Read on Twitter
Thread. Why do I support #whynother?
Back in the 90s, I played in a band with three women, and we had to work twice as hard to be taken seriously.
In the beginning we were ignored. We played live three or four nights a week & became one of the best live bands in the country. https://twitter.com/WhyNotHerIre/status/1357293283685318658
Back in the 90s, I played in a band with three women, and we had to work twice as hard to be taken seriously.
In the beginning we were ignored. We played live three or four nights a week & became one of the best live bands in the country. https://twitter.com/WhyNotHerIre/status/1357293283685318658
We were still ignored. Then we went to Germany to play a festival, and on a Sunday night in Freiburg we played a gig in front of 300 people and wrecked the place - a song of ours called "Wish You Well" had been played on college radio there, we played it third in the set & the...
... whole place went fucking bananas, and stayed that way for the next hour - the venue was so packed we had to enter and exit the stage via a side window.
That song was written by our frontwoman, Sharon O'Brien.
A record deal worth half a million pounds sterling was offered
That song was written by our frontwoman, Sharon O'Brien.
A record deal worth half a million pounds sterling was offered
... to us, with the women being talked over.
We couldn't be ignored anymore, and when we got home we were interviewed, but the lads interviewing us again talked over the girls, or ignored them completely. Us lads were asked about songwriting and life on the road, and even ...
We couldn't be ignored anymore, and when we got home we were interviewed, but the lads interviewing us again talked over the girls, or ignored them completely. Us lads were asked about songwriting and life on the road, and even ...
when we said that the girls were just as involved (if not more so), few questions went in their direction. The label went bust before we could sign.
I was exhausted and quit just before an American tour, but the band went on to win the Bacardi Hot Press Unplugged Band Of ...
I was exhausted and quit just before an American tour, but the band went on to win the Bacardi Hot Press Unplugged Band Of ...
... The Year - even as one of Ireland's top live acts, it was still tough to get taken seriously. A change of sound and image didn't help and it seemed to me that the Irish music scene didn't know what to do with a band featuring three ordinary, yet extraordinary, women.
I hope to play with that band once more - Sharon O'Brien's voice is from another world, and her and Mandy Sweeney together in harmony sounded like nothing on earth. Sinéad Madden's voice and fiddle could set fire to things.
Seeing the success of Tolü Makay and ...
Seeing the success of Tolü Makay and ...
Denise Chaila and Gemma Dunleavy gives me great joy, tinged with a sadness that the women I played with never got the credit they deserved.
And if I couldn't have it for my sisters, I want it for our daughters.
That's why I'm behind #whynother.
And if I couldn't have it for my sisters, I want it for our daughters.
That's why I'm behind #whynother.
Footnote: The band appeared on the Late Late Show a few months after I left, which is where that YouTube clip comes from - Mandy had taken over from me on the bass by then. I don't think I was missed too much. =)
