The Lion's Share

CAST YOUR minds back five years and you'll doubtless recall the madcap A&R circus which came to Dublin in search of 'the new U2'.

A lot of very average bands got very average deals but there was one outfit who had enough raw charisma and genuine songwriting talent to suggest that, yeah, lightning could strike twice in the same place.

"It's only now that I realise just how good Aslan were back then," reflects Christy Dignam who's not a man known for parping away on his own trumpet. "Feel No Shame is among the best Irish debut albums ever made. Okay, I'm biased because I sang on it, but I'm also a realist and songs like 'This Is' and 'Please Don't Stop' are classics.

"I've gone through too many musicians not to realise the stupidity of the Aslan split. It was an extremely confused and fucked up period for everybody - I had my drug thing and we all lost sight of what's important which is making records that in forty or fifty years time we can hand to our grandchildren and be proud of."

At the time of their painfully public disintegration, the tabloids were full of did-he-jump-or-was-he-pushed stories about Christy's departure but regardless of who sacked who, the bottom line is that Aslan pushed their own self-destruct button.

"Definitely," agrees guitarist Billy McGuinness. "Christy emerged as the villain of the piece which wasn't really fair. Sure, his heroin problem was a major part of it, but there was a lot of stuff going down and we were never realistically going to last more than another album. In the circumstances, I'm glad we bowed out with Feel No Shame because I wouldn't have wanted to release something that was sub-standard."

EMI made it clear that without Christy there was no deal and after a failed attempt to revive interest with former Zerra One man Eamo Doyle in front of the microphone, the McGuinness camp debunked to The Precious Stones while Dignam cleaned up his act and joined forces with Conor Goff.

"I really wanted to make a go of it with Conor," resumes Christy, "and from the point of view of playing gigs and earning money, we were more successful these past few years than most Irish bands. I didn't get into this business, though, for the Don Baker or Cajun Kings thing of earning a guaranteed weekly wage. It's easy to get seduced by regular money but I want to make truly great music and after getting back together for a gig in Finglas, I realised that I have a better chance of doing that with Aslan than Conor."

Billy McGuinness is aware that some cynics will view the reunion as a cold, calculated business deal but, as he so eloquently puts it, "fuck 'em!"

"We know that we're doing this for the right reasons," he continues, "so other people's opinions are largely irrelevant. We did the Finglas show for the vibe and got such a hit off of it that we said, 'right, let's take this a step further.' BMG in the UK offered to pay for some demos, so we went away and wrote three brilliant new songs which we've just recorded with Chris O'Brien.

"I'm honestly not sure where this is taking us but while we're still enjoying ourselves, we'll stay on board for the ride."

And what does Christy reckon?

"I didn't think it was possible," he enthuses, "but we've managed to recreate the same magical chemistry that we had when we started. I keep going to the others, 'God, we must have been crazy to let this slip away!' and hopefully, the second time around, we'll all be a bit more careful."

Aslan play 'Midnight at the Olympia' on Friday September 3rd.