SANTRY TO EIMSBÜTTEL
( a brief history)
Born in Dublin in 1964 I first picked up a guitar in 1977, I couldn't play at the time and under the watchful eye of Elvis Presleys biggest
fan; I handled the instrument with kids gloves. Around 1980 I tried to learn with the help of a friend (Eoin) who thought that I should learn to
pick the notes first and then head for the 3 chord trick. This didn't last long as I soon lost interest, if the Ramones didn't do Solos then why should I ?
I started writing my first songs around this time. I had the lyrics down and the tunes in my head.
In 1985 I did the most embarassing thing a man could do
and travelled to Israel with a guitar I couldn't play and worked in a Kibbutz. After working in Cyprus and backpacking around Greece: I finally made the trip home with a
brand new idea. I'd learn to play the guitar and go busking. It had to be better than work!
My friend Peter Jordan was the inspiration. If he was going to learn then so was I. We bought the book "learn to play guitar" and settled down to 3 hours a day of strumming
them strings while watching countless soaps getting that 3 chord trick together. G C D. The F was the tricky one and of course if you wanted to play
" Whiskey in the jar" you just had to learn F. After 3 months we had it together, G C and D anyway and with Jessie James we headed to Paris to
make our fortune.
Paris was a disaster. Peter and I played forever and didn't make a centime, even the beggars were booing us. Since we had worked in Munich a year earlier
we had the idea to cash in our last travellers cheques and we were heading to Germany to make our mark there. We left for Saarbrücken and never looked back.
After 4 weeks of getting on each others tits, we parted ways in Heidelberg, I headed north and Peter stayed in the south.
After 3 years of travel 2 of them as a
one-man-band I finally settled in Regensburg where madness seemed like normality. Peter was the reason I went to Regensburg and it wasn't long before we
were annoying each other again. We parted ways again but this time I stayed put, Peter moved onto Spain.
I got a job, played the odd gig, met a"Fräulion" (sic) and for 5 years kept the peace. I wrote songs of love and when the flame of love vanished I wrote songs of pure hate. My first songs were released in Regensburg. Alan Smith organised cajoled and threatened 10 musicians to visit a studio and record. The finished item was released as a cassette and was called "VOICES FROM ELSEWHERE". 1,000 copies were made and each musician had the job to unload 100. For me they turned out to be expensive christmas presents but value for money in terms of experience and enjoyment. Everything centred around a pub called the "Irish Harp" at that stage and I lived upstaires in a box with several other sane people. It was everyone else that were MAD. "Real Man" and "Wish upon a star" were the songs I wrote, James Higgins had 2 of his own and the rest all did cover versions. Other musicians included Dave Bonney, Deccy, Rik Manston and John Smith.
It was in Regensburg where I met Dirk Wildau of the Hoodoo Lovers. We tried working on various songs but our styles were worlds apart. Lyrics were exchanged and I from time to time corrected or modified his written material. His band was at the time one of the best bands in the Regensburger scene. At the moment he's working on his second studio album with Rebecca Bösl as 24INDIGO.
In April 1999 I was back in Dublin. I had survived Regensburg with all my marbles still rolling around. I continued writing songs, worked odd jobs and in 2004 with the help of Dirk Wildau set up a home studio and started recording. In October 2006 I moved back to Germany. This time to Eimsbüttel in Hamburg, home studio and all.
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