A to Z of N. Ireland Punk Bands

THE LIDS

The Lids formed in 1978 and were Geoff Shannon vocals/guitar, Peter North guitar, Paddy Donnelly bass and Paul Kelly drums. Geoff had previously played in a number of bands such as Foam, Skip The Loo and Ask Mother. The band all came from the South Belfast area, apart from Peter North who came from the Lisburn area. They quickly amassed a set of mainly original material and started playing around the usual haunts of the day in Belfast. Geoff Shannon “I had known Terri Hooley before he started the Good Vibrations label and shop and I used to go around to his house in the Holylands area of Belfast to buy import records from him. We played a few times at the Harp Bar and The Pound and had quite a lot of original material, so we approached Terri about doing some recording for his label. A week later Terri gave us fifteen pounds for refreshments and sent us down to Wizard Studios in Belfast where we recorded the tracks "Helicopter" and "I Don’t Want You". I can remember that every time the recording tape was on rewind we caught the tail end of "Teenage Kicks" by The Undertones. Somebody remarked "not a bad wee number" little did we know!”
Sadly this scheduled 7” single release on Good Vibrations Records got shelved. One of the tracks, “I Don't Want You” did eventually surface again in 1994 on the Anagram CD release - Good Vibrations - The Punk Singles Collection. The recording of “Helicopter” however still remains unreleased. The band later added piano player Essy Turner RIP for both live and studio work. The tracks “Day By Day”, “This And That” and “Helicopter” were all recorded at Wizard studios Belfast N. Ireland in 1979 and all three feature on the Spit Records compilation CD Shellshock Rockers Vol. 2 available direct from this website. Also in 1979 The Lids embarked on a tour of the North called "Eat Your Heart Out Tour" with fellow Belfast band Big Self.
The original line up had a very dedicated bunch of fans and the band played all corners of Ireland over a period of four years. In the North they could be seen regularly at Queens University, The Harp Bar, The Polytechnic at Jordanstown, The Art College, The Pound, Winkers. Outside of Belfast, at Coleraine University, Spuds in Portstewart, Kellys in Portrush and in the South of Ireland, The Baggot Inn, Bolton Street Technical College, and Zeros Night Club in Dublin. They also played venues in Sligo and Galway. Along the way they supported acts such as Nine Below Zero", Tom Robinson Band and The Brush Shields to name just a few.
During the four years of the original line up they enhanced their sound with some extra members on occasions for live shows and or recordings. These members included the aforementioned late Essy Turner on piano, Simon Lloyd on saxophone (he later joined the Motors), John Nelson x Blue Steam on guitar, Bisto on guitar and Anita and Cathy Shevelin on backing vocals. Paul Kelly later drummed with Shock Treatment.
The Lids continued to record in Wizard Studio until they eventually moved to London. Tracks such as "Do The Shuffle", "Revolution" and "Heavy People" still remain unreleased. The Lids also recorded three sessions for Davy Simm’s Downtown Radio Program. The original incarnation of The Lids split towards the end of 1982.
After 1982 Geoff Shannon kept the band going for a couple of years ably assisted by a succession of talented Northern Irish musicians and some original members rejoining for periods too. The Lids went to a studio in Newtownards belonging to the late Lawrence Thomson and recorded four tracks. The line up on these recordings being Geoff Shannon vocals/guitar, Don McNeilly ex Pretty Boy Floyd (bass), Conner (guitar), Paul Kelly (Drums) and Dr Chris Legget (piano) . Tracks recorded included "Africa" and "It’s A Kiss". The late Lawrence Thomson laid some lead guitar work on these recordings too. During this incarnation of the band they mainly played university and college venues.
Other members who played in The Lids during this period include ; Tom Osborne (bass), Mikey Fagan ex P45 (drums), Hugo Andrews ex Teddy Palmer (sax), Desi Fagan ex P45 (bass), the late Kevin Brennan (guitar), Mary Mulrine and Paddy Fitzsimmons (backing vocals), Joe Sharp (bass), The late John Lee ex Blue Steam (drums)and Richie Mind Your Head (bass).
Geoff Shannon remembers The Lids at the Harp Bar “I have very fond memories of playing The Harp Bar. It was a unique venue, the mixture of music, the troubles and the people, a very strange and special time and one that I am happy to have been around to have witnessed. A lot of stories spring to mind about the Harp. I can recall one night, as I was going up the back stairs from the bottom bar to set up the gear, a rat ran out from behind the door. It was nearly dead and sick with poison so I whacked the door against it two or three times. The doorman came running over thinking I was smashing the place up and said "What the hell do you think you’re doing? I’ll throw you out". I said "No look, it’s a rat". He then said "Oh! Shit don't tell anybody, we are trying to sell hamburgers in here”. I can recall too that the stage wiring was a bit dodgy. This was all pre Health and Safety legalization. There was a guy that used to come down who amazed me. He was deaf and would put his hand on the pa speakers to get the vibrations to go down his arm into his body and he would dance away like mad. On another occasion we had no transport for our gear. Peter North our guitarist was working for the council at the time, driving a play bus. So we took the double-decker bus down to the Harp with all our gear inside and parked it right outside the venue. It was the same size as the whole front of the building. Anyway at the end of the night all the punters jumped in for a lift through Belfast, all drunk playing in the sand pit and shouting out the windows round the city hall, all good fun”.
Sadly, guitarist Peter North passed away on 3rd September 2021. R.I.P Peter.