Fish Tales

In 1989, the Irish rock n roll deck was reshuffled with sometimes baffling effect. But while more than a few long-time contenders seemed to go into apparently irreversible decline Aslan, In Tua Nua, Cactus World News and The Fountainhead among them there were a number of strong hands being revealed afresh as the year developed.
The 4 Of Us made remarkable progress, The Fat Lady Sings came up trumps with a couple of superb singles, Hinterland appeared out of nowhere, and An Emotional Fish while bands with a bigger profile sometimes seemed to be drawing dud after dud, they were piling up the tricks as if to the Manor born. There were sharp

At the turn of the year they d barely existed, just another among the hundreds of bands struggling to develop a shape and an identity in the rehearsal studios of Dublin. Six months on they were prime contenders with a solid live reputation and a posse of A&R people at every gig.
The summer brought the release of their debut single on Mother Records, coupling Grey Matter with Cry Like A Baby , in what turned out to be a radio hit and a substantial seller into the bargain. The Tour With No Name, promoted under the Tennents Live! banner, saw them take their live show around the country in earnest for the first time, and the band s profile improved accordingly. The ink was finally put to the international deal which had long been rumoured in the autumn and appropriately a second Ireland-only single entitled 'Celebrate followed before Christmas. It was the kind of year, in other words, about which most young bands can only dream. And yet the real work is only about to begin
The next decade opens with an extensive Irish tour which should provide a useful test of the strength of An Emotional Fish s developing live muscle. In the meantime, they re holed up in the Factory Rehearsal complex, combining pre-production for their debut album with the graft of honing the live set to a peak of fine tuning. Genuinely tired after their day s hard slog, they want to retire for a few pints, so we ensconce ourselves in an appropriate hostelry to the sound of Moving Hearts on the PA.
Given their own stripped down, raw sound, I would have assumed that they would have scant interest in that great Eighties monolith. On the contrary
"The Hearts were great musicians," says frontman Ger Whelan. "They also had a great spirit. I know a lot of young people who they inspired. There is a broad spectrum of music that we are into, we don t just listen to one form
In fact their musical interests are unpredictably eclectic. Bassist Enda Wyatt s first love is Bluegrass, while drummer Martin Murphy took to The Beatles early on. Guitarist Dave Frew even volunteers that he went back to purchase a second copy of Planxty s 70s debut when his first one went AWOL! "It s a shame that the marriage of the traditional and rock never really took off internationally for the Hearts," he adds. And he s right

If their musical tastes are eclectic, their backgrounds are even moreso. Both Ger and Dave who is part Scottish were born in Dublin, moved separately to England at an early age with their emigrating families, before returning to Darndale, where they met in their teens. They were close friends at Colaiste Belcamp and, when they d seen enough of formal education, headed off together to Scotland armed with the dream of becoming rock stars.
It took a long and winding road before they settled on the current line-up, with Enda who was originally from Galway and Tallaght-bred drummer Martin Murphy, who first came to prominence in local rock terms in Eugene, alongside Jill Turner who currently features on backing vocals with AEF.
"There s a bit of a history there alright," Ger admits. "Myself and Dave formed a punk band at one stage, basically because we couldn t play very well! Enda was in another early eighties outfit I was involved with. It was 1985 when Dave and myself started writing songs together seriously but it was all a bit unfocused until we put An Emotional Fish together we began rehearsals in February of 1988 but didn t do our first gig till a year later. A lot of hard work and learning was involved."
A lot of hard work for sure but the accusation has been levelled at An Emotional Fish that links into the U2 camp made their passage beyond indie-land an awful lot smoother.
"In some ways it s great now that record companies are all so willing to come over here," Ger Whelan comments. "We knew what it was like to tramp around London with an A Z, calling in to huge offices where you d rarely get past reception. But when we started to ignore record companies, that was when they started to look for us."
"It was the last thing we wanted at the time, Enda adds, "we had been trying for so long in a different guise and suddenly we d only put An Emotional Fish together and you had all these guys ringing up and we thought Hang on a minute, we haven t really played yet . For six months, there were A&R men at all our gigs, so we got so used to it, that it didn t faze us."
A staggering total of 34 A&R people saw them play at Cork Rocks but they ended up doing the deal with Warners whose scout Ben Wardell, originally had got hold of their first, unmixed demo out of Sun Studios and who had started the race for the Emotionals signature from there.
Connections to U2 notwithstanding and there can be no doubt about the benefits of working with professionals of the calibre of Joe O Herlihy (sound), Steve Averill (art) and Aidan Cosgrave (management) that first demo was the key. It had a spark that impressed Pat Donne of Sun enough to pass on the word t Ben Wardell and Wardell enough to inspire him to go for the band s signature with all guns blazing
What does the deal mean to them? "It means that we can get on with the music, and the record company can get on with selling records," says Ger. "Before, we d actually have to hock our guitars to go into a Studio to make a demo. Now we can concentrate on the music," Enda adds. "We get a certain amount of stick because the A&R men were in there so soon but that s hardy our fault."
"I wouldn t apologise about it," Dave interjects, "I thought it was great."

If you want to define the spark that distinguishes An Emotional Fish, it s back to rock n roll. Their tastes may be eclectic and, live, they can sometimes bluster rather than getting straight to the point but they re well capable of generating a powerful, storming noise.
"It s hard to know how these things rub off but Marc Bolan s Jeepster was the first record I ever bought," says Ger. "When Enda and I played in a band, a few years ago we used to do that. Now we do Get It On as one of our fun songs." In a similar vein they do John Lee Hooker s Crawling King Snake , the influence of which can be seen on the harmonica-wailing slow blues of Cry Like A Baby . And then there s Lou Reed s Waiting For The Man .
The common element is sleaze, a quality which no doubt contributed to The Doors comparisons to which the band have sometimes been treated. It s a favourable reference point, however, especially since there could be few better musical role-models for frontman Ger Whelan than the redoubtable, if ill-fated, Jim Morrison.
"As it happens we re not particularly familiar with The Doors," says Enda. "Ger just happens to sound like Jim Morrison and Lou Reed. He s got that drawl."
Ger, whom the rest seem to quietly defer to at times, talks about things in a somewhat mystical way, coloured perhaps by the time he spent travelling in the Middle East and around Europe. "When you look at the world all sorts of things are being done with it, loving and caring and of course the opposite," he says in an effort to explain the lyric of Grey Matter . I ask him about Hallelujah (done for a Fanning session) which would also make a brilliant single. "It s just about love as a bottom line to what religion should be. Priests, millionaires and acrobats can t tell us how big it is. Love can achieve so much."
Another original, Man s World , examines the roles the sexes find themselves thrust into as children. "A little friend of mine, I brought him into the stores the Christmas before last and I was showing him the Barbie dolls and that, and asking him would he like one of them at Christmas, the hoovers, the toy washing machines and all this. No way was he having any of that! He was four years old and he had already made up his mind to be a man, to have guns, and everything else that s supposed to go with being a man."
Enda: "Some people take it as Gospel we had one guy at a gig who started acting the real Macho stuff, thinking we were celebrating what we were actually satirising."
You win some you lose some but in An Emotional Fish s case, the balance to date has been heavily weighed in favour of winning. The ship is up and running and the conditions are fair to moderate barring unforeseen storms they should make a good account of themselves on their first major voyage, during 1990 and as to whether they can become the band of the 90s well, that isn t what An Emotional Fish are about. This ain t no round-the-world yacht race!
"I hope that a lot of bands coming out of Ireland are successful very successful," says Ger Whelan. "The more the merrier. We re not involved in any competition. We don t have to do other people down to achieve what we set out to do. We re a band who want to learn our trade, to develop the ability to write great songs and to make great music. If we have that ability we have it and that s all that really matters."