Fitzsimons’ untimely and tragic death sent shockwaves throughout Dublin’s music community, and the No Disco crew were particularly bereft. “It was devastating of course, as she used to [practically] live in my house with my wife and daughter,” notes Cobbe. “We were close in friendship but I had to make a tribute show straightaway, so had to sort of get over it all quite quickly.”

Ironically, Cobbe first encountered Leagues O’Toole at Fitzsimons’ funeral in her hometown of Ardglass, Co. Down. Aware of O’Toole’s incisive work as a local music promoter and music journalist, Cobbe persuaded the reluctant Leagues to attend open auditions. “I thought he was really good fun, like a child trapped in an adult’s body and I figured he’d be great fun to work with,” recalls O’Toole. “Oddly enough, I wasn’t interested in doing TV at all. I’m really not that outgoing and have never been the type of person to want to be the centre of attention.”

Referring to the less-than-enviable task of filling Uaneen’s shoes, he notes: “I tried not to think about that side of it too much. Obviously, Uaneen was born to do it…she had a true star quality and I’m sure had she lived, she’d have gone on to work in the US or for the BBC. Fortunately no one was overly negative and there was loads of goodwill put my way.”

Much like Dineen before him, O’Toole’s reticent on-screen persona was intrinsic to his appeal, adding further to the show’s by-now-established low-key ethos. “For the first few months, I was pretty awkward and wooden, and was trying to loosen up a bit,” he admits. “I was pretty self-conscious in the beginning. I loved picking the music and doing the interviews but loathed doing the links.”

“Leagues had a different pace,” affirms Cobbe. “The bands he liked were about to come up, so it was a new angle. When Uaneen was on the show, she was more the commercial side and I had the edge. Then Leagues came on board and was making me feel like the commercial one.”

Referring to the pair’s modus operandi, he adds: “In a way, we were trying to make people uncomfortable. Why play four minutes of The Smiths, when you have a chance to hit people with The Last Post? If there was a chance to play something on the show that you couldn’t see anywhere else, we took it.” As far as teams go, the Cobbe-O’Toole combo proved a devilishly winning formula. Again, several one-off specials were aired, including a Planxty tribute show in March 2003 and, most memorably, a special on Dublin-based animation pioneers Delicious 9.

“The Del 9 lads made me into Homer Simpson and The Incredible Hulk for the links, which was just brilliant,” enthuses O’Toole. “It was definitely a favourite episode of mine, not just because I got to kick back as a cartoon.” Oftentimes, things were a little less fun: “At the start, Rory sat me down and said, ‘I don’t mind you interviewing The Redneck Manifesto but you’ll also have to do The Stereophonics too’,” recalls O’Toole. “I reckoned I’d sound like a dick and it was indeed a fiasco. They were nice enough guys but I had no interest in being there and they could tell that.”

At its zenith, No Disco was commanding around 40,000 viewers per episode; no mean feat considering it aired at around 11.15pm. Still, news of No Disco’s axing came as a surprise to many…but not to anyone within the show’s inner sanctum. “It went full circle. No one was watching it in the beginning and no one was watching it at the end,” says Cobbe.

Offers RTE’s Dave Fanning: “There was a lot of naivety when the show went. Shows happen, shows thrive, and then shows get taken off the air.” Nonetheless, enraged viewers came out in steadfast support of the show. Headed by journalist Kim Porcelli and The Dudley Corporation’s Dudley Colley, a hastily-fashioned petition was soon winging its way to RTE management.

“I was shocked and hugely disappointed, as it was one of the few shows at the time in Ireland that you made sure you were home to watch,” recalls Colley. “I guess [the petition] was born out of youthful indignation. If anything I was delighted for Leagues and everyone on the show that it got the send-off that it did.”
Singer-songwriter Adrian Crowley, himself a beneficiary of No Disco’s dedicated music policy, was another vocal supporter: “I think Uaneen was the first person to help me out and genuinely take an interest in what I was doing. Maybe it was the right time to end but at the time it was tragic.”

Soon, over 4,500 signatures, many of them from independent musicians and industry figureheads, had been collected. Among the notable names that were on the petition were David Kitt, Neil Hannon, Glen Hansard and David Gray. Alas, Colley’s and Porcelli’s honourable efforts were in vain, and so the final episode of the show was aired on March 23 2003. Low, Sigur Ros, Mic Christopher, Planxty, Bonnie Prince Billy, The Tycho Brahe, Johnny Cash and Creative Controle made up the set-list for No Disco’s last hurrah. In the months that followed, No Disco’s influence was lauded at length: even now, the show remains more than a mere footnote in Irish music history to many.

Of course, No Disco wasn’t without its successors: TG4 produced the similarly esoteric Rianta, with Cian Ó Cíobháin at the show’s helm. The Last Broadcast was billed as an ostensible follow-up to No Disco in RTE, but as its host Dave Fanning asserts, never the twain really met.
“We had Bon Jovi on the fucking thing,” he laughs. “No Disco was cool, and we’re just not trying to be cool. I think No Disco was trying to make more of a statement and, like John Peel, 70% of it was impenetrable to most people.” Now When Under Ether seems to have picked up the baton.

Even now, Cobbe is constantly reminded of No Disco’s evergreen legacy: “People did come up to me years later saying ‘you ruined my band ‘cos we broke up when you wouldn’t play our video’. I mean, what can you say to that?”

Illustration by BrenB

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