Pictures: Hothouse Flowers perform at MusicZone for Record Store Day in Togher

THERE are few songs more summery than Hothouse Flowers’ ‘Don’t Go’, and there was a sense in Togher’s MusicZone, as the veteran rockers – the band turns 40 next year – bounced through some of their best-loved songs, that the worst miseries of a seemingly everlasting winter might just be behind us.

Record Store Day took place recently, and the Flowers were in town for a Live at St Luke’s gig, with Liam Ó Maonlaí, Fiachna Ó Braonáin, and Peter O’Toole stopping into the Togher shop as a favour to Ray O’Brien, MusicZone’s genial host.

Their set was short, but by the time they finished up with ‘Don’t Go’, the capacity crowd wasn’t quite dancing in the aisles – there just wasn’t room – but they sure were swaying, and the smiles on everyone’s faces were just infectious.

“There’s more than three legends here today,” Liam told the crowd, referring to Gurranabraher-based retired postman Jack Lyons, who was down the room ahead of a talk he was to give on his life as “Irish Jack”, the inspiration for The Who’s Quadrophenia.

“We go back before The Who were even formed. He used to visit us in the creche,” Liam joked.

At one point, the Flowers front man launched into a ropey version of De Banks, but that’s okay, he explained, because his father, Seán, was originally from Upper Glanmire.

In fact, Liam’s grandfather, Tadgh Manley, was a veteran of the War of Independence, going on to serve as a Fine Gael TD for the now defunct Cork South constituency, elected first in the general election of 1954 and again in 1957.

“He was arrested in Midleton for taking down a barracks back in the day, and did two years in jail,” Liam told The Echo.

“So yeah, Cork is in my bones, it’s in my blood, it’s part of who I am.”

Acclaimed West Cork singer and songwriter Polly Barrett played the day’s first set and she said it had been an “amazing” experience, performing songs from her current album, Sapling Be.

“The album is going great, it’s been on the RTÉ Radio 1 Recommends playlist, which was lovely, and it was the ‘Marty Recommends’ album on Marty Whelan’s Lyric FM show for a while, which was great craic, because Marty is a hero of mine,” she said.

“I always love coming to MusicZone, it’s a great record store, great community, great vibe, and it’s just brilliant to see the vinyl going so strong in such a big way.

“I was blown away the first time I was in here to see the amount of people just hungry for music and hungry for vinyl, it’s just brilliant.”

Lilian Smith, host of Risin’ Time, was there to collect her latest order from Ray and to catch up with her RTÉ colleague Fiachna Ó Braonáin, who was that weekend just off of a two-week stint minding Leeside legend John Creedon’s own music store.

“Hothouse Flowers were just fantastic, as they always are, and it’s always great to see Fiachna.

“I love MusicZone, and I think it is so important that independent record shops like Ray’s be supported, because they play such an important role in fostering local musical talent,” she said.

“And the most important thing to say about Record Store Day is that every Saturday is Record Store Day.”