After the split of Microdisney, Cathal Coughlan formed The Fatima Mansions. Initially, the group continued in a similar vein to Microdisney, but rapidly became influenced by noise rock and shock value. They unwittingly had a top ten single with their deranged reworking of Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You", which happened to be a double A-Side with the Manic Street Preachers cover of "Suicide Is Painless" (the song which the public actually bought the single for).
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: "Behind The Moon" is a particularly gorgeous song about the life of an alcoholic and how he alienates everyone around him.
- Cover Version: Most famously, Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)" and REM's "Shiny Happy People", but they covered songs by people as diverse as Scott Walker, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Suicide, Ministry and the Velvet Underground.
- Darker and Edgier: Beginning with "Blues For Ceausescu", the band made a blatant shift to a noise-rock sound that somewhat fit in with the popular grunge movement of the day.
- Derivative Differentiation: The band still sounded a lot like Microdisney in their first couple of years, and they even included "Back To The Old Town" and "Loftholdingswood" in their sets. Cathal grew to feel this was typecasting him as something of a has-been, and purposefully changed direction to a rockier sound.
- Greatest Hits Album: The 2007 Reissue of Viva Dead Ponies had one as a bonus disc, omitting any tracks that were on the main album. Seemingly, the label couldn't afford to reissue all of the albums as Cathal wanted, so this was done as a compromise.
- Meaningful Rename: The group went through a few names - first simply as a Cathal Coughlan solo project, then changed it to "Freedom Association", then "Fatima Gardens", and finally "Fatima Mansions", the latter which was named after a deprived housing estate in Ireland.
- Mood Whiplash: He liked to do this particularly on the "Viva Dead Ponies" album, where songs like "Angel's Delight" and "Broken Radio No. 1" have the tranquil music punctuated at points by screeching noise rock.
- Rearrange the Song: The original 1990 Peel Session version of "Broken Radio" has a much slower and dramatic arrangement compared to the poppy version on the following year's "Viva Dead Ponies" album.
- "Only Losers Take The Bus (Dump The Dead)" is a rerecording of the song done for the US market that has a more prominent beat.
- Refuge in Audacity: This seemed to be the band's primary reason for existing.
- Surprisingly Gentle Song: "Sleep Of The Just" particularly stands out as it is a very mellow waltz, released when most of their material had become much heavier.
- Synthpop: He dabbled in it, such as on "13th Century Boy", which sounds a lot like {Pet Shop Boys}, "Broken Radio No. 1" which almost sounds like early Microdisney (albeit with a cheap Casio synth), and "Thursday", which is almost early 90s rave music.
- Take That!: "Only Losers Take The Bus" is supposedly a phrase that a politician of the day stated (this possibly being Margaret Thatcher, but it's unconfirmed).
- Updated Release: A deluxe edition of "Against Nature" was released under the name "Come Back My Children", which adds 7 extra tracks that were recorded in the period between that album and their second, "Viva Dead Ponies". It's notable for being the only CD release of "What?".
