a “reputation”. They’ve played rarely, their period of enforced quarantine being both audience bovver last spring in Belfield and the subsequent loss of their rhythm section.
Single
So none would have been surprised if they vanished from view – but late last year the Treat reappeared with a 45 “High Cost of Living”, an instrumental as endearingly simple as anything from Good Vibrations in its heyday. Unfortunately this gig didn’t show a simultaneous playing advance.
It wasen’t entirely their fault. The Threat are still essentially two, guitarist Maurice and synthesiser twiddler Stano and at the Magnet, they were assisted by D.C. Nien’s drummer Ken Mahon, doing a Buggie and bassist Vinny Murphy. There was no stable basis. The audience didn’t help, rucking in the postage stamp sized area. The fact of the audience clambering up among the band may have been hilarious and a howl for many but it destroyed the bands concentration. The Threat needed a steady gig for research and development purposes. If they have any more nights like, they won’t move ahead.
So, little was learnt or delivered. Maurice Foley can quieten and control a crowd and even sing Irish ballards but the Treat whose “Punk” inclines towards the new glam pop don’t really find a focus. All I remember was the single and an angry diatribe against the adolescent marriage trap. It’ll be another night before we find if the Threat amount to more than “High Cost of Living”.
Supporting Kildare band Broken Doll were gloomy and one directional. Some presence and personality my be enclosed amid their mix of 6th form poetry and Ramones/Doors/J.D. routines but it hasen’t gone out yet. Their music doesn’t yet transcend the depressing topics they talk about.
Bill Graham Hot Press.