Fatima Mansions

The Fatima Mansions were an art rock group formed in 1988 by Cork singer/keyboardist Cathal Coughlan, formerly of Microdisney. The original line-up consisted of Coughlan, along with Nick Allum, Jonathan Fell, Zac Woolhouse and Aindrias O'Gruama. They took their name from the Fatima Mansions corporation flats in Rialto, Dublin.

The band achieved chart success with an entry in the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart in 1992 with a heavily reworked version of Bryan Adams' song "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", taken from an NME tribute album in aid of the charity, the Spastics Society. The single was a double A-side; the flip-track, Manic Street Preachers' version of "Suicide Is Painless" received most of the radio airplay.

The group also gained mainstream exposure by opening a European leg of U2's Zoo TV Tour in 1992, although they were nearly booed off the stage and almost started a riot when front man Coughlan swore at a Milan audience and insulted the Pope. The band often courted controversy with religion, dictators, empires and general authority being targets for Coughlan's vitriol. In 1995, the group disbanded.

Links To Peel
Peel as a fan of Microdisney kept interest with the development of its members when the group disbanded and lead singer Coughlan formed Fatima Mansions. The band were regularly played by Peel and he once allegedly said that he could "listen to Cathal Coughlan sing the phone book".

Festive Fifty Entries

 * 1990 Festive Fifty: Blues For Ceaucescu #33

Sessions
1. Recorded: 1989-03-19. Broadcast: 28 March 1989. Repeated: 17 May 1989 2. Recorded: 1990-03-25. Broadcast: 19 April 1990. Repeated: 13 June 1990
 * The Day I Lost Everything / Only Losers Take The Bus / The Door To Door Inspector / What
 * Mr Baby / It Will Be Cold / Blues For Ceausescu / Broken Radio No. 1

Other Shows Played
1989
 * 15 November 1989: Only Losers Take The Bus (album - Against Nature) Kitchenware

1990 1992
 * 22 November 1989: The Day I Lost Everything (LP - Against Nature) Kitchenware
 * 05 December 1989: Only Losers Take The Bus (LP - Against Nature) Kitchenware
 * 06 December 1989: Valley Of The Dead Car (Album - Against Nature) Kitchenware
 * 16 December 1989 (BFBS) / Peel 127 (BFBS): 'Valley Of The Dead Cars (LP-Mansions Against Nature)' (Kitchenware)
 * 17 February 1990 (BFBS) / Peel 134 (BFBS): 'O.L.T.T.B. (Hail And Flames) (12"-Only Losers Take The Bus)' (Kitchenware) (JP: 'Can that be the first pop song to include the word "wattle" in its lyrics, as in the line, "Germans live in wattle huts", and can that be true?')
 * 26 May 1990 (BFBS) / Peel 146 (BFBS): '13th Century Boy (12"-Blues For Ceausescu)' (Kitchenware)
 * 05 July 1992 (BFBS): Something Bad (CD - Valhalla Avenue) Kitchenware


 * 12 July 1992 (BFBS): Valhalla Avenue (LP - Valhalla Avenue) Kitchenware

1994
 * 19 July 1992 (BFBS): 1000% (LP - Valhalla Avenue) Kitchenware
 * 15 July 1994 / DW Tape 93: Into Thinner Air With The Loyaliser (Juno Reactor Mix) (EP) Kitchenware / Radioactive
 * 16 July 1994 (BFBS):  Into Thinner Air With The Loyaliser (Juno Reactor Mix) (12" - The Loyaliser) Kitchenware


 * 23 July 1994 (BBC World Service): Fatima Mansions: The Loyaliser (7") Radioactive
 * 30 July 1994 (BFBS): Gary Numan's Porsche (7" EP - The Loyaliser) Radioactive
 * 30 July 1994 (BFBS): The Loyaliser (7" EP) Radioactive


 * 01 August 1994 (Ö3): 'The Loyaliser (CDS)' (Kitchenware)

1996
 * 05 August 1994 / Peel August 1994: Gary Numan's Porsche (b/w 7" - The Loyaliser) Radioacive
 * 20 August 1994 (BFBS): Belong Nowhere (album - Lost In The Former West) Kitchenware
 * 05 August 1996: Blues For Ceausescu (John Peel's Classic Sessions)