Björk in Tipperary

You’ve probably seen the iconic clip of Björk shouting about her first-ever gig in Ireland before – “AAHHHHHH!” – but one thing I’d never really put together was that this particular performance was from Féile 1994, The Trip To Tipp, which took place in Thurles’ Semple Stadium in late July that year.

As a Tipperary man, this makes the video all the more exciting. It’s dream stuff. There’s Björk, one of the greatest to ever do it, a year on from releasing ‘Debut’, in the second largest GAA pitch in the country, performing ‘Big Time Sensuality’, a house track all about friendship, creative partnerships and not knowing what your future holds after this weekend (and not wanting to!). Pure magic.

Like the 1995 Féile in Cork that I was talking about the other day in relation to Kerry rave outfit The Fourth Dimension, the international line-up for The Trip To Tipp was pretty nuts in retrospect. Cypress Hill! Rage Against The Machine! Primal Scream! The Prodigy! Not to mention the Irish acts like The Cranberries.

I just love the idea of someone stepping out of their house, walking to Semple Stadium, going apeshit to ‘Out Of Space’ or whatever, and then walking home again. Obviously Croke Park in Dublin had been hosting major gigs since 1984, and this sort of thing happens all the time nowadays in cities like Cork, Limerick and Galway, but this was 1994 in a town of 8,000 people. In Tipperary!! Camping festivals like All Together Now and Electric Picnic taking place where they do is one thing, but something like this is different gravy, and bar a few exceptions, it’s kind of hard to imagine it happening in the same way today.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how music ecosystems are so often understood through the major cities from which they emerge, but what about the stuff that happens in the towns and villages that have even less infrastructure? Grassroots venues, cultural spaces and studios are being choked out of major hubs at an ever-more galling rate, but I’m always curious to know what’s going on in the areas that barely had them to begin with. What about the micro-micro scenes that appear in these “unlikely” places? What about the creative communities that form in spite of, or indeed out of, a lack of space, funds and external interference?

Plenty to think about here – cost of living driving artists out cities, social media, for all its faults, making it easier to share work around regardless – but here look, this post is about Björk. Maybe more on all this some other time.