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Shark Bait

Shark Bait were an Irish Psychobilly band formed in September 1985. All members were born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. (Note, when I mention Psychobilly in this article I'm referring to the traditional, original Psychobilly recipe.)

The founding members of Shark Bait are Dave Finnegan, Simon Farrell, Fergal Heapes and Martin Farrell. Fergal and Martin came from a Northside band call D-Caged Tigers. Dave came from a short lived band called the Boneshakers and Simon was fresh out of Synge Secondary school. Martin was replaced by Neal Murphy late 1987. Shark Bait played their first gig September 29th 1985 in the legendary Baggot Inn supporting Dublin band The Blades. The band went on to play almost every music venue in the Republic of Ireland. The band notched up over three hundred gigs in their short three year lifespan. At one point Shark Bait were one of the highest paid acts playing around Ireland thanks to the slick management of Johnny Devlin.

Shark Bait played Psychobilly soaked in classic rockabilly with that B-Movie seasoning. Sparse drums, Slap Bass, Slap back guitar and over the top vocals was their recipe. They performed mainly original compositions with the expected cover song throw in for good measure.

Before Johnny Devlin, Shark Bait were managed by Musician /Journalist Richie Taylor who secured many high profile gigs, excellent Press publicity and National TV's appearances alongside the likes of the Pogues and Christy Moore. Within a year the management reins were passed to Mr. Devlin. Johnny secured many high profile gigs / festivals around the country for the band. Unlike todays scene, Shark Bait played to all audiences and had no exclusivity to any particular genre. Shark Bait's youthful, high energy, sincerity and innocence won over people from all walks of life, from hippies to professionals Shark Bait managed to be hip with everyone. Eventually Johnny decided to get out of his management position and graciously handed all management duties to Richie Smyth. Richie was a hard working professional Photographer with a ferocious appetite for Rock N' Roll. Richie was the person to introduced the band to the European psychobilly scene via the Klubfoot. Shark Bait became regulars at the Klubfoot and eventually were asked to contributed to a live record called Stomping at the Klubfoot (Volume 5).

Shark Bait disbanded late 1988. Fast forward to 2009, Shark Bait decide to get together for a reunion gig in Dublin. The gig idea morphed into a gig and a CD. Little did we know it would take two years to record. The main obstacle was we no longer lived in the same country. Dave was in the UK, Fergal was living in the USA and Simon and Neal were in Dublin. Thanks to modern technology we recorded a 11 track CD without every being in the same room. Fergal recorded all the scratch tracks, sent them to Dublin for Neal and Simon to lay down the Rhythm tracks. Then back to the USA for the actual guitar tracks and them over to the UK for Daves vocals (I may have missed a few million steps in between but you get the gist). The CD was launched at the reunion gig June 28th, 2012. The following year the band played the Pineda Psychobilly Meeting in Barcelona.