User:Smrt-guy/Poop
| Poop | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Celtic Floozy |
| Years Active | 42 |
| Record Labels | Bum Brownie Records, Squeezin Records, Pimple Records |
| Place of Origin | Ireland |
“Where's my lute? I can't play without my lute!”
“These guys are great! I mean, they're the shit!”
Poop is a Hardcore Celtic Pop band started in Tally-o-Wacker, Ireland in 1963. Since its inception, over 3000 different people have been members, but only 3-5 at a time. It is best known for its 1978 Disco hit, Anne of Green Spandex.
Poop History[edit | edit source]
Band Lineup[edit | edit source]
Currently, the band is made up of:
- Sidney O'Brian-McAllister - Lead Electric Lute / Vocals
- Allyson St. Magenulf - Drums / Wack-a-Mole
- Faolán Abromowitz - Bass Guitar / Bass Flute / Bass Ball
- Johnny Riordan - Guitar / Keyboards
Early Years[edit | edit source]
In early 1962 Sidney met a moderately well known zither player, Oscar Hammerstein in a Dublin pub. After many beers, they moved in together so they could practice every day. With their downstairs neighbor, Randolph Scott, they formed Poop. They played their first concert in Glasgow's Kelvin Hall in on October 18, 1963. In the audience was the future Prime Minister of England, Margaret Thatcher, who reportedly stripped to her waist and danced on stage. Faolán Abromowitz joined the following year and they started to expand outside their native Dublin. Faolán left the band late 1974 and was replaced by Robert MacDonald, this line up continued until 1978, when Faolán re-joined, announcing that Robert's name was "too boring". Both Robert and Randolph left the band to start solo careers in plumbing sales.
Meanwhile, because of a practical joke started by Oscar, a new drummer appeared for every song they played, each of them friends or family of Oscar's. It took Sidney a few years to notice, at which point they all had a great laugh and Sidney immediately shot Oscar in the grouch. With Oscar dead (or close enough) and Sidney in jail, the band's direction faltered a bit until 1979.
Faltering Years[edit | edit source]
1979 saw the arrival of drummer Iain t'Bayne and keyboard player Richard Cheese. Cheese left in Feb 1980 and was replaced by ex House of Lords peer Sir Reginald Dumhumphrey. This formed what became known as the classic line up for the next 3 months. In 1982, lead singer Sidney O'Brian left the band for a career in politics, but later returned as all his consituents were Poop fans.
Modern Poop[edit | edit source]
The remaining members contemplated splitting up, but after a long search they replaced Sidney with American singer/songwriter John Wayne. This issue has divided Poop's fan base; some argue that the loss of Sidney's highly distinctive vocals and his ability to sing in Gaelic, Chinese and English has not been truly compensated for by John, whose vocal style is mostly grunts and groans. Others claim that the fact that John has such a different voice has allowed Poop to evolve musically in ways that it might not have done were Sidney still singing with them. After Sidney returned, the two lead singers battled for vocal supremacy at every concert. This caused the unfortunate demise of over 300 band members.
In 1985 Kirk Tiberius (Mr. T), the band's keyboard player, left after being elected Member of Parliament for the constituency of Tayside North for the Scottish National Party. Most of the fan base just gave up on the band entirely and moved to Australia.
Discography[edit | edit source]
Poops recording output has been challenged by both musicians and labels, but their push and determination to finish the job has kept them going through both hard and soft times.
Early Success[edit | edit source]
Poop's first album was released in 1964. Called Sing Albanian, it was a groundbreaking effort, as all the songs were in the named language. The music is light, warm and acoustic based with several conch shell solos by Sidney. It was re-released 1n 1980 as Sing Albanian, Tastes Like Chicken. The second album, The Pub Crawl Connection, was released a year later on the bands own label, Bum Brownie Records. A somewhat transitional album, it features wailing electric guitars strewn among pretty explosions. Here to be found is the original version of Down With the Swirl, a later version of this classic remake was to become their signature song and their closing song at concerts.
First Breakthrough[edit | edit source]
The big breakthrough came with Recovery in 1981, a theme-based record dealing with the the entire band's recovery process from their addiction to kitten huffing. The music is there to match the ambitions and Poop were now well on the way in molding their unique sound. In 1982 they re-recorded Down With the Swirl as their first single. This brought them to the attention of people outside Liberties and North Quays neighborhoods. They signed to a small label called Pimple Records in 1984 who almost killed the band off with the two singles they released. The first was Dial a Ria which got damaged in the process of being mixed, and this appeared to make the record sound out of tune. This is most noticeable in the 12 inch versions outro. The second was called Sit, Relax and was almost unbearable. A longer version of Sit, Realx appeared on the Squeezin records compilation Dropping the Kids Off at the Pool along with an early version of Wiping Up, both of which were never available on any Poop record. The band broke loose from Pimple and returned to their Bum Brownie label. The springboard to a mainstream market came in the form of Backed Up and Hurting in 1985, a strong record welding gaelic sounds and anthemic rock music, but inevitably marked by its times (i.e., the dreaded "80's" production sound). The same can be said about Beans, Cheese and Haggis (1987), the bands first album on a major label. The album was first released by Bum Brownie shortly before signing to the bigger label.
Full Discography[edit | edit source]
- Sing Albanian - 1964
- The Pub Crawl Connection - 1965
- Make a Mess, Not War - 1967
- Sing Chinese - 1968
- Earth Rainbow - 1969
- Taste the Dark Side - 1970
- Poop Review: Five Years Strong - 1970
- Mother Earth Father - 1971
- Wipe the Grass Lightly - 1972
- T.P. Was Here - 1973
- One Night in the Can - 1974
- Disco Bums - 1975
- Turn Out the Lights - 1976
- Disco Days, Disco Nights - 1977
- Disco John's - 1978
- Disco Sicko - 1979
- Sing Albanian, Tastes Like Chicken - 1980
- Recovery - 1981
- He Pushes (A Poop Hymnal) - 1982
- Dropping the Kids Off at the Pool - 1983
- Splatz Attax - 1984
- Backed Up and Hurting - 1985
- Sing Rastafari - 1986
- Beans, Cheese and Haggis - 1987
- Makin' It - 1988
- 25 Years of Poop - 1989
- Slick - 1990
- Fakin' It - 1991
- Fornication - 1992
- American Food - 1993
- Piles: Poop Everywhere (A Retrospective) - 1994
- Grunge Bums - 1995
- Grunge Days, Grunge Nights - 1996
- Adirondacks - 1997
- Sing Thai, Sing French, Sing Croatian - 1998
- Dripping Melodies: Poop Goes Instrumental - 1999
- Keep Pushing Baby - 2000
- Wipe It Up: Poop B-Sides - 2000
- A Poop Odyssey - 2001
- Roots Revival - 2002
- Holy Shit! 40 years of Poop - 2004
- Beans, Cheese, Haggis and Oats - 2006