Neuro

Neuro from; Galway Active; 1981 -1984
Style;
Line up;
Vocals; Shay Morris
Guitar; Paul Butler
Bass; Ciaran Barry
Drums; Pat Grant

Recordings
7″ Nairobi
7″ Silhouettes & Silent Figures/The Actress WEA Ireland 1983
JCR Trinity College, Dublin Nov/Dec 81
Having been impressed by this group from Waterford when they recorded one of the now legendary Rock Show Sessions, we decided to pop along to the JCR in Trinity for their Thursday lunchtime live debut in Dublin. These gigs, which feature different acts every week, are celebrated throughout Christendom for their good value at 50p and their excellent cups of coffee.

Neuro are four; Aeon (vox), Barry (bass), Grant (drums) and Paul (guitar). Their particular niche in the 1980’s rock n roll circus can be traced to the latest Merseybeat groups that have been dubbed the “New Psychedlia” by those who should know better. Neuro boast a thunderous rhythm section sporting the not inconsiderable bass playing talents of Kieran Barry. His playing is solid yet fluent, and he plays a righthanded bass upside down, being left handed. Paul’s guitar is spacey and uses lots of flanger, but Neuro are not a guitar based band, and the scope for excess is minimal. The main weakness with Neuro as they stand now is the tendency of Aeon to slip into unintentional Bono impersonations. He can sing well, with his own style (especially listen to “Anuage” and “Nairobi”) but he falls into the Hewson soundalike trap too often, and has given the critics the excuse to draw unhealthy comparisons with U2. The Neuromantics songs were long, averaging over five minutes each, but the small crowd seemed to appreciate them.
The sunny South East’s contribution to the wacky world of rock n roll so far has been minimal; the Roach Band, and fifty percent of We Live On Snacks. Neuro are huge in Waterford and environs – four hundred punters packed the Showboat on a recent Wednesday night. With a little luck and support they could break into a much wider market – you can’t say I didn’t tell youse. In Dublin review by Gerard Siggins
18/03/1982 McGonagles, Dublin support for Richard Strange
20/03/1982 McGonagles, Dublin
01/04/1982 McGonagles, Dublin support for Echo & The Bunnymen
28/07/1982 Showboat, Waterford with Out Of Uniform
10/02/1983 SFX Centre, Dublin support for Echo & The Bunnymen
A young band from Waterford, Neuro are tight, sharp and talented, if these two tracks recorded in Windmill Studios are anything to go by.

Neuro demonstrate themselves to be remarkably adept players for an emergent band, the guitarist in particular sounding fresh and confident.

The tape was produced by ex Horslips Barry Devlin, who may well be responsible for the fact that the end product sounds remarkably like U2, but the occasionally one dimensional bass playing hardly helps matters. Still, these are minor criticisms in the overall context – the fact remains that this is still one of the strongest tapes received in this office this year, and the evidence presented by their (far better) Dave Fanning session shows that Neuro certainly have the necessary talent in terms of song writing  and musicianship.

What’s now needed more than anything, however, is a radically different approach to the arrangement of their material.
My guess is that we’ll be hearing quite a bit more from Neuro Ross Fitzsimmons   

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