DJ Dan Hegarty on the joys of unearthing buried musical treasures

What was I thinking? Having a busy home and professional life should have suggested that undertaking a sizeable project like a book was not such a good idea. Do I hear a “however” come? Yes, I believe that I do!

The idea for Buried Treasure came from a feature (of the same name) that I have on my radio show. It’s where I look back at albums from the recent or distant past that have in some way been overlooked or forgotten. This is open to some degree of interpretation, and even debate, but most things relating to music are.

There are tons of books written about those classic, landmark album that we all know, but it’s the ones that didn’t make such an impact that you can so easily forget about, or miss altogether. I wanted the book to be a conversation; “hey, have you heard this album?” Or “Do you remember this one?” The most important thing was, I didn’t want it to come across like I was preaching to anyone.

When making notes for the book, I started out with a list of approximately 230 albums that I potentially wanted to feature. I had to edit this down to 55, which was anything but straightforward! There were lots of Irish albums that I felt had to go in by people like Blink, Simple Kid, Bantum and Microdisney. Add to international names like The Wonder Stuff, Buck 65, and Pop Will Eat Itself, and you have the foundation for at least one part of the book.

The idea of just me telling people about these “forgotten” albums seemed a bit excessive, so I wanted to get other people to tell me about albums that mean something to them. What I got were some truly fascinating stories about discovering music, adventures that the music was a sort of soundtrack to, and people reminiscing about parts of their lives that in some cases hadn’t revisited in a long time.

Selecting the people that I wanted to be in the book was pretty straightforward. I just asked people that I admired from music, sport, film and TV, and some media colleagues too. Most people were open to the idea; it was tracking some of the more established names down that proved challenging.

Anyone that is given the opportunity of putting a book together on a topic that they love is incredibly lucky. This is what gave me a metaphorical kick in the backside during the more frustrating times of gathering the numerous pieces together that make the book what it is. When you encounter difficulties and delays like this, you soon realise that very little worthwhile comes to you easily!

The single biggest step in the whole process was Larry Mullen of U2 agreeing to write the foreword. This was such a big deal for me, as it was U2’s 1993 Zooropa gig in Dublin’s RDS that made me realise that I really had to work with music in some way. Larry was open and interested in the idea, and put together an amazing piece that opens the book.

He joined a list of contributors that include Dave Fanning, Cillian Murphy, Imelda May, Alan McGee, and Aidan Gillen. From the world of rugby, Robbie Henshaw and Marty Moore kindly contributed, and I was very grateful to Cathal Pendred for taking time out of his training camp for an upcoming MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fight in the UFC too. There are many others too who took the time to select an album. I feel a bit mean in retrospect. I wrote about 55 albums and they had to narrow it down to just one!

It’s a strange feeling when you’ve finished putting a book together. I say putting a book together, because with this book, that really is the best description. The numerous pieces and paragraphs in Buried Treasure came from far and wide, late nights and early mornings, and every conceivable time in between. When you have finally drawn all the pieces together, there’s a feeling of what to do next. You get used to being busy, you get strangely addicted to being engaged. It’s a strange thing to say, but completing the book gave me the most unusual mix of emotions.

Then I moved on to: will people like it? Have all the errors and glitches been amended? What’s it going to look like when it is finally printed? These and dozens of other questions start to engulfed my mind. When you put every creative fibre that you have into something over a full year, you’re entitled to worry and obsess at this worrying level!

Then the day comes; I arrive home, and there’s a box sitting in the hallway. I know what’s in it. The 25 seconds that it takes me to open it feels like 25 minutes. There it is; that book, my first book. It looks good, thank God! What page do I look at first? Oh hang on there’s the phone, damn, I’d better answer it!

It’s funny, because as I looked through the book, there are passages that I don’t clearly remember writing. It’s like reading something that I’ve never read before, and am in full agreement with. One of the pieces that I clearly remember writing was the very first page, which covered Gavin Friday’s 1995 album Shag Tobacco. As I looked through it, it felt like I’d written these words a decade ago; I had no idea at the time of how much work lay ahead of me. I use the word work loosely, as this rarely was work, it was a pleasure.

So far people seem to like it. Lots of people have suggested albums that could have been in it, and that’s been great; I agree with most of them! So, this is what people call the next chapter.

Being a radio DJ, I’m used to being the one asking the questions, so doing interviews about the book has been strange in a fun kind of way. What really deserves the praise is the wonderful music that has gone into making the 110 albums that are covered in this book. If someone finds something new, or rediscovers something that they love, then this Buried Treasure is a success.

Buried Treasure: Overlooked, Forgotten and Uncrowned Classic Albums by Dan Hegarty is published by Liberties Press, at €16.99