Phil Chevron was a musician and song writer with the bands The Radiators From Space and The Pogues writing songs of the calibre of Television Screen, Enemies, Kitty Ricketts and Clery's Clock for The Radiators and Lorelei and Thousands Are Sailing for The Pogues. In this tribute to Phil recorded in front of a live audience I talked to Pete Holidai and Steve Rapid of The Radiators, writer/director Peter Sheridan and Phil's sister Deborah Blacoe. We discussed Phil's life and art right from the age of two when he experienced his first trip to the theatre and had to be bribed to leave until his far too early death at the age of 56 in 2013.
Tara Flynn is an Irish actress and writer. She came to international attention with her satirical sketches "Racist B&B" which won her Satirist of The Year at the Swift Satire Festival and "Armagayddon" co-written with Kevin McGahern.
She has written two satirical books Your Grand; The Irish Woman's Secret Guide To Life and Giving Out Yards;the Art Of Complaint Irish Style.
She was a founder member of the comedy trio The Nualas and is a core member of The Dublin Comedy Improv.
Tara also had roles in Irish Pictorial Weekly, Line Of Duty, Moone Boy, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, The Omid Djalili Show and she was a recurring cast member of Thank God You're Here UK.
I met Tara for a chat in the home of Irish comedy and The Dublin Comedy Improv, The International Bar.
This is a live show I did in Vicar St back in 2006 for a series of CDs with News Of The World newspaper. Des Bishop and Ian Coppinger were on the other CDs as far as I remember. I decided to stick it out on podcast as a relaunch of the podcast which I feel I have been neglecting in the last few months because of other commitments. There's a few bits on it that I had completely forgotten and other bits that I still do the odd time.
Aidan Gillen is best known for his role as Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish in Game Of Thrones, Tommy Carcetti in The Wire (both HBO series), CIA operative Bill Wilson in The Dark Knight Rises, Stuart Alan Jones in the Channel 4 series Queer As Folk and John Boy in the RTE Television series Love/Hate.
I met Aidan at a Q&A with ex Teardrop Explodes singer Julian Cope and he kindly agreed to have a chat on my podcast. However when we met he reminded me I had met him briefly before many years ago. Indeed he had to leave his own house for a few hours partly because of me. We had a long chat about film in general and some of his films including Treacle Jr, Stills and Some Mother's Son.
This one is a bit of an epic. I could have made it a two parter but y'know there hasn't been one in awhile so you can do that yourself if you like. Enjoy an extra big helping of Podarooney!
Aisling O'Neill is perhaps best known for her role as Carol in RTE’s long-running and most popular soap FAIR CITY. I recently acted with her as she played the role of Suzanne in John B.Keane's THE CHASTITUTE directed by Michael Scott at The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin. She has also recently acted in Graham Cantwell's award-winning short film LILY and Kavaleer Production's live action/animated short CITY OF ROSES, directed by Andrew Kavanagh (winner - Director's Choice Award at the Boston Irish Film Festival 2016). I also chatted to fellow Chastitute actors Mark O' Regan and Andrew Kenny and singer musician Aine Duffy who's band Little Grit are really good. I witnessed a cormorant eating a live fish in Schull live on my podcast too!!!
Eoin Ryan Anthony is a singer song writer from Thurles who's band are called Seskin Lane. Their album History Of Things To Come is full of well crafted and beautifully played songs topped with Eoin's sweet melodic voice. We met up in The Central Hotel in Dublin, which is becoming my unofficial studio, for a chat about music, cows giving birth and not remembering peoples names. I also have a chat with Joan from the venue near Limavady called The Keady Clachan about how this venue on the side of a mountain has become so popular with musicians around the world. Then I chat with Don Piper (who accompanied violinist Deni Bonet at a gig in The Clachan) about his own music and if you hang on until the end even after I have said goodbye you can hear Deni Bonet playing a track live at the aforementioned venue.
Brent Pope is a New Zealand rugby analyst on RTE television, rugby journalist, charity worker, children's book author, founder of Outside in Art Gallery in Dublin Ireland and owner of POPE shirts. He was born, raised and spent his rugby playing career in New Zealand, but has lived and worked in Ireland for most of his broadcasting career. Brent was selected in the original 1987 New Zealand Rugby World Cup training squad, but had to withdraw a week before the tournament began due to a serious elbow injury in the final series of All Black trials. He then came back after injury to be nominated as one of New Zealand's outstanding domestic players of that year. I met Brent a couple of times at different events and each time I have had a very enlightening and deep conversation with him. I was delighted he agreed to do the podcast and we settled on meeting at his house in South Dublin. After talking about the demise of amateur sport and his early life growing up in New Zealand, Brent opened up about the difficulty of living so far from his elderly parents, his struggle with anxiety and his love of "Outside" art.
Ryan McMullan is Ed Sheeran's opening act for his 2017 summer tour. He is a singer songwriter with immense stage presence and songwriting skills. Deni Bonet is a fiddle player who has played with Cyndi Lauper, REM, Mundy and Sarah McLachlan. Her latest album Bright Shiny Objects has entered the US charts and is getting airplay all over Europe. It's her first completely instrumental album. Johnny Cronin is from the band Cronin. Their latest album The First Kiss Of Love is a big dramatic burning tower of love songs. They are also now officially Shane MacGowan's backing band. Mik Artistik is a Leeds based artist and performance comedian. His song David Bowie Was A Funny Man is worth checking out on YouTube. Shane Kennedy has a story to tell and works with fashion designer Paul Smith. I met all these people over a ten day period as I was on a tour that took in The Bronx, New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Chicago and ended on St Patricks night in Leeds. It was all great and exciting and stressfull and brilliant and its good to be back home again.
Mary Coughlan is an Irish jazz and folk singer best known for her rendition of Love Will Tear Us Apart, The Magdalen Laundry and I Want To Be Seduced. Her career kicked off at the age of thirty with the release of the independently produced and financed album Tired and Emotional. She suddenly became a massive star and her career sky rocketed from there but due to severe mismanagement she lost her house, her car and her record deal with WEA and began to drink heavily. Her drinking was also connected to her abuse by two family members at a young age which led a suicide attempt at the age of 15 and her incarceration in a mental home. In 1994 she received treatment for her alcoholism and since then has released many immensely popular albums including After The Fall (her American Debut), The House Of Ill Repute and Scars On The Calender. After many phone calls back and forth we eventually met up one Monday morning in The Central Hotel in Dublin. Mary was just so open and warm hearted. It was a pleasure to meet and chat with her.
Christy Dignam is the lead singer of the popular Irish rock band Aslan. His career of over twenty-five years has been characterised by numerous successes on the Irish charts such as "This Is" and "Feel No Shame" as well as recurring problems with drug addiction and recovery. Christy grew up in the North Dublin suburb of Finglas. He studied the classical art of bel canto singing with teacher Frank Merriman at the Bel Canto House School of Singing in Dublin. At the age of six, he was raped by a neighbour. This continued to occur over a three-year period until, at the age of nine, Dignam sought help from his best friend's brother, a man in his twenties. During the meeting with his best friend's brother, Dignam explained his situation and he was then raped by this man as well. Dignam later suggested his drug addiction may have resulted from the psychological trauma caused by these events. I met Christy at his home in Dublin and was made more than welcome by him and his wife Kathryn. I could have listened to him all day and I'm sure you will feel the same. He is a national treasure or as Bono said from the stage when they played at the Three Arena recently he is "The Angel Of Dublin"
Eric Lalor plays Cathal Spillane in the long running soap Fair City and is a stand up comedian. His first foray into comedy was a bit unusual. In 2006, as one of the participants of RTÉ Two’s Des Bishop’s Joy In The Hood, his first ever gig was filmed on his home turf of Ballymun in Dublin and broadcast to the entire nation. Eric has been a mainstay on the Irish comedy scene since and has written and performed two solo shows Lalorpalooza and Here! No Evil. He has acted in RTE’s The Importance of Being Whatever, Love/Hate and Amber (directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan for RTE). Eric has also appeared in the short films No Messages and Breath In and appeared in the hit play Singlehood, written and directed by Una McKevitt and Dan Coffey.
Kristin Vollset is a Norwegian singer/songwriter documentary maker and traveller who ended up in Dublin after travelling through Denmark, Holland, England and Scotland in her van. She was looking for a free spot to park her van in Dublin city centre when she accidentally reversed into a wall and broke a tail light. Then a horse came out from a hole in the wall and the rest is history. In this interview Kristin tells me how she happened upon a group of inner city lads who have a horse stables on Cork St. She ended up hanging around with these lads for the next 2 years and filmed a documentary about her experience. She wrote and recorded the song No Plan with some of the lads and the video for the song went viral. I chatted to her via Skype in her home town of Bergen.
From 1969 until 1991 Fiachra Trench worked in London as composer, arranger, musical director, keyboardist and record producer. In August 1991 he returned with his family to live and work in Ireland. Fiachra's film and television scores include those for Dear Sarah, Moondance, A Love Divided, The Boys and Girl from County Clare (nominated in 2005 for an IFTA for Best Music) and the major BBC documentary series, People’s Century. He has collaborated with Shaun Davey, Michael Kamen, Hans Zimmer and others on many film scores, including Twelfth Night, Die Hard and Pearl Harbor. He has conducted The BBC Concert Orchestra (with The Corrs), The Ulster Orchestra, L'Orchestra del Teatro Massimo, Palermo (with The Chieftains), the RTÉ Concert Orchestra (with Marti Pellow) and The Irish Film Orchestra. As arranger/musical director Fiachra has worked with many performers, including Altan, Paul Brady, Kate Bush, The Corrs, The Chieftains, Elvis Costello, Phil Lynott, Paul McCartney and Van Morrison. I chatted with him in Boyles pub in Slane where he spent some of his early years (in Slane not the pub).
Andrew Ryan is one of the most exciting talents in recent years; in demand as an act and an MC at the biggest comedy clubs across the UK. Andrew’s quintessentially Irish storytelling abilities and cheeky, friendly demeanour make him a natural observational stand up. He performed his debut hour show ‘Ryanopoly’ at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2012, receiving rave reviews. In 2014 he returned with his latest show ‘The Life of Ryan’ playing to packed out rooms. In 2015 he was at the Edinburgh Festival with his show ‘Perfectly Inadequate’. Selling out his run at the Festival and having to put on extra shows. I met him for a chat at the 2016 Edinburgh festival where he was performing his latest show "Ruined". He is without doubt a sound man. Find out more about him at www.andrewryancomedy.com
Colin Mochrie spent seven years as a regular on Whose Line Is It Anyway? and remained a cast member until the show's end in 1998. After the British version of the show ended its run, Mochrie joined the American version of Whose Line hosted by Drew Carey on ABC. Mochrie appeared on every episode from its debut in August 1998 to its finale in 2006. Since 2002, Mochrie and Brad Sherwood have intermittently toured North America as a two-man stage show called "An Evening with Colin and Brad," playing primarily in small theatre venues. A DVD of their performances, "Colin & Brad: Two Man Group" was released on March 8, 2011. I met up with Colin at the Galway Vodafone Comedy Carnival just after his show with The Steve Frost Improv Allstars and before his show with Brad Sherwood. Singer, songwriter, activist, artist—Music as a means of healing is an idea that permeates and informs most of Emily Cavanagh’s life. A working musician in New York City, Cavanagh has recorded three records to date and played with some of the city’s finest musicians. Cavanagh, a graduate of New York University, has spent nearly ten years combining two passions-music and service, traveling and playing music, while helping underserved and homeless young adults find their voice through the arts. I saw her perform in Whelan's and met up for a chat with her in The Central Hotel in Dublin where we were almost removed for being a fire hazard mid chat.
Barry Glendenning is a sports journalist who holds the position of deputy sports editor on the guardian.co.uk website run by the UK newspaper The Guardian He is perhaps best known for his work on the Guardian's football podcast Football Weekly hosted by James Richardson. He also regularly contributes to the site's satirical daily email service, The Fiver. He is often found at the helm of the Guardian Unlimited "minute by minute reports", which feature live text coverage of Premier League and Champions League games and internationals and he co-hosts with Max Rushden on Talksport Radio. Back in the day he wrote for Hot Press in Dublin covering the burgeoning alternative comedy scene and spent a while as a stand up comedian himself, moving to London to further his career but eventually opting to ditch stand up comedy to remain as a full time journalist. I met up with him on a chilly Sunday morning near Waterloo Bridge just after he had come of air with Talksport Radio.
This episode was recorded in front of a live audience with Karl Spain and Kevin McGahern and the proceeds from it went to the My Lovely Horse Rescue charity. Karl Spain was born in Limerick. He has appeared on RTE in the reality show Karl Spain Wants A Woman on which he met his now long term girlfriend Rachel O'Keefe. He recently appeared on Operation Transformation on which he parted with two stone and currently writes and performs on Republic Of Telly. He also writes stand up material for Al Porter. He is constantly gigging both in Ireland and abroad from places like Dubai to somewhere else exotic beginning with D. Kevin McGahern is the presenter on Republic of Telly and Kevin McGahern's America. He appeared in Hardy Bucks as Sim Card and was the man behind the YouTube spoof documentary sensation "the who man slipped on the ice" even getting a favourable mention from Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker. He has put Gowna in Cavan on the map (not literally, that was probably done by a cartographer) and was subject of the headline in the Longford Leader, " Gowna comic lands top RTE comedy job"
I heard Grammy nominated guitarist Jimmy Smyth was playing up in JJ Smyth’s the venue on Aungier St and popped up to see him. I didn’t realise he was playing with the legend Mary Coughlan and his opening act was Karrie. Jimmy dropped me her CD and I listened to it in the car on the way home. I had never heard of Karrie but was immediately mesmerised by her voice and the quality of the songs. I met her for a chat and a couple of songs out in Jimmy’s gaff. Karrie is a farmer and horse breaker. She is a reluctant performer but an inspired song writer and singer. With songs of the quality of Burt Bacharach and a voice reminiscent of Karen Carpenter you find yourself thinking you’re listening some lost classic. Her album Perpetual Motion is out now. I’ve already passed my copy onto someone else so I should probably buy a few more. On the podcast she plays an acoustic version of ‘This Time’ the first single which has been playlisted on RTE and BBC NI.
I met Maureen Langan at The Best of Irish show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She was performing a piece from her show Daughter of a Garbage Man. Maureen grew up with an Irish immigrant mother, garbage man father, and five siblings in Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey, where there is no lake. She has performed as a stand-up all over the US, Canada, and the UK. Maureen was a finalist in the San Francisco Comedy Competition, the first woman since Ellen DeGeneres to place in the top three. She is an award-winning broadcast journalist who has hosted her own national TV and radio shows. Darren Walsh came to see my Edinburgh show and said he liked it which I found hard to believe until he told me his father was from Mayo and his mother was from Crumlin. I went to see his show S'pun the following night and loved it. As the title suggests Darren is committed to punning although he also uses props and animation. Having worked as an illustrator, animator and short-film maker, life-long Monty Python nerd and official giant, Darren Walsh decided to try his hand at Stand-up in 2010, using props and strange sound effects he’d made in his bedroom. Singing in an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice and playing on a miniature keyboard (or Arnieoke), he would fill the gaps in between songs with a 1-liner here and there. This opened the floodgates and 6 years on Darren has written 3192 more.
Pat O'Mahony has been a radio producer on RTE for the likes of Liveline, Mooney, Late Debate and The Ryan Tubridy Show and has produced 5 documentaries for the excellent RTE Documentary On One series including The Forgotten Visit about president Richard Nixon's visit to Ireland and A Silver Lining about emigration and The Stockholm Gaels a gaelic football club in.....well somewhere in Sweden. (They can both be found on the Documentary On One podcast.) He also co produced and hosted You Couldn't Make It Up a 10 part weekly radio comedy news panel show for Newstalk in 2014 for which I contributed as a panelist as well. He also directed his first TV documentary Sleep With Me for Channel 4. Many people will also remember him for his time co-presenting RTE's Head To Toe a weekly fashion show. Myself and Pat have a shared experience in that we were attacked and beaten up together one night as we walked home from town and it was a strange coincidence that when I chatted to Pat he was sporting a black eye from another unfortunate encounter in town
I became aware of Barry Crimmins from watching the documentary Call Me Lucky directed by Bobcat Goldthwaite on Netflix and his interview on Marc Maron's podcast. I was amazed that I got a chance to interview him for my podcast with the help my friend Bruce Egar in New York ahead of his shows here in the Sugar Club in Dublin and in Leicester Square, London. Crimmins' satirical writing and comedy routines have focused through the years on the need for political and social change. In the 1990s, in a more serious vein, he led a crusade against images of child abuse on the Internet, calling for police investigation of ISPs. Crimmins received the "Peace Leadership Award" from Boston Mobilization for Survival, and was honored by Community Works with the "Artist for Social Change Award" for his years of activism. On June 4, 2016, Barry Crimmins shot a special in Lawrence, Kansas for Louis C.K.'s Pig Newton Productions
I interviewed Jimmy Smyth in front of a live audience in Boyles Bar in Slane. I first saw Jimmy on television when I was a young fella growing up in Meath and he was playing and singing with the Bogey Boys. You could tell that he was more accomplished than the average punk musician of the time. I couldn't believe it when I found out he came from just down the road in Navan. That was very inspirational for me. Since then he has recorded and played with Roger Daltrey, Curtis Stigers, Chaka Khan, Lisa Stansfield, Van Morrison and Reba McEntire. Jimmy has been Musical Director for RTE TV shows, and regularly performs with the RTE Concert Orchestra, the RTESO, The Ulster Orchestra and many others. He’s still very much in demand for touring and recording, and when not on the road, can regularly be seen playing rock and roots or jazz rock with his fusion band, Spectrum.
Newcastle comedian Dave Johns is the lead actor in Ken Loach's latest film I, Daniel Blake which won the Palm D'Or at Cannes Film Festival this year. He has appeared on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, 8 out of 10 Cats and on Harry Hill as God. With Eoin O' Neill he adapted Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption for the stage for the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin. They also rewrote it for a smaller cast for a rerun at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I was cast in a role for that version of The Shawshank and during that run I shared a pokey little flat for a month with him and my two children and for a while Dave's daughter also. Needless to say we got to know each other quite well during that period. It wasn't all fun and games but I grew to really care for the man, still do and always will.
Alison Spittle was a contestant in one of those comedy talent contests I hosted that we all enter when we are starting out but bear no resemblance to what real life comedy performing is like. It was called The Toilet Duck Awards, a reference to Father Ted, and had comedians go head to head doing 3 minutes each; based on audience applause one of them went through to the next round. I can't remember who won and Alison was eliminated in the first round which goes to show how pointless these competitions are. Three minutes would never be enough for Alison as she paints a hilarious picture of the struggles of feeling like an outsider growing up in Mullingar. She has an ability to make you feel empathy and laugh at the same time. She is someone who has fallen in love with the art of performing stand up as opposed to those who see it as a stepping stone to some other career. She just has to open her mouth and the stories come thick and fast.
I first heard of Feather through a Nialler9 tweet. He tweeted a link to a song called "Pit" by Ben Bix and Feather and I completely loved it. I was really interested in interviewing her and coincidentally I bumped into her at the launch of the Electric Picnic and had one of those awkward moments where you go a bit over the top praising someone to their face and embarrassing them. I contacted her on Facebook but nothing happened. So then I heard the single "Like No Other" and decided to give it another go and luckily this time we sorted out a time and place for an interview (btw if you Google "Feather - single" you will end up looking at duvets). In the meantime I saw Feather perform at Africa Day in Phoenix Park. I was totally amazed and I'm sure you will be too once you listen to this podcast..