• Released: 26.10.2007
• Plays: 148

• Released: 26.10.2007
• Plays: 78

A brief history

10/11/2007 By Jimmy Bergin

Jimmy Bergin was born in Dublin in the summer of 1955. After a brief clash with the education system and armed only with a Woolworths guitar he took up residence in an evergreen oak in Phoenix Park and learnt to play. Getting out of his tree, he went pro, forming a classical duet called Jimmy and the Head Lice with Joey O'Neill. Jimmy's self taught picking style earned him the nick name ‘the one fingered wonder’ (best pronounced with a strong Dublin accent). Moving to London in 1972 he met up with fellow Dubliner Jon Fitzgibbon and together they busked the London Underground then split off to the South of France to get work grape picking. By mid-afternoon following a finely fluid French lunch Jimmy was asleep under the vines and his short career in horticulture came to a swift end. They jumped a train into Toulouse where they resumed their proper jobs as musicians - never looking back again - playing cafés, bars, restaurants and street corners, clubs, brothels, fire sides, and kitchen tables; in Germany, France, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, Greece, West Africa, Iran, India... the road goes on forever and the party never ends. While living on the road in Ireland in 1985, PTA was formed with Jon Fitzgibbon and Peter Dunne. This mainly punk outfit toured Ireland, performing mythic sets at Kenmare festival and Ballinasloe Horse fair. They went international and moved lock stock and barrel top to Portugal. PTA met Maxine Venton in a Fuengirola bar, where she was enjoying the good life of a properly paid violinist and being fed champagne by her adoring boyfriend every night. About the same time her boyfriend started to fret as to why she hadn't come home that night, Maxine was starting to sober up enough to realise she was in a car heading for Brixton London, where PTA metamorphosed into The 7Kevins, Celtic punk's most kickingly honest psychedelic thrash band ever. The bands reputation spread out before them through Brixton, London, Britain and Europe. Numerous record companies tried to sign them but anarchy was the order of the day and the band was branded unmanageable, leaving them free to do their groundbreaking work unhindered; keeping things on their own terms while successfully remaining just one drink/line/tab away from total destitution. From The Railway in Brixton in 1987 to war torn Croatia in 1994 The 7Kevins kicked arse. They did their last gig together on Jimmy's 40th Birthday. Sofa Surfing was Jimmy's next project in conjunction with Alan Miles, of The Levellers. A mixed bag. Listen to it and see what you think. In 2004 Jimmy rejoined former ‘Kevin’, Mark Flanagan, guitarist with the Jools Holland Blues Orchestra and Barnes Goulding, drummer with The Republic of loose to form The Fields. A year in the studio produced ‘Down The Wire’ an Alt-Country/blues/soul album that showcases the writing producing and musical skills of Bergin and Flanagan. A very limited edition of 1000 copies was made (if you own one look after it)