“If you played in an Irish showband fifty years ago, you would have dressed in one of three styles.” Brian McMahon takes us on a sartorial trip down memory lane.

And now time for a word from our sponsors… Brian McMahon presents a selection of vintage Christmas adverts promoting long-standing Irish food and drink brands.

Brian McMahon of Brand New Retro takes a quick look at vintage adverts for Christmas gifts produced by leading Irish manufacturers.

Brian recalls some of his memories from sixty years ago.

“Celina Anderson has hundreds of Iveagh Market stories. She helped her mother who had a stall there, as did her grandmother and her great-grandmother.” – Brian McMahon, Brand New Retro

Deirdre Macken has been curating and selling clothes in her various Dublin shops for over 41 years. Brian McMahon celebrates the city’s veteran of vintage.

“Temple Bar Gallery & Studios have published Zebra’s Afterimage, a fold-out fanzine that includes a very interesting and lengthy retrospective of Zebra” – Brian McMahon

In 1956 John Hinde opened his colour photographic studio in Dublin where he produced a series of distinctive, stylised, vibrant colour postcards that saw him become one of the most successful postcard publishers in the world.

Considering Playboy magazine was banned in Ireland for over 35 years, one wonders how two homegrown imitation magazines ever got published here in the 1970s.

“Intrigued, and excited to hear of this Quant Cabra connection, I had to find out more. This is what I discovered…” – Brian McMahon

“Hans Lignell came up with the idea of Star Trek, a massive mobile disco which would bring the glamour, lights, excitement and sophistication of the new Dublin nightclubs to the ballrooms around the country.” – Brian McMahon

“Although it’s all original vinyl, we’re not afraid of modern technology to intensify the experience.” Dublin Psychedelic Club MindFuzz celebrates its tenth birthday next year. Brian McMahon meets with founder and host Mark Winkelmann to find out more about this unique night.

To celebrate 20 years since the League of Ireland switched to summer football, we give you 20 connections the league has had with pop music.

In 2023, Blue Monday will be forty-years old. Forty years of filling the floors at house parties, discos, indie nights, techno nights, 21sts and weddings. Brian McMahon asks the question, “How Does It Feel?”

This month we present a selection of vintage Christmas adverts promoting long-standing Irish food and drink brands.

For a time in the 1960s and early 1970s, it was acceptable and fashionable for young Irish women to wear wigs.

“208 is my magic number. It’s a throwback to the early 1970s when I and thousands of other music-starved Irish teenagers listened every night to Radio Luxembourg 208”. – Brian McMahon

Yellow Press was an Irish comic published from 1991 to 1994. Describing itself as the ‘premier periodical for the nineties kind of person’ and ‘not suitable for young children’ it ran for eleven issues and featured work from over twenty Irish cartoonists.