Neverending Art

Typing away on this here I hoped to be able to listen to live coverage of the Derry City-Sligo Rovers FAI Cup semi-final (I am detained at home on this Hallowe'en night waiting for a plumber that has failed to arrive). RTÉ were providing coverage, but only on their Long Wave and Medium Wave services, suitably retro given that that was how I listened to League of Ireland football back in the bleak 80's on 'Sunday Sport'. I eventually gave up until I realised that BBC Foyle would be covering it too. How easily I forget the presence of British rule in Norn Iron. I made this realisation a bit late, three minutes from half-time to be precise, and within those three minutes Sligo had gone from 1-0 to 3-0 down. Disheartening stuff and I soon went elsewhere for diversion. Another season over for the Bit O'Red, though not a bad one either in their first year back in the top flight.

Before I cottoned onto the Nordy Beeb I was listening to Tom Dunne's 'Pet Sounds' show on Today FM, hoping for crumbs of information on the hourly sports round-ups. Among all the glum British indie rock was an interesting new number from former A House frontman Dave Couse, an updated version of the old 1991 single 'Endless Art', which featured a list of illustrious dead 'creatives', and which also featured a memorable video by Damien O'Donnell, who later went on to direct East Is East. This time artists, musos, and actors who have expired since the original version get a mention, such as the great Dermot Morgan, Marlon Brando, Ray Charles, Waylon Jennings, Rory Gallagher, 2Pac, Hunter S. Thompson and, a bit controversially perhaps, Leni Riefenstahl. The song is more stripped down than the original, and it sadly lacks the buzzsaw guitar and arching strings that so distinguished the earlier version. Still, it's nice to see (or hear) it back again. It's not the first time it has been updated though; Couse produced a version féminine in 1992 to counterbalance the slight that there was not a mention of a single female artist in the original. Worth downloading for those that do not know the song.