Brendan O'Hare

Brendan O'Hare (born 16 January 1970) is a Scottish mutli-instrumentaist musician, who amongst other things has been the drummer in the rock band Teenage Fanclub from 1990 until early 1994, and a member and collaborator of Mogwai.

Career

O'Hare was bought up in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire. He joined Teenage Fanclub[1] in 1989, in time to play on about half of their debut album, A Catholic Education. He co-wrote with Teenage Fanclub on all albums during his tenure, he split from the group after completing the tour for the Thirteen album, cited as musical differences at the time and went on to join Telstar Ponies, for which he worked on two albums.

He was an early member of Mogwai for approximately a year. He was described by the NME as Teenage Fanclub's "Monkey Without Portfolio", known for his humour and upbeat personality at the time. This prompted the track "With Portfolio" on Mogwai's debut album, Young Team. O'Hare was allegedly kicked out of Mogwai for talking during a performance by Arab Strap leading to a fight with other members of the band. Despite this, there appears to have been no hard feelings between O'Hare and Arab Strap as O'Hare later featured on their double A-side 1998 release, "Here We Go"/"Trippy", contributing to the twelve-minute song, "Trippy".

In addition to his work with Macrocosmica and as Fiend, he worked closely with Dave Barker (formerly of Glass Records, Paperhouse and Creation) who ran the God Bless record label (issuing the sole album by Thurston Moore's 'Foot' project) and was part of the electro-based band, Liminal. Brendan was in charge of bookings and sound engineering at the Glasgow venue The 13th Note before moving to Edinburgh and continuing as engineer at Liquid rooms and Voodoo Lounge. In 2006, he rejoined Teenage Fanclub for shows in London, Glasgow and Barcelona at which the band played their Bandwagonesque album in its entirety.

He is also an honorary member and producer of Glasgow-based pranksters The Plimptons, and plays guitar on their second album Pomp.[2] Between 1996 and 2005, O'Hare played guitar and sang with self-proclaimed 'Intelli-metal' band, Macrocosmica.[3]

EPs

Albums

They also recorded a BBC Radio One Peel Session (1997), a BBC Radio One Session in Scotland (1999), and a BBC Radio Scotland Live Session (2003), and released "Torch Number One" as one half of a split single with Glaswegian hardcore group Churn on Too Many Fireworks Records in 2003.

Initially a trio of O'Hare, his ex-wife Cerwyss (bass; died 2013) and Russell McEwan (drums; left to concentrate on his other band, Black Sun), they were latterly a quartet adding Keith Beacom (drums) and Gordon Brady (guitar), both of whom were former members of heavy psyche outfit Bangtwister. The group split at the end of 2005.

Fiend

O'Hare released a trilogy of experimental ambient albums under the name of Fiend. These albums featured a handful of recordings involving other members of Telstar Ponies, of whom he was still a member when the material was recorded. These are set for digital rerelease in 2017 in collaboration with Dave Barker.

Albums

O'Hare was awarded Scottish Sound Engineer of the year 2010 prior to returning to Glasgow to care for his children. He continues to produce and play in various projects. In 2017 Brendan played a show with Southend based band Dark Globes and has guest performed his songs with them.[4]

Current projects

O'Hare is currently playing and writing with Killed by Ghosts led by Jesse Diss, occasionally drumming with Southend based Indie Band, Dark Globes & Angel and the Melodyhorns with Wendy Solomon and working in collaboration with partner Jo Hartle on site-specific multi-media pieces. He is a skilled photographer and artist. He has been invited to put on a solo exhibition in 2018.

Personal life

O'Hare has two sons based in Glasgow and lives in Essex with partner Jo Hartle and her children. Hartle and O'Hare met while O'Hare was part of the Teenage Fanclub and Hartle worked as a lighting designer for a range of Creation Records bands. Hartle is now a lecturer, artist/designer and award-winning Live Event and Creative Producer.

References

  1. ↑ "Francis Macdonald + Harry Pye 'Bonjour'". Teenage Fanclub. 2017-02-26. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
  2. ↑ McHugh, Stuart (2007-03-27). "Records - The Plimptons – The Plimptons". The List. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
  3. ↑ Archived 11 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ http://www.gigwise.com/reviews/109477/dark-globes-ft-brendan-ohare-london-4th-march
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