The Fatima Mansions were an art rock group formed in 1988 by Cork singer/keyboardist Cathal Coughlan. They took their name from a downmarket housing estate, no longer in existence, in Rialto, Dublin where John Roberts lived.
The Fatima Mansions had some indie chart success with albums such as Viva Dead Ponies, Bertie's Brochures, Valhalla Avenue and Lost in the Former West.
They technically entered the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart in 1992, with a heavily reworked version of Bryan Adams' song "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", taken from an NME tribute album in aid of the charity, Scope. However, although this single was technically a double A-side, the flip-track, Manic Street Preachers' version of "Suicide Is Painless" received most of the radio airplay and is by far the better-known track. They also gained mainstream exposure by opening a European leg of U2's Zoo TV Tour in 1992, although they were nearly booed off the stage and almost started a riot when front man Coughlan swore at a Milan audience and insulted the Pope. The band often courted controversy with religion, dictators, empires and general authority being targets for Coughlan's vitriol. Despite this, The Guardian newspaper described him as "the most underrated lyricist in pop today", and DJ John Peel said he could "listen to Cathal Coughlan sing the phone book".
The album and singles campaign for 1995's Lost in the Former West was styled on the glamour of Liberace, and featured a cover version of Scott Walker's "Nite Flights".
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