- Music
- 11 Apr 01
Here, Hot Press profiles some of the home grown artists who've launched new releases in time for the Christmas market. Christie Hennessey
Christie Hennessey
IF THINGS had worked out somewhat differently for Christie Hennessey, he might, right now, be living it up on Malibu beach or in some other rock star retirement hangout. For, believe it or not, he once turned down a job as drummer with the original Fleetwood Mac!
“It was around 1968,” he recalls. “I was at the Ram Jam club in Brixton with my wife and I saw Peter Green sitting there having a coffee. He was with the John Mayall Blues Band at that time and I’d gone to see them a few nights before that. We got talking and I told him that I’d been at the gig and I thought it was absolutely brilliant. It turned out that he’d seen me playing drums around town and he mentioned that he was starting up his own band. He said to me ‘I’ve already got John McVie on bass and I’m looking for a drummer, would you be interested?’ I told him that I was flattered that he’d asked me but said that the band I was with were really good and I didn’t want to let them down. A week later, Fleetwood Mac were formed, becoming a massive success shortly after that!”
That ill-judged decision on Hennessey’s part meant it would be almost twenty-five years before he would achieve any sort of notable success. And now that he’s finally arrived he’s determined to enjoy his current good fortune.
On his third album Lord Of Your Eyes, Hennessey is joined by some of the top session musicians in the world, including drummer Russ Kunkel who has played with the likes of James Taylor, Jackson Browne and Stevie Nicks. It also features many eminent Irish players, including Richie Buckley and Arty McGlynn, and an appearance on vocals by the breathy chanteuse, Tanita Tikaram. Produced by ex-Yardbird bass-player Paul Samwell-Smith who previously produced Cat Stevens, Paul Simon and Beverley Craven, the album is more adventurous musically than his two previous offerings, both of which enjoyed extended stays at the top of the Irish charts.
Advertisement
It goes without saying that Christie Hennessey is something of a phenomenon – both as a live performer and as a songwriter. He plays sell-out shows all over Ireland and the UK, his appearances on TV shows occasionally provoke reactions of Daniel-like hysteria and his songs have been recorded by some of the most illustrious names on the Irish scene. ‘Don’t Forget Your Shovel’, a song he wrote over twenty years ago, is now virtually synonymous with Christy Moore, who also recorded ‘Messenger Boy’. ‘Jealous Heart’ appeared on Máire Brennan’s successful solo album and Foster & Allen and Eleanor Shanley of De Dannan have also covered songs written by Hennessey.
His most recent songwriting success is the hauntingly beautiful ‘All The Lies That You Told Me’ recorded by Frances Black on her chart-topping Talk To Me album.
“People are surprised when they hear that I wrote that one,” he jokes. “It was written originally for Twiggy, the sixties model. She was making a comeback of sorts and I was asked to write a suitable song for her. She never recorded it but Frances eventually heard it, changed around some of the lyrics and the rest is history.”
Born in Tralee, Co. Kerry, Hennessey emigrated to London at the age of sixteen, almost thirty-two years ago. “I still don’t know why I went,” he says. “When I reached sixteen I just felt that I had to go. It was even more difficult because I was the last one in the house and I remember how hard it was to wave goodbye to my mother. My dad was dead so it was a ridiculous thing to do to her.”
He found work on a building site and went from job to job over the following years. He also started playing with bands.
“I had some neck at the time,” he laughs. “I got in with a blues band at first and then I went from band to band. It was the swinging Sixties and it was a fantastic time to be around all the things that were going on – The Beatles, The Stones, Jimi Hendrix. I actually played with Noel Redding a couple of times.”
After playing drums with various local bands, Hennessey eventually taught himself to play guitar and was prompted to go solo after seeing a gig one night.
Advertisement
“A crowd of us went to see a band called Bloodwyn Pig,” he recalls. “In the middle of the set, the singer came out and did an acoustic set with just a guitar I thought to myself, ‘this is great’, that he could do songs without having the whole band behind him. So I decided to go down that road and write a few songs myself. I didn’t even play guitar that well at the time but I went off and wrote a few songs anyway. The band I was with didn’t like them but I thought they were good – so I went solo.”
In the late seventies BBC 2 made one of their acclaimed Omnibus specials on the Irish music scene. Some of it was filmed in the Meeting Place in Dublin and Hennessey was asked to take part. “Christy Moore was in the audience that night,” he recalls, “and he asked me to play ‘Don’t Forget Your Shovel’ – I didn’t even know he’d heard it and I clearly remember him saying that he’d like to record it some day.”
The Eighties were a tough time for Hennessey as he struggled to survive doing gigs and writing songs as well as filling in with various odd jobs including a spell window-cleaning. An important turning point was when his daughter Hermione, who also performs with him on stage, took over his management.
“She was just out of college when she got a job with Jive records, and was getting valuable experience, working with artists like Billy Ocean and dealing with their managers,” Christie explains. “She told me one day that she was leaving the job after six years and was going to manage me. It was great – it allowed me to concentrate on the music.”
His rise to prominence began in earnest when he was spotted playing live by Dave Penneyfeather, then with Mother Records, who offered him the chance to do an album. “It was unbelievable how quickly things happened after that,” says Hennessey. “I did the Gay Byrne radio show and the album sold twelve hundred copies the next day.”
That album, The Rehearsal, was destined to remain in the Irish top 40 for eighteen months and he was awarded an IRMA for Best Newcomer – after almost thirty years in the business!
Since then, Christie Hennessey has never looked back. His second album, A Year In The Life, released on Warner Music, debuted at No 1 and went on to achieve double platinum status. And now with Lord Of Your Eyes nestling comfortably in the top ten and an upcoming Irish tour crowned by an appearance at The Point, Christie Hennessey can finally justify his refusal to join Fleetwood Mac! • Colm O’Hare