MacD on Music: The Age of Innocents

On a February afternoon of 2025, Martin Malone was talking to me in Café Nero in Derry's Richmond Centre. We’d met up (along with his partner Jane Breen) to discuss the then-upcoming album from his band Innocents Abroad. The album, ‘Late Spring’ (available now in Cool Discs) was the group’s first in almost forty years and marked the beginning of a resurgence for the band that was on the cusp of big things during its first run.

Recently, Innocents Abroad have remastered their first two albums (‘Quaker City’ and ‘Eleven’) for their new release ‘Slow Time 1984-1988’ (also available in Cool Discs). The collection brings together almost every track from those early albums as well as a few songs that slipped through the cracks at the time.

I caught up with Martin Malone again recently to talk about the project and the process of bringing the old recordings back to life: “The first two albums actually got us an offer from EMI in the eighties, but we turned it down because, naively, we thought a single deal was unworthy of our monumental talent. I think we’ve spent the rest of our lives looking back over our shoulder going ‘Um, was that the right decision?’, particularly when you learn that’s how the Police started.”

“On the two albums, the material sounded good, but I always hated the sonic qualities, and that altered the course of my life, because I then decided I was never gonna do that again. I trained as a sound engineer because I want albums that sound closer to the ideas you have when you write an album in your head, which is what everyone’s after.

"That was a shame, because I thought that I’d wasted my cheekbone years, when you’re twenty-two, twenty-three, on records that didn’t quite reflect the quality of the material. When I did become a sound engineer, the first thing I did was get the old quarter-inch master tapes and transfer them to the supposedly superior medium of DAT, so I had one copy that I used to burn a CD. In the course of future business that CD went missing. I think it was left with a guitarist that I’d sacked so I never saw that again.”

READ MORE: MacD on Music

“I got quite caviller with Innocents Abroad’s legacy in my twenties and thirties and gave the DAT to our live sound engineer Chris Lecky. He’s always liked us a lot, so I told him to keep the DATs because I’m not going to be doing anything with them, and the old quarter-inch and two-inch multitrack masters, I’d left in a keyboard case in the hallway of my flat when I left Liverpool, so they’re probably in a landfill now.”

“The fact that the master tapes survived was a miracle, and I asked Chris a few years ago, once we’d started doing ‘Late Spring’, if he still had the DAT and he said, ‘I might have it in a bag with the hundreds I have’ and about six months later he found it and sent me it. I sent it to Richard Werner, who does our mastering work in Edinburgh, and I said to him ‘How are you at rescuing old DATs?’. He said to send it and he’ll see what he could do.

"There was a lot of work apparently, but he managed to rescue it all. Once I’d heard it, I said to Pete [Peter Mills, vocalist for the band] ‘Look, we’re not putting an album out this year. We’re taking our time with the next one, so why don’t we put out an album of the old stuff?’.”

And that’s it from Martin. Innocents Abroad’s albums ‘Late Spring’ and ‘Slow Time 1984-1988’ are both available now in Cool Discs.

Now, onto other business. First up, we’ve got one of the annual highlights of the gig calendar this Saturday with Femme Sesh in Sandino’s, hosted in association with Alliance for Choice. This year’s line-up features the Henry Girls, TRAMP, Dani Larkin, Moya Sweeney, Eileen Webster and more and will be hosted by Abby Oliveria. Tickets are £15 and can be bought on Skiddle. Doors are 7pm with the show starting at 8pm sharp.

Next up, new music. First, we have the debut single from the High End Dead. The track, ‘Thoughts of Old’, “is based on the theme of nostalgia for old memories while still being stuck in the present day”. It was produced by Glenn Rosborough and the single features artwork from Hannah Moore. It’s out now on all good streaming platforms.

Lastly, we come to The Ephades, who’s new single ‘Rather Be with You’ is coming out this Friday (6th March). The “sharp-edged yet emotionally charged release...captures the restless spirit of a band going to strength to strength”. The song “explores themes of youth, naivety and uncertainty” and is “propelled by an instrumental that almost effortlessly flows in and out of light hearted grooves and intense breakdowns”.

Finally, time for the socials. The Ephades can be found on Instagram @the.ephades, the High End Dead @thehighenddead and Martin Malone/Innocents Abroad @innocents_abroad.