The School Kids

The School Kids from; Dublin Active; 1977 – July 1978
Style; RnB
Line up;
Vocals; Dave Greenlee Vocals
Guitar; John (Baked) Breen Guitar
Bass; Alan Finney Bass
Drums; Charlie Hallinan

Poster image supplied by Dave Moloney
Many thank too Charlie for all of his help compiling this page, all School Kids photo’s supplied by Charlie along with the demo & radio interview.
The band were formed by Dave Greenlee and Alan Finney after their original band Gizmo split. Gizmo are known to have played Blackrock Park in 1977. 

Charlie worked in the kitchen of “Captain America” on Grafton Street, flipping burgers with Justin McCarthy (Bach Street Kids) & Anthony Kennedy “AK” of (Sacre Bleu). Charlie was the original drummer with Sacre Bleu.

The School Kids played RnB music, mostly covers from the 60’s and bands like Dr Feelgood. 
Dave ran a squat in Mountjoy Square that was used as a recording studio and a rehearsal room by many of the Dublin bands from that time, these included Rocky DeValera & The Gravediggers, The Atrix, The Sinners, U2. 

By all accounts John was an excellent RnB guitarist. As far as I know the band folded in mid 1978 when Alan Finney & Charlie Hallinan left.
Finney joined “The Atrix” while Hallinan joined “Berlin”. Dave Greenlee would become a pilot with Aer Lingus.

Charlie in full uniform
Gig Guide
11/05/1978 McGonagle’s, Dublin with Scare Bleu Hot Press review by Liam Mackey Sacre Bleu’s final home appearance before taking off for a months’s solid gigging in Stockholm.

Finally a word about the School Kids, the support band who made their debut on the night. They obviously need a lot of rehearsal and their guitarist occasionally collapsed under the weight of his immense responsibilities, but remember it was their first gig and ultimately I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed their energetic – if irritatingly raw – brand of rhythm and blues. There’s nothing there that assiduous rehearsal and maybe an additional guitarist couldn’t put right. Remember the name.   2. I said to Justin lets do that song we have been rehearsing (I can’t remember the name of it). I said to the crowd, look we have played 3 songs for you, I won’t you to do something for us. I’m going to count down from 10, when I get to 5, I want you to shout 4, 3, 2, 1, to my amazement they did it. Later as U2 took to the stage, this fabled Bono said to how did you get the crowd to react like that. I said you’ll figure it out man.
18/05/1978 RTC, Carlow lunchtime
14/05/1978 St Bridgets, Finglas West, Dublin with Virgin Prunes, The Bach Street Kids, U2. This was a charity concert, (sorry I don’t know for what), the crowd was approximately 300. Justin McCarthy & Tom Mathews from the Bach Street Kids both remember this gig.

Justin McCarthy It was somewhere in Finglas…a community center as far as I remember…I remember it ’cause I’d never heard of U2 and all these bored teenagers kept on waving their U2 badges at us while we were playing….when we finished Bono walked on and said …’anyone here like the Boomtown Rats and did a Rats cover…can’t remember the song though..

Tom Mathews We probably only played 10 gigs, a max of 15, and were used to playing in front of about 8 people. This promoter rang Justin & I, wanting 4 bands to play a charity concert for 300 people. The line up was to be the Virgin Prunes, (their first gig), the School Kids, a band that wore school uniforms on stage, and to my amazement U2. I say this because at the time I had never herd of them. We had only played 3 songs and the crowd kept shouting for U2. I said to Justin lets do that song we have been rehearsing (I can’t remember the name of it). I said to the crowd, look we have played 3 songs for you, I won’t you to do something for us. I’m going to count down from 10, when I get to 5, I want you to shout 4, 3, 2, 1, to my amazement they did it. Later as U2 took to the stage, this fabled Bono said to how did you get the crowd to react like that. I said you’ll figure it out man.
18/05/1978 RTC, Carlow lunchtime
18/05/1978 Castle Tavern, Carlow evening
21/05/1978 Abbey Inn, Tralee

22/05/1978 Listowel 25/05/1978 Project Arts Centre, Dublin with The Gamblers, U2 Review by Karl Tsigdinos Hot Press They are fun to dance to, but the School Kids have more than a few wrinkles to iron out before they’ll leave a lasting impression.
On the other hand, U2 have only one big problem, conquering the “fast is good” fallacy that plagues them now. Already possessed of a fine rhythm section, a tangible identity, & a promising vocalist, U2 managed to negate the impact of their originals simply by playing too fast. What could well have been very clear songs sounded unintelligible & indistinguishable.
A glimmer of U2’s direction may be gleaned from the inclusion of Wire’s “Mannequin” in their set & if U2 can slow down long enough to be heard, they could step to the fore of the Dublin music scene. This was the final gig The Gamblers played, their drummer cut their set short by walking off stage, mid set. Publicity photo supplied by Charlie Hallinan. The concert was organised by the women of the Northern Ireland “Peace Movement”. U2 did attend this gig, Adam can be seen in the photo below of the Boy Scoutz, he is behind the bass stack.
04/06/1978 “Peace” Concert Peoples Park Blackrock. Strange Movement did not play at this concert, they did invade the stage. Irish Press report “A punk rock group which gate-crashed a Dublin open air peace concert yesterday was asked to leave the stage at the People’s Park in Blackrock after shouting slogans at the audience, threatening to burn down Leinster House, throwing holy water in a lake and burning Vatican flags”. Hot Press “Frontlines” June must be a wicked month for punks. Certainly the Blackrock Festival held last Sunday was a depressing sequence of cock ups. The organisers had formed the impression that Fran Quigley was going to deliver them a PA. He didn’t so they had to use The School Kids’ gear which wasn’t built for open air performances.

Then fights broke out which led to one unfortunate blood spewing individual, being carted off to hospital. Then amidst the shambles, The Vipers and U2 decided not to play. Just another gig in Blackrock Park, huh?………………
George Purdy They used Papal Flags at the gig in Blackrock during an anti-papacy song. The Papal visit was in Sept ’79 which would have been a year after the pictured gig so I don’t know if there would be any connection. I remember on the day in Blackrock Park I wasn’t even aware of the existence of papal flags as I had to ask someone what the yellow flags were.
Emmett O’Reilly My memories (unreliable) of the gig that U2 were supposed to play was that there was, for some reason, a large contingent from N. Ireland at it and that they were the source of the trouble (!) Saw some awful scenes, one guy decking another, then taking off his boot and smashing the guy in the face with it. Strange Movements: played with them and The Alternatives a couple of times, when I was in The Citizens, probably in the Magnet. Thought they were ok but at the time regarded them as a bit hippy-ish and certainly not “hard”.
09/06/1978 Magnet Bar, Dublin with new Versions

Charlie talking to fans @ Blackrock Park, photo by Patrick Brocklebank.
02/07/1978 Blackrock Park, Dublin Open Air Festival with Velvet Valves, The Vipers, Boy Scoutz, Rocky De Valera & The Gravediggers, U2, The Sinners, Sasperilla.

U2 DID NOT PLAY this gig as the outdoor amps and rigging that was hired for this gig never turned up. The bands had to play with the School Kids indoor amps, this lead to the sound quality not being very good. Although the Vipers are listed on the bill Dave Moloney has no recollection of them playing this gig.
This was the final gig “The School Kids” played, they were booked to play the two concerts listed below, but the band split up before they took place.
06/08/1978 Phoenix Park Free Festival, Dublin with Dominique, Watford Gap, Rocky DeValera & The Gravediggers, U2, August Child
26/08/1978 Windsor Park Festival with Free Booze, Wheels, Dominique. Both of these festivals were organised by Ubi Dwyer.