All mod songs

Saville are one of those bands we too often take for granted. While others arrive in a short-lived blaze of publicity and hype, this Dublin outfit have toiled for over a decade, along the away releasing a series of consistently brilliant albums.

Initially influenced by 1960s mod culture (and the later Jam-led mod revival) they’ve since expanded to embrace psychedelia, folk and ’70s soul and funk – as their latest LP, Nostalgia attests.
“It comes from a genuine love of all music,” says guitarist/keyboardist Tosh Flood of the band’s approach to songwriting and recording. “We wouldn’t be all that calculating – it’s not ‘let’s make a pastiche of this or that’. Having said that, I’ve a lot of deep soul singles that I play on a Dansette record player at home. When I wrote, ‘I Can’t Do Anything To Ease Your Pain’ (from Nostalgia) I was trying to do a song along the lines of ‘Every Little Bit Hurts’ by Brenda Holloway (as covered by The Small Faces). So yes, sometimes I do set out to re-work something else. But not often.”
Flood (who also moonlights occasionally in Pugwash) says his guitar of choice for both live and studio work has changed over the years, from Rickenbackers and Gibsons.
“The Rickenbacker was all about The Byrds, The Beatles, The Who and Johnny Marr. I always loved that sound. Before that, I played a Gibson. I’ve recently fallen in love with a Fender Jazzmaster – when we were making Nostalgia the engineer had it in the studio and I used it on most tracks. I eventually bought it off him. Neil Hannon and Thomas Walsh from Pugwash are making a cricket concept album and I played it on a few tracks. You can get a good trashy sound off it. If you want to play Television’s ‘Marquee Moon’, it’s the only guitar that’ll get that sound.
For amplification, Flood uses a Fender Reverb Twin while he occasionally employs Orange amps too. “The Fender is a brilliant amp. It’s a valve amp and you can get great distortion form it. But it’s a bastard for lifting in and out of gigs. I use a volume pedal on stage with everything up to five. On the amp right across the board I use Line6 distortion module and a delay module – great for getting that 70s Isley brothers sound.”
As a keyboard player, Flood prefers to stick to a vintage sound. “I play a Wurlitzer A200 – the same one that’s on ‘Tin Solider’ by The Small Faces. I actually got a nice email from Ian McLagan on St Patrick’s day. I got in touch to ask him what draw-bars he used on a particular tune.”
Finally, Flood reveals a surprising disability – one that would that might have scuppered many a musicians chances of a career. “Believe it or not I’m allergic to guitar strings,” he laughs. ”I ended up in the Mater Hospital with my arm blown up like a balloon once. When I was playing with Pugwash I used to wear a cotton glove in rehearsals. Since then I’ve been using Elixir strings which are Gore-Tex coated. It was the nickel in the strings that caused me the problem.”
Saville’s best songs such as ‘Symphony Of Sound’ and the ballad ‘You’re The Only One For Me’ from the current album reveal a love for classic pop structures. Frontman and chief songwriter Ken O’Duffy says he was first inspired by The Jam. “The first album that made me want to write was the All Mod Cons,” he says. “I also got into the Kinks in a big way. I thought they sounded odd, like vaudeville. But I really liked songs like ‘Harry Rag’, which is almost Jewish, and stuff like ‘People Take Pictures of Each Other’ which has so many elements to it.”
As a guitarist O’Duffy says it’s more about filling out the sound when playing live. “Tosh can play anything – the guitar is an instrument he uses to express himself. But for me it’s more about accompaniment. I’m first and foremost a songwriter
“I play a Telecaster a standard USA model and a G series Takamine acoustic,” he continues. I’ve got a 12-string Rickenbacker that I don’t use live. It’s up on the wall at home. What I like about them is you can hear them without plugging them in - it’s my writing guitar, if anything.”
Saville are heading out on the road in coming weeks with shows in Dublin and London. In view of their years of experience, what advice do they have for young bands?
“The only tip I’d have for young musicians would be to always expect something to go wrong and when it inevitably does, try not to let it put you off. Often for the first song the mic is too high or too low but you have to learn to play with it. People say to me you look confident but I’m always nervous – when something goes wrong I laugh it off.”

Saville play Whelan’s, Dublin on April 17