Alive in Europe

“Fred Durst is a complete prick. First of all, he has a go at us for not being the supercool nu-metal band that they are and then he tells the crowd, ‘You’re just a bunch of shit fucking Germans!’ Realising a few months later that this is costing him record sales, he’s at the MTV Awards in Frankfurt saying, ‘I love Germany!’ What a wanker.”Reamonn Garvey is none-too-fondly reminiscing about the time when the band he lends his name to were on the same festival bill as Limp Bizkit. A classic case of the support act not hitting it off with the headliners? Yup, except it was Durst’s mob who were playing second fiddle to Reamonn.
While virtually unknown here, the Hamburg quintet are stadium-sized in most parts of Europe which represents quite a lifestyle change for the Kerryman.
“There are moments when you go, ‘Oh my God, we’re number one for the third time in Russia!” he reflects. “Actually, we did a TV show that tATu were on. I’ve come across a few managers from hell in my time, but the guy who dreamt up the lesbian schoolgirl thing was literally screaming at them. You didn’t need to speak Russian to know that what he was saying to the girls was, ‘I own you!’”
We’re not suggesting that tATu puppeteer Ivan Shapovalov is anything other than law abiding, but there have been numerous reports of Mafia involvement in the Eastern European music business.
“We witnessed it first-hand when we did three shows in Lithuania,” he resumes. “Our understanding was that there was going to be a couple of thousand people there each night but, no, the smallest crowd was 28,000. There were big fuck off guys around us all the time and a police escort if we needed to go to the toilet. You know that they’re not working for the state, which you either have to accept or not go there.”
Originally from Tralee where his parents still live, Garvey’s rock ‘n’ roll career began in earnest when he took up a place at the Dublin Institute of Technology.
“Me and some other guys I was studying with formed a band called Reckless Pedestrians who were regulars on the Dublin circuit in the early ‘90s,” he explains. “Germany came into the equation when we pieced together a bierkellar tour which not only paid but lead to us meeting some very nice frauleins who thought that being from Ireland we must be friends of U2’s and treated us accordingly!
“Anyway, a few years later, we realised it wasn’t really happening and split. The others had enough going on here to stay put but I thought, ‘I’m not living in a pokey little flat on the South Circular for the rest of my life’, and went back to Germany where I knew I could make a couple of hundred quid a night gigging on my own. Eventually I ended up in Hamburg which is where I met the guys I’m playing with now.”
More gigging round the Erdinger ‘n’ wurst circuit lead to a deal with Virgin Germany and the release of a debut album, Tuesday, which promptly went platinum.
“The feeling in Europe is that, ‘Hey, you guys have made it!’ but there are still a lot places like the UK and here where Reamonn means fuck all,” he concludes. “Which is great because, like with the Whelan’s show we’ve got coming up, we’re still having to prove ourselves. The thing I’d hate for this band to become is complacent.”

Reamonn showcase their Beautiful Sky album in Whelan’s, Dublin on May 1.