1 The Patriot Game (Kirwan) - 6:07
2 Free Joe Now (Byrne) - 3:37
3 Our Lady of the Bronx (Kirwan) - 5:39
4 Funky Céilí (Kirwan) - 4:01
5 Maria's Wedding (Kirwan) - 4:08
6 Into the West (Kirwan) - 3:57 Download MP3
7 Big Fellah (Byrne) - 5:54
8 Time to Go (Byrne) - 4:31
9 Bobby Sands MP (Kirwan) - 5:59
10 Green Suede Shoes (Kirwan) - 4:03
11 Walk All The Days (Byrne) - 4:00
12 The Reels - 5:32
13 For What It's Worth (Stills) - 4:22
14 Those Saints (Kirwan)- 4:41

Randall Grass, head of Shanachie Records, heard that Black 47 had a new cd that was available for release and bob's your uncle, fanny's your aunt, we were signed, sealed and delivered in two shakes of the proverbial ram's tail and Trouble in the Land was soon on the streets. Another record company - keep your fingers crossed! It has engendered the best press we've had since the release of Fire of Freedom and continues to sell.

Michael Hill, however, who was head of A&R at Shanachie on our signing, thought that it would be a good idea to reintroduce us to press and radio by doing a compilation of previous cds with a few added rarities. We took songs from all of the afore mentioned cds and included some favorites that are hard to get right now - Into The West, Our Lady of the Bronx and Patriot Game. I think I've written about the other two but Into The West was a song commissioned by EMI to be the title track for the American release of Jim Sheridan's great movie. I based the song on Gabriel Byrne's character of the Father of the two little boys.

To make a long story short, we recorded Into The West and everyone loved the song. Unfortunately, when the movie came to be released in the USA, the marketing department decided it should be aimed at children and our song was deemed to be too much of an adult nature. The song was relegated to about 20 seconds play from a car radio as the boys are hitching to the West of Ireland. Such is Hollywood, such is life. Still, I've always loved the song for its wildness. It was very popular in the old Paddy Reilly's but, unfortunately, we've dropped it, along with many other good songs, on the way. The chords and arrangements to many of our songs are such that if you neglect them for a couple of months, you can really balls them up in performance and since we rarely rehearse.........

It was nice, if a little odd, however, to take a few hours and look back over the band's career of that ten turbulent years and piece together some songs into a coherent whole. To be honest, it was quite difficult. From my point of view, we've never put out anything that doesn't meet a certain standard and, thus, all the songs, to me, are like children - how do you say which ones you prefer - they're all your flesh and blood? In the end, I gave Michael a list of what I considered some essential songs to get some idea of the band's depth and he culled Ten Bloody Years from it. After all, how do you mix the political, with the Irish, with the City, the rock with the reggae, the hip-hop with the noise, the joy with the sadness, the all round craziness and the to-hell-with- commerciality? I couldn't do it. But I think Michael did a very credible job.

In fact, how can you sum up all of the last 11 years into these pages? How do you mix all the memories, the faces, the miles, the journeys, the good times and the bad? It's been one hell of a ride. Chris and I had no idea when we started to drink on that night in Reilly's in 1989 that the band would last this long or have such an effect on so many people. And now, Chris has gone on his own way to do his own thing and I'm sure it will be a great thing too. All I can say for myself is that I've been a very lucky person to have had someone like him and the other guys beside me through the many ups and the downs. There are so many things I remember that I could talk about. One just jumps into mind. It's not the greatest or most significant - but that evening in EMI's offices as we sat listening to Davitt give his belittling speech - "I have no hesitation in dropping bands from my label...." - I caught Chris' eye. The words were unspoken but the thought was clear as a bell - "who the fuck does this guy think he is?" I guess that about sums up the way we looked at the world. And for all Chris' talents, that's the attitude I'll miss.

But life goes on. We have a new piper, Joseph Mulvanerty, who has fitted in like a hand into a glove and brought us new energy, musicianship and a rare humor. We'll probably do a new live album this March and I'm working on songs for the next studio cd which just might be called "Rise Up" if I can ever do Jim Larkin justice - that would square the circle for me and complete a trilogy of songs about the holy trinity of the Revolutionary Irish Socialist movement - Connolly, Markievicz and Larkin.

Then again, there are a lot of Black 47 circles still to be squared, a lot of gigs left to do, a lot of young (and old) minds to be inflamed and a lot of fires to be kindled and left smoldering. Tiochfaidh ar Lá!