Published
Some bands become part of your life. When I heard that The Silencers were setting out on an extensive Spanish tour with a stop in the south, something that had lain dormant since the eighties stirred inside me. Back then they were one of my favourite bands, and their debut, A Letter From St. Paul (1987), spun until it wore out my turntable's stylus. Like everyone else, I danced myself into the ground to Painted Moon at Club de Playa - Almerimar and every self-respecting nightclub.
I admit I went in with the handbrake on. Time takes its toll, and Jimme O'Neill is the only member left from that glorious line-up. His right-hand man, the magnificent guitarist Cha Burns, died of lung cancer in 2007, aged just 50. The last time I had seen them was more than 35 years ago, at the Estadio de la Juventud in Granada. What would I find now? I hesitated. But my love for those songs won out over caution.
So Gallo and I hit the road and made our way to Málaga.
A false start
British punctuality: 9 p.m. on the dot, and Painted Moon kicks in. I've always argued that opening with your signature hit is a textbook mistake: the crowd hasn't warmed up yet, and the sound engineer is still wrestling with the room. But the captain calls the shots, and we were off to a bad start. Muddy sound, Jimme straining his voice to reach notes that were no longer where they used to be, and backing vocals from Aura — his daughter — that didn't sit right.
And it wasn't just the sound. The family ties in the new line-up made me a little wary: Jimme O'Neill on vocals, guitar and harmonica; his children Aura O'Neill on vocals and backing vocals and Conor O'Neill on guitar; Stephen Greer on bass and Baptiste Brondy on drums. A clan.
I See Red and Answer Me followed without things taking off. I caught myself thinking what nobody wants to think halfway through a gig: “I could have stayed at home listening to the records and saved myself four hours in the car, the exhaustion and the sleepiness.”
The comeback
But there's something about La Trinchera. Without exaggeration, it's one of the best-sounding venues in Andalusia, and little by little the mixing desk began to breathe. Jimme made the smart move of steering the set towards his folkier, more Celtic side, the one that felt more his own. Now we were talking. His voice — weathered, deeper, with that trace of bourbon and the road — began to find its place. So did Aura.
Then came 67 Overdrive, Sunnyside, Scottish Rain and a beautiful, razor-sharp Razor Blades of Love, one after another without mercy. Before I knew it, an hour and a half had passed. There weren't many of us, between 100 and 150 souls, but by then we were one. Gallo and I exchanged the knowing look that only comes with a gig that's rescuing itself: “You know what? This is turning into a proper concert after all.”
The final trance
The last third was another story. Jimme shed the weight of his jacket and began to enjoy himself. He got us all dancing to I Want You, had us singing that immortal anthem Bulletproof Heart at the top of our lungs, and took us back to 1987 with The Real McCoy, from that first album that had meant so much. I danced to it just as I had then, as though 35 years hadn't passed.
Closing with I Can Feel It and a quick encore was cathartic. Jimme gave everything: he danced, bent over his harmonica, sang his heart out. The commitment was there.
And that was when I understood the family line-up. It wasn't a clan; it was a trench. I felt, quite literally, like part of the family, as though for one night we were all a little bit O’Neill.
We headed home. Another two hours in the car, in the dead of night. Tired, yes. But with that rare feeling only a good concert leaves you with: that it had been worth it.
Dedication / Coda
This review wants to return to June 1991.
To all of us who were at the Estadio de la Juventud in Granada that night, watching The Silencers. A special mention for Eloy, who couldn't come to Málaga and should have been there.
And to our very own BlaBlaCar of the time: Iñaki and Isa's brown Seat 132. Iñaki, Isa, Ainhoa in her carrycot, Gallo and I squeezed into it on our way to the concert. How I miss those journeys without GPS or any hurry.
And of course, to Carmela. My classmate, our friend and guardian archangel. The one who was always rescuing us from our mischief, marvelling at how we looked, and who that night was infinitely generous enough to spend a few hours looking after Ainhoa and her carrycot so we could see The Silencers.
Without all of you, none of it would have been the same.
SETLIST HIGHLIGHTS: Painted Moon / I See Red / Answer Me / 67 Overdrive / Sunnyside / Scottish Rain / Razor Blades of Love / I Want You / Bulletproof Heart / The Real McCoy / I Can Feel It