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 mentioned on his 28 March 1989 show that if he hadn't seen Snub TV, where the Fatima Mansions were playing, he wouldn't have known they existed. 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
The Fatima Mansions - Peel Session 1990
1. Recorded: 1989-03-19. Broadcast: 28 March 1989. Repeated: 17 May 1989, 26 July 1989
- The Day I Lost Everything / Only Losers Take The Bus / The Door To Door Inspector / What
2. Recorded: 1990-03-25. Broadcast: 19 April 1990. Repeated: 13 June 1990
- Mr Baby / It Will Be Cold / Blues For Ceausescu / Broken Radio No. 1
Other Shows Played
The Fatima Mansions - Blues For Ceauşescu
- 1989
- 15 November 1989: Only Losers Take The Bus (album - Against Nature) Kitchenware
- 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
- 18 December 1989: You Won't Get Me Home (album - Against Nature) Kitchenware
- 1990
- 02 January 1990: Only Losers Take The Bus (album - Against Nature) Kitchenware
- 29 January 1990: O.L.T.T.B. (Hail And Flames) (12" - Only Losers Take The Bus) SKX 043
- 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?')
- 12 May 1990 (BFBS): 13th Century Boy (12" - Blues For Ceausescu) Kitchenware
- 26 May 1990 (BFBS) / Peel 146 (BFBS): 13th Century Boy (12" - Blues For Ceausescu) Kitchenware
- Peel Snubbed 1990: Only Losers Take The Bus
- 13 October 1990: The Door-To-Door Inspector (LP - Viva Dead Ponies) Kitchenware
- 20 October 1990: Mr. Baby (LP - Viva Dead Ponies) Kitchenware
- 23 December 1990: Blues For Ceaucesu (7 inch) Kitchenware FF #33
- 1991
- 19 January 1991: Hive (12") Kitchenware
- 27 January 1991 / Best Of Peel Vol 22: Stigmata (12": Hive) Kitchenware Records
- 08 February 1991 (BFBS): Hive (12") Kitchenware
- 20 October 1991: Behind The Moon (LP - Bertie's Brochures) Kitchenware
- 01 November 1991 (BFBS): Behind The Moon (LP-Bertie's Brochures)' (Kitchenware)
- 03 November 1991: Behind The Moon (LP - Berties Brochures) Kitchenware
- 01 December 1991: Bertie's Brochures (LP - Bertie's Brochures) Kitchenware
- 1992
- 27 March 1992: You're A Rose (v/a album - The Best Of The Mark Goodier Radio 1 Sessions - Volume 1 - Exclusive & Unreleased Recordings) Nighttracks
- 20 June 1992: Something Bad (Album: Valhalla Avenue) Kitchenware Records
- 26 June 1992 / DW Tape 4: Valhalla (album - Valhalla Avenue) Kitchenware
- 03 July 1992 / DW Tape 5: 1000% (album - Valhalla Avenue) Kitchenware
- 05 July 1992 (BFBS): Something Bad (CD - Valhalla Avenue) Kitchenware
- 11 July 1992: North Atlantic Wind (CD - Valhalla Avenue) Kitchenware Records
- 12 July 1992 (BFBS): Valhalla Avenue (LP - Valhalla Avenue) Kitchenware
- 17 July 1992: Go Home Bible Mike (LP - Valhalla Avenue) Kitchenware
- 19 July 1992 (BFBS): 1000% (LP - Valhalla Avenue) Kitchenware
- 1994
- 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
- 22 July 1994: The Loyaliser (7 inch) Radioactive
- 23 July 1994 (BBC World Service): 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
- 05 August 1994 / Peel August 1994: Gary Numan's Porsche (b/w 7" - The Loyaliser) Radioacive
- 20 August 1994 (BFBS): Belong Nowhere (LP - Lost In The Former West) Kitchenware
- 02 September 1994: Unknown (CD - Lost In The Former West) Kitchenware
- 1996
- 05 August 1996: Blues For Ceausescu (John Peel's Classic Sessions)
