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GREETINGS, HOLD TIGHT with a new jam, hold tight with the mic in the left hand. It’s me and I’m on the groove tip. Are you ready now move to the roof!
AT THE TURN of the millennium, Mark McCabe was a 20-year-old devoted music-maker and presenter on the pirate radio station Pulse FM.
He had no idea that a “badly produced and so badly recorded” single would change the course of his career, have him dodging mobs at record store signings, and leave him forever the ‘Maniac 2000′ guy.
Today, he’s director of music and sound at RTÉ 2fm, but on the 15th anniversary of Maniac 2000 charting at number one, McCabe gave TheJournal.ie the story behind the song – and living with its legacy.
The beginnings of Maniac 2000
On 4 March 15 years ago, Maniac 2000 landed at the top of the Irish charts. It stayed there for another 10 weeks, keeping huge names like Westlife and All Saints from the number one spot.
At the time, pirate station Pulse FM was riding the crest of a dance music wave in Dublin, and McCabe was one of the DJs along for the ride.
As part of his sets, he’d rap over a remix of the track Maniac. People were always requesting the song, which led to were suggestions of recording it.
When Pulse went off air for a while, McCabe was left contemplating his career.
Enter Billy Murray of Abbey Discs, who told him that people were coming in every day asking for the single.
Maniac 2000 as we know it was recorded in the Cricket Club in Clontarf (that’s the live crowd you can hear on the song). The attitude was very much “let’s see what happens” – and what happened was a number one single.
“At the end of it, it says ‘five years later now here we are’ - it was an underground thing between us and the Pulse listeners,” says Mark 15 years on. The song was a way to acknowledge the listeners’ support, and went on to be embraced by people around the country.
“But obviously it caught the imagination of a nation, without any viral support, no Twitter or Facebook.”
It was a time when the singles charts ruled, and after 10 weeks at number one, Maniac 2000 found itself a home in the record books as Ireland’s fifth biggest-selling single of all time.
A crazy, surreal time
The song’s success was “a crazy time” for McCabe, who remembers “doing signings in shops and being bundled into the back of a jeep to escape hordes of fans”.
“It was real rock n roll stuff,” he laughs, recalling raucous signings where he was asked to sign women’s breasts.
More surreal moments included winning the Meteor Award for best single in 2001, beating the likes of Ronan Keating.
“Jesus Christ – what the hell am I doing here?” Mark asked himself as he stood on the podium accepting his award.
“It’s everything a record shouldn’t be”
Whatever about its production values, the song was embraced by the music-buyers of Ireland, who couldn’t get enough of the high-energy track.
“It’s so badly produced and so badly recorded,” laughs McCabe today. “It’s everything a record shouldn’t be; but it just goes to show that people like to forget where they are for seven minutes on a Friday night when they are out.”
“I think it works because there is a killer hook,” says McCabe.
What it is about is having a good time, being with your mates, jumping up and down feeling stupid.
Where did the song come from?
The original song was released by 4Rhythm in the early 1990s, before being remixed by the Sound Crowd.
This remix was soon embraced by DJs like Wicked Willie, Mick Lynn, and Al Gibbs, who rapped over it, and McCabe followed suit.
His rapping contains memorable philosophical lines like “life, it has no meaning”, but McCabe laughs when asked what was he rapping about.
“There was no real thought into the lyrical content other than let’s just make [a song],” he says. The “oggy oggy oggy” chant came from his scouting days.
“It’s just literally made up on the night and it was just we happened to record it on the night. I have to live with that forever,” he says.
Making it rain
What’s remarkable about Maniac 2000 is how a song recorded at a disco caught the love of a nation.
“It was the total underdog, totally against the big labels, totally against the manufactured pop bands or rock bands,” says McCabe.
Did it make him much money? “It didn’t make me a millionaire. It did OK.” He made enough to buy studio gear, and went on to build his own studio.
“A lot of people don’t know I was signed with some credible labels,” he adds.
I was on Twisted Records in New York making tribal house. All these people thought I was this cheesy pop DJ, but then under different names I was putting out stuff under different labels in the States. I was producing for bands and recording for bands, all while laughing at the fact this record was doing what it was doing. It opened many doors for me.
In opening those doors, it also slammed shut the ones McCabe had assumed would always be propped open for him.
He’d been playing drums, piano and organ for years, was heavily into the theory and philosophy of music. The single “killed any credo I have”.
These days, he laughs at the contrast: the serious guy getting to number one with a cheesy dance song. But up until five years ago, he took it hard.
“I struggled with it for a long time because I couldn’t get away from it,” he acknowledges.
His legacy
He made an album under the name Music from the Fourth Space with Universal Records, but still he couldn’t escape being ‘Maniac Mark’.
“It was just dance monkey, dance,” he says wryly.
But then, five years ago, McCabe “went and slapped myself in the face”.
He realised:
So many people took this song and took it to their heart. You did that for them and you have to appreciate that.
He realised that “there are people who wrote records and they poured their heart and soul into it and they never see the light of day”.
These days, he meets “serious” musicians who speak of their love for the song; he shows transition year students (who were infants when it was released) around 2FM and gets asked “are you THE Mark McCabe”?
He realises the impact one small single had.
“It’s so Irish - it’s almost like a rite of passage,” he says proudly.
Would he ever bring out a newer version of Maniac 2000?
McCabe thinks of the fans first when it comes to tackling the song again.
“If I was to get it wrong I think people would be really annoyed and it would ruin the song. The other side of me says why not introduce it to a new generation? It was so unique and so of its time that I think it was best left alone. I could be proved wrong.”
It sounds like, after some time wrestling with its impact, he’s now – thanks in large part to how beloved Maniac 2000 is – happy to own his success.
I did it. In terms of playing the music industry and putting a tune out there and releasing it and trying to get to number one, I did it. Regardless of what the song or genre sounded like. It worked way beyond what we could have expected.
Do you have any Maniac 2000 memories? Share them in the comments below. Side to side like you just don’t care.
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Enough, FFS!! Enough is enough.
No self respecting human can say this act of pure savagery was done on their behalf.
May the innocent victims of these animals rest in peace.
Tragic event and an awful way to die.
..Glen you don’t perhaps work for a living do you? Your here more than me!
Early retirement Royston
Rocket Science must take a lot out of ya! ;-)
These ‘soldiers’ are brave enough to take up arms and fight for their cause, but too cowardly to come forward and admit responsibility for their actions.
What ” soldiers” are you talking about ?
I’m assuming that those responsible label themselves as ‘soldiers’. I could be wrong, maybe they call themselves something else.
Soldiers don’t do that
Terrorists do !
See my previous comment.
Surely there should be a warning on the third picture down that there are clearly visible human remains!!! These poor people and their families deserve some respect and this picture should be taken down!
Sorry about that, Fiona. That picture wasn’t meant to be there at all.
I’d say its pretty hard to publish a picture by mistake.
..yeah after the Lady spotted it! Bad form guys..
The news has been showing pictures of body’s since yesterday.
Please remove it then.
Hi guys,
The picture was in there by mistake and was removed within minutes.
It was a genuine error on my part and in no way was meant to be exploitative. Had I meant that, I could have used it as the main picture.
Paul
Why would you put a picture of bodies as the main picture?
You visited an article with a subject indicating that it was going to show pictures of a plane crash site where almost 300 people have died and now you are complaining because the pictures show the horrific scene in full?
Wow. Just wow. What did you expect to see when you visited this article?
Have to agree Cupán Tae – the subject matter is grim and while it’s unsettling and harrowing to view such footage, from a journalistic point of view I don’t criticise organisations/media that publish such pictures. It brings home the awful reality of what happened.
@ Cupán Tae
Some people aren’t happy unless they are offended at least once a day.
Why would a family member scroll down through an article that’s headed “In pictures: The MH17 crash site”?
Because the journalism saying is, if it bleeds it leads.” To get more hits on the article or the site, he could have used that photo as the main article image. Obviously he didn’t because it wasn’t intended that way. But some news outlets will do that as the intended purpose.
Do you remember crash plane in Russia, 4 years ago with Polish president Lech Kaczynski and many Polish politicians? It was an accident-they said. Yes, probably it was. But until today Russian government (or president of Russia?) doesn’t want to give back this plane, recorded tape and they don’t want to investigate what really happen there. Please, don’t do the same mistake again-these top Russian politicians understand only the language of straight and power. If all nations cannot speak on the same way-it may happen again. They don’t care about passengers or their families. It would be sad if this tragedy won’t be a good lesson how to speak with Putin. I hope you have no any doubts he supported terrorists on Ukraine land?
Under international laws, nether the Rebels have any right to take the FDRs since they are not a recognised country and since the aircraft was in Ukrainian airspace the Russians have no right to have it.
International law didn’t stop Russia from taking Crimea.
Will this be another Lusitania or pearl harbour ?? If this was indeed Russia , it would have to be proven , they can’t get away with it , then again media convinced us all there was weapons of mass destruction in Iraq !!!
They have been steeping up security recently at airports emphasising to charge up your smart devices before flying etc.
Just how exactly do they plan on preventing another one of these? It’s a new level and it’s scary.
It’s not new John, this had happened before & in the Ukraine..
Point taken Royston but it’s still going to cost the passenger as now airlines will have to consider every route near a war zone and use an alternate. What is new to me is that someone can take down a plane from the surface at 33,000 feet. Normally they try and get them coming in to land etc. That’s what I meant.
Also happened in Iraq several years ago, just goes to show no matter how many hoops they make you jump through at security and how many bottles of water they take off you, if someone wants to do something badly enough they’ll always find a way.
John point taken but your assuming it was a deliberate attack?
The airline was allegedly shot down by a very sophisticated missile system designed primarily to take down large NATO bombers during the Cold War..
Perhaps it would be wise for airlines to avoid areas of conflict where these systems are active..
Personally I think this could have been avoided, there was a lot of Anti Aircraft defence systems active in this region over the past few days. Why this was not taken onboard by the relevant air authorities is something we will have to learn over the coming days..
John – “airlines will have to consider every route near a war zone”. I agree. If implemented the vast majority of the Middle East and a large country in Eastern Europe will be no go areas for commercial airlines.
Barry the Iraq event was a smaller shoulder launched missile intent on targeting a western military or commercial aircraft.. To joe public it seems the same but it’s not. The Malaysian Airways aircraft was transitioning the airspace above Ukraine & flying at 10k above ground, well past the capabilities of the best shoulder fired rocket..
Well aware of the facts of that incident thanks, the plane was still shot down by an a$$hole wasn’t it? My point was in reply to John’s original comment on threat levels and preventing things like this i.e. you can’t.
“What is new to me is that someone can take down a plane from the surface at 33,000 feet.”
The Soviet-designed Buk missile system can be used to engage targets at an altitude of up to 85,000 feet depending on the version. Missiles capable of engaging targets at extremely high altitude have existed for over 50 years.
Please remove the picture of the dead bodies. Most news sites have chosen not to show them, I didn’t expect to see it here.
You should see the news sheets
So you went into an article titled MH17 crash site, and complain when it shows the crash site? What did you expect?
Third photo down shows dead bodies, out of respect it should be removed,
They should be given 24 hours to hand over Igor Strelkov or else the world should take over the territory that he is controlling like he was boosting about taking another bird out of the sky just 20 min after the flight crashed
Putin the s***bag had to have armed them so now it is time the world turned it back on russia
We need world leader that are not going to shy away from holding the s***bags that did this to account
Is it normal for an airliner to fly over a war zone?
Apparently is was flying 1000ft above the warzone area. Could only think they did that to save money instead of using fuel to go around it.
Mark, yes on a particularly busy and active flight path linking two continents
Yep! I flew over Iraq (bagdad to be precise, twice between 06 & 09), although the airline removed the names of the city from the onscreen map you could still make out the Euphrates down in the city.. I guess they just didn’t deem the height we were at as a threat..
@ Jason
Think it was 33k feet?
I read it and also heard it on news talk. That’s all.
I mean 1000ft above the air/sky area that is deemed a no flyzone. Not as in flying 1000ft above the ground.
More than that even from the information I saw. No-fly zone extended up to 4,000m while MH17 was at an altitude of 10,000m.
I see. Thank you gentlemen.
Why did Ukraine traffic control tell the Airline to drop its altitude.
This horrific event also raises a question regarding civil aviation routing – why in Gods name are passenger aircraft flying over a war zone in the first place? A major rethink required to protect passenger welfare.
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