By Kevin Donnellan
Twenty three years after their formation Whipping Boy have been making the most of their second comeback this summer, performing around the country, planning the release of some new tracks and gearing up towards an Academy show in September.
“It’s been great we’ve been giving off good energy, we’ve been getting good energy back and everyone’s going home smiling,” says singer Fearghal McKee of their live shows. “You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow man so we’ve got that last hound dog rush of energy.”
The first Whipping Boy comeback came back in 2005 with a series of live shows though no new material, but Fearghal insists the reasons for the short lived reunion and the lack of another release were fairly mundane.
“It just didn’t happen, didn’t force it either, that’s just what happened. Life takes over as well, you can’t just keep on going back and wanting things to happen because you think it should happen, you have to go with the flow.”
And now that they’re back again how has the audience response been? “There’s a new generation, people whose brother would have given them the CD,” notes drummer Colm Hassett. “We noticed in Kilkenny, say, there was one group of people who were at the front of the stage for the likes of the Submarine stuff and the older stuff and then a younger crowd would filter forward for the Heartworm stuff.”
The Irish music scene has changed drastically since they started out and playing festivals like Indiependence has given them a chance to sample the fare, has anything in particular caught their eye? “Not Squares were fantastic in Michelstown, then Ash are still playing great pop songs…Dead School, loads of little bands popping up all over the place,” Fearghal enthuses. “It’s really come to the fore this year, it seems to be kicking off, say The Minutes are playing great stuff, three lads on stage giving it their all, what more could you ask for?”
A new single ‘Imperial Venereal’ should be out before the Academy show and this brave new world where full length studio albums aren’t necessarily the only option seems to suit the new, relaxed Whipping Boy philosophy “It would be nice to do three tracks every couple of months… You’re not disrupting the natural flow of things,” says Fearghal. “You can do anything you want.”
Whipping Boy play the Academy, Dublin on the 17th of September and Cyprus Avenue, Cork on the 29th of October.
