Brendan O'Hare

Brendan O'Hare (born 16 January 1970) is a Scottish multi-instrumentalist musician, who among other things has been the drummer in the rock band Teenage Fanclub from 1989 until early 1994, and a member of and collaborator with Mogwai.

For the internet personality, see Brendan O'Hare (writer).

Career

O'Hare was brought up in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire and studied at St Aloysius' College, Glasgow. He joined Teenage Fanclub[1] in 1989, in time to play on about half of their debut album, A Catholic Education. He co-wrote with Teenage Fanclub on all albums during his tenure, he split from the group after completing the tour for the Thirteen album, cited as musical differences at the time and went on to join Telstar Ponies, for which he worked on two albums.

He was an early member of Mogwai for approximately a year. He was described by the NME as Teenage Fanclub's "Monkey Without Portfolio", known for his humour and upbeat personality at the time. This prompted the track "With Portfolio" on Mogwai's debut album, Young Team. O'Hare was allegedly kicked out of Mogwai for talking during a performance by Arab Strap leading to a fight with other members of the band. Despite this, there appears to have been no hard feelings between O'Hare and Arab Strap as O'Hare later featured on their double A-side 1998 release, "Here We Go"/"Trippy", contributing to the twelve-minute song, "Trippy".

In addition to his work with Macrocosmica and as Fiend, he worked closely with Dave Barker (formerly of Glass Records, Paperhouse and Creation) who ran the God Bless record label (issuing the sole album by Thurston Moore's 'Foot' project) and was part of the electro-based band, Liminal. Brendan was in charge of bookings and sound engineering at the Glasgow venue The 13th Note before moving to Edinburgh and continuing as engineer at Liquid rooms and Voodoo Lounge. In 2006, he rejoined Teenage Fanclub for shows in London, Glasgow and Barcelona at which the band played their Bandwagonesque album in its entirety.

He is also an honorary member and producer of Glasgow-based pranksters The Plimptons, and plays guitar on their second album Pomp.[2] Between 1996 and 2005, O'Hare played guitar and sang with self-proclaimed 'Intelli-metal' band, Macrocosmica.[3]

EPs
  • "Space Geek" (1998) – God Bless Records

Albums
  • Ad Astra (1997) – God Bless Records
  • Art of the Black Earth (2003)
  • Farewell To Earth (2005)

Fiend

O'Hare released a trilogy of experimental ambient albums under the name of Fiend. These albums featured a handful of recordings involving other members of Telstar Ponies, of whom he was still a member when the material was recorded. These are set for digital rerelease in 2017 in collaboration with Dave Barker. New friend tracks were self released in the winter of 2017/2018.

Albums
  • Caledonian Gothic (1997) – God Bless Records
  • Caledonian Cosmic (1998) – God Bless Records
  • Caledonian Mystic (1998) – God Bless Records

O'Hare was awarded Scottish Sound Engineer of the year 2010 prior to returning to Glasgow to care for his children George and Henry. He continues to produce and play in various projects.

Current Projects

O'Hare is currently playing and writing with Southend-based Indie band Dark Globes and working in collaboration with creative partner Jo Hartle on site-specific multi-media pieces.

He is a skilled photographer and artist. His recent work was part of a curated show by Ross Sinclair at Queens Park Railway Club “ artists who make music, musicians who make art” with fellow creatives. He is completed a solo exhibition of his 2D pieces in 2019. In 2018 he rejoined the Teenage Fanclub as part of the Creation Years Tour in the UK.

He is currently producing and works as a Live sound Engineer while developing more new music and stand up.

He lives with his wife and family in Essex.

References
  1. "Francis Macdonald + Harry Pye 'Bonjour'". Teenage Fanclub. 26 February 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  2. McHugh, Stuart (27 March 2007). "Records - The Plimptons – The Plimptons". The List. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  3. Archived 11 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine
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