Interview with Billy McGuinness of Aslan
Just before I hung up the phone to Billy during the week, following our 45 minute chat, I described the interview as being an "absolute pleasure". It was, without a shadow of a doubt my favourite, most in depth and honest interview that I have featured here on View from the Stalls.
Within that time frame we chatted about a host of things ranging from how the band formed to their break up in the 80's to lead singer Christy Dignam's battle with cancer. As Billy put it himself, "when it comes to Aslan, we have no limits about what we talk about!"
"Aslan were a four piece when they formed in 1982 and I went to see them in the Revenue Commissioners Club in George's Street in Dublin and I was just blown away by their performance. I thought Christy was the most charismatic frontman that I had ever seen! So, I went up to the lads after the gig and I asked if there was any chance that I could join the band and they all just started laughing! You see, I was working as a baker at that time so I would finish at two o'clock and I would head around to where the band would be rehearsing and I'd arrive and I would always bring a couple of cakes with me from the bakery! One day, they did a demo for Dave Fanning in 2FM and whenever you did that a cheque would be sent out to you, so they got the cheque and we were all at the rehearsals, I had arrived at two o'clock with my cakes as per usual and the lads said "come on we'll go up to The Boot Inn for a pint!" so we went up there and we had a few drinks and of course, when the lads had a few drinks in them, their guard was down and I asked again if I could join the band and they said yes! So, the next day instead of arriving at rehearsals at two, I showed up at ten and they hadn't a clue what was going on but I told them that I packed in my job and was ready to join the band and the rest as they say, is history!"
The band then worked incredibly hard on their material and began to reap the rewards of that. They were selling out venues all around Dublin and they really were the talk of the town in the mid to late 80's with a lot of people within the industry really sitting up and taking notice of Aslan. You could say things were really taking off for them! But as Billy explains, just as things were coming together, it fell apart.
"Our song 'This Is' was starting to get played on radio and suddenly there was a bit of a buzz around Dublin about Aslan. People were starting to come to our gigs and we were moving to larger venues. 'This Is' actually went on to be the most played single of the year it was released and at one stage there were eighteen A&R men at our gig in the TV Club, they came over from England to see us play. We ended up signing to EMI in 1987 and we went into the studio to start recording, we got a superb producer in Mick Glossop and began to record our album 'Feel No Shame'. We came out half way through recording the album to support David Bowie in Slane, went back in and finished the album. The album came out and went straight in at number one in the Irish charts, which was just phenomenal! And that's when everything fell apart then! EMI had lined up for us to support Crowded House and we were going to release 'This Is' in America and do a back to back, coast to coast tour with Crowded House and then Christy got involved in drugs and the whole thing went down."
Lead singer Christy Dignam's involvement with drugs just as Aslan's career was about to take off threw a huge spanner in the works and led to the band splitting up but Billy maintains that he sees it as a positive experience rather than a time filled with regret and when the band did eventually get back together, they came back stronger than ever and a lot of people share that same view.
"To be honest, I think it was inevitable that it was going to happen because we just lost the run of ourselves and when Christy got really bad we decided that splitting up was the best option. It had to be done though because I think if we had carried on at that stage and done everything that EMI wanted us to do, I don't think we would be here now. Like when the band split up, it led to Christy getting his shit together and getting himself clean which was brilliant! I also think bands nowadays have learned from our mistakes back then and use us as an example to keep on the straight and narrow and that's great too!"
Aslan got back together around 5 years after the break up for what was meant to be a once off charity gig together to raise much needed funds for a particular charity but as we all know now, it wasn't a once off reunion!
"We had always been asked to do this particular gig and always turned it down but one year for some strange reason we said we would do it if everyone else was up to it and they were! We had two weeks to rehearse the set so we went into the rehearsal studio, went through what we would perform and we decided that we would just try and write a new song to perform at the gig, for the craic! And one of those songs we wrote was 'Crazy World', so we were up on stage and we performed 'Crazy World' and we didn't know that Freddie Middleton and Joe Stewart from Sony BMG were in the crowd! Of course, after the gig they came backstage and told us that our new song would be a smash hit and asked if we were interested in keeping the reunion going, and after having a meeting we decided we would and we signed to Sony BMG and away we went again but we were a lot wiser about what to do this time around!"
Fast forward twenty odd years and the band are still selling out venues and getting airplay on countless radio stations! One such gig was on the 16th of March in the Olympia Theatre in Dublin which I was lucky enough to attend and Billy admits that the vibe he got that night was incredible - he even did his very first stage dive!
"Would you believe, in thirty four years I had never stage dived! But we were out in rehearsals a week before the gig in Blanchardstown and The Coronas happened to be there, so I explained to Danny O'Reilly that I was planning on doing a stage dive and asked him for any advice that he might have, and he told me two things. Number one: take out your earpiece and number two: cover your balls! And I did both! It was a superb night and the crowd were electric as always!"
Seeing Aslan perform live is always a great experience, their performances never fail to amaze me! But there was something about that gig that made it extra special. Perhaps it was seeing Christy Dignam up on stage once again, singing his heart out, following what has been a difficult couple of years for himself and the band and Billy maintains that his band mate and friend is a fighter!
"Christy will never be the same as he was before because he has an incurable disease. It's amyloidosis. It's cancer. But for him to get back on stage and for us to be contemplating recording again great! He was over at the amyloidosis clinic in London during the week and his levels were up slightly but the doctors were happy with the rest of his tests. We will never go back to the stage of gigging Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, but that won't take away from our performances!"
I cannot stress enough how much you should go see these guys live because as I said, it is always an amazing gig and as a famous Irish writer Roddy Doyle described it: "It's a religious experience"
Here are Aslan's upcoming gig dates:
13th May - Cork Opera House
9th June - The Leopardstown Races
2nd July - The Groove Festival, Kilruddery House, Wicklow
3rd July - The Daytripper Festival
EOIN!
"To be honest, I think it was inevitable that it was going to happen because we just lost the run of ourselves and when Christy got really bad we decided that splitting up was the best option. It had to be done though because I think if we had carried on at that stage and done everything that EMI wanted us to do, I don't think we would be here now. Like when the band split up, it led to Christy getting his shit together and getting himself clean which was brilliant! I also think bands nowadays have learned from our mistakes back then and use us as an example to keep on the straight and narrow and that's great too!""Would you believe, in thirty four years I had never stage dived! But we were out in rehearsals a week before the gig in Blanchardstown and The Coronas happened to be there, so I explained to Danny O'Reilly that I was planning on doing a stage dive and asked him for any advice that he might have, and he told me two things. Number one: take out your earpiece and number two: cover your balls! And I did both! It was a superb night and the crowd were electric as always!"
Seeing Aslan perform live is always a great experience, their performances never fail to amaze me! But there was something about that gig that made it extra special. Perhaps it was seeing Christy Dignam up on stage once again, singing his heart out, following what has been a difficult couple of years for himself and the band and Billy maintains that his band mate and friend is a fighter!