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Ghostown (The Radiators album)

Ghostown
Ghostown (radiators from space album).jpg
Original 1979 cover
Studio album by The Radiators
Released August 10, 1979 (1979-08-10)
Recorded 1978, Good Earth Soundhouse, London
Genre Punk, new wave
Length 35:25
Label Chiswick
Producer Tony Visconti
The Radiators chronology
TV Tube Heart
(as The Radiators from Space)
(1977)TV Tube Heart1977
Ghostown
(1979)
Trouble Pilgrim
(2006)Trouble Pilgrim2006
Singles from Ghostown
  1. "Million Dollar Hero (In a Five and Ten Cents Store)"
    Released: April 28, 1978
  2. "Let's Talk About the Weather"
    Released: June 23, 1979
  3. "Kitty Rickets"
    Released: August 31, 1979
  4. "Under Clery's Clock (single for 1989 re-release of album)"
    Released: January 30, 1989
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 3/5 stars link
Irish Times (very favourable) [1]

Ghostown is a critically acclaimed 1979 album by Irish punk/new wave band The Radiators.

The Radiators recorded two albums in the group's original incarnation, of which Ghostown is the second. Their first album (as The Radiators from Space) was TV Tube Heart (1977). Their next album Trouble Pilgrim, produced after a reunion, would only be released in 2006.

Ghostown is something of a concept album, documenting the sense of social and cultural isolation felt by many Dubliners throughout the 1970s, sometimes noted as literary and "difficult", especially for a snappy record from a punk band.

The best known song from the album is probably "Song of the Faithful Departed", written by Philip Chevron, which was originally released as a B-Side but is the Radiator's song that tends to appear on overview collections such as 101 Irish Hits (from IrishMusicMail.com) or compilations that hope to be critically representative such as Dave Fanning's Fab 50.

In 2008 The Irish Times named Ghostown the third best Irish album of all time (jointly with I Am the Greatest by A House), behind Loveless by My Bloody Valentine and Achtung Baby by U2.

At the time of its release the record had also received rave reviews. The ambition and literacy of Ghostown may have, however, impacted on its popularity on the charts (although "Million Dollar Hero" was a "near hit") and when performed live, effects amplified by its release having been delayed by about a year into 1979. Thus, the entry for Philip Chevron on The Pogues website ruefully notes that despite Ghostown's positive critical reception, "unfortunately the reviews were too late, and shortly after the release the group broke up".

Ghostown turned out not to be the final album of The Radiators. In the 2000s, mainstays Chevron and Holidai reformed the band with original founding member Steve Rapid, and new members replacing Crashe and Megary with, Johnny Bonnie, and Jesse Booth; Cait O'Riordan was also involved for a time. This line up has since released some EPs and the album Trouble Pilgrim.


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Wikipedia

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