The Arcadia was run by Thurles native Elvera Butler and her partner Andy Foster and was one of the few places in Cork city that would host punk bands. Butler had been the entertainments officer at University College Cork, and so the venue became known as the 'Downtown Kampus'. The punk scene that developed in the late at the Arc was an important turning point for emerging Cork punk music; until then live music in the city had consisted mostly of Blues and pub rock bands. According to Mean Features guitarist Liam Heffernan, "the [emerging post-punk] scene was amazing....there was nothing else really in late Seventies and early Eighties Cork. Heavy industry was whacked. Elvera Butler brought some fantastic music to Cork. That woke us all up.”Here Elvera discusses when U2 first played in the Arcadia as a support act to XTC in October 1978 to a crowd of over 1000 people. They then came back a 2nd time to support the Only Ones in May of 1979. Other gigs included them playing on a level footing to DC9 and alongside their close friends the Virgin Prunes. Then they progressed to having a headlining gig with acts such as Nun Attax as a support act. Check the full chat in the Cork History Matters podcast on Redfm.ie