Trivia / The Fatima Mansions

• Approval of God: Peter Buck of R.E.M. found the Mansions' bizarre cover of "Shiny Happy People" amusing, particularly because he had grown to dislike the song for the way its ironic lyrics were often taken at face value. It helped that he was already a fan of Cathal's work.
• Better Export for You: The German CD/Cassette version of Valhalla Avenue has 6 bonus tracks added, these being two tracks that had appeared on the US release of Viva Dead Ponies ("Blues For Ceausescu" and "Only Losers Take The Bus [Dump The Dead]"), two tracks from the UK-only Bertie's Brochures mini-LP ("Behind The Moon" and "Shiny Happy People") and two tracks from the Hive EP ("Hive" and "Stigmata").
• Black Sheep Hit: By a fluke, their version of "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)" was a top ten single in the UK, because of its positioning as a double A-Side with the far better known Manic Street Preachers version of "Suicide Is Painless". The cover of Everything I Do is almost done in an avant-garde jazz style.
• Cut Song: "What", "The Door To Door Inspector" and "Bertie's Brochures" were all recorded for "Against Nature" and are present on an inhouse rough mixes tape, but were left off and rerecorded for future releases. Conversely, that tape doesn't feature either "Wilderness On Time" or "Big Madness / Monday Club Carol", suggesting that the songs may have been dropped to make room for them.
• Deadpan Snarker: Cathal's prime personality trait at this time, especially in interviews (such as the one included on the band's "Y'Knaa" video). The liner notes to the "Come Back My Children" compilation are written entirely in this vein , including such gems as the band releasing the compilation so they could retire from music to play golf, that the songs had 'simply vanished' in the years prior, and that they heard the original "Lady Godiva's Operation" on a 78 (a long obsolete format).
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: You can only hear the original songs "Market Forces Sweetheart", "Desperate" and "It Will Be Cold" on bootlegs, because none were deemed good enough to record for albums (although, the latter at least had a Peel Session).
• No Export for You: You can only get "Sleep Of The Just" on a US-exclusive "Popemobile" promo EP. The song was supposed to come out as a b-side in the UK, but the single was cancelled.
• Old Shame: Cathal's reaction to some of the material and his personality during the period. Even at the time, he quickly came to feel this about the live-only song "Desperate", which he dropped very fast and never recorded.
• Out of Order: In terms of songwriting, Cathal wrote and played live "Behind The Moon", "Bertie's Brochures" and "The Door To Door Inspector" before "Against Nature", but they all came out well over a year afterwards.