A to Z of N. Ireland Punk Bands

PARADISE LOST

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Paradise Lost was a Belfast-based band formed in 1980. The line up was Colin Woods - Guitar, synth, drum programming, Stephen (Gus) Craig – Bass, backing vocals, Keith Barry – Guitar, vocals and Stephen McKenna – Guitar, Synth. The band grew out of discussions between Colin Woods (after his departure from Music for the Deaf), Stephen Craig and Keith Barry (both former members of The Scream and Control Zone (the Newtownabbey one). There was a sense that they wanted to move beyond the thrashy shouty aesthetic of most Belfast punk, and move in a more experimental direction. They’d also all had problems in previous bands with unreliable drummers. Hence, the decision to recruit Dr Rhythm – the Boss DR55 – an early programmable drum machine.
Woods recruited fellow synth nerd McKenna into the project, having met him whilst studying Medical Laboratory Science at Belfast Tech. Barry was very enamoured by the fashions of the emerging New Romantic scene. The band played only a handful of gigs at the Viking bar, Dunbar Arms and Monkstown Community Centre. That last gig was the final straw as the band’s performance was judged too awful to justify continuing. The band folded and the Club Catalonia project (see below) ground to a halt.
The band had a parallel project called “Club Catalonia” an attempt to run a club night at a venue which would combine a disco format (playing largely post-punk and electronica) with a spot for a live band. This started off at the Viking Bar on Church Lane. They were asked to leave that venue by the owner, after he claimed that he saw two girls kissing and didn’t want that sort of thing in his bar. Club Catalonia then moved to the Dunbar arms for several months before having their booking cancelled to be replaced by a County and Western night. Bands that played at the club included the Allotropes, Paradise Lost and Déjà Vu.
Where are they now? Stephen Craig gave up on music for a period and eventually reformed Control Zone with some of the original members. He currently plays bass with the Organ Grinders. Keith Barry found God and performed with Belfast Christian Rock band Noah’s Ark. Stephen McKenna remained involved with music for a while, but the rest of the band has sadly lost contact with him. Current whereabouts unknown. Colin Woods occasionally collaborated with Stephen Swales’ The Allotropes. He is now living in New Zealand, where he went back to university in 2010 to study composition and then Creative Technology. He now works as a freelance sound artist.
If anyone has any further information or photographs of this band, then please DO get in contact via spit77to82@aol.com