The Rubberbandits
Encyclopedia
The Rubberbandits are the award-winning comedy hip-hop duo of Blindboy Boat Club and Mr. Chrome from Limerick
, Ireland. Primarily a satirical stage and television act, they have performed throughout Ireland, the UK and USA with shows at events such as Electric Picnic
Oxegen
and the Bulmers
International Comedy Festival. The Rubberbandits have won awards for both their music and Comedy. In 2011 the Duo were declared "Best Irish Act" at the entertainment.ie awards, beating competition from such acts as Villagers
, Fionn Regan
and The Script and also won an IFTA
award for their television work. The act has been commissioned by the television networks RTÉ
, MTV
and most recently Channel 4
. The Channel 4 shorts were directed by BAFTA award winner Declan Lowney
.
s. The pair met while attending Ardscoil Rís, Limerick
. Paul Webb aka Willie O'DJ, a disc jockey on Spin South West
, plays decks
for the Rubberbandits, and has also appeared in their videos wearing a mask of local politician Willie O'Dea
.
to lambast the Irish phenomenon of armchair republicanism
. Their work explores a number of themes that are of particular significance to Irish urban youth, namely drug abuse, interaction with An Garda Síochána, and violence.
They also use recordings of prank calls as part of their stage act. Recorded pranks performed by the Bandits have featured on a number of Irish and international radio stations, and became something of a memetic phenomenon in Ireland in the early 2000s. In fact, phonecalls were their primary content until they became a musical stage act in 2007.
Nialler 9 of State
included one of their tracks in his top 20 albums of 2008, and has listed the Rubberbandits as his number two "international act to watch for 2009".
and amongst those who came to watch their second show of the weekend were Seasick Steve
and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem
. This show followed their Friday night headline slot at the Little Big Arena.
In September 2010 the Rubberbandits were invited to speak at the Trinity College Philosophical Society – following previous guests such as Jonathan Swift
and Nelson Mandella. They were also later listed by the website Cracked.com
as the top "most misunderstood" satirists.
In October 2010 they began a weekly slot on the RTÉ Two
comedy show Republic of Telly
where their first clip "The Rubberbandits' Guide to Limerick" received over 100,000 YouTube views in the 7 days after broadcast.
Their music video "Horse Outside
", featuring Irish model Madeline Mulqueen, was released on 8 December 2010 via iTunes
. The video premiere was on Republic of Telly that night, and within 72 hours, it had reached 530,000 views on YouTube and became the top rated YouTube video in Ireland. In just over two weeks the video reached more than four million views. International press (such as the Spectator and CNBC) picked up on the phenomenon running blog pieces on the video and its content. Paddy Power
placed the track at 8/11 and as favourite for Christmas number one single
in Ireland. However, the effort fell short, losing to The X Factor
winner Matt Cardle
by over 25,000 sales. The Bandits single was hampered by weather affecting deliveries and an unprecedented demand for physical stock which the distributors struggled to keep up with. Most stores were sold out of the existing stocks of the single, which originally had only 5,000 available.
On 12 February 2011 The Rubberbandits won an IFTA (Irish Film and Television Academy Award) for Television Moment of the Year. Spurning the awards ceremony the Bandits did an acceptance speech from "the moon" which was cut back from live broadcast on RTE but rapidly went viral on YouTube.
A subsequent single was released in February 2011. The single, "I Wanna Fight Your Father
", focuses on forbidden love and the lengths to which one might go to win over the disapproving family of a would-be lover. The video was posted on the Rubberbandits YouTube channel on 24 February 2011 and went on sale on 25 February 2011. Within 24 hours the video had garnered 170,080 YouTube views. The music video for an alternative version of the song as Gaeilge
(in Irish) was released on YouTube on 3 March to promote Seachtain na Gaeilge
.
A new video Spastic Hawk
emerged from the pair in October 2011 - and rapidly went viral. On 11 November 2011, the single Black Man was released as featured in the first Channel 4 blap recorded by the duo.
The Rubberbandits have headlined large scale student events such as the NUI Galway Arts Ball, and as the closing act at the Trinity Ball in Dublin – where they performed after acts such as The Streets and Jessie J. Sold out shows at Irish venues such as the Tripod in Dublin, Pavillion in Cork and Black Box in Galway and appearances at UK Festivals, Reading, Latitude and Leeds followed throughout 2011 before a sold out show at the Olympia in Dublin in October. In November 2011 they embarked on a 9 date UK tour playing venues such as King Tuts in Leeds, the 02 in Oxford and XOYO in London.
An appearance at the Oxegen festival
in July 2011 saw a crowd of over 20,000 gather for the Rubberbandits celebrating mass with a large cast of altar boy dancers, a live band and a James Brown impersonator. According to promoters MCD it was the biggest crowd for an opening act in the history of the event.
In Steamin' + Dreamin' 2: Cash Back
, the 2011 sequel to Steamin' + Dreamin': The Grandmaster Cash Story, The Rubberbandits made an appearance. Grandmaster Cash and Dr. Feekinstein, the films' main characters, have often played at the act's concerts.
The Rubberbandits wrote and performed three shorts for Channel 4's Comedy Blaps, with Sideline, who produced the shorts, becoming the first Irish production company to have a scripted comedy commissioned by the British TV station.
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
, Ireland. Primarily a satirical stage and television act, they have performed throughout Ireland, the UK and USA with shows at events such as Electric Picnic
Electric Picnic
The 2005 festival took place on Saturday 3 September and Sunday 4 September. It is best remembered for Arcade Fire's performance which came before their subsequent mainstream success...
Oxegen
Oxegen
Oxegen is an annual music festival in Ireland held since 2004, sponsored by Heineken. As of 2007, 2008, 2009, the festival has been cited as Ireland's biggest music festival. And by 2009, the festival is cited as the greenest festival, being a 100% carbon neutral event in Ireland. It was previously...
and the Bulmers
Bulmers
Bulmers Cider is one of a number of brands owned by H. P. Bulmer of Hereford. It is one of the leading premium bottled cider brands in the UK with a number of variants including Bulmers Original & Pear.-History:...
International Comedy Festival. The Rubberbandits have won awards for both their music and Comedy. In 2011 the Duo were declared "Best Irish Act" at the entertainment.ie awards, beating competition from such acts as Villagers
Villagers (band)
Villagers are an Irish band fronted by Conor J. O'Brien.They have performed at several music festivals and toured with Tracy Chapman, Bell X1, Tindersticks and Elbow. They have one EP, titled Hollow Kind...
, Fionn Regan
Fionn Regan
Fionn Regan is an Irish singer-songwriter and artist from Bray, County Wicklow, who came to prominence in 2006 with the release of his Mercury-nominated debut album, The End of History...
and The Script and also won an IFTA
IFTA
IFTA may refer to:*Ifta, a German municipality*International Federation of Technical Analysts*Independent Film & Television Alliance*International Fuel Tax Agreement*Irish Film and Television Awards*The Internet Tax Freedom Act...
award for their television work. The act has been commissioned by the television networks RTÉ
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
and most recently Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. The Channel 4 shorts were directed by BAFTA award winner Declan Lowney
Declan Lowney
Declan Lowney is an Irish television and film director. After directing a short film in 1980, Lowney worked for Radio Telefís Éireann, and directed musical events such as the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, and The Velvet Underground's Live MCMXCIII...
.
Members
The duo is composed of Blindboy Boat Club (real name Dave Chambers) and Mr. Chrome (Bob McGlynn). They conceal their identity on stage and in interviews by covering their faces in masks made from plastic shopping bagPlastic shopping bag
Plastic shopping bags, carrier bags or plastic grocery bags are a type of shopping bag made from various kinds of plastic, and are common worldwide. These bags are sometimes called single-use bags, referring to carrying items from a store to a home...
s. The pair met while attending Ardscoil Rís, Limerick
Ardscoil Rís, Limerick
Ardscoil Rís is an all boys Catholic secondary school located on the North Circular Road in Limerick, and consistently one of the top 5 non fee-paying boys schools in the Republic of Ireland. -History:...
. Paul Webb aka Willie O'DJ, a disc jockey on Spin South West
Spin South West
Spin South West is an Irish radio station broadcasting from Raheen in Limerick City to the South West. It launched on 23 July 2007, and holds an Independent Regional Radio contract from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland to broadcast to County Kerry, County Limerick, County Clare, North...
, plays decks
DJ mixer
A DJ mixer is a type of audio mixing console used by disc jockeys.The key features that differentiate a DJ mixer from other types of audio mixers are the ability to redirect a non-playing source to headphones and the presence of a crossfader, which allows for an easier transition between two sources...
for the Rubberbandits, and has also appeared in their videos wearing a mask of local politician Willie O'Dea
Willie O'Dea
Willie O'Dea is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and a Teachta Dála for the Limerick City constituency. He served as the Minister for Defence from September 2004 until 18 February 2010, when he resigned from his post due to controversy over a defamation case.-Early and private life:O'Dea was born...
.
Formation and early success (2000–2008)
The Rubberbandits style of comedy is satirical, surrealist and crude, drawing comparisons to fellow Irish Satirist Flann O Brien. The track "Up The Ra", employs the literary device of the unreliable narratorUnreliable narrator
An unreliable narrator is a narrator, whether in literature, film, or theatre, whose credibility has been seriously compromised. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction. This narrative mode is one that can be developed by an author for a number of reasons, usually...
to lambast the Irish phenomenon of armchair republicanism
Armchair warrior
Armchair Warrior is a term alluding to fighting from the comfort of one’s living room. The word is considered a pejorative term that describes speaking out in support of a war, battle or fight by someone that avoided or has little military experience...
. Their work explores a number of themes that are of particular significance to Irish urban youth, namely drug abuse, interaction with An Garda Síochána, and violence.
They also use recordings of prank calls as part of their stage act. Recorded pranks performed by the Bandits have featured on a number of Irish and international radio stations, and became something of a memetic phenomenon in Ireland in the early 2000s. In fact, phonecalls were their primary content until they became a musical stage act in 2007.
Nialler 9 of State
State (magazine)
State.ie is an Irish website and formerly a monthly music magazine, which launched in March 2008 and folded in January 2009 having published a total of nine issues...
included one of their tracks in his top 20 albums of 2008, and has listed the Rubberbandits as his number two "international act to watch for 2009".
Republic of Telly, "Horse Outside" (2010 – present)
Their 2010 appearance at Electric Picnic was cited as one of the top picks of the Picnic in The Dubliner supplement of the Evening HeraldEvening Herald
The Evening Herald is a mid-market tabloid evening newspaper published in Dublin, Ireland by Independent News & Media. It is published Monday-Saturday, and has three editions — City Edition, City Final Edition and National Edition...
and amongst those who came to watch their second show of the weekend were Seasick Steve
Seasick Steve
Steven Gene Wold, commonly known as Seasick Steve, is an American blues musician. He plays guitars, and sings, usually about his early life doing casual work.-Childhood and early life:...
and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem was a prominent American dance-punk band from New York City. It was fronted by American singer-songwriter and producer James Murphy, co-founder of record label DFA Records...
. This show followed their Friday night headline slot at the Little Big Arena.
In September 2010 the Rubberbandits were invited to speak at the Trinity College Philosophical Society – following previous guests such as Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
and Nelson Mandella. They were also later listed by the website Cracked.com
Cracked.com
Cracked.com is a humor website that was spun off the last attempt to revive Cracked magazine. It began in its current form in 2007.-Attempted relaunch of Cracked:...
as the top "most misunderstood" satirists.
In October 2010 they began a weekly slot on the RTÉ Two
RTÉ Two
RTÉ Two is a free-to-air general entertainment channel operated by Irish state broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann. RTÉ Two is available throughout the island of Ireland through digital terrestrial service Saorview, VHF and UHF bands, and is also available via satellite to Irish subscribers of...
comedy show Republic of Telly
Republic of Telly
Republic of Telly is a comedy TV review and magazine programme on Irish public broadcaster, RTÉ Two. Presented by comedian Dermot Whelan. The show takes a satirical look at television, mocking various Irish and British TV channels, including sketches and special guests making an appearance from...
where their first clip "The Rubberbandits' Guide to Limerick" received over 100,000 YouTube views in the 7 days after broadcast.
Their music video "Horse Outside
Horse Outside
Horse Outside is a single by a Limerick group called the The Rubberbandits. It was released on 8 December 2010, after its accompanying music video was aired on RTÉ Television programme Republic of Telly...
", featuring Irish model Madeline Mulqueen, was released on 8 December 2010 via iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
. The video premiere was on Republic of Telly that night, and within 72 hours, it had reached 530,000 views on YouTube and became the top rated YouTube video in Ireland. In just over two weeks the video reached more than four million views. International press (such as the Spectator and CNBC) picked up on the phenomenon running blog pieces on the video and its content. Paddy Power
Paddy Power
Paddy Power is Ireland’s largest bookmaker. Offline it conducts business through a chain of licensed betting offices and by operating Ireland's largest telephone betting service. Online it offers sports betting, online poker, online bingo, online casino games and spread betting...
placed the track at 8/11 and as favourite for Christmas number one single
Christmas number one single
The Christmas number one single is a single that reaches number one on the national pop music charts in the week immediately prior to Christmas. It is primarily a pop culture phenomenon in the United Kingdom and in the neighboring Republic of Ireland....
in Ireland. However, the effort fell short, losing to The X Factor
The X Factor (UK)
The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. Created by Simon Cowell, it began in September 2004 and is contested by aspiring singers drawn from public auditions. It is the originator of the international X Factor franchise. The seven series of the show to date...
winner Matt Cardle
Matt Cardle
Matthew Sheridan "Matt" Cardle is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist who rose to fame after winning the seventh series of The X Factor in 2010. He received a £1 million recording contract with Syco Music by winning, and his debut number one single "When We Collide" was released immediately...
by over 25,000 sales. The Bandits single was hampered by weather affecting deliveries and an unprecedented demand for physical stock which the distributors struggled to keep up with. Most stores were sold out of the existing stocks of the single, which originally had only 5,000 available.
On 12 February 2011 The Rubberbandits won an IFTA (Irish Film and Television Academy Award) for Television Moment of the Year. Spurning the awards ceremony the Bandits did an acceptance speech from "the moon" which was cut back from live broadcast on RTE but rapidly went viral on YouTube.
A subsequent single was released in February 2011. The single, "I Wanna Fight Your Father
I Wanna Fight Your Father
"I Wanna Fight Your Father" is a song by Irish comedy duo The Rubberbandits taken as their second single. It was released on 25 February 2011.-Video:...
", focuses on forbidden love and the lengths to which one might go to win over the disapproving family of a would-be lover. The video was posted on the Rubberbandits YouTube channel on 24 February 2011 and went on sale on 25 February 2011. Within 24 hours the video had garnered 170,080 YouTube views. The music video for an alternative version of the song as Gaeilge
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
(in Irish) was released on YouTube on 3 March to promote Seachtain na Gaeilge
Seachtain na Gaeilge
Seachtain na Gaeilge is a non-profit organisation which aims to promote the Irish language during a two week festival held at the beginning of March every year...
.
A new video Spastic Hawk
Spastic Hawk
"Spastic Hawk" is a song by Irish comedy duo The Rubberbandits taken as their third single. It was released on 25 February 2011.-Video:The music video for the song was uploaded to the duo's Youtube account on October 5, 2011, which, as of 10 November 2011, has over 200,000 views.Drawings of the...
emerged from the pair in October 2011 - and rapidly went viral. On 11 November 2011, the single Black Man was released as featured in the first Channel 4 blap recorded by the duo.
The Rubberbandits have headlined large scale student events such as the NUI Galway Arts Ball, and as the closing act at the Trinity Ball in Dublin – where they performed after acts such as The Streets and Jessie J. Sold out shows at Irish venues such as the Tripod in Dublin, Pavillion in Cork and Black Box in Galway and appearances at UK Festivals, Reading, Latitude and Leeds followed throughout 2011 before a sold out show at the Olympia in Dublin in October. In November 2011 they embarked on a 9 date UK tour playing venues such as King Tuts in Leeds, the 02 in Oxford and XOYO in London.
An appearance at the Oxegen festival
Oxegen
Oxegen is an annual music festival in Ireland held since 2004, sponsored by Heineken. As of 2007, 2008, 2009, the festival has been cited as Ireland's biggest music festival. And by 2009, the festival is cited as the greenest festival, being a 100% carbon neutral event in Ireland. It was previously...
in July 2011 saw a crowd of over 20,000 gather for the Rubberbandits celebrating mass with a large cast of altar boy dancers, a live band and a James Brown impersonator. According to promoters MCD it was the biggest crowd for an opening act in the history of the event.
In Steamin' + Dreamin' 2: Cash Back
Steamin' + Dreamin' 2: Cash Back
Steamin' + Dreamin' 2: Cash Back is a 2011 Irish independent comedy film, and the sequel to 2009's Steamin' + Dreamin': The Grandmaster Cash Story. The film was directed by Brendan Canty, who co-wrote the screenplay with Con Doyle, Conor Stanley, and Joe Kiely. Doyle, Stanley and Kiely reprise...
, the 2011 sequel to Steamin' + Dreamin': The Grandmaster Cash Story, The Rubberbandits made an appearance. Grandmaster Cash and Dr. Feekinstein, the films' main characters, have often played at the act's concerts.
The Rubberbandits wrote and performed three shorts for Channel 4's Comedy Blaps, with Sideline, who produced the shorts, becoming the first Irish production company to have a scripted comedy commissioned by the British TV station.
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IRL Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
|||
| 2010 | "Horse Outside Horse Outside Horse Outside is a single by a Limerick group called the The Rubberbandits. It was released on 8 December 2010, after its accompanying music video was aired on RTÉ Television programme Republic of Telly... " |
2 | 130 | |
| 2011 | "I Wanna Fight Your Father I Wanna Fight Your Father "I Wanna Fight Your Father" is a song by Irish comedy duo The Rubberbandits taken as their second single. It was released on 25 February 2011.-Video:... " |
6 | TBR | |
| 2011 | "Black Man" | — | TBR | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | ||||