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St. Vitus Dance

About Me

Belfast band St. Vitus Dance fell together sometime in the summer of 1981. Marked out from the beginning by their own brand of sixties-tinged, intelligent pop the band were a bright spot on an otherwise largely dour landscape. The band went through a few personnel changes and several years of activity on the increasingly healthy local scene which culminated in the album Love Me Love My Dogma which was released on the Liverpool based Probe Plus label in 1987. No angry political diatribes here, rather a wryly humorous series of reflections on the lesser documented side of life in the Belfast of that time. Tales of late night taxi ranks, down at heel bars, and a rocky outcrop high above the city bearing a strong resemblance to Bonaparte in profile. The album was critically well received and the band migrated across the pond where a year of infrequent gigs and poverty finally did for them. In May 2005 a reconstituted St. Vitus Dance (including most of the Dogma era line-up as well as a long lost veteran of the band’s very first incarnation) accepted an invitation to perform at Belfast--s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival with the legendary Bid (Monochrome Set/Scarlet--s Well). The night was something of a triumph and coincided with the first ever CD release of Love Me Love My Dogma. Another sell-out gig at the Crescent Arts Centre followed before the end of that year and encouraged by public response band also began writing, rehearsing and recording the songs which have now been brought together on the album Glypotheque (Probe Plus). The band recently celebrated both the 20th anniversary of Love Me Love My Dogma and the launch of Glypotheque with a gig at Belfast’s Black Box Theatre. The album was officially released on 7th April, 2008 - watch this page for details and news of any more upcoming gigs.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 29/10/2007
Band Members: St Vitus Dance are: Haydn Boyle - Keyboards Noel Burke – Vocals, Guitar Phil Freckleton – Bass Guitar, Guitar Peter Hesketh – Drums, Percussion Damien Magee – Guitar, Mandolin, Button Accordion Kevin O’Neill – Lead Guitar
Influences: People We Like In No Particular Order: The Velvet Underground, Love, Jacques Brel, Scott Walker, Bill Hicks, Wire (oh, and The Wire Too), Drew & Josh Friedman (not related to Dean as far as we know), The Kinks, The Zombies, The Lovin' Spoonful, Teenage Fanclub, The Byrds and Gene Clark solo, The Undertones, Kocani Orkestar, 13th Floor Elevators, George Pelecanos, Rogue Wave, Television, Pernice Brothers, Ros Serey Sothea, Sly and the Family Stone, Calexico, Benjy Ferree, Okkervil River, Robert Mellin & Gian Piero Reverberi, The Go-Betweens, Jason Falkner, Lee Hazlewood, Oliver Postgate, Orange Juice, Apples In Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Toots and the Maytals, The Monochrome Set, Richard Thompson, Band of Horses, Zookeeper, The National, Taraf De Haidouks, Spoon, Ennio Morricone, The Stars of Heaven, Microdisney, Mikis Theodorakis, Jonathan Richman, Magnetic Fields, Sambassadeur, The Shins, John Barry, Lambchop, The Beatles, Nino Rota, Grandaddy,Al Green, The Left Banke, Candi Staton, Wilco, Eric Matthews, Johnny Cash, Nyah Fearties and probably a lot more but who has the time these days?
Sounds Like: Any of the above and none of the above.
Record Label: Probe Plus
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

The Adventures of St. Vitus Dance (Part The Second)

     Being a member of Positive Action meant that you were supposed to adhere to a band ethos. We had, you see, a positive attitude as opposed to the negative "no future" attitude that had prevailed a...
Posted by on Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:30:00 GMT

The Adventures of St Vitus Dance (Part the First)

I've never kept a diary. Not beyond the third of January anyway. I do recall a number of futile attempts by well meaning relatives to launch me on some kind of literary career by giving me a "page a d...
Posted by on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:42:00 GMT

Now what?

The band are all a bit deflated now after our recent mini-maelstrom of gig activity - they'd like to do more basically, but we'll have to see. One positive result is that it's really spurred the chaps...
Posted by on Thu, 28 May 2009 10:28:00 GMT

Time To Be Proud Update

Well hello there,                          Just a quick one to let you know what time the chaps are due on stage at the Time To Be proud Festival (Black Box Theatre 23rd May). Apparently you can see t...
Posted by on Wed, 20 May 2009 16:28:00 GMT

A Live Review!

Esteemed colleagues,                 St. Vitus Dance gigs, as you may be aware, have been as rare as hens' teeth lately and live reviews of the band are even more of an endangered species so it would ...
Posted by on Wed, 13 May 2009 09:25:00 GMT

Time To Be Proud Mini-Festival

First of all thanks to everyone who came to the Lloyd Cole gig and especially the surprisingly large number of you who stayed on after the main attraction to watch little old us. We really enjoyed the...
Posted by on Tue, 05 May 2009 12:37:00 GMT

Breaking News

Well I never,              You think everything's under control and then all sorts of acts of God and forces majeures come along... anyway it turns out that we're actually going on stage tonight aroun...
Posted by on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:29:00 GMT

Lloyd Cole gig sold out!

Apparently the Lloyd Cole gig is sold out, has been for a fair while. If you fancy turning up on the off chance I wouldn't rate your chances too highly. If you are lucky enough to be the proud possess...
Posted by on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:41:00 GMT

Two gigs in one month!

After a long period of inactivity, St. Vitus emerge from hibernation with not one but two gigs in the merry merry month of May. Both gigs will be at the Black Box in the Cathedral Quarter of Belfast. ...
Posted by on Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:51:00 GMT

Do you agree?

The songs on GLYPOTHEQUE reflect the passing of time since the release of the band's debut album. While the band's mastery of melody and Noel Burke's love of language remain intact, this is no attempt...
Posted by on Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:59:00 GMT