This is the first physical mix tape I have made in quite some time. It is probably not as coherent as I had hoped, catching COVID before I finished it didn't really help. That was also the reason why I forgot to take a picture of the disc before I sent it, not that it was anything fancy.

Back in '92 I would have more or less moved from Tape to CD, although I would still have had a turntable. CDs were expensive (probably nearly as expensive, relatively speaking, as records are now) so it was a slow process. It would have been quite a few years later before I became aware of MiniDiscs and by that time I had already digitalised all my music collection so never really got round to justifying picking up one, although I very nearly did to replace my microcassette dictaphone. In the end I only got my first MD player a few months ago on a whim to “complete” my Teac H500 Hi-Fi set that I picked up recently as part of a back to physical media trend. Have since picked up a few portables to make life easier. Somehow they always just looked like the future to me, and still do.

In an attempt to try and make a more manageable selection I decided to go with an all Irish artist mix. I’ve tried to include a mix of what was contemporary back in 1992, as well as some of the historical greats. It's also more of a reflection of what I would have put on a disc back as a much younger me. If I was doing one now it probably would have a wider range of styles whereas this is more of a pop/rock.

Apart from a few hints its kept away from the folk side and sadly does not have so many women artists. 1992 was a bit of a watershed year for women in music in Ireland. The album “Only a Woman's Heart” was released as a compilation of a number of Irish female artists at the time. It remains the best selling Irish album of all time even 30 years later. It is more of a folk/country vibe so haven't included tracks, or artists here.

Of the track listed for some artists I've gone for lesser, or slightly lesser known, tracks. For others perhaps their most well known tracks in '92. Some tracks do have some special personal significance. For example I don't remember my buying/owning my first single/album, as I was lucky to grow up surrounded by music as both of my parents were big into music, but Banana Republic may be a contender as a I still have the 7“ which has my name on it, although I was far too young when it came out to have gone and bought it for myself.

There are no ‘joke tracks’. “Where’s my jumper?” was huge and led to the loss of many jumpers (sweaters/pullovers) at the time. “Orinoco Flow” is probably the odd one out here as it was included more to have another female vocalist although it was huge at the time and had a strange cross over appeal, apparently back then it was the most requested track for at least one week on KROQ-FM in LA which I understand was a bit of an unusual home for that sort of music at the time. There are a number of artists here that never made it far outside of Ireland, if at all, and to be honest some of them didn't have a lot of success in Ireland either. So would expect that unless you were in Ireland in the early 90s, or had someone sending you music, there will be some new stuff here for you. Hope there is something you like here or at the very least you find it interesting.

1. Clannad - Theme From Harry's Game
2. The Stunning - Brewing Up A Storm
3. Thin Lizzy - The Rocker
4. Luka Bloom - You Couldn´t Have Come at a Better Time
5. The Fat Lady Sings - Arclight
6. An Emotional Fish - Celebrate
7. Sinead O'Connor - Mandinka
8. The Sultans of Ping F.C. - Where's Me Jumper
9. Rory Gallagher - As the Crow Flies
10. Gary Moore - Over The Hills And Far Away
11. Something Happens - Parachute
12. Hothouse Flowers - Don't Go
13. Enya - Orinoco Flow
14. Horslips - Dearg Doom
15. Toasted Heretic - LSD (Isn't What It Used To Be)
16. The Boomtown Rats - Banana Republic
17. U2 - One
18. Mary Coughlan - Seduced

Spotify Playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0yisg6GsmSxytnkAnlVvae