Cathal Coughlan and Microdisney: ‘Outsiders in the UK because they were Irish, outsiders in Ireland because they weren’t from Dublin’

The death in 2022 of songwriter Cathal Coughlan at the age of 61 was a huge blow to Irish music. Just three years previously, he had played his final show with his band, Microdisney, in the group’s hometown of Cork. Film editor Julie Perkins was on hand for that reunion and her footage is the starting point for a crowdfunded documentary about Coughlan and his Microdisney creative foil, Seán O’Hagan, which now comes to BBC Four.

The Story of Microdisney is a passionate chronicling of Coughlan and O’Hagan’s ups and downs and a powerful vindication of musicians who have a justifiable claim to the title of the great lost rock band of the 1980s.

Microdisney were adored in Ireland and had a loyal cult fan base in Britain. But, much like their friends and peers, the Go-Betweens, they could never parlay that critical acclaim into a mainstream career.

[ ‘Cathal Coughlan was an inspiration’: Robert Forster on The Go-Betweens’ Irish spirit ]

Perkins’s movie is a fascinating love letter to the band – and she correctly identifies 1980s Cork as a driving force in their music. “Cork people aren’t like the rest of Ireland,” says producer Garret “Jackknife” Lee, who worked with Coughlan on the Teilifís project shortly before his death. “There’s an oddness to them – a little ornery, they’re not going to play ball.”

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The film traces Coughlan and O’Hagan’s journey from Cork in the depths of the 1980s recession to London, where they were signed to the Rough Trade label before it discovered the Smiths and ploughed its resources into making Morrissey a star.

“They were outsiders in the United Kingdom because they were Irish, they were outsiders in Ireland because they weren’t from Dublin,” says journalist Andrew Mueller. “There is a massive chip on Microdisney’s shoulder all the way through. Without that, they’re not Microdisney.”

Feeling unloved with Rough Trade, they moved to Virgin Records, which gave the group a two-album deal and the financial backing to realise their vision of a lush blend of punk, soul and pop. “They had something about them,” says Virgin’s Ronnie Gurr. “The musicality, Cathal’s vitriol.”

Microdisney broke up after the second of those two Virgin LPs. But if gone, they were never entirely forgotten, and their reputation grew over the decades. Perkins was on hand for their 2018 reunion shows at the National Concert Hall in Dublin and the Barbican in London and that bittersweet farewell at Cyprus Avenue, Cork, 12 months later.

It is a self-contained documentary. There is a passing mention of Coughlan and O’Hagan’s 1990s projects Fatima Mansions and the High Llamas (who return shortly with a new album). But the focus is Microdisney – whom Billy Connolly, introducing a performance by the group, describes as “an MOR [middle of the road] band who make sardonic, humorous records”.

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“Sometimes you hear a band, and you immediately get it,” says actor Aiden Gillen, a lifelong devotee. He recalls seeing them for the first time when they performed from a barge at the opening of the Virgin Megastore in Dublin in 1986 (the rumour had been that Madonna would be there).

He and other Microdisney fans won’t learn anything they didn’t already know from the documentary. Perkins does not dwell on Coughlan’s illness – though several interviews were conducted months before his passing. It is a hugely moving film and a remarkable testament to a band who should have been bigger, yet have left behind a rich and captivating legacy.

The Story of Microdisney: The Clock Comes Down the Stairs is on BBC Four on Friday at 10pm