A House

A House were an Irish rock band that was active in Dublin from 1985 to 1997, and recognized for the clever, "often bitter or irony laden lyrics of frontman Dave Couse bolstered by the [band's] seemingly effortless musicality". The band honed their live skills in the pubs of Dublin, performing in McGonagle's club (best known internationally as the venue where U2 cut their teeth in the late seventies), at free gigs in the Phoenix Park, and turns on RTÉ's TV GaGa and Dave Fanning's radio sessions. The earliest recorded appearance for the band was on a charity compilation called Blackrock Youth Aid '85, put together at Newpark School. This was followed by tracks on two live compilations: A House contributed a song whose title is representative of the band's early spirit, "On Your Bike Wench, and Let's Have the Back of You", to the EP Live at the Underground (1986), recorded in September 1985 (and only available) in The Underground club in Dublin, and featuring other contemporary up and coming bands such as Something Happens and The Stars of Heaven; the Street Carnival Rock EP (1987) includes songs recorded as Dave Fanning sessions, and finds A House, performing a song called "What A Nice Evening To Take The Girls Up The Mountains". These beginnings were followed up by two self released singles, "Kick Me Again Jesus" and "Snowball Down". A House released these on the label RIP Records.

Recording a John Peel Session for BBC radio in the United Kingdom, and gaining regional popularity, the band signed with Blanco y Negro who released the singles "Heart Happy" and "Call Me Blue" in Ireland and the UK. "Endless Art" had also benefitted from an accompanying video using clever stop motion animation which gained significant airplay on MTV in Europe, but again due to the bad timing with the song's distribution, the video seemed to be everywhere but the record was not selling. Nevertheless, "Endless Art" became A House's signature, replacing "Call Me Blue" as the song everyone associated with them. The video was memorable, and the song itself – somewhat unusual in its musical approach, and even more so in its lyrics, which led off with a quotation from Oscar Wilde and ran through an extensive roster of famous artists from various fields, all dead, with years of births and deaths specified – stabilized the band as a cult favorite among indie lovers, and is the paradigm of the surprisingly successful "list" style of song which Couse has frequently used (the first example of this style had been the title track on I Want Too Much). At the time, however, the band had run into criticism because all the artists mentioned in the original "Bingo" release of the song were men. they tried to make amends by making available a second version of the song, called "More Endless Art", which lists only women artists, as the B side of the single version.

The Parlophone distribution of "Endless Art" was the flagship single from A House's new album, called I Am the Greatest (1991), Parolophone again taking over distribution from Setanta. This new record represented a musical expansion for A House. Alongside new drummer Dawson, the recording introduced two other new members to the band, Susan Kavanagh, who had sung with a Dublin band named 'Giant', and had been working on the TV show Jo Maxi, on backing vocals, and David Morrissey on keyboards. This new trio remained with A House until it dissolved although they were less involved in the creative process than the remaining original trio. However, their presence enabled A House to significantly further the transition begun on I Want Too Much beyond the fairly straightforward sound of Merry Go Round to a broader musical palette. This was enabled further on "I Am the Greatest" by Collins's production work, and extra contributions from Susie Honeyman's violin. Lyrically, the songs on the record addressed themes running from satire of societal and religious pieties, through excruciating examinations of personal fears, to the title track, on which the three core band members ruminate in spoken word fashion on their lives, their regrets, their jealousies, and the state of music in the 1990s. The cover artwork was, as always, by Fergal Bunbury with an image by Irish photographer Amelia Stein, and a second single from the album, "Take It Easy On Me" (1992), was also released.

I Am the Greatest is A House's most significant legacy, and is cited by many as one of the best ever released by an Irish band. attended by the band members' families and packing out the Olympia Theatre. Although visibly moved by the occasion, Couse, ever sarcastic, wondered from stage if A House would have had to break up at all had everyone in attendance bought their records. But no one wanted to leave the Olympia, and A House went out on a high, producing
a farewell show last weekend [that was] one of the most cathartic and genuinely disconcerting live events that this column has seen or heard in 15 years. No caro meos, no undue fusses and no forced sentiment, A House came over like they’ve always come over, always four and often six square, cocksure and strutted up like they knew, just knew, how damned good they were and how damned good it was what they were leaving behind them. Even so, five years later Couse could still wonder how the apparent fondness of so many fans for his band had never really carried over to record sales. In a specifically Irish context, however, critics writing around the time of A House's demise claimed that there were ways in which "A House is far more important than U2", and that "their passing also arguably [drew] the safety curtain on the first and last great pop movement this country has either seen or heard".

Following the breakup of A House, Couse and Bunbury started a new project together under the moniker Lokomotiv and recorded an album, but this was never released and Lokomotiv were only ever represented by one single, "Next Time Round" (2000). A more substantial effort was known as AV8 (sometimes "Aviate"). This began in 1998 when Healy and Niamh McDonald began a writing and performing partnership, to be joined about a year later by French guitarist Morgan Pincot. AV8 recorded an album called Tremor, and was still a going concern in 2002, albeit with a name change to "Sweet Hereafter",

Since 2020, Fergal Bunbury has been issuing new recordings on Bandcamp under the name FBU62 (effboosicksteetoo). To date he has released two LP's (This is Not For You and We Were Not There at the Beginning) and six EP's (EP1;40 Shades of Greed, EP2;We Will Never Make These Numbers Work and EP3;Tinsel, EP4;Variations in A Major, EP5; Here Come the Bad Times and EP6; Out of Tempo).