Features

WHIPPING BOY

Picture the scene, a seedy hotel lounge, Charing Cross, Glasgow. The bar is unfortunately closed. Two members of WHIPPING BOY (perhaps the finest rock band to emerge from the City of Dublin in the last few years). Guitarist PAUL PAGE, singer FERGHAL McKEE and myself are shaking hands and exchanging greetings in the way that is usually the norm in these 'meet and greet' pre interview situations. The setting is sparse, there's an old TV in the corner that in classic rock star style is quietly begging us, urging us to throw it out the window before completely trashing said hotel lounge. But we're just not high enough up to make it feel right...solution...go up to hotel room and draw up plans for some rock and roll activity. No lift that we can find, so we head for the stairs several flights later and suddenly for some reason we feel too lethargic, worn out and generally knackered to bother with any thought of playing bloated rock star pig-out game involving a large tub of ice cream, some iced mars bars several bottles of very expensive champagne, a gaggle of nubile young girls and an old photograph of Marianne Faithfull I. Instead we get down to that old cliched rock n' roll standard.... The Interview.

HOW DID WHIPPING BOY AS A BAND COME TO EXIST, WHAT BROUGHT YOU TOGETHER AND WERE YOU DOING ANYTHING MUSICAL BEFORE WHIPPING BOY? Ferghal; "No not really there was nothing solid there at all, we all came together through mutual friends". Paul; "There was a girl we knew, she was 'Lolita' in the original line up, LOLITA AND THE WHIPPING BOY, she was only in the band for about three weeks, she was the catalyst, she was the one who introduced us all to each other, and she couldn't play guitar in any shape or form. We were trying to figure out a way of sacking her. One day she came in and said "I'm a born again Christian I can't do this anymore". So we feigned disappointment but we were fucking delighted when she left". Ferghal; "After that we went down to the countryside and played a gig at a 21st birthday party that was the first time we all played together". Paul; "We hadn't actually rehearsed, we got up and did a few cover versions, the crowd hated us some of the younger people loved it but we thought even getting that negative reaction that we were on to something good". S0 SINCE THE RELEASE OF THE ALBUM WHAT KIND OF YEAR HAVE YOU HAD? Ferghal; "It’s just flown in really fast" Paul; " Yeah... really fast, it doesn't seem long since the album came out last October. Since then we've done two promotional trips to England and this Is our second tour here, we've done the European tour with LOU REED, so it’s been fairly hectic you don't notice because it all goes so quick". SO HOW WAS THE TOUR WITH LOU REED, DID YOU GET TO MEET HIM, WHAT WAS HE LIKE? Ferghal; "He was fine, he was very serious though". Paul; "Yeah... He's cool, its like he's deadly serious about what he does. There was maybe a little bit of tension amongst his camp, but he was a real gentleman, he treated us with great respect and always had a word for us before we went on stage. He was very complimentary about our music. It was him who picked us for the tour. We sent a CD to his management and we heard that he loved the album, that was enough for us, our job every night was to go out and make some of the people remember WHIPPING BOY, which is hard to do when your playing with such a legend. A LOT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT THE INTENSITY OF YOUR LIVE PERFORMANCES WHAT IS IT THAT CREATES THAT TENSION AND ENERGY ON STAGE FOR YOU? Ferghal; "It's because you can get away with things on stage that you can’t get away with in normal life". Paul; "It's always been like that. At the start it was a very unfocussed energy. It was like a whirlwind had hit the stage when we came off. Its a little bit more focused now that's still at the core of what we do. There's something driving us on and we don't quite know what it is yet ourselves". IS PLAYING LIVE IMPORTANT TO YOU? Ferghal;"It is yes, sometimes you go through such a whirlwind you can get used to playing live and it becomes a routine" . Paul; "That's the thing, people assume we're one of these bands who love playing live and would love to play every night of the year which I don't think is true because for us it would loose the freshness. It's very hard to be as intense as that and give your all the way we do, if you’re doing it every single night. I can remember seeing NIRVANA supporting SONIC YOUTH in Dublin just before they broke, they were a really hungry band there was a real tension about what they did. Then when they broke big they played Dublin again it was just an empty shell. They'd lost it all". WHAT HAVE BEEN THE MUSICAL INFLUENCES ON THE BAND, WHAT INSPIRED YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE TO PICK UP A GUITAR? Ferghal; "I think just seeing live bands really". Paul; "ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN when we saw them live. They were one of the bands, THE VELVET UNDERGROUND listening to their records was pretty influential". Ferghal; "Also seeing bands who were shite and wanting to change it. Thinking I can do better than that". Paul; "For me it was the opposite most of the bands I went to see I thought were brilliant. Then when I started playing in a band all the enjoyment of going to gigs went because you’re listening to the sound, to the more technical aspect. You lose what it’s like to be a fan which is sad really". HEARTWORM IS A VERY TECHNICAL ALBUM; IT HAS A MATURE LITERARY FEEL TO IT. LYRICALLY IT'S VERY STRONG. ITS ARROGANT ALMOST, WOULD YOU AGREE WITH THAT? Ferghal; "Yeah of course you have to have a bit of arrogance I wouldn't say it was arrogance its more about having confidence In yourself to be yourself". Paul; 'If there's an arrogance that comes through our music its not that we think what we do is more valid that what anyone else does. Writing a three minute pop song is as valid as anything we do". Ferghal; "There was a statement that someone said to me which was "If you're gonna' write honestly about anything then you've got to start writing honestly about yourself. Once you go over that hurdle you can write about anything". Look at IRVINE WELSH I'm reading “Trainspotting” after seeing the film. Its got fine dialect, he's not putting on any shite, not being judgmental about things. He's just saying, "this is what happens"". THAT BRUTALITY AND HONEST IN WHAT YOU DO MAY WORK AGAINST YOU THE SIMPLE FACT IS THAT IF IT ISN'T A THREE MINUTE POP SONG PEOPLE CAN'T WORK IT OUT. Paul; "Absolutely, you've summed It up. That's something that occurred to us when we were writing but were not going to censor what we were writing but we're not going to censor what we do because of that". Ferghal; "The album is an Introduction to the band. It probably won't stay that way all the time you can't become so obsessive, talking about yourself all the time. It’s an Introduction, a chat up line to the whole world saying, "Do you want fucking?" HOW DO YOU VIEW WHAT YOU'VE ACHIEVED SO FAR? Paul; "We're very proud of the album. It was disappointing that some of the singles didn't get into the charts but in no way are we devastated by that. We'll just go on writing songs in the way we want to". Ferghal; "The whole thing has been a very good learning process because It’s only the start, we can build on what we've done. There's' another four or five albums there at least". Paul; "Well there's another four or five albums or there's no albums, that's how it is with any bands. We could be Sitting here today enjoying playing Glasgow, then tomorrow one of us could attack the other and it would be all over. There's no real masterplan for WHIPPING BOY. We're writing songs and releasing albums, that's success to us at the moment, we don't think in terms of financial and commercial success. If those things happen it would be nice, we would handle success easier than we would failure". IF YOU WEREN'T DOING THIS WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING? Ferghal; "I'm sure I'd still be on the dole trying to do this". Paul; "If we weren't doing this I guarantee we'd be trying to survive in anyway we could. If that meant working in a nine to five job, which most bands say they despise and would never do, they probably would if they had no other means. So if I wasn't doing this I'd be looking to in any way I could to get money, you need something to survive". FINALLY DO YOU EVER GET PISSED OFF HAVING TO SIT AROUND AND DO INTERVIEWS ETC.? Paul; "We're not like some bands who find that side of things a drag and wont talk during interviews. Once we're doing interviews we'll talk. There are days when you'd rather not do it if people are interested enough to come down and talk to us about our band we're not gonna treat them like dorks as long as they're reasonable with us. We've probably talked more than we've played in the last six months. We're gonna' be the first band to talk our way Into the top 40 we're gonna' stop doing gigs and just talk our way in". Talking their way in is, as they say, certainly not beyond them. To use the current vernacular, they talk a good game. Further discussion reveals Ferghal's "Always have always will" Man Utd, supporter confession. Paul's somewhat bizarre allegiance to Derby County and Arsenal due to some mid seventies dubious Irish connection. Their preference to Glasgow curry houses and drinking establishments Nice and Sleazy being the most popular, and an almost modest charitable act of taking six people who had turned up on the wrong night of their Glasgow gig along to see the MANIC STREET PREACHERS at the BARROWLAND. A rock n' roll band their mothers can be proud of July 1996 GRAHAM TILER