Gentry Does It

Maybe it’s the thick Nordie accent, but I’m very confused. I’m asking Rion McCartney, guitarist, percussionist and vocalist with Derry alt-country peddlers Here Comes The Landed Gentry about the band’s frontman Martin Doherty. So who’s this “Reno Rodriguez” character he likes to go as? And more importantly, who’s “Mort Van Cleef Dortensen?”

“Mort does the lead vocals,” McCartney/Rodriguez tells me, “but we all sing a bit.”
He jokes: “We’re trying to be The Beach Boys.”
For the sake of clarity, let’s get two things straight. Firstly, using the Foyle-side fivesome’s hugely creative aliases will automatically double the word count of this interview and so will be abandoned hereafter. Secondly, Here Comes The Landed Gentry sound nothing like The Beach Boys. In fact, Doherty’s voice carries a distinctly Tom Waits-like ferocity. Guitarist McCartney denies there’s anything contrived behind the untamed drawl.
“That’s just because he’s got a big beard,” he laughs, “that’s just the way he goes, that’s the way we roll. We range from blues, classic rock, punk, whatever happens happens. We’ve no master plan, like.”
Like most musicians, McCartney doesn’t want band to be pigeonholed into one genre. Unlike most, he’s developed a catch-all term that he feels is much more appropriate for what they do: “It’s what I’d call universal music. There’s people that come to our gigs who are 60 and then we do a lot of teenage gigs up North and they’re always packed and people are dancing. It’s party music.”
Formed in late 2007, Here Comes The Landed Gentry came about in a rather unconventional way.“I had the name about three years before I had the band,” McCartney explains.
“It was just one of those things. There were a couple of friends that started bands in the mean time and I was thinking about giving it away but I thought, ‘No, I want to keep this one for my next venture’. Me and my girlfriend were driving back from Belfast one time and we passed a big stately home and she turned around and said, ‘That looks pretty landed gentry’ and the name just kind of stuck in my head. I didn’t want to be in another band called The Somethings.”
McCartney cites a spot on the bill at this year’s Glasgowbury festival as a personal highlight.
“It was probably the best gig we’ve done. Marty went up and sang ‘A Little Help From My Friends’ with Henry McCullough who was headlining that night because he was Joe Cocker’s guitar player when he recorded that song. We also did a great live session for BBC Radio 1 and [anchor] Rory McConnell said it was the most energetic session he’s done all year.”
Which is all perfect preparation for their next project.
“We’re in talks at the moment to record an album in front of a live audience and release it simultaneously with a DVD, like The Last Waltz. Everyone in the band’s really excited about it. It’ll be a brave move as well, if we can pull it off. If we pull it off, it could open a lot of doors on the live scene for us.”
Are the Derry lads planning on flying in the mighty Scorsese to repeat his success on the iconic rockumentary?
“There’s a couple of Scorseses here,” McCartney jokes, “a couple of Ford Coppolas and a couple of blue movie directors. We’re just going to get everybody we know on board, ten cameras on us if we can!”