LIMERICK indie band The Hitchers will feature on ‘Steve Lamacq’s Lost 90s’ compilation with their 1997 song ‘Strachan’. To celebrate, the band will play three Irish shows this weekend.
BBC Radio DJ Steve Lamacq has included ‘Strachan’ on a 2xLP/4xCD collection marking his 25th year on the airwaves at the BBC. We are told “He has selected every track with a view to this being considered an autobiographical look at the 90s scene through his eyes.”
Niall from The Hitchers is delighted, excited, flattered and struggling to breathe in air this rarefied, that sees the band rubbing shoulders with Teenage Fanclub, Snuff, Sleeper, Travis, Compulsion, Cornershop, China Drum, Suede, Elastica, 60ft Dolls, Kitchens of Distinction and Ride, to name a few.
On the indie label Murgatroid, The Hitchers released two albums and a slew of EPs in the late 90s. The Limerick band came to the attention of legendary BBC DJ John Peel who championed the band and had the band record a session for his show that gets repeat broadcasts to the present day.
The ‘Strachan’/’You Can Only Love Someone’ double A-side single won many friends, plaudits and award nominations, making Peel’s Festive Chart and Hot Press nominations. The band toured the UK regularly bringing fiery live performances of their spikey punk-pop, acerbic lyricism, terrace-chant choruses to all places that would have them.
Though de-mobbed since 2001, media interest in the band is rekindled biennially around the time of World Cups and European Championships which led to Guardian readers voting ‘Strachan’ the “greatest football song EVER.”
Founding member/ main songwriter Niall Quinn remembers that The Hitchers found more success in the UK in their later years.
“In the UK it’s fair to say The Hitchers are mainly remembered for ‘Strachan’. That was the tune that got played most and still gets played and knocked about and that stirs up interest when the world cup or the Euros roll around.
“Then in Ireland, despite the fact Strachan’s fellow ‘Fun & Games’ single ‘Killed It With My Bare Hands’ gave us our highest chart placing, I sometimes think it’s more the ‘Red Mohair Jumper’/ ‘She’ll Be Sorry’ era stuff that immediately preceded Strachan and the two albums that rings bells with people.
“Then, more locally again, when you come home to Limerick there’s this palpable thing about the ‘teenage’ Hitchers – the one with Eoin and Benny and ‘There’s a Bomb in that Basket of Fruit’.
“So I tend to think of The Hitchers less like a band and more like Dallas. There’s some characters involved integral to the story who are only in it for the first couple of seasons. But still the story runs…”
Catch The Hitchers at Galway, Róisín Dubh this Thursday 15; Cork Fred Zeppelin’s on Friday 16; Dolan’s Kasbah, Limerick on Saturday 17. Support comes from Dutch punk band Cooper.
