Listen to the lions
In 1982, a band emerged on Dublin’s northside that would go on to write some of the biggest songs in the Irish rock canon. Still going strong thirty years on, Aslan are about to embark on their busiest period ever. As they ready themselves for the fray, the iconic Dublin rockers tell their remarkable story.
Olaf Tyaransen, 18 May 2012
“It’s supposed to be public service television,” he spits. “We’re an Irish band that’s been going 30 years. Even if you think we’re the shittiest band ever, we’ve a fuckin’ story that’s worth telling. Them fuckin’ idiots that go out and spend bleedin’ hundreds of thousands on the fucking Voice wouldn’t put forty poxy grand into us.”
The rest of the band feel similarly irate.
“We had to get three of our mates – Paul, Daz and Ronan - to take it on,” adds McGuinness. “They’ve been following us around with cameras for a year. It won’t be slick. It won’t be
Pulp Fiction.”
Obviously you’re not a fan of shows like The Voice, Christy?
“All those shows are a load of garbage,” he seethes. “It’s the wrong mentality. There’s a guy called Chris Doran from Waterford. It’s a classic example. Here’s a guy who’s like me at 18 or 16 or whatever, who had a dream to be a singer. He entered that programme You’re A Star because now kids think that’s what they have to fuckin’ do. So he’s obscure, he’s nobody. Within six months, he’s a household name because he won that show.
“Then we sent him over to represent us at the Eurovision, and he was a fuckin’ disaster. Because the chap hasn’t learnt his craft yet. He’s only six months old, he’s only a baby. But we sent him over to compete with world class fuckin’ musicians and because he didn’t fuckin’ fare up against them, he came back and we crucified him
in the press. Like, to do that to a human being.”
Warming to his theme, he pounds the EMI boardroom table in anger.
“And all these fuckers that are out there! All these Bressies and all these people. If fuckin’ Bressie and The Coronas are the best that Irish music can offer, we’re in a sad fuckin’ state of affairs in this country, that’s all I can say. It’s all about branding now. If we released our album and it did nothing, right, and then I appeared as a judge on The Voice and it went into the charts, I’d be disgusted. It would mean absolutely nothing to me. Because it would be nothing to do
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