Oireland, in 1979. Very repressive. Almost a fascist dictatorship.
Is that Bono and the Edge smoking at the prop table in the background?
Clearly not.
However, the fella playing guitar at the beginning is Edges brother, Dik, who was in the early Virgin Prunes lineup
The fact that that was on tv - and not on some alternative little watched programme - but on prime time, on the then most popular show in the country, somewhat belies Friday's complaints about Ireland being a cultural hellhole and so on.
Gay Byrne was criticised for some things but really he was among the innovators of Irish society, essentially among the relatively small number of people trying to drag Ireland by the scruff of its neck out of the 1950s and out of the Holy Catholic "weeping effigies" culture that people like Gavin Friday and others were complaining about. He was an early advocate for Sinead O'Connor, incidentally. Had her on his show many times.
Like or loathe the Prunes, those five minutes are infinitely more interesting than anything Pat Kenny or Ryan Tubridy (a man of only my age, but of rather old-fashioned tastes in music, to put at its politest. I knew Ryan a bit at college and he's a nice enough bloke but a cultural innovator he is not) had on that same show, when their time duly came and they inherited Gay's mantle.
And it wasn't as though Bono pulled a few strings to get his mates the Prunes on the show, this was 1979 when U2 were still unknown themselves and Bono wouldn't have had too many strings to pull except maybe remembering to tie his shoelaces when he left his dad's house to go and get the bus to see Mr McGuinness. Gay Byrne often had interesting stuff on. He probably didn't like some of the stuff himself, but as I say, he was an innovator of a type.