Headbangers Ball Ireland

Headbangers Ball Ireland is a Dublin Radio Program founded in 2002 by students Wayne Madden and Allan Roche. The program has gained a cult following thanks to its refusal to be curbed by mainstream trends. The show has been broadcast on Dublin South FM, Tallaght IT FM and is currently in talks with Liffey Sounds FM as of March 2007.

Origins
Headbangers Ball Ireland was founded in Feb 2002 by TY Students Wayne Madden and Allan Roche. Wayne, from Rathfarnham, had gone for work experience at his local radio station Dublin South FM104.9 and was asked if he wanted to record his own program while there. Upon hearing the result, Wayne was delighted, and decided that he wanted to take part in one of the stations programs called 'DJ for a Day' in which local people from the community were allowed host a music program of their choice for an hour every Saturday evening. In an ironic twist of fate, a technician at the station would lose the very first show Wayne had done and it would never be broadcast on Radio officially.

Soon after his work experience, Wayne talked to Allan Roche (whom he had already spent 4 years in school with), and the pair devised a modern system of radio presenting. Allan, a music fan with diverse tastes and skills, was the perfect match for Wayne's often misguided humour and controversial tastes. They began broadcasting at various intervils, usually once a month, at Dublin South FM and were joined by a host of guests including Brian Kelly, David Higgins and Ros Brannick.

Wayne remembers one faithful occasion when he was asked to play a tune on the radio by one of his brothers friends, the song 'So What' by Metallica, and he would pay him 50 Pound. When Wayne played the song, overdubbed with him speaking about Metallica in the hope that the BCI wouldn't recognize the absurd amount of cursing, his brothers friend refused to pay up the debt.

Controversial Beginnings
Problems arose with the show from Day One. On, and off, of the mic it was obvious there was a problem. Wayne's often topical humour was highlighted several times by station officials and the pair were banned several times from the radio studio. Most of these however proved to be minor indescrepencies and the two presenters moved on with their work.

Discovery
After witnessing a Headbangers Ball show in the studio on a Saturday night, Tony, a Dublin South executive, falsely warned other scouts "they suck" so he could have more time and leeway to persude them to come into the studio and record on Sundays. Wayne demanded, and received, a full agreement of atonomy with Tony before revealing that he had promised an A&R from Dublins Country that the show would sign with her if she walked naked down Nutgrove Avenue. For three days, Tony nervously watched from his office window for a naked A&R executive before he could close the deal.

Tony was subsequently hired as the only person the two men would work with, and the team set out to record the pair's first full length syndicated show, which aired Sunday nights between half seven and 8 (or nine, depending on the timekeeping of the following show)

The Incident
Despite the popularity of the weekly Sunday show, it was obvious something was missing, and presenters Keith Madden and Shane Connolly were brought in to fill an obvious void (the need for a 'rap' in the studio as Shane later commented). Songs from different eras were played, music was expanded, and several long distance trips were undertaken for the benefit of the show to have a cross county appeal.

The inclusion of more popular songs and 'theme' nights also boosted ratings. This allowed fans to experience the depth of music, such as acoustic nights or live nights in which the band would hold their own mini festivals. On one of these festivals, Wayne and Shane travelled to the United States to see the band Adlers Appetite perform in concert although no members of the band were actually interested in speaking to him.

Allan and Wayne continued to present the show every week, but the turmoil of its responsibilities came to a head, and the show was abruptly cancelled by Tony in Jan 2005 at which point Wayne and Allan were not on speaking terms.

Alternative Reality
Following the success of Headbangers Ball Ireland, Dublin South attempted to bridge the gap with Keith's own show on Saturday nights, entitled Alternative Reality and based around Metal and Industrial musical tastes. The show didn't last long, but did provide an insight into this otherwise quiet co-presenter, and from time to time the spot was taken up by Allan on DJ for a Day while Wayne remained quiet.

Metal Mayhem
In Feb 2006 Wayne returned to airwaves with a one off program entitled Metal Mayhem, a Hard Rock and Metal show designed to suit fans of 80s Rock music. The show was a small success, but what was even more interesting, was the fact that Wayne had been in talks with Allan to have him co-host the show. Allan unfortunely, due to work commitments, could not do this but it was an important step forward in the return of Headbangers Ball Ireland

The Return
Almost 12 months after the Metal Mayhem broadcasts, Headbangers Ball Ireland returned to IT Tallaght FM with a new format show on Thur night. The show featured its own advertisement, and even seen the guys hooking up with a young Dublin drummer named Jay. Wayne admitted, on air, that he had made some mistakes last year and that despite numerous attempts to restart the show (incl. several podcasts that had been recorded and not broadcast) this was their first broadcast together since Xmas 2004.

Liffey Sounds FM
In March 2007, talks were undertaken between Wayne and Liffey Sounds FM to broadcast the show live from Lucan, between 7pm and 10pm (for one hour) every Tuesday night. A few days later a MySpace site at was set up and a Bebo page can be found at http://AlternativeReality.bebo.com with the possibility of the show being broadcast from April. Several local Dublin bands have also expressed an interest in appearing on the program and Dublin record label Moonshine Records have also hooked up with the station to offer some support.

Comeback Show on ITTFM
For the purposes of a low key return to the airwaves, Headbangers Ball Ireland did two 'warmup' shows on ITTFM (although it is currently not known whether either will be actually streamed) in late April 2007. The first show was presented by Wayne, and the second is due to be presented by Allan Roche and Wayne, although the shows name has temp. been changed to Alternative Reality to avoid copyright issues. It is unknown whether or not the show will currently be podcast, or will return to Irish airwaves.

On April 28th 2007 a posting on the website informed viewers that it would be about 4 weeks before the show would actually be on Liffey Sounds FM, if at all, as the BCI application was pending at this time.

On April 30th 2007, the entire 2nd show of Headbangers Ball Ireland was uploaded onto the Internet hours after it had been broadcast, featuring interviews with Guns N' Roses Guitarist Bumblefoot and Alleycat Scratch bassist Robert 'BOA' Dias. A shorter version of the program, just containing Robert Dias's piece, was later re-uploaded separately and that file was also put on the official Alleycat Scratch MySpace page.

The following day, the site posted a rare Gilby Clarke song from the Japanese EP Blooze, which was released in 1995. The song was taken down the next day.

The next interview scheduled to be uploaded was that of Britt Pannella, bassist of Blackboard Jungle, but this interview has not yet gone up, despite being promised towards the middle of May 2007

Websites Connected with Headbangers Ball Ireland
www.myspace.com/headbangersballireland - Official Website of Headbangers Ball Ireland

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