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Irish Examiner
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Cry Before Dawn: New awakening as veteran Wexford band hit the road again
The biggest song in Ireland in the summer of 1987 was a Springsteen-esque anthem belted out by a former champion tin whistle player, which had one of its first public airings in a Wexford town furniture store. The tune was Gone Forever by Cry Before Dawn, who, for a few surreal months 38 years ago, looked like they might be as big as U2. 'U2 attracted a lot of interest. And then those record companies focused on Ireland. We had all the biggest record companies in the world coming down to see us in a furniture store. That's where we used to rehearse. Dominic Kiernan's furniture store' recalls singer Brendan Wade, who today lives in Switzerland. 'I don't know what they thought when they came down to see us. CBS UK eventually offered us a very big deal.' Despite CBS's high hopes, Cry Before Dawn never broke through internationally. But they were already accustomed to being outsiders – coming from Wexford, they had always felt removed from the Irish music scene, which was centred on Dublin at that time. 'It would have seemed like we came from nowhere. We weren't very big in Dublin and places like that,' says Wade. 'But we had played our dues. To get an international deal like from a place like Wexford. As much as we love it, it's a small town in the south east Ireland.' Cry Before Dawn petered out after two albums, and the musicians went their separate ways. Wade lives in the Zurich suburb of Winterthur with his Swiss wife and is deeply involved in the vibrant local trad scene (he has come full circle, having started out playing tin whistle and uilleann pipes). However, the band remain beloved and they were surprised by the warm reception they received when they reunited in 2011. They've continued to tour on and off ever since – and are now releasing their first new music since the 1980s with the heartfelt EP, Open Water, released on August 1. They've already shared the upbeat title track, the lyrics to which came to Wade when he was watching television one night. 'There was a documentary about a young girl who was having a lot of problems in her life. She was interviewed by a BBC correspondent. At one point he said, 'it looks to me like your life has turned around a bit. What has changed?' She'd had a baby. Her answer is, 'now I have something to lose'. That line is in the song – it's the inspiration. It's about someone who has turned their life around and is looking into open water – all obstacles and heartbreak left behind.' Back in the 1980s, Cry Before Dawn were regarded as something of a novelty – at least in Dublin. People from Wexford with guitars – whatever next? In fact, the South East had a vibrant music scene, Wade recalls. He namechecks Waterford synth three-piece Neuro, who supported Echo and the Bunnyman and Simple Minds, and ran an artists' collective in their home city. Wexford, meanwhile, had both Cry Before Dawn and Zerra One, an art-punk band who would play across Europe with The Cure during their famously dysfunctional Pornography shows in 1982. With The Cure falling apart, at one point it was suggested that Zerra One masquerade as singer Robert Smith's bandmates so to see out the tour (a suggestion Smith sensibly rejected). Zerra One's guitarist, Aindrias Ó Gruama, would later play with critically lauded post-punks Fatima Mansions with Cork songwriter Cathal Coughlan. Singer Paul Bell, meanwhile, was a friend of Wade: in 1996, they paid tribute to Wexford's newly crowned All-Ireland winning team when, recording as The Wild Swans, they released the song Dancing at the Crossroads. 'The thing in Wexford was, there was no internet. There was nothing to do. A lot of young fellas joined bands. There were about 13 bands in Wexford. I'm sure it was the same in other parts of Ireland. There were some really talented musicians. Paul was best mates with Robert Smith, after that tour. Zerra One were on the brink of making something big too – but it just didn't happen. Just one of those things.' He is looking forward to going back out on the road with the rest of the band for a new tour and record store events to support the EP. 'We hadn't played together from about 20 years. We got back together in 2011. From there on in, we've hit it in stops and starts. In the last three years we've given it a serious lash. The amount of love for the band surprised us. We can't explain it. We said we can't keep coming back playing the same old stuff. We wanted to bring out something new – only if it's as good as the old material. That's what motivated it. I know we're all auld lads now. But when you put your foot on the stage you're back where you were years ago – it's an amazing feeling.' The Open Water EP is out now. Cry Before Dawn's upcoming live events include Crane Lane, Cork, Tues, Aug 5; Whelan's Dublin, Aug 6; Electric Avenue, Waterford, Aug 8
The Standard
16-07-2025
- Sport
- The Standard
World open water races in Singapore back on after water quality delays
Swimming - FINA World Championships - Open Water - Lake Lupa, Budapest, Hungary - June 30, 2022 Athletes in action during the women's 25km final REUTERS/Antonio Bronic
ABC News
15-07-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Open water swimmer Tayla Martin's alopecia may be her superpower at soupy Singapore World Championships
As soon as Tayla Martin dives into the water at the World Championships on Friday, there's one mission to accomplish: unleash the superpower. Swimming rules say you have to wear a cap to start a race, but Martin plans to expose her head within the first couple of strokes. "As my arm's coming over my head, I just like flick it off from the back to the front, making sure that my goggles don't come off in the process," she said. "And just keep swimming." The water temperature off Sentosa Island in Singapore for Martin's women's 5km Open Water final will be a bath-like 30 degrees. Martin believes ripping the cap off will allow her to dissipate more heat through her head into the soupy waters off Singapore than her competitors. You see, she's the bald one. "I think it's a little superpower of mine," she said. Martin has lived with alopecia — an autoimmune disease which causes the body's immune system to attack her hair follicles — since she was 10 months old. Her mother lives with the condition as well. "I've had alopecia pretty much my whole life, I haven't known any different," she said. It wasn't always the case — especially during the awkward teenage years when self-consciousness is at its most extreme and body image is everything. "Yes, it was definitely a struggle," she said. "Self-image, body image has always been a big part of me. "As I've gotten older it has gotten better, but yes, definitely as a teenager I struggled trying to like fit in. "I would refer to princesses and princesses all have hair. "And then like you see everyone in school and you're just like the only one with no hair and it's just like 'why am I different?' "But I've come to learn that difference isn't always a bad thing. She said meeting her partner, Phoenix, had helped her come to that realisation. "I think even like after high school, I didn't think that anyone would love me," she said. "Since then, I'm with my partner for four-and-a-half-years now and he just loves me and accepts me. "I think that's even helped me with my confidence and loving me like loving myself and accepting myself for who I am and just everything about me." It's a journey that has seen her go from battling away as just one of many talented young swimmers, sticking with the sport through her 20's without reaching any great heights, to a first-time Australian representative at 26 — an age when many swimmers are thinking about retirement. Her coach, Chris Nesbitt, thinks the challenges Martin faced as a child may have developed the resilience to develop as a world-class open water swimmer and a late bloomer. "She's had more challenges than the vast majority of people," he told ABC Sport. "She probably would never have seen herself a few years ago as an Australian Dolphin. "Now this has landed she's developing confidence with that, like I'll tell her: 'You deserve to be here'." The journey started when Martin was a 13-year-old pool swimmer before her then-coach encouraged her to try open water swimming. "I did not like it. I was crying the whole way," she said. "The water was murky and dirty and yeah, I just was like, 'nope, never doing this again'. But as it turns out, she was really good at it. "I ended up making my first national time, went to nationals, and that was a really big moment of my life back then," she said. Except, it didn't eventuate the way she planned. While she was an exceptionally good swimmer, she didn't develop in the same way as her peers — the likes of Paris 10k silver medallist, Moesha Johnson and Chelsea Gubecka — who won a silver and bronze medals at the 2023 World Championships, to go with her six national 10k golds. Martin said it wasn't until she teamed up with Chris Nesbit at the Carlile Club in Sydney that the results of her hard work started to pay off. "Chris Nesbit has been the best thing that's ever happened to me, I think," she said. "I've just put all my trust and all my belief in him." Asked to describe Martin, Nesbit said she was "a very caring person". "She's very considerate, gets on with most people," he said. But above all he singles out her strength of mind. "To swim those distances — 10k and maybe further — you've got to have a determination, you've got to have a resilience, which is very, very different to your average pool swimmer," he said. "Because the physical environment is so much different — especially if you're swimming in the ocean. "You've got to be able to navigate, you've got people on top of you, you've got people punching you and kicking you — all very legal, but you can't respond to that." Those in the know say Martin has great qualities for open water swimming and navigating the waves and chop: She reads the currents and tides well to pick her way through a race. "You don't have your own black line to follow," Martin said. "So, for us it's about sighting, actually lifting your head out of the water to see where you're going and doing that quite frequently so you don't get off track too much." Then there's her physique. Martin is just 165 centimetres tall and very slight but has a solid VO2 max which gives her a good power-to-weight ratio — an essential component to distance swimming. It's still a work in progress, but it all came together for Martin at the Open Water Swimming World Cup, held in Egypt in February. She came 15th in the 10k event behind her Australian teammates, Johnson, who won and Gubecka in third but, importantly, ahead of other Australian distance swimmers including Tokyo Olympian, Maddy Gough. Finally becoming an Australian Dolphin after so many years of trying was an extraordinary moment for Martin. "It was so surreal — it was a very pinch me moment," she said. "You train so hard for so long, you just go through the same patterns and routine day in, day out. "I was achieving little bits and pieces, but nothing as significant as a World Championships, so when it actually came to that specific moment, I was just like in awe. "I didn't know what to do, what to say, how to react." Context is everything. For a swimmer to make a first national team at 26 is almost unprecedented. "Especially for endurance swimming and distance swimming, it normally comes a lot earlier than that, so she certainly bucks the trend," Nesbit said. He cited Gubecka, who was making national teams in her mid-teens and has now been a member of the Dolphins for a decade. "The best distance swimmer in the world ever, Katie Ledecky, she was Olympic 1,500m champion at 15 and she's won it ever since," he said. In Singapore, Martin will swim in the Women's 5km and the 3km knockout event, where competitors will swim 1,500m, then 1,000m before a final 500m dash featuring the top ten swimmers to crown the winner. Martin has never swum a 5km internationally, but her 15th place in the Egypt 10km gives her a glimmer of hope that she may be a sneaky chance. "Yeah. I'm like this little underdog that comes through," she said. Not that she's placing any pressure on herself. "I don't like to put expectations on myself only because whenever I do, I don't perform as best as what I expect," she said. "So, I go in with just wanting to soak it all up and enjoy the moment. "And when I do that, I actually perform better than stressing about it. "So, I'm just going in with an open mind and whatever result I get, I'll be happy." Her coach is on the same page. "I just want to her to come out having given everything she's got," Nesbit said. "She just needs to be competitive and come through to the level she's capable of." To do that she'll have to navigate the waters off Singapore which Nesbit described as "bloody hot". That's where she can unleash her "little superpower" — her beautifully bald head. "I think it's an advantage," she said. "I obviously have that exposure of my head to release the heat a bit more. "I have been doing heat training as well to prepare for this event, including saunas, wetsuit swims, just to keep my body temperature high to adapt to what will be coming in Singapore." Martin knows that it's her teammates who will be the ones favoured for the podium, but she's OK with that. "I don't know what it's gonna be like, but I know it's gonna be very full on, very big days, but very exciting days," she said. "And we have such a good Australian team on this open water team and I'm just excited to see everyone compete and do their best and see what results Australia can do." Now it's about putting her head down, ripping off her swimming cap and enjoying the moment after half-a-lifetime of hard work.
Daily Mirror
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Jaws fans urged to watch ‘terrifying' horror based on real-life story
Viewers claim it is the scariest shark film since Steven Spielberg's masterpiece Jaws fans have been urged to stream a 'terrifying' horror film based on an an even more chilling true story. As the beloved shark film nears its 50th anniversary, which will be celebrated this December, moviegoers have recommended another thriller with similar themes. Originally released in 2003, Open Water tells the story of Susan and Daniel, a couple who are accidentally left in shark-infested waters during a scuba diving trip. Although they initially expect to be rescued, the duo slowly realise they are stranded at sea and must fight for survival. The plot is loosely based on the real-life disappearance of American couple Thomas and Eileen Lonergan. The pair embarked on a group scuba-diving trip in Australia, in January 1988. While exploring the waters, the couples' boat returned to shore without them, leaving the pair stranded miles and miles away from the Australian coastline. Thomas and Eileen were never found and are presumed to have died at sea. Directed by Chris Kentis, the thriller stars Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis as main characters Susan and Daniel. While this noughties release did not reach the overwhelming success of Jaws, it earned an impressive 71 per cent rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics. However, audiences awarded the film with a sour 33 per cent rating. Despite this, many have shared glowing reviews. "The best shark movie since Jaws," raved one fan. "A constant nail biter. There's no boat, no Roy Schneider to blow up the shark, and no catch phrases. Just two people stuck in the middle of the by sharks." Someone else echoed the praise, writing: "There are lot of 'Post Jaws' movies that are SO pale but 'Open Water' is definitely not one of them." A third moviegoer said: "This film is the true definition of a HORROR film as the situation these people find themselves in is the absolute last thing I would ever want to experience, and the filmmakers do a great job keeping the tension taut throughout." The same fan went on to crown Open Water as "the scariest shark film since Jaws!" Meanwhile, a fourth fan candidly shared: "This is the most terrifying movie I have seen in my life." Open Water is streaming for free on ITVX and Pluto TV. It is also available to purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV and Sky Store.
Washington Post
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
The true story of a shipwrecked couple's fight to survive
Few nonfiction books get a reader's adrenaline pumping quite like Sophie Elmhirst's 'A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck.' As I plunged headfirst into this immersive tale of a British couple who set sail alone together one morning in 1972 bound for New Zealand, I flashed on the 2003 film 'Open Water.' In it, a scuba-diving husband and wife are abandoned in the Atlantic by their tour group, who pull up anchor without noticing that the pair are still underwater. As the hours pass and the sharks circle, you feel their terror in your bones.
