Niall Quinn of The Hitchers presents ... T’was all Fun and Games…

On December 20th The Hitchers bring the curtain down on the 25th anniversary of It’s All Fun and Games Til Someone Loses an Eye with a festive celebration at The Record Room which will include, as well The Hitchers Pencil Drawn Punk exhibition, live performances of songs from Fun & Games and beyond featuring The Hitchers and their friends.

The Hitchers re-released Fun & Games on vinyl in 2022 and this was marked with a gig in their hometown that featured the line-up that recorded the album as well as guest performers CBS Pipe Band and vocalist Aoife Harney, who had recorded her performance on the albums closing track at the age of just nine.

About Pencil Drawn Punk:

Pencil-Drawn Punk –the Adventures of a 90’s Limerick Indie Band -this pop-upup exhibition includes themes such as "Social Media 1995" an under-the-bonnet look at how a band with no budget communicated with its supporters and they with them in those pre-internet days -while "From Biros to Bytes" shows how the artwork on their releases and promotional materials developed from doodles, sketches and photocopy montages to engaging with daunting emerging desktop technologies like photoshop and quark. Also expect to meet some of the stars of The Hitchers no-budget music videos which still went on to be shown on TV shows like RTEs No Disco and MTVs Alternative Nation.

"Pencil-Drawn Punk is a short sharp, deep dive into memorabilia. Those old boxes of junk in the attic, the stuff that other bands might’ve thrown out years ago -and perhaps should have. We didn't have a wealthy label or many of the support structures even our unsigned peers at the time had available. There was no budget for PR, marketing, promotion, videos etc. So anything we could do in that line had to be done pretty much in-house with whatever skills and resources we had available within the group.” –Niall Quinn

About The Hitchers:Releasing two albums and a slew of EPs in the late 90's the Limerick band came to the attention of legendary BBC DJ John Peel who championed the bands debut UK release It's All Fun & Games Til Someone Loses An Eye and had the band record a session for his show that gets repeat broadcasts to the present day.

The 'Strachan/You Can Only Love Someone' double a-side single won many more friends, plaudits and award nominations (pipped to the Best Irish Single gong by Ash' A Life Less ordinary ...no shame in that) as did the bands follow up LP 'For The Want of Some Better TV' and the band were an ever present on the gigging circuits of Ireland and Britain earning a reputation for spikey punk-pop, acerbic, witty lyricism, terrace-chant chorus’ and ultimately for fiery live performances.

Though The Hitchers officially de-mobbed in 2001 they have, over the years, regrouped for one-off shows and mini-tours. Media interest in the band is rekindled biennially around the time of World Cups and European Championships which led to Guardian readers voting 'Strachan' the 'greatest football song EVER'.In 2019 BBCs Steve Lamacq curated ‘Lost Alternatives’ a 2x12” album of his favourite bands from his time on the wireless and marking his 25th Anniversary with the BBC. He selected The Hitchers 'Strachan' to close the album -setting them alongside, amongst others, Teenage Fanclub, Snuff, Sleeper, Travis, Compulsion, Cornershop, China Drum and Suede.

Similarly Warner Bros Germany approached the band for permission to use the song on '11 Freunde -the album' where The Hitchers would find themselves in an even more rarefied air scenario -rubbing shoulders with some of their own biggest heroes including Billy Bragg, The Wedding Present, The Proclaimers, New Order and Half Man Half Biscuit.

Following on from Lamacqs Lost Alternatives interest in re-issuing It’s All Fun and Games Til Someone Loses an Eye resulted in a crowd-funded re-release of the album on vinyl in 2022 which was marked with a gig in their hometown that featured the line up that recorded the album as well as guest performers CBS Pipe Band and vocalist Aoife Harney who had recorded her performance on the albums closing track at the age of just nine.

In their own words: Niall Quinn -"In the UK it's fair to say The Hitchers are mainly remembered for Strachan. That was the tune that got played most and still gets played and knocked about and that stirs up interest when the world cup or the Euros roll around.

Then in Ireland, despite the fact Strachans fellow 'Fun & Games' single Killed It With My Bare Hands gave us our highest chart placing (an unassailable #58!) I sometimes think it's more the Red Mohair Jumper/She'll Be Sorry era stuff that immediately preceded Strachan and the two albums that rings bells with people. Then, more locally again, when you come home to Limerick there’s this palpable thing about the 'teenage' Hitchers -the one with Eoin and Benny and Bombs in Baskets of Fruit. So I tend to think of The Hitchers less like a band and more like Dallas. There's some characters who are integral to the story who are only in it for the first couple of seasons. But still the story runs..."

“Fun & Games 25” is here thanks to our funders.

More can now join the Fun & Games through our new website where you can also watch our new video. www.thehitchers.ie