‘A Grand Day’ is the debut single by The Gorgeous Pouting Mr AR. The track recounts a picaresque journey undertaken in late 1980’s rural Ireland by a bunch of complete drooling idiots jacked up on cheap vodka. One of the idiots was Mr AR himself, AKA Ronan Breslin, a Glasgow School of Art academic and co-proprietor of the highly-regarded recording studio, La Chunky, based in Glasgow’s Hidden Lane in Finnieston.
Scabrous and profane, the song is framed with baroque instrumentation, vintage synths and random recordings of rural Irish ambience.
The song is the first single from the forthcoming album “The Beyond and the Better Way”.
Breslin said
“This album, which had its nascence in the early months of the Covid lockdown, is a culmination of four years of autobiographical reflection, surreal observations on our ludicrous obsessions with status, a love of daft noises and plain old rage against the machine (with humour). There are some decent tunes too. “
“The first single 'A Grand Day' is a true story. I really was that daft and reckless. I still am (sort of). The song’s punchline “It was a Grand Day all the Same” is a statement of youthful exuberance, stupidity and optimism – I hope there are teenagers still out there who have the same moronic mind-set that I had at that age.”
'A Grand Day' will be released on September 20th via all digital platforms. The album “The Beyond and the Better Way”, will be released in early December on digital and vinyl. Both releases come courtesy of Strength in Numbers Records.
Track download:
Official video:
Video directed and edited by Jacob Topen
The Gorgeous Pouting Mr AR's biography:
The Gorgeous Pouting Mr AR is a pseudonym for Ronan Breslin – a Glasgow-based producer, composer, musician and academic.
Ronan grew up in Dublin before moving to the sedate town of Mullingar in the Irish Midlands. Ronan made the most of living in Mullingar, with his adolescent experiences being the basis of this debut solo single. At 17, Ronan decamped to Glasgow to take up a place at Glasgow University, pretending to be a diligent student while immersed in the far more fun music scene surrounding him. The fragrantly named Colostomy Bags was his first band – a group that had a short life after being banned from most venues that didn’t appreciate pig's heads hurtling through the air and landing in the laps of avowed vegetarians (though Ronan denies any involvement with this act).
Surprisingly, given these less than salubrious origins Ronan became a theatre composer, with perhaps his most acclaimed work being a score for a production of “Metropolis - The Theatre Cut” (1993) at Glasgow’s The Arches. More theatre commissions followed but rock (and indeed roll) called stridently, and Ronan joined hotly tipped Hardbody as keyboardist and trombonist just as major labels were courting them and were then subsequently signed by Sony Music Entertainment. After the label dropped the band, Ronan re-entered the real world as a science teacher. But as always, music’s clarion call drew him back to more hopeless endeavours. Stints with V–Twin, Ducks, Horse and the occasional trombone session with Belle and Sebastian reignited the passion and subsequently Ronan formed La Chunky – the band! The band eventually morphed into a recording studio which happily survives and even thrives to this day.
So now ... Ronan is co-director of La Chunky Studio in Finnieston – where he continues to work with a variety of musicians, podcasters, sound artists and filmmakers. This is where he makes music too.
Ronan also plays keys with The Tenementals, whose eagerly awaited debut album is imminent on the same Strength in Numbers Records label.
As an aside – in the noughties - Ronan co-composed many radio jingles and TV themes, which can still be heard on hip young TV channels such as UK Gold and Dave.
As a day job, Ronan runs a Masters in Sound for the Moving Image at Glasgow School of Art.
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