Hothouse Flowers Tickets Continued
Hothouse Flowers first formed in 1985 when Liam O'Maonlai and Fiachna
O'Braonain (who had known each other as children in a Irish-speaking school) began
performing as street musicians, or buskers, on the streets of Dublin, Ireland as "The
Incomparable Benzini Brothers". They were soon joined by Peter O'Toole, and had won a
street-entertainer award within a year. They renamed the group Hothouse Flowers and
began writing songs and performing throughout Ireland. Rolling Stone magazine called them
"the best unsigned band in Europe". In 1986 Bono from the band U2, saw the Hothouse
Flowers performing on television and offered his support. They released their first single,
"Love Don't Work This Way", on U2's Mother Records label, which quickly led to a deal with the
PolyGram subsidiary London Records.
Their first album, People, was released in early 1988 and was the most successful
debut album in Irish history. It reached the number one slot in Ireland within a week and
eventually reached number 2 in the UK Albums Chart. The international success of the album
received a great boost when a music video for the first single, "Don't Go", was played in the
interval between contestants and the scoring in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest.
The second album, Home was released in June of 1990. The two singles from the
album, "Give It Up" and the cover of "I Can See Clearly Now", reached numbers 30 and 23
respectively in the UK Singles Chart.
In February 2004, Hothouse Flowers released their latest album, Into Your
Heart, produced by the band and John Reynolds. The first single, "Tell Me", reached the top
20 on the Irish charts. The record was released on the RubyMusic label in Europe and
distributed by Redeye in the United States. They have toured extensively in support of the
record, including a performance at the Glastonbury
Festival in 2004. Maonlai has done several tours as a solo acoustic performer, and
released an album in 2005 called Rian. In 2007, Fiachna appears on Belinda Carlisle's
album Voila singing a duet with her on a cover of "Bonnie and Clyde".
