In Tua Nua 'All I Wanted' video — In Tua Nua 'All I Wanted' video

JUL 01 1988 · 12:00

In Tua Nua 'All I Wanted' video — In Tua Nua 'All I Wanted' video (1988) Director: John Scarlett-Davis Era: Late British Post-Punk / Celtic New Wave (1988) - Peak era of Irish rock crossover into the UK and US markets, riding the commercial wave of U2's global success and the Virgin Records push for folk-inflected alternative pop. This video holds strong curatorial value as a rare, professionally directed artifact documenting In Tua Nua at their commercial peak. Directed by John Scarlett-Davis — whose filmography spans Erasure, Cocteau Twins, Scritti Politti, and Bryan Ferry — it sits at the intersection of art-school promo sensibility and mainstream pop accessibility. As the band's only UK charting single and their primary US college-radio vehicle, it is the definitive visual document of their cultural moment, and a tangible product of the broader Irish rock export wave of the late 1980s. Context: Released in May 1988, 'All I Wanted' represented In Tua Nua's sole UK chart entry and their most significant international breakthrough. The band occupied a distinctive niche in the late-80s Celtic rock wave, blending uilleann pipes, electronic violin, and glistening pop production — a sound born of their roots in the Howth, Dublin music scene and their early signing to U2's Mother Records in 1984. By 1988 they were on Virgin Records, produced by Don Dixon, and benefitting from the commercial infrastructure that had been built around Irish rock exports in the wake of U2's global dominance. The video's warm, theatrically lit aesthetic reflects the mid-budget MTV promo grammar of the period, designed to give the track visibility on both European and American college-market television outlets. Director notes: Confirmed as director of 'In Tua Nua: All I Wanted' (1988) via IMDB title entry tt12018694. The video was produced in 1988 to support the single 'All I Wanted', taken from the album 'The Long Acre', released on Virgin Records. The single charted in the UK in May 1988 and became a college radio hit in the United States that year. Scarlett-Davis was at the height of his music video career at this point, having directed major promos for Erasure, Scritti Politti, Bryan Ferry, Propaganda, and Cocteau Twins in the preceding three years. His background in the fast-paced collage-based Scratch Video movement informed a refined, higher-production-value approach to late-80s promo work. The 'All I Wanted' video is listed on IMDB as a Short (1988) with Leslie Dowdall credited as on-screen talent.