Snow Patrol may have the upper hand in terms of sales, but there’s only going to be one winner of the ‘Hardest Gigging Band’ gong at the 2007 County Down Music Awards and that’s The Answer.

Prone to panic attacks if their tour bus isn’t parked round the corner, the ‘70s worshipping rockers – think Rory Gallagher and Free mixed with Led Zep at their most lemon squeezing – will have played 200 shows this year by the time Santa comes a calling.
“Yeah, it’s kind of hectic,” says singer Cormac Neeson, proving himself to be a master of understatement as well as huge sideburns. “We’re at a festival tomorrow at Chepstow Castle with UFO, then we’re doing Norway, Denmark, Holland, Finland, Serbia with the Rolling Stones, Turkey, Korea, Fuji Rocks in Japan, Germany, Switzerland and back to Holland for the Lowlands festival.”
Sorry, Serbia with the Rolling who?
“The Stones,” he laughs. “We were up for a support with them last year which didn’t happen, but we got a call on Wednesday saying, ‘If you’re not doing anything else on July 14th, Mick and the boys would love to have you.’ Luckily, the festival we’re playing the next day is in Istanbul, so it’s pretty much en route. I don’t know anything else about the gig, other than it’s big and in Belgrade.”
Being fully conversant with the machinations of the Serbian concert industry, I can tell you that the show was originally meant to take place in the 100,000-capacity Hippodrome, but had to be moved to the smaller Usce Park when animal rights activists discovered that in order to stop them panicking, 300 horses stabled nearby would have to be sedated. ‘Smaller’ in this case being relative, as the Park can accommodate 80,000 people who took precisely 33 minutes to snap up the available tickets.
Of more immediate concern is the Cork Live At The Marquee show The Answer are playing tonight at the behest of those other rock ‘n’ roll aristocrats, The Who.
Managing to inveigle ourselves backstage without having to offer anybody sexual favours, myself and the boy Keogh immediately run in to Roger Daltrey (good nick), Pete Townshend (not so good nick) and their Leeside pal from way back, Irish Jack Lyons, who’s tonight’s guest of honour.
While everyone else is desperately searching for a pen to get their autographs, Neeson and his guitar-playing bandmate Paul Mahon are more concerned about the nasty niff in their van.
“It’s just back from Glastonbury where judging by the smell it doubled up as a portaloo,” Mahon winces. “Sweaty armpits and stinky feet go with the job, but you don’t pee on your own bumper. So to speak.”
Before becoming the inveterate road warriors they are today, The Answer could be found playing the same local dives as their Downpatrick compadres Ash.
“I went on the bus to Belfast with Mark Hamilton and wee Timmy Wheeler to see Therapy? at the Ulster Hall in 1992,” Paul reminisces, “and our drummer, James Heatley, filled in for Rick (McMurray) when he broke his arm. The first guitar I bought gathered dust for two years until I saw Ash on some five-band bill and thought, ‘If fucking Wheeler can do it, so can I!’”
“Watching Ash and Therapy? on Top Of The Pops gave all the 15-year-olds in bands like me enormous hope,” Neeson agrees. “The music scene where we’re from is very much a social event. It was an opportunity to meet up with likeminded young people who didn’t want to go to the village disco, drink a bottle of Ravers (= Buckfast, MD 20-20 or any other bumwine) down an alleyway and get into a fight at the end of the night. The fact that somebody was in the same building as you meant that he or she was alright.”
As in not a sectarian arsehole?
“Aye,” they both nod.
Encouraged by Paul’s dad who was in chart-topping ‘60s showband The Freshmen – “They toured with the Beach Boys and everything” – The Answer started making regular trips to London via Larne and Holyhead.
They were on foray number 14 when a gentleman from the Aussie record label that discovered AC/DC, Albert Productions, said he’d like to add them to their roster. The resulting Rise album hit the racks on June 26 2006, and has kept the quartet in gigs ever since.
“One of the first things we got on the back of it was the Whitesnake support,” Mahon enthuses. “We’d been told to keep our distance from David Coverdale ‘cause he’d had The Quireboys thrown off the previous tour, but he was really friendly and full of advice.”
Like?
“Besides, ‘Don’t get married?'” Neeson deadpans. “How to crack America, avoid rip-off merchants and generally go from being a band with promise to fulfilling that promise.”
The Answer’s next “pinch me, I’m dreaming!” moment was when Jimmy Page watched them from side-of-stage at the Shepherds Bush Empire.
“Fortunately we only found that after we’d finished,” Mahon resumes. “He’s declared himself a fan since so, Jimmy, if those Led Zeppelin reunion rumours are true, can we do support?’”
“Another one’s playing with my favourite singer, Paul Rogers, in the Albert Hall,” Neeson says, those muttonchops of his glowing with pride. “I remember watching him and Gary Moore ripping it up during soundcheck and thinking, ‘It doesn’t get any better than this.’ Which it did afterwards when I got to speak to him for 45 minutes in his dressing-room.”
What The Answer rather charmingly fail to mention amidst all this rampant fandom is Rise recently selling its 100,000th copy, and establishing them as bone fide top 30 stars in Japan.
“Generally the way we do things is start at the bottom and clamber our way up, but for some reason in Japan people embraced it straight away,” Cormac continues. “We did five days of talking to journalists non-stop from 9am to 6pm, and played our first gig there to 3,000 people who knew every word to every song. It’s the first time we’ve not been the underdogs desperately trying to prove ourselves, and I rather enjoyed it!”
Also enjoying themselves are The Who fans that extricate themselves from the pub early enough to catch The Answer’s short sharp shock of a Marquee set. No crotch is left un-thrust, oooh baby yeah un-roared or giant orange beach ball un-inflated as the band party like it’s 1973.
“The only point in touring round the world is if we given the people who come down to see us 100%,” Neeson reflects awards. “Otherwise I might as well be back home putting that really useful English and Ethnomusicology degree I got from Queens to use!”