Aslan told David Hennessy about the shock of losing Christy, how getting back to playing their music helped in their grieving and their new journey with new lead singer Lee Tomkins.
Aslan play three UK shows this month.
These will be their first UK dates in some time and their first since the sad passing of lead singer Christy Dignam last year.
Although the band admit they were lost and did not know what they were going to do after Christy died in June last year, they are embarking on ‘a new journey’ with a new lead singer in the form of Lee Tomkins.
The Irish World chatted to band members Billy McGuinness, Lee Tomkins, Alan Downey and Joe Jewell recently.
They took the time to chat before going out and playing a sold out show at the Academy venue in Dublin.
The last few months have seen some special times for the band with Aslan playing Electric Picnic and Croke Park with Coldplay, and they say Christy is with them in spirit in all they do.
But it is also a new journey for them and there will be new Aslan music with the band already sitting down to write together.
How are the gigs going? How are you enjoying performing again?
Billy McGuinness: “Well, the past three weeks have just been absolutely amazing for the band.
“The 17th of August we did Electric Picnic. We did that for the first time in our career. It was a lovely gig, went really well.
“Two days after doing that, we flew to Australia where we did Sydney, Perth and Melbourne. Those gigs were absolutely brilliant.
“And then we came back from Australia and we got up with Coldplay for two nights in Dublin in front of 82,000 people each night and we performed Crazy World with Coldplay.
“We’re in the Academy tonight and, to answer your question. It’s going really, really well.”
Is it emotional as well with Christy passing only last year?
Alan Downey: “Oh, God, where do I start? “Of course, we miss him but it was a decision that we made a while after he passed.
“Myself, Joe and Billy, kind of just sat down, we met up and we were just basically all over the place.
“We didn’t know what to do with the rest of our lives, and we didn’t want to give in.
“We just wanted to keep going.
“We wanted to do this for longer and go into a new journey so this lad here beside me, Lee Tomkins, came into the frame.
“He was introduced by a friend of ours, and we haven’t let him out since.
“It was funny how it happened really because we didn’t audition, we didn’t interview anyone, we didn’t do anything like that.
“He was kind of just given to us in some kind of spiritual way or something like that, and it’s just worked out a dream.
“But Christy would have loved Croke Park.
“He would have really loved the vibe of that.”
Billy: “As we say, every time we gig, Christy’s in the room with us.
“You don’t be in a band with someone for over 40 years…
“And if people think that we’ve forgotten about Christy or anything, they’re delusional because he’s with us every time we perform.
“Christy is there with us in spirit.”
We have no doubt about that. And what is your experience of it, Lee? I would say it is less about ‘replacing’ Christy which could never be done but more taking Aslan, and their music, into the future..
Lee Tomkins: “Yeah, it’s just an honour and a privilege to get to play with the lads because I grew up listening to these lads obviously, so we’re from the same area, and it’s great just to look out into the crowd and you see all the fans doing Christy’s hand movements and all.
“It’s brilliant, because nobody will ever be able to replicate that.
“I can only be myself.
“I can only be me and do that to the max, and the fans seem to be taking to it which is great, but that’s their way of remembering Christy, by doing the hand movements and all. It’s great to see. It’s absolutely brilliant to see.”
Did you ever meet Christy yourself, Lee?
“The only time I ever saw Christy was when I went to watch the band.
“I never talked to him.
“I haven’t got enough toes or fingers to count how many times I’ve seen the band but I’ve seen them lots of times, and I never got to personally meet Christy unfortunately,”
Alan: “It was never a situation for us that we’d ever try to replace Christy.
“That wasn’t talked about.
“Christy was just a one off really and we didn’t want to even try to get anyone like him.
“You wouldn’t get anyone like him anyway.
“But it was just about keeping the music going, keeping the songs out there and obviously new material as well.”
Joe Jewell: “I think for us, this is like a whole new journey and we have to treat it like it’s a new journey.
“You can’t keep harking back to the past because, as the lads say, Christy will always be with us.
“I think we have to create new music and write new songs, do a new album and carry on playing music really at the end of the day, like any other band that is unfortunate enough to lose a member whether it’s singer or guitarist or bass player or drummer, the list is endless how many bands (lost members).
“You just have to move on.”
So there will also be new music from Aslan?
Joe: “Of course, yeah.
“Initially the main thing was to get out gigging. We’ve been dormant for nearly three years while Christy was sick and trying to deal with it so that was the main thing.
“And now that’s what we’re doing and we’re enjoying it, the next move now is, which we’ve already started- A week ago, we just started writing new material and then, you know, like any other band, the next thing now is a couple of releases, an album and carry on that way. Definitely, that’s the reason why we’re still here doing it.
“And especially with Lee who is a guitarist, a great guitarist. Now he’s not as good as me-“
Billy: “But he’s better than me, so he’s in the middle!”
Joe: “He’s a musician as well and he’s got some great ideas as well that he’s bringing to the table.”
Billy: “Lee brings his own energy to it.
“The band sounds a lot heavier because we’ve got another guitar player and his vocals are a million miles away from Christy. A lot of the songs are rearranged, there’s a lot of work gone into them so it’s kind of very fresh.
“It’s a fresh sounding Aslan at the moment.
“We’ve got the Academy tonight, we’ve got a couple of more shows. We’re up in Belfast for my birthday, 12 October and then we go over to the UK. We’re in Birmingha, Liverpool and London and they’re all in the O2. We can’t wait to go over there and just let people see because there is people over there that love listening to the songs, enjoying the songs, and that’s what they’re doing at our gigs.”
You must be looking forward to coming over the UK, I know it’s been a while and especially with the new line-up etc…
Billy: “Absolutely and I don’t mean this as being disrespectful to Christy in any way, but when Christy was sick, the band couldn’t travel.
“We can now go to like the UK and Australia and America and that, we can actually travel. And that’s not being disrespectful. When Christy was with us whatever Christy could do, he could do and if he couldn’t do gigs, that was the norm, it was accepted by us.
“With us now, it’s about moving forward in the future.
“As Joe said, we can’t live in the past. It’s all about the future.
“Just come and see the band because over here, there’s a lot of people kind of sitting on the fence.
“They don’t know whether to come to the gigs or not but when they do come to the gigs, they’re pleasantly surprised.”
Joe: “And stuff like that (being reticent) is understandable but really at the end of the day, we’re just playing music.
“Just come and see the gigs, sing the songs and you’ll remember Christy in your own little way in the same way we all do it.”
Billy: “That’s it.”
You said earlier that you decided to carry on so that must have been a moment after Christy’s passing when you did not know that you would..
Joe: “It was shock more than anything.
“It was really the shock, it took maybe seven or eight months.
“And the first time we got back together, we just went up to the rehearsal room and just played together as friends and went through a few songs.
“We had some friends who just came up and sang just because we didn’t know what we were going to do, ‘Why don’t you just come up and sing a few songs with the lads?’”
Billy: “I think playing our music, when myself, Joe and Alan first went up there, was a healing for us. We were still grieving the loss of Christy but when we played the music and we were together, it kind of gave us something to aim for.
“So it took the grieving away, if that makes sense and then when Lee came on board.
“Well then, we just went, ‘Look, we’re 42 years together. What else are we going to do? This is what we love doing. This brings us enjoyment’.
“So initially we got back for ourselves, not for anyone else, just for ourselves, for our own mental health, just to help us cope and it was the best move we ever made.”
And what a shame it would have been had you not carried on for you guys as well as all the fans who want to see you and, as you say, remember Christy as well…
Billy: “Absolutely, there would have been no Croke Park last week.
“There wouldn’t have been 82,000 people singing Crazy World, it would have been dead.
“The music would have slowly died away.
“At least now, we’re out in venues playing the music.
“People are remembering Christy. They’re remembering Aslan.
“But again when we start playing new songs in the set, hopefully they’ll come on this journey with us.
“We always say: Without the fans, we’d be on our arse.
“They have supported us.
“There’s been lots of good times, there have been lots of bad times with the band but the fans have always remained there.
“And to be able to gig, we’re very, very lucky.
“We’ve a full house tonight in the Academy and to be able to do that, we’re very, very privileged and honoured that people are spending their hard earned money coming to see a band that they love.
“It’s great.”
You have mentioned the whole of Croke Park singing Crazy World and of course it is a song you are synonymous with now, did you know just what you had when you wrote it many years ago now?
Joe: “It’s just a song. You don’t deliberately go out to write a ‘hit’ per se you, just write the song and that worked. The simplicity of the song kind of worked and it hit home to people.”
Billy: “Personally I think This Is is a better song lyrically and melodically, but Crazy World would be the most popular song that we have.
“But look, we’re playing for nearly two hours tonight.
“There’s a lot more to Aslan than two songs.”
What has been your highlight of all the time you are doing it now? You mention Croke Park and more, is it something like that?
Alan: “I think the highlight is the fact that we’re getting a second chance.
“I think the highlight is us sitting here aclicknd being able to do what we’re doing tonight, to get another go at it with a new singer and to write some new material.
“That would actually be the highlight for me anyway.”
Billy: “What’s your highlight, Lee?”
Lee: “Croke Park.”
Aslan play The O2 Academy in Birmingham on Thursday 17 October, The O2 Academy in Liverpool on Friday 18 October and the O2 Academy in Islington, London on Saturday 19 October.
For more details, click here.
