Tom Dunne: Fond memories of the man who made Sin-é in New York so special
You don't know what you've got till it's gone. Something Happens, used to play Sin-é a lot in the early 1990s. It was dark and dirty, surrounded by homelessness, drug issues and violence. There was no stage. The only fee was a bucket passed around for donations. It was the most exciting place on earth.
We both noticed and didn't notice that fact. The fact that danger was everywhere, and music was conspiring to starve you to death sometimes blinded you to the fact that Debbie Harry lived up the street, or that Madonna was sending her car for someone who worked there.
You took things for granted. It was always a place you stopped off at on the way to somewhere else. You played there on a night off from a bigger tour. You played because its owner, Shane Doyle asked you, and what Shane asked you just did. Firstly, because he was a legend and secondly because he was a lovely, gentle soul.
He opened Sin-é almost by accident. He had arrived in NYC in the early 1980s, having perceptively observed that 'there was nothing going on in Ireland.' A brief time as host in a West Village restaurant convinced him that 'hanging out' was his calling. He was right.
He opened Sin-é at 122 St. Mark's Place in 1989. New York, and that area in particular, was not in a good place at the time. Time Square was almost lawless. The city was filthy and dangerous. It felt like the set of Blade Runner. And like Blade Runner, it was very, very cool.
St Mark's Place had form. Leon Trotsky and WH Auden had lived there. Andy Warhol had run a night club there, Man Ray went to school there, the Five Spot Jazz Club had been home to Thelonius Monk, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker. It had featured in album sleeves by New York Dolls and Led Zeppelin.
By the time Shane opened his doors it had become home to the New York Punk scene. The Manic Panic boutique had opened, the NYC equivalent of the Malcolm McClaren's Sex boutique in the UK. It was home to cutting edge galleries like 51X and Club 57. Bowie lived on nearby Lafayette Street.
Sin é sold tea, coffee and Rolling Rock. Occasionally Shane would make a huge pot of stew and bring that over, but that was as good as it got. Having so stage meant that to play you had to push back a few chairs. But what it lacked in equipment, it made up for in Shane.
Suddenly, people like Gabriel Byrne, Marianne Faithful and Alan Ginsberg were doing readings while Iggy Pop and Johnny Depp drank coffee. Performances followed from Sinead O'Connor, Lana del Rey, the Pogues, and Mike Scott. The room just had something.
But the star turn was Jeff Buckley. He came to Shane with a demo tape and a press review in early 1991. 'I don't like listening to tapes' said Shane, 'I looked at him and thought let's see what's he got.' The Monday night residency that followed was the making of Buckley.
I met both Buckley and Shane at that point. Buckley, languidly smoking at the bar where serving him his Rolling Rock was Handsome Dick Manitoba, the one-time singer with the Dictators. I remember the New York afternoon sun piecing the bar's gloom as we waited for Jeff to go on.
I remember too, a young photographer's assistant who had emigrated from Ireland just recently and had made his way to Sin é to meet other Irish people, any other Irish people. He was nervous, still wearing the clothes his parents bought him. Sleeping on a friend's floor, determined to try it for a month.
I met him again a few months later. He was unrecognisable, working for a photographer uptown, excited by the work, dating a Hispanic girl and playing pool in bar around the corner. 'I know a great club if you guys are staying,' he advised.
Shane was instrumental in putting that scene together. It wasn't just giving people a place to hang out or perform, it was a place to find themselves. That was his gift; helping to make things happen, inviting people in, facilitating the magic.
I was sad to hear of his passing. He connected entire waves of emigrant Irish not just with each other but with the best things that America and NYC could possibly offer them.
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The Irish Sun
15 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
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Irish Independent
6 days ago
- Irish Independent
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