Video premiere/single review/album teaser
The Prongs
Hey! Dandy
Out now
From what I can make out, The Prongs are an idea turned band sprung from the imagination of Irish journalist, lyricist and novelist John Fleming, made flesh and a reality thanks to musician & producer Niall Toner Jr. Together they soundtrack a novelistic fake sociological fresco. Pop tones for the Irish diaspora, but particularly that to London in the 1980s. The new wave and the post-punk punched together into a literate, sonic treat. This is their latest idiosyncratic masterpiece, says Ged Babey.
I seem to have become the go-to music critic for these kind of pre, post and punk artists, euphemistically called ‘veterans’ because they are well into their sixties… when they have a new release out. Many of them are bringing out genuinely brilliant, late-period work and The Prongs are no exception.
It was Martin Bramah from The (House Of)Fall who put the Prongs on to me and vice versa.
Made up of John Fleming (lyrics/voice) and Niall Toner Jr (music/production) they have been releasing some unique, fabulous and baffling releases since 2023 and I’ve always shied away from writing about it as I was intimidated by the intelligence and wit of Fleming and my incomplete knowledge of the history of Ireland and it’s rich cultural heritage.
The Prongs take it all, together with their ‘lived experience’, to create a mythic history with themselves at the centre. Luke Haines does the same sort of thing with his odd psychedelic concept albums. The genius ‘Endless Art‘ by A House is perhaps the only precedent to The Prongs.
Of course it is very cool to be Irish in current Fontaines-dominated times in the music scene. It’s almost as if Bono Never Happened.
Fake Samuel Pepys from two years back sounds like an absolute lost classic now with its jive-talking poetry meets Marr-guitar groove.
We Did Things By Halves is another gem of a tune (from the Psychogeography EP) with a neat video.
The Prongs like their shades and cravats, their history and psychogeography and making their fantasy band a reality with a touch of style. They are a mix of the professorial and the poseur, the beatnik and the barfly – which I was bound to be a sucker for, seeing as I fancy myself as a bit of a bandy, dandy fop.
After a year of intensive creativity, The Prongs bring you this eagerly awaited new song as a taster of their forthcoming second album planned for 2026.
And Hey! Dandy is a real belter.
Niall Toner Jr. channels the ghosts of Mott the Hoople, Big Star, The Saints, The Stones and Magazine as John Fleming vocalises his vivid lyrics as a twisted body double for TS Elliot.
Hey! Dandy is a socio-poetic portrait of Ireland’s early-1970s velvet (coat) revolution. The infectious beat and striking words sketch the trajectory of young blades who left Ireland not as migrants but Byronic adventurers on a pre-EEC beatnik grand tour. Escaping monochromatic economic dourness and pervasive poverty of the mind, these brave vagabonds set off not in search of work but European adventure. After stints in Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Paris and Madrid, our Hey! Dandy pioneers returned to Dublin circa 1972 armed with sharp new tastes and revolutionary ideas. Their spirit found form in the fabled melting pot of Dublin’s countercultural Dandelion Market sadly long gone since the construction of a shopping centre in the 1980s.
Part-fiction, part-fact, Hey! Dandy’s epic narrative sweep is propelled by the swagger of early-1970s proto-punk rock, unearthing an EEC prehistory often forgotten in later Irish punk and new wave countercultural triumphs.
In a stylish Dandelion Market time-tunnel video shot and edited by the hugely talented and cinematic Susan Gleeson/Rebeldiamondz (filmed at a convincingly fake junk retail outlet at the Digital Hub Flea Market on Sunday, 28th September, 2025), The Prongs set out their punk beatnik stall.
The Prongs line up in my Veterans Hall of Infamy & Great Tunes alongside The House Of All, Your Heterosexual Violence. The Long Decline, Drain On The Balcony… and so on.
Those Born in the Late 50’s and Early 60’s are the Ones who have carry the torch & spirit of Rock and Roll in their blood. Fine and Dandy fellows.
To celebrate the release of Hey! Dandy, The Prongs play a show at Dublin’s wonderful Grand Social on Sat, November 15th, 2025, with very special guests from Cork, Big Boy Foolish.
Cover photography/video: Susan Gleeson/Rebeldiamondz
Buy from Bandcamp
All words Ged Babey with press release content in italics.
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