Together they would go on to form My Bloody Valentine<\/a>, pioneers of a dreamy, marrow-melting sound that has influenced everyone from Radiohead<\/a> to Tame Impala<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cHe was only 12 and I was actually 15 at the time, but he was the same height as me, so it didn\u2019t seem that strange,\u201d Shields said.<\/p>\n The strangeness came later, as the friends embarked on one of the most unlikely and ground-breaking adventures in Irish music. Few other Irish bands have had anything approaching the impact of My Bloody Valentine, who are about to reintroduce their avalanche of otherworldly and cathartic noise with a sell-out tour that kicks off at 3Arena<\/a> next week.<\/p>\n As they take to the stage in Dublin they\u2019ll be latecomers to their own party, their unique combination of introversion and noise having inspired arena-conquering megastars of the calibre of Smashing Pumpkins<\/a>, Nine Inch Nails and U2<\/a>, who drew heavily on Shields\u2019s woozy, disembodied guitar for their finest album, Achtung Baby.<\/p>\n As first encounters go, that long-ago crossing of paths of the shy, diffident Shields and the moderately more outgoing \u2013 though hardly extroverted \u2013 \u00d3 C\u00edos\u00f3ig has nothing like the mythological aura of the encounter between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards<\/a> (on a train platform in Kent) or John Lennon and Paul McCartney<\/a> (at a garden fete in suburban Liverpool).<\/p>\n Yet, judged by the musical reverberations that would follow, the birth of My Bloody Valentine ranks among the most significant events in Irish culture in the past 50 years. <\/p>\n True innovators are relatively rare in Irish rock; a case can be made that My Bloody Valentine are in a category of one. Having moved from Dublin to the Netherlands, and then to a squat in London, Shields and \u00d3 C\u00edos\u00f3ig \u2013 along with the guitarist and vocalist Bilinda Butcher and the bassist Debbie Googe \u2013 became the original architects of a sound that the music press would christen shoegaze. <\/p>\n Like Kraftwerk<\/a> in D\u00fcsseldorf a generation earlier, they created something unique, pulling their dissonant sound straight from the void and sharing it with the world through three landmark albums: Isn\u2019t Anything, from 1988; Loveless, from 1991; and MBV, from 2013.<\/p>\n Shoegaze is many things at once: comforting yet menacing, ethereal but dissonant. In the case of My Bloody Valentine, Butcher and Shields\u2019s vocals had an angelic quality, yet their voices were paired with apocalyptic bass and tooth-rattling reverb.<\/p>\n This was a contradiction with a sting in the tail: My Bloody Valentine gigs salved the spirit as they punched you in the gut. Such was the sheer volume that chunks of plaster would sometimes come loose from a venue\u2019s ceiling, pattering down like a physical manifestation of the performance\u2019s tectonic force.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of their devices was to toy with the levels of audience comfort by using volume and distortion almost as weapons,\u201d David Cavanagh writes in The Creation Records Story, his rollicking account of the rise and fall of the band\u2019s label and its maverick boss, Alan McGee<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cAmidst the ear-splitting noise from their respective guitars, the high-pitched voices of Shields and Butcher emitted siren-like purrs, creating a plaintive and otherworldly effect.\u201d<\/p>\n If both breathtaking and bludgeoning in the moment, shoegaze has proved equally enduring in the longer term. The genre is, if anything, more popular today than ever. In 2023 alone, streams to Spotify<\/a>\u2019s \u201cshoegaze\u201d playlist jumped 800 per cent, with Gen Zers accounting for 60 per cent of listeners.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the nostalgia,\u201d Jenna Kyle, of the shoegaze-adjacent Gen Z indie crew Bleach Lab, told me in 2023. \u201cAnd it\u2019s people who are in their 20s. We were kids in the 1990s. But it\u2019s, like, \u2018Those were the good old days.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely timeless,\u201d says Brian McDonald, guitarist with the Cork shoegaze act Mossy. \u201cWhen the vinyl reissue of Loveless came out, me and my buddies all bought it straight away. Before that, if you wanted to get the vinyl, you were looking at \u20ac600. We all hopped on it. We were, like, \u2018We have our copies of Loveless.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n All the members of Mossy are in their 20s. Yet, to them, no modern group has the mystique of My Bloody Valentine, who grew out of Shields and \u00d3 C\u00edos\u00f3ig\u2019s first outfit, The Complex (fronted by the future Hothouse Flower Liam \u00d3 Maonla\u00ed<\/a>, a friend of \u00d3 C\u00edos\u00f3ig\u2019s from Col\u00e1iste Eoin, in Booterstown in south Co Dublin).<\/p>\n That reverence towards Shields and company runs through modern alternative pop, where My Bloody Valentine\u2019s impact verges on ubiquitous. Their hazy, dissociative style can be heard in the out-of-body hip-hop of Yves Tumor, the heartfelt guitar assault of newcomers such as Hotline TNT, Alvvays and the Dundalk band Just Mustard<\/a>, and the chill-out electronica of Tycho and Rival Consoles.<\/p>\n [\u00a0Katie Ball of Just Mustard: \u2018I don\u2019t know if being the centre of attention comes naturally. I keep doing it anyway\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n The secret to My Bloody Valentine\u2019s appeal is that there is always more to discover, according to Will Anderson of Hotline TNT<\/a>, who are from New York City. He cites Loveless as a mystery box that can never be entirely solved. Every time you sit down with it, another secret is revealed. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re the most influential band to me,\u201d he says. \u201cLoveless is an album that, no matter how many times I listen to it, never, ever gets old. I can put it on right now and remember how I felt the first time I heard it. It\u2019s still interesting, and it still blows my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n My Bloody Valentine feel much the same about their own music. \u201cAs a piece of work, Loveless is a whole universe in itself,\u201d \u00d3 C\u00edos\u00f3ig explained to Uncut magazine in 2018. \u201cEvery time I listen to it I hear different things in it. It\u2019s like listening to wildlife or whales or something. It has its own space and time.\u201d<\/p>\n [\u00a0Will Anderson of Hotline TNT on pulling the plug on Spotify – and having no regretsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n The band aren\u2019t the only shoegazers to have been embraced by a new generation. Their English peers Slowdive<\/a> and Ride \u2013 likewise signed to Creation \u2013 have experienced a similar renaissance. In the case of Slowdive, the decision to re-form was a direct result of new fans reaching out to ask whether they might reunite.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we had any idea. It was such a surprise to see there were all these kids into the band,\u201d Neil Halstead of Slowdive told<\/a> The Irish Times in 2023. \u201cInitially, we thought, oh, it will be a few old shoegazers. In the time we\u2019d been away, the internet had spread the word a bit. Or at least allowed people to discover these records\u201d.<\/p>\n Slowdive recalled being overawed by My Bloody Valentine and falling dumbstruck when bumping into Shields and his bandmates at the Creation offices in London. \u201cWe met them. It was very awkward. We were too awestruck to talk to them. I still feel that way about the Valentines. It\u2019s hard not to revert to my teenage self.\u201d<\/p>\n To Halstead, My Bloody Valentine were The Beatles in baggy sweaters: it all started with them. That isn\u2019t to say the band dropped from a clear blue sky; their influences ranged from Neil Young and The Velvet Underground to 1980s groups such as H\u00fcsker D\u00fc, Dinosaur Jr, Big Black and The Jesus and Mary Chain.<\/p>\n [\u00a0Slowdive: \u2018I became very disenchanted, having met a lot of the journalists. It was the idiots who gave us bad reviews\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Yet, as with all true pioneers, they synthesised from these sources something entirely new and strikingly ageless.<\/p>\n That was true of early music such as their 1987 single Strawberry Wine and their 1988 long-play debut, Isn\u2019t Anything. And it\u2019s true of their 2013 comeback, MBV, which was inexplicably omitted from the Mercury Prize shortlist that year. (Shields suggested it was because the group had self-released the record digitally rather than through a third-party distributor such as iTunes.)<\/p>\n But if My Bloody Valentine have never made a less than essential record, the consensus is that Loveless is their masterpiece. As is often the case with perfect albums, its gestation was troubled, though perhaps not as troubled as popular myth would have us believe.<\/p>\n One frequently repeated claim is that Shields spent so long tinkering with the songs that the ensuing studio bills threatened to sink Creation (which would go on to inflict terrible harm on the world\u2019s eardrums by discovering Oasis). The truth is more complicated: yes, Creation was anxious to put out something new by its highest-profile band at the time, but its financial issues preceded Loveless, stemming from a falling-out with its distributor, Rough Trade.<\/p>\n If anything, My Bloody Valentine were up against themselves as they slogged away on Loveless. \u00d3 C\u00edos\u00f3ig would subsequently recount the toll inflicted on his mental and physical health.<\/p>\n \u201cI was going to be evicted from my squat,\u201d he told Uncut. \u201cI didn\u2019t have a new place. Creation couldn\u2019t even afford a \u00a3300 deposit for a flat. I\u2019d go to the studio and then, as soon as I left, I\u2019d walk the streets looking at places to squat. This was November, it was cold, and I\u2019m out walking the streets.<\/p>\n \u201cAll that got to me. I had this nervous breakdown. I was able to function mentally, but my brain-to-arm muscle-control mechanism stopped working. I managed to get it together for a couple of songs \u2013 two songs on the record have live drums, Only Shallow and Come in Alone.\u201d<\/p>\n However tumultuous the recording process, the result was stunning. A flawless blend of noise and emotion, Loveless was the best album of 1991, which is saying a lot in the year of Nirvana<\/a>\u2019s Nevermind, Massive Attack\u2019s Blue Lines, Primal Scream\u2019s Screamadelica (another Creation hit), Slint\u2019s Spiderland, De La Soul\u2019s De La Soul Is Dead and Metallica\u2019s \u201cBlack Album\u201d. <\/p>\n Those records have weathered the years to varying degrees. Loveless feels as new and transcendental as the day it was released.<\/p>\n \u201cOne key reason it\u2019s influential is because it hasn\u2019t dated \u2013 partly because Kevin Shields\u2019s mix and production are so brilliant, partly because when it came out it only really referenced their own previous work, so it was essentially timeless in rock\/pop history.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you compare it to what came immediately after grunge and Britpop, it stands apart as a sound on its own,\u201d says Richard Blowes, who runs the Galway-based shoegaze label Blowtorch Records<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cThe tracks come across more as a feeling or texture rather than traditional songs, so it offers lots of routes to bands who hear it and, knowingly or not, reference it or use it as a template.<\/p>\n \u201cIt also has such an appealing mystique and, like The Smiths, is avowedly not \u2018rockist\u2019 and is female-friendly. Bands such as Just Mustard, Wynona Bleach and Virgins have all taken the MBV sound and done different things with it \u2013 and all have women vocalists. Shoegaze wasn\u2019t shoved down the public\u2019s throats, so there\u2019s a genuine gaze-curious audience out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Now living back in Ireland, Shields is believed to be working on new music. Ever the perfectionist, he will take his time releasing it. But My Bloody Valentine are a long way from done \u2013 and, far from a postscript, the 3Arena concert may just be the start of a new chapter.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re a huge influence,\u201d says Brian McDonnell of Mossy. \u201cShoegaze is in at the moment \u2013 the past four or five years \u2013 especially because they\u2019re Irish too. There\u2019s a huge gravitational pull towards it.\u201d <\/p>\n![\"My](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ZQZR7SW3SFORXEWGA7BMFVEBWE.jpg\")
My Bloody Valentine on the main stage during Electric Picnic in 2013. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons <\/p>\n![\"My](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2FH4T5OMDND7FDO5D4N2Z4R2VY.jpg\")
My Bloody Valentine: Kevin Shields, Debbie Googe, Colm \u00d3 C\u00edos\u00f3ig and Bilinda Butcher in the late 1980s. Photograph: AJ Barratt\/Avalon\/Getty Images <\/p>\n